Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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A Night in Tanzania

“A Panther in Africa” puts us in the mindset of its subject, exiled Black Panther Pete O’Neal, going about his business in his adopted home of Tanzania: we feel balanced ? sometimes comfortably, sometimes not ? between the familiar and the foreign.

He is 30-odd years removed from American culture, but he has kept up to date through contact with visiting students, and through the advent of e-mail and the Internet. The unresolved prospect of a pardon that would allow him to return to his Kansas City roots weighs on him, and he considers, after three decades, where his true home is.

The thorough documentation of O’Neal’s and his wife’s routine shows in the detail of the documentary’s construction. Several subplots rise and fall over the film’s 70 exhaustive minutes.

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First, we see interaction between O’Neal and the young Americans who have come to contribute their time to his Community Center, which helps to provide education and infrastructure to the local population.

We see snippets from a three-week visit by two black high-school students from O’Neal’s hometown, and get to witness their earnest reactions to rural Africa.

We experienced a visit from O’Neal’s mother, the first reunion between the two in 10 years. It is thus that the conflict and division apparent in between O’Neal’s youth and adulthood became most pronounced.

Throughout, we get a total impression of a man who has finally found himself, in the most unlikely way. His restless youth led him to the Black Panthers and to social, political concerns. His exile brought him to understand what he’d truly gained as a Panther: a sense of community and concern for the welfare of others.

Documentarian Aaron Matthews clearly shot a lot of footage and clearly toiled over assembling it in an effective, emotive way. The audience can only leave with a feeling of urgency to go and make some social contribution, inspired by the adaptive spirit of Pete O’Neal.

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