The cult of Black and white Cinematic Symbolism (Part 15)...What do Tupac Shakur and Erik Killmonger have in common?

“I put the ‘K’ in illuminati ‘cause I’m killin’ that sh#t.”

—Tupac Shakur

“…y’all sittin’ up here comfortable—must feel good. There’s about 2 billion people all over the world that looks like us, but their lives are a lot harder. Wakanda has the tools to liberate ‘em all…”
—Erik Killmonger explaining why T’Challa should help his people outside of Wakanda

 

The Black Panther’s “Erik Killmonger”, was created by writer Don McGregor and (comic book) penciler, Rich Buckler. And his first appearance was in the Black Panther comic series titled: “Jungle Action”, vol. 2, which ran from September 1973 to January 1974.

Now, I can’t possibly go any further without saying emphatically that there are NO JUNGLES IN AFRICA! The African continent is mostly populated with flat “grasslands” and “rain forests” that some white person might call a jungle, but the majority of the world’s “jungles” are in asia and south america. Also, if you check out Tariq Nasheed’s “Hidden Colors” series, he and other Black scholars show how there’s more “jungle-like” areas in the american state of “Florida”, than you’ll find anywhere in Africa.

But let’s move on…

A native of “Wakanda”, Killmonger was born with the name, “N’jadaka”. And when Ulysses Klaue and his army attacked Wakanda, they forced Killmonger’s father to further their agenda. But when Klaue was defeated, his father died and his family was exiled. Killmonger wound up living in poverty in Harlem, New York, where he fomented a hatred for Klaue and T’Challa, the king who exiled him. And it was then that he changed his name to Erik Killmonger. Shortly thereafter, he began studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and began plotting his revenge against T’Challa, the Black Panther.   

Now, that was the “comic book’s” mythology.

But in the Black Panther “movie”, N’jadaka was the son of N’jobu, brother of T’Chaka. And for those who don’t know, T’Chaka was the deceased ruler of Wakanda (T’Challa’s father). And in this movie, a young Killmonger spent his youth in the projects of Oakland, California. And like I’ve said previously, Oakland, CA. was where the brothas Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale formed the real revolutionary group, “The Black Panthers”.

Now, T’Chaka had plans to share Wakanda’s technology with the Black Diaspora to empower them, before he was killed and T’Challa inherited the throne. And after T’Chaka’s death, Killmonger killed Klaue and took his remains to Wakanda in hopes of challenging his cousin, T’Challa, for the throne. Killmonger defeats T’Challa in a ritual battle and assumes the throne as the “Black Panther”. While thinking T’Challa is dead, Killmonger prepares to release vibranium weapons around the world to his operatives. However, T’Challa returns from hiding and mortally wounds Killmonger. And while dying, Killmonger refuses to let T’Challa heal him, preferring to die a free man as opposed to facing a long prison sentence.

In 1984, Afeni Shakur, Tupac’s mom, moved a young ‘Pac to Baltimore, MD, so they could be closer to family. And it was in Baltimore, that Afeni fought to get ‘Pac into the “Baltimore school for the Arts”. This is where he’d meet lifetime friend, Jada Pinkett, who we all know would eventually go on to marry Will Smith.

Concurrent to ‘Pac’s attending the Baltimore School for the Arts, he regularly attended meetings of the revolutionary group called the “New Afrikan Panther’s” (NAP). And this was the young adult faction of the revolutionary group, the “New Afrikan People’s Organization”, or “NAPO” for short. Now, one of the founding members of this coterie was an L.A.-based Black Panther, who served as this group’s National Security Director. And anyone who knows anything about ‘Pac’s mom, Afeni, knows she was a tenured member of the East Coast Panthers. So these organizations were unifying the Panthers on national, and not just regional levels.

Because of the escalating violence in ‘Pac’s hood, Afeni chose to move to Oakland, CA. (Black Panther’s HQ) in the summer of 1988, to stay with Geronimo Pratt’s (if you don’t know who he is, google him) wife, Linda. And before the end of ‘Pac’s senior year in high school, NAP elected ‘Pac as their youngest National Chairman. ‘Pac stated that the group were determined to replicate what the original Black Panthers had accomplished, without making the same mistakes they did. Now, NAPO’s National Chairman, Chokwe Lumumba, stated that ‘Pac had the top sales of their newspaper, “By Any Means Necessary” in California. And as a result, ‘Pac created a separate insert for the NAPO’s newspaper called, “Panther Power”, to represent NAP. And it was stated that both NAP and NAPO, were active in 8 american cities at that time.

‘Pac was also starting his rap career. And the above events happened two years before ‘Pac would meet Atron Gregory, the manager of the rap group, “Digital Underground” (DU). Eventually, he would go on to become a back-up dancer for DU, before recording his first professional rap verse on their soundtrack album hit, “Same Song”.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this: In 1993, 3 years into ‘Pac’s rap career, he shot two off-duty police officers.

Now, according to a police spokesperson, the incident went down like this: one evening, two brothers, Mark and Scott Whitell, were almost hit by cars as they crossed the street with their wives. An argument broke out moments later, at which point, one of the brothers pulled out a gun, aiming it at the people in the cars. And it’s not known whether the brothers identified themselves as cops or not.

The police report says ‘Pac fired at the brothers, and 9mm casings were found at the scene. Both brothers arrived at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA. with wounds to the stomach and buttocks.

And now that ya’ heard what was in the police report, let me tell ya’ what really happened…the charges against ‘Pac were dropped, cause it was found that the police officer brothers had been drinking and initiated the incident. Additionally, the prosecution’s own witness testified that the gun one of the cops threatened ‘Pac with, was seized from a drug bust and it was stolen from an evidence locker.

At this point, you might be thinking—these brief bios are nice, but they still ain’t showin’ me what ‘Pac and Killmonger have in common.

Now, I did promise to tell you what trait these masterminds had in common, but I can’t limit it to just one—so I’ll give you three. And these are…

Trait #3. Both ‘Pac and Killmonger represent our living Black manhood.

My favorite movie of all time is Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X”. And that’s not just based on the film’s subject matter, but how deftly and masterfully Spike and Denzel brought Malcolm to life for a whole new generation of Black people. And young Black men especially. And in the latter parts of Malcolm X, the master thespian, Ossie Davis, said the reason we love Malcolm is cause he represented our “living Black manhood”. Same goes for Killmonger—and most especially for brotha ‘Pac.

Meaning, these two brothas were unwilling to compromise their goals on behalf of our people, so they couldn’t be negotiated with or bought off. 

Now, you may be thinking—bruh, ‘Pac was bought off by Suge, in so much as, Suge got ‘Pac out of prison to the tune of a million dollars. Well, you’re right. Suge got him out to exploit him, but ‘Pac was employing the old axiom of compromising strategy and not principle. Meaning, after ‘Pac was out of prison, and gave Suge the albums he asked for, ‘Pac began work on the “One Nation” album. This was a collaborative project dedicated to uniting artists for the East Coast and West Coast, to show people that the beef between west and east was basically fueled by the media, and not by the Hip-Hop community. Again, compromising strategy, not principle.

Trait #2. Both men were a near perfect combination of revolutionary warrior and academic scholar.

Meaning, Pac went to the Baltimore School of the Arts and was known to be a voracious reader. And ‘Pac’s love of reading can be attributed to his mom, Afeni, cause for punishments, Afeni made a teen ‘Pac read the Sunday New York Times cover to cover. And in Killmonger’s case, his mythology involved him attending school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). And this school is known for producing the best financial, biochemical, software and architectural engineers the world has to offer.

And, it’s my belief that a Black man with a college degree is powerful, but if he’s also socially adept and knowledgeable about how to comport himself when he hears gunshots on a street corner at 3 a.m., and if he can combine those skill sets, then he’ll not only be educated, but he’ll be smart as well. And finally…

Trait #1. Both ‘Pac and Killmonger died trying to unite separate factions of revolutionary, like-minded Black people.

When Malcolm X was saying, “Kill the white man”, either implicitly or explicitly, white people for the most part, found it more amusing than frightening. And quite frankly, whitey and white fascists alike, like this more than not, cause it lets them know they’ve hurt us in some form or fashion.

But it wasn’t until Malcolm broke away from the Nation of Islam to form the O.A.A.U. (Organization of African American UNITY), that he was assassinated. That’s cause he began forming alliances with heads of state and Prime Ministers from African nations. And as a result, some white multinational corporations were blocked from doing deals within African countries. Meaning, they had a harder time exploiting our people. And whitey can’t have that.

Likewise, after Killmonger mortally wounded the Black Panther and was about to deliver his Vibranium to his peoples, he was killed off. And once ‘Pac began working on the collabrative “One Nation” album, which would have united rap artists from the east and west coasts, he was killed a short time later.

And that says what?

It says that UNITY is the ONLY virtue that will get us out from under the oppressive thumb of white fascism. PERIOD. Which is why at the end of Marvel’s Black Panther, T’Challa agrees to reach out to his brothas outside of Wakanda. And when the Wakandan spaceship arrives at the basketball court those young brothas are playing on at the end of the film, Ryan Coogler's using it to say, only unity will transport us to a safe and prosperous future.

Now, will we heed Ryan’s call?

Well, the success of Marvel’s Black Panther, says to me that the psychological revolution needed to start the process has already begun—now what’s needed, is to do the work to bring this revolution into a physical reality.

So by any (and all) means necessary, LET’S GET TO WORK!!

Later…

MontUHURU Mimia

P.S.

Here’s ‘Pac’s video, “Holla' if ya' hear me”, which shows how his mind was more focused on community activism, than making scandalous amounts of money in the music industry. *Note: The imagery in this video is backwards in order for it to be broadcast on "YouTube", so I apologize about that up front. But I think this video's message makes up for it's visual discrepancies.

                                                                                    

P.P.S

*Addendum: 4/3/18—Below, is another of my favorite “old skool” Hip-Hop tracks, “Sirens”. And it’s a song by UK artist (London, England artist more specifically), “Dizzie Rascal”. Now, the reason I’m including this vid, in this post, is I wanna’ show Black folks who listened to ‘Pac’s diatribes, especially about police brutality, that this ain't just a problem for us. Our people suffer the same internationally as well. Now, Dizzie’s vid is more aesthetically stylized than ‘Pac’s, but their message about police, or those working in law enforcement, is the same. And this clip reinforces the point that a Black man existing anywhere, is a threat to white people everywhere, cause we have the most genetic power to breed them out of existence. And mind you, this vid is 10 years old...

Check this out y’all…