Who are you?

This one is about you…

Hey you, yes you reading this… Have you watched Black Panther?

If you’re part of the 99.9% people that didn’t watch Black Panther, first of all, what rock have you been living under and welcome back from it. I have my issues with the movie (what were those accents!?) But that doesn’t take away from coolness of the first two thirds of the movie. (Big CGI fight for what!?)

Secondly, there’s a scene when Tchalla is fighting Mbaku for ‘de streng of di bleck pentha’. Mbaku is beating the shit out of Tchalla. Tchalla is losing, he’s weakened. He’s probably seeing his father’s throne flash before his eyes. He’s forgotten his own strength.

Mbaku has him in a head lock, his life is flashing before his eyes. Suddenly, he looks around and in a very unrealistic way (seriously, what was that?), he sees his mother scream, “Remember who you are!”

And suddenly, he’s imbued with the power of the rememberance of he who was and he was strong enough to fight for his throne. Within a few seconds, he had subdued Mbaku and asked him to yield. And that, for me, was the most powerful lesson of the movie.

We don’t know our own potential, most times. We don’t understand what we are. And what we are is tied to what we can be. Life is hard. Life is extremely hard. There are curve balls that come our way messing up plans. Sometimes they hit like a tonne of bricks. Other times they for the best. But they’re unplanned for. And all this can work to make us feel discouraged, beat down, less than.

There’s a lot around us that deceives us into believing that we are so much less than what we are. We have it within us to survive all that life throws at us. We are stronger than we know. We are wiser than we know. We are greater than we know. We are awesome. We are intelligent.

You are stronger than you know. Like Duchess said, you are dope. As long as you’re breathing, you’ve got this. So write that book, write that blog post. Shoot your shot, fight forward and through it all. Breathe. You got this.

Did you know that some times the words that you say to yourself are what could get you to forget your worth. Forget who you are? What if, just before the fight Tchalla was struggling with the shoes he was meant to fill. The shoes of king and in that he doubted himself and was reminded by his mother.

What if that’s you, and you are doubting yourself, life has got you in a headlock. Picture Angela Bassett yelling at you, “remember who you are!” Then get up and fight.