A Response to “ Black Panther : (De)criminalizing (Dis)abilities in Reimagining Africa” from a Decolonial and Anti-Colonial Perspective

Film and media hold great influence over perceptions and attitudes towards the experience of disability and have the potential to either affirm or disrupt disability stigma. In this article, we engage with and counter a critique of the film Black Panther offered by Ndayi (2020) from a decolonial and anti-colonial perspective. We do this by emphasising the importance of considering character representations (or omissions) within coloniality to expose the lies and misrepresentations of disability maintained within colonial principles and structures. Such a perspective affords a nuanced sociohistorical lens on power, as shaped by structure, and offers the opportunity to reimagine a world without these constraints. We discuss the dangers of hierarchical ordering of social characterisations when offering critique of disability representation(s), and the importance of considering how systems of discrimination intersect and “collide” within context to contribute to the disabled person’s experience of personhood as a complex whole, rather than as the sum of various aspects of identity. Lastly, we question whether society is genuinely ready to accept and foreground the personhood of people with disabilities through the depiction of the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of their daily lives, as shaped by context.