“Black Panther” and the Historical Contributions of Africa with Mvemba Dizolele

“We don’t reclaim them (these stories) to be in a fight with the West. But we reclaim them to put things back where they belong!”

We spend this episode considering and reassessing the contributions that Africa (and the Congo specifically) have made to the global “village.” We speak with Mvemba Dizolele, a writer, foreign policy analyst, and independent journalist who is also the author of the forthcoming biography: Mobutu: The Rise and Fall of the Leopard King (Random House UK).

In the wake of Black Panther’s mainstream success globally, many are asking questions like “What would Africa look like without colonization?” and “What would the Western world look like without slavery?” But as Mvemba discusses with Judithe, there are members of the African diaspora that didn’t grow up in the context of colonization and do see the contributions and importance of Africa in the development of the modern industrialized world.