Hi Quartz Africa readers,

When I was growing up, American action movies often featured one type of super-villain: A bulky, heavily-accented gruff Russian. At that age, I was not politically aware enough to understand why the hero had to be American and the villain Russian, and I never questioned it much.

As an adult now, I see how global geopolitics comes to play even in pop-culture. In every story, there has to be a hero, a savior of humanity, and the villain has to be someone who threatens these global ideals of democracy, peace and order. It’s even worse if the villain is trying to usurp the hero by almost landing the first man on the moon or having access to even more nuclear weapons.

This past week, the last leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, died. As an African, the USSR’s legacy on the continent and the fall of the Soviet Union is complicated, as it brought both advantages and disadvantages. The steps Gorbachev took in dismantling the Soviet Union laid seeds for independence in certain parts of southern Africa, including eventually leading to the end of apartheid in South Africa.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, new narratives have emerged in Hollywood and elsewhere. One superpower is pitted against the other, with Africans expected to pick good from evil. But expecting a clear cut division between good and evil is a fallacy and a failure to understand history and the intricacies at play in every village, town, country and region. One person’s hero…