Black Panther: Hollywood is the Winner.

Were it not for the exertions of the producer, Fred Weintraub, one of the greatest, some say the greatest,  martial arts films of all time would never have been made. Or maybe would have been made in an obscure corner of Hong Kong, certainly without the financial and commercial power of Warner Bros behind it. And it would have taken cinematic martial arts a long, long time to emerge from the narrow alleys of Hong Kong. And Bruce Lee would never have become the global figure and icon he became: restricted only to the oriental fame that he gained with his roles in previous films such as 'The Big Boss'.
You wouldn't blame Warner Bros in being reluctant to listen to Weintraub. Omar Sharif had delivered big in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago but such success stories were few and far in between. Perhaps for the first time, studio supremos were being asked to cast not only a non-white, non-Caucasian male in the leading role of a major movie, but a Chinese as well. Bruce Lee had made his breakthrough in Asia but even though he was an American, the stardom to break into mainstream Hollywood hadn't yet arrived and his Mongoloid features were certainly going to work against him. Of the cast, only John Saxon and Robert Wall fit into leading acting stereotypes of the white, Caucasian male. Jim Kelly was black even though the role of Williams was not meant for him in the first instance. It wasn't racism, Warner Bros was a business venture and were merely following the first strict rule of entertainment: 'Give your viewers what they want.' It was perhaps a measure of the strength of the studio execs' skepticism that the film was first released in Hong Hong and not the United States. If it was going to succeed, it was going to need some special, convincing performance, goods which Lee and co effortlessly delivered.
In the intervening years, the Sean Connerys,  the Schwarzennegers,  the Travoltas were to rule the box offices but perceptions were changing and demography even faster. The internet had turned the world into a truly global village and from India to China, non-Americans were increasingly having a bigger say in what to be viewed and what to be produced. It was therefore not surprising, the rise of the Jet Lees and Jackie Chans. Soon, blacks like Will Smith, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson were being cast into leading roles and promptly delivering blockbusters.
From Dwayne Johnson, the next step, huge step would inevitably be Black Panther. Cinema having been seen not to regress with blacks in leading roles, having been seen to rather attract viewers in droves with black frontmen, it was inevitable that a movie featuring mostly a black cast will be the next star in the firmament. Black Panther has all confirmed that  and there is no doubt more of it will be trending in the future. And you can bet it wouldn't only be spin-offs. We would be happily seeing more of Chadwick Boseman and Lupita Nyong'o and co-travelers in casts that would not need acting stereotypes to be forced into it in order to sell or projected to do well. And as usual, it will still be good business for the big studios. Give the people, the viewers what they want. It is now a much varied world.

President Pierre "Messi" Nkurunziza.

'There is always something new out of Africa'- Pliny the Elder.
But first let's start with an invention in a place far away from this mostly blighted continent. President Trump in far away America forms a football team. American football or gridiron football so to say and names it The White House Patriots. He spends most of his team moving around with this team and engaging all forms of opposition in football matches, a traveling choir providing the entertainment because the president claims to be an evangelical christian. So no Justin Timberlake or Janet Jackson and all that wardrobe malfunction nonsense, just thumping gospel music in heavy metal mode while the president and his team carry out another sort of thumping on the opposition: always scoring at will, always winning silly, with unbelievable margins. Because the president is not expected to be tackled, or roughened or impeded. If there is going to be any engagement, it would have to be the softest of all touches. In essence it is not supposed to be a contact sport anytime the president is holding the ball. So he makes all the throws, all the catches, all the running, all the touchdowns. He is the quarterback, the halfback, the fullback, the wide receiver rolled into one. And naturally he is the superstar and takes all the plaudits. And why not? He is the president of the United States of America.
That is until he travels to Texas and plays a team made up mostly of refugees being held in camps along the Mexican border. Latinos and blacks, guys being held in concentration camps. Fellows who were not in the happy mode at all. Guys who would like to kick some presidential ass. And which they gleefully did, roughening up the president, sending him tumbling into the dirt several times and getting his jersey torn. Respect my foot!
Naturally, the president is not happy about it, not happy at all and he gets the governor of Texas and his deputy arrested and corralled into a little fetid jail. Crime? Conspiracy against the president of course. You can't arrange a little roughening up of the president in the evening and expect to eat breakfast in your own house the following morning.
A very short, dystopian  story? Sure.
But if you change the settings to Africa, precisely to a nasty corner of it called Burundi, and gridiron football becomes soccer and Trump transforms to President Pierre Nkurunziza and the Texas team is replaced by a group of hungry refugees from Congo, you have the latest comedy from Africa. Nkuruziza runs a football outfit called Haleluya FC and as a self-acclaimed evangelical christian, travels with his own choir called' Komeza gusenga which in the local Kirundi language, means 'pray non-stop.'
A real, real comedy. Dystopian to the ends of nightmare. And not funny at all because the governor of Kiremba region of Burundi where the president was made to 'fall several times and kiss the dust' and his deputy are now in even a dirtier jail for conspiring against and humiliating the president. It is not everyday that Messi has his way. Even Messi of Africa.
What is fiction anywhere else in the world can turn into a nasty, grinding reality in Africa.
Yes, there is always something new out of Africa. And most of it is not always pleasant.