Representation, or why I'm insanely excited about the Black Panther movie!

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Black Panther is releasing on my birthday. I'll actually try to watch it on that day.

I'm easily excited about movies, but I think this may be the most I've been looking forward to a movie in a long, long time. I've been watching the trailer twice with my son each night before putting him to bed for the last week.

And it's also the first time I remember I've been watching out for early reviews and being relieved it was a good movie. (Phew, looks like it's really, really good - I'm not allowing myself to read the reviews yet).

Now, obviously there's a cinematic argument.
  • The Black Panther is a great character - and was so well introduced in the Civil War movie.
  • The trailers look really good.
  • the soundtrack is probably most interesting I've heard in a long, long time 
  • ..and the guy who directed Creed is going to direct a superhero movie!!!! Come on!!
But here's a much simpler reason, I'm rooting so hard for this movie - how it represents Africa and Africans.

I was born in Tanzania, and lived there and then mostly in Nigeria till I was 15. My parents then returned to Tanzania, so I continued to visit often. For a large part of my life, I've thought of it as home.

So of course, stereotypes of the place annoyed me... and I'm Indian, so growing up I'd have some people asking me if there are elephants on the road in India and then Indian asking me if there were lions walking around the streets in Africa. Stupid, even if well-intentioned, questions about Africa feel personal and annoying.

So a universe where African aren't caricatures set in a country that's incredibly futuristic, is one that I'm incredibly excited to see.

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