Wakanda is Heaven Now: Chadwick Boseman.
In January when the news broke that the black mamba, Kobe Bryant died with his daughter Gianna Bryant died in a helicopter crash, the world was flooded with emotions. The havoc this event caused to the psychology of people and fans around the world is equivalent to the wrecks caused by Hurricane Laura in affected areas like Texas, Louisiana, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. These terrible events are what have marked this sorry of a year. With the COVID-19, people have lost their jobs, lives, people, and countries entering mental and economic depression.
In the wake of the morning here, I woke up to the news of the death of Chadwick Boseman. It is not only shocking but it is beyond depressing. The American actor is well known for his roles as Jackie Robinson in 42, King T’Challa in Black Panther, Thurgood Marshall in Marshall, and James Brown in “Get on Up”. While I was sad about Kobe Bryant’s death in January, Boseman’s death is different. He’s an actor whose work I’ve seen in its entirety. His role as the Black Panther in 2018 gave him the heroic look that transferred from the screens to real life. The frenzy was so loud and “the hands crossed on the chest with fists” became a greeting pattern everywhere. That’s added to the symbolic mask which has been worn by kids who love the hero and sportsmen who admire the strength of King T’Challa in the Black Panther. He didn’t become just a Marvel comic hero character but also became a life hero for blacks who saw the fictional movie about Wakanda as a place to reconnect with the motherland. Though contrary to “not all heroes wear capes”, Chadwick wore one. More than that, he battled with stage three colon cancer for four years. As often said, as it should be said, cancer patients are real-life superheroes. So, Chadwick didn’t just play a Marvel hero but also a true-life hero. The Howard University alumnus has now joined his ancestors in “the beyond” we’ve not seen but he is seeing and living right now.
Death is what humbles us. It is the most pertinent phenomenon that teaches us lessons we fail to learn. Sadly, we learn it in the death of others and not in our own death. Death always brings out the poet and humanist in us; preaching kindness, compassion, and a deep reflection on the ontology of death. Then after that, we go back to being mean, inconsiderate, condescending, and all that. We are a generation availed technology to connect us but we seem to have created an abyss between our beings and those of the others, and the humanity that is supposed to come with living. It is only on the occasion of the death of others that we remember our humanness and the ephemerality and transciency of life. It is at this moment that we say “Be kind to people”, “you don’t know what people are going through”. Beyond words at the death of another, we have to make sure we consider these things while people are alive than turn sermonists when they are no longer with us. Our intersubjective relations must improve.
Thinking about Wakanda and the availability of advanced technology it is metaphorically heaven right now. A place where cancer that has taken Chadwick can easily be treated, thereby eliminating anything known as cancer. A place where Coronavirus pandemic is nonexistent. A place where people believe that death is only the beginning. That is, death is no finality. When people say heaven on earth, I want to make the assumption that we won’t mind having a Wakanda on earth right now. A Wakanda that is not fictional.
Chadwick is with the Orishas, lighting up bonfire from the mouth of Sango, burning yams, and dancing, merrying to the tunes of Ogun. Rather than turn his death to a motivational and sympathy porn, we have the chance to just celebrate him for the man and actor he was.
