Читать книгу Black Panther and Philosophy - Группа авторов - Страница 26

Different approaches to achieving justice given that injustice has already happened vie for our consideration. Let’s look at three approaches that are especially relevant to the historical injustices in Black Panther: restitution, retribution, and reparation. The first of these focuses on victims’ losses and making them whole again; the second focuses on perpetrators’ offenses and punishments they deserve; the third focuses on repairing the relationships between victims and offenders and their communities, relationships that injustice has damaged or destroyed.

Let’s consider how each of these forms of corrective justice applies to the historical injustices of Black Panther, starting with the scene when we first see Killmonger, standing resplendent in his shearling coat in the Museum of Great Britain. He knows something that the coffee-sipping museum curator does not – the ancient axe taken by British soldiers in Benin is actually from Wakanda. The British have no claim to this vibranium axe; ideally, now as before, it should be in Wakanda. Of course, it’s not in Wakanda and the British do have it, so now what? How do we get there from here? Is it “anything goes” as long as the axe gets back to its rightful owners? As a Wakandan, does Killmonger have the right of repossession? Do the curator and other museum staff deserve punishment for their crimes?