Wakanda’s foreign policy is a mess by the end of the movie. After spending most of it simply trying to keep prying eyes away from his kingdom, T’Challa starts an outreach center in Oakland and promises to share Wakanda’s knowledge with the rest of the world. Unintentionally (I think), the movie provides a valuable window into the competing strands of American foreign policy over its history.
Killmonger may be the movie’s villain, but in some ways he stands in for idealists who want America to promote freedom. He wants to use Wakanda’s military might to liberate blacks from their oppressors all over the world. It would be wrong, according to him, to have Wakanda sit idly by when it could instantly make things better for marginalized peoples.
He reminds me of Woodrow Wilson, in both flattering and unflattering ways. When asking Congress for a declaration of war, Wilson said the “world must be made safe for democracy.” In his 14 points further explaining America’s war aims, Wilson demanded an “absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.”
So both men wanted to use their countries’ might to further their moral crusades. But both men had blind spots. I found it interesting that Killmonger focused on the plight of blacks around the world, but not other groups such as Asians or Latin Americans who have been victims of European colonization. In fact, he never even acknowledges that other groups have suffered. In this, his vision of liberation appears to be an exclusive one. That is, he only wants to liberate the world’s blacks, but would leave other unjust structures firmly in place.
Wilson may have wanted to make the world safe for democracy, but he refused to make his own country safe for blacks. He presided over the resegregation of federal government departments. He approvingly screened “Birth of a Nation” in the White House, which celebrated the Ku Klux Klan. At the Paris peace conference after World War one, Wilson opposed a proposed clause in the Versailles treaty stating “The equality of nations being a basic principle of the League of Nations, the High Contracting Parties agree to accord as soon as possible to all alien nationals of states, members of the League, equal and just treatment in every respect making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality.”
Interestingly, it is no answer to say Killmonger or Wilson were simply men of their times. In 2018, it strikes me that a Naval Academy graduate as motivated to fight oppression as Killmonger—and someone who had seen much of the world as a CIA operative—would be aware that colonialism and racism affected groups other than blacks. And yet, despite this knowledge, Killmonger’s vision of racial liberation is not universally inclusive.
It might be tempting to say that Woodrow Wilson held racist views as someone who grew up in the South during the 19th century, and that, although we should not excuse them, we should understand his racism in light of the time and place he grew up in. But Japan’s proposal for racial equality received majority support at the Versailles conference. So, a majority of Wilson’s contemporaries—who would have internalized racial stereotypes as leaders of countries colonizing Africa and Asia—were able to recognize that nations should not be treated differently because of race. It’s true that many Americans were racists when Wilson allowed the federal government’s resegregation or screened “Birth of a Nation.” But few had the opportunities to receive the extensive education he did or gain exposure to men like WEB Dubois, who could have easily disproven their stereotypes. The sad fact is that if any man had the chance to rise above the racism of his time, it was someone like Wilson.
Both Wilson and Killmonger were idealistic men who failed to follow their ideals to their logical conclusion.
T’Challa represents a strand of American foreign policy seeking to keep the rest of the world at a distance. It’s a tradition going all the way back to the early republic, when George Washington urged his countrymen to avoid entangling alliances with other nations. In his farewell address, Washington argued that America’s “detached and distant situation”—with an ocean separating it from European powers—would allow it to “defy material injury from external annoyance.” He defended staying out of a war raging in Europe.
America managed to stay mostly to itself during the 19th century. But the turn of the 20th saw increased American involvement in international affairs. Almost as if on cue, the American Anti-Imperialist League formed to oppose annexing the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish American war. Charles Lindberg, the pilot who made the first transatlantic flight, barnstormed the country arguing that America should stay out of World War two. Prominent congressmen opposed President Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts to provide arms and other aid to the British as the Germans attacked. But in general, interventionists have won over the last century. Think of American involvement in the world wars, the Marshall plan, the Korean war, Vietnam, and Afghanistan and Iraq today.
Early in the movie, T’Challa says nothing when a friend claims “[w]hen you let in refugees, they bring their problems with them.” And he opposes Killmonger’s attempts to use Wakandan military might to liberate blacks around the globe. Later, of course, he does offer to share Wakanada’s knowledge with the rest of the world.
In both cases, the hesitancy to get involved in foreign affairs reflects (in part) beliefs that America and Wakanda are exceptional. Because both countries are special, engaging with the world will only bring polluting influences. America’s isolationists would say that it is a city on a hill that should float above the rest of the world. Wakanda’s would stay the same. And in both cases, the impulse to spread their ideals to the rest of the world stems from that same belief.
At the end, Wakanda prods itself to take a difficult middle course. One where it maintains its security, but lives up to its ideals. It is a path America is still trying to navigate.
