Wakanda’s ‘digital colonialism’: looking to Africa to re-form Hollywood’s gaze

Abstract

With the box office success of the recent Black Panther films it may seem that Hollywood’s approach to such films is slowly accommodating a domestic audience’s demand for diversity. Yet, there is a danger in assuming that these films are still largely made for white audiences, since these audiences and their representatives in Hollywood boardrooms may become convinced that films like this are proof of Hollywood having engaged with Africa and done enough about diversity. This paper argues that to ensure the continued success of diverse artists in Hollywood and elsewhere the focus should extend beyond a study of the domestic market and look toward the formal ‘alien esthetic’ engagements and structure of the colonial gazing at spectacle that Hollywood demands all its audiences invest in. This paper presents Africa’s established experience of super diversity and its recognized authority in the arts – particularly the way its formal esthetics of spectacle and fantasy exceed the visual and are entwined with the lived-conditions of its audiences – as central to approaching a deeper understanding of diversity in cinema. Drawing upon this “progressive African aesthetic” to expand Hollywood’s formal engagement with fantasy and visual spectacle, opens an opportunity to decolonize Hollywood’s gaze and understand diversity in cinema more deeply.