From Saudi Arabia to the Philippines: Chadwick Boseman's legacy is truly global


Sophie Prideaux
  • English
  • Arabic

When Black Panther was released in 2018, it was a pivotal moment for superhero fans around the world.

In Chadwick Boseman’s King T'Challa, the Marvel universe was given its first Black superhero, a figure that offered hope and representation to so many around the world.

And following the shocking news of Boseman’s death from colon cancer on Friday, August 28, the true impact of the actor’s legacy is being felt in all corners of the globe.

On Saturday, August 29, dozens of fans gathered for a vigil in the actor’s honour at Leimert Park in Los Angeles. The meet up was organised by Project Islamic Hope, a Los Angeles civil rights group.

"It was so last minute, but we had to do something," the group's leader Najee Ali told the LA Times.

Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope, leads a 'Wakanda Forever' salute during a news conference to celebrate the late actor Chadwick Boseman. AP Photo
Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope, leads a 'Wakanda Forever' salute during a news conference to celebrate the late actor Chadwick Boseman. AP Photo

Basketball star LeBron James also paid tribute to Boseman on Saturday ahead of the LA Lakers game with a moment-of-silence. The 35-year-old took to his knee, closed his eyes and crossed his arms up against his chest to form the 'Wakanda Forever' salute. The three-time NBA champion then pointed up to the sky.

But it is not just in Boseman's home city of Los Angeles that people are honouring the star. In the Philippines, a fan went to the supermarket and to his local Starbucks dressed as Black Panther in honour of Boseman.

"Essentials shopping? Let's do it the Marvel superhero way! Keep yourself protected while spreading good vibes and paying tribute to Black Panther himself," the fan wrote.

Another fan in Manila, Rey Alejandro, shared a black and white pencil portrait of the actor alongside a quote. “You might have one thing in your head, but the things you're doing don't really lead down the right road, necessarily. When you're young, you don't want to hear that. You think you can do everything, be all things – Chadwick Boseman,” he wrote. “Tribute to the king. RIP @chadwickboseman”

The drawing was one of thousands of fan illustration tributes to flood the internet in the hours following the news of his death. Brazilian artist Daniela Martinin shared a drawing to her Instagram profile, showing Boseman’s face split between himself and his Black Panther mask. “My tribute to Chad. Thank you for making history on the cinema industry. Wakanda forever,” she wrote.

Thousands of fans in Africa were quick to pay tribute to Boseman on social media too. "You've put smile on Africa's face and the world entirely with your role in Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman you're a rare gem and you will always be remembered. Rest on with the Legends," wrote one fan in Lagos, Nigeria.

And a fan in South Africa shared how much the movie meant there:

The film Black Panther also has huge significance for many fans in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, where it became the first blockbuster shown for decades in 2018 when cinemas reopened after almost 40 years.

"Black Panther was the first movie to ever premiere in cinemas in Saudi Arabia, it was a huge step forward for us. Just another reason why this movie is monumentally great and why Chadwick Boseman was even greater," wrote one fan on Twitter.

"Black Panther had the honour of being the first film to formally be screened in Saudi Arabia after a 35 year ban was lifted on public theatres. It will always be remembered for its cultural impact and the joy it brought to people around the world," another fan wrote.

Lebanese artist and activist Ivan Debs also paid tribute from the Middle East with a powerful drawing of Boseman alongside a pair of black panthers. “#RIP Rest in power, King Chadwick Boseman,” he wrote, alongside a quote attributed to his brother Allan Debs: “In my culture, Death is not the end, It’s more of a stepping off point.”

Of course, Boseman was known for more than his role in Black Panther. Over the years, he played many other pivotal characters, including Jackie Robinson in 42 and James Brown in Get on Up. Most recently, he appeared in director Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods and was set to appear in a sequel to Black Panther, due in 2022.

Among the famous faces to pay tribute to the star were former US president Barack Obama.

“Chadwick came to the White House to work with kids when he was playing Jackie Robinson,” he wrote on Twitter. “You could tell right away that he was blessed. To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.”

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Stars: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones

Five out of five stars 

Breast cancer in men: the facts

1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.

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5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor

 

PROFILE OF HALAN

Started: November 2017

Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga

Based: Cairo, Egypt

Sector: transport and logistics

Size: 150 employees

Investment: approximately $8 million

Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar

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Cinco in numbers

Dh3.7 million

The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown

46

The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.

1,000

The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]

50

How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday

3,000

The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

1.1 million

The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.

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Martin Sabbagh profile

Job: CEO JCDecaux Middle East

In the role: Since January 2015

Lives: In the UAE

Background: M&A, investment banking

Studied: Corporate finance

Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts

Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.

The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.

Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.

More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.

The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.

Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:

November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.

April 2017Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.

February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.

December 2016A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.

July 2016Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.

May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.

New Year's Eve 2011A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.

Brief scores:

Toss: India, opted to field

Australia 158-4 (17 ov)

Maxwell 46, Lynn 37; Kuldeep 2-24

India 169-7 (17 ov)

Dhawan 76, Karthik 30; Zampa 2-22

Result: Australia won by 4 runs by D/L method

What can victims do?

Always use only regulated platforms

Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion

Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)

Report to local authorities

Warn others to prevent further harm

Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
UK’s AI plan
  • AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
  • £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
  • £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
  • £250m to train new AI models

Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin

Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier

UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs

Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)

1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0

Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am

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