Do not make Africa an object of exploitation again

Laura Burocco

Laura Burocco Post-doctoral candidate at the School of Visual Arts, Federal University of Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7767-4941

Keywords: African diaspora, cultural industry, Afro-Brazilian identity, black movement, cognitive capitalism, Black Panther, Afrofuturism

Abstract

This article aims to present the audience reception of Black Panther by an Afro-Brazilian public. It raises questions about the autonomous appropriation of the film’s messages by an Afro-Brazilian diasporic community. It also questions the construction of a black identity, present and future, linked to an apparent rediscovery of the African continent by the global cultural industry. The theoretical framework is Afrofuturism. The methodology is audience reception studies as well as thematic content analysis.