Wakanda movements?

Erik Killmonger in Black Panther is arguably *the* most nuanced, incandescent antagonist/ super villain in the comic world– perhaps only rivalled by Heath Ledger’s Joker. To a child of a (former) colonial state, I identified and understood his struggle. I got Erik. I was rooting for him! But in the end, I was totally disappointed by just how badly women fared at his hands.

If we use Black Panther as an allegory of women’s role in Kenyan social justice movements, the disposability of women in Erik’s quest (death of his female partner, the choking of the heart shaped herb guardian), are disappointingly familiar.  Contrast this with T'Challa's Wakanda where women are integral and vital. It was so refreshing to see women taking crucial and non-supporting roles. In Wakanda- women were core to the struggle. Generals, tech geniuses, spies, rulers. They served and they saved. 

And looking inwards at our non-fictional nation of Kenya, it should serve as a cautionary tale to all the social justice movements that purport to be working for the greater good of society. Where are the women in your ranks? How are they being treated? Are we sanctioning- and casting out misogynists? Are we actively working to counter anti-female rhetoric and misogyny in the rank and file of the organisation?

If not, the movement is at its heart an unjust movement. And unjust movements bring forth unjust outcomes where they simply populate the same unjust structures with new faces.