I am unreasonably excited about answering this question, because I just watched Black Panther twice.
I’m ready. Here we go.
When I first watched the first trailer, I was shocked, they mixed East, West and Southern cultures into one melting pot, and I wasn’t quite sure what they were doing. Why didn’t they have African consultants on set? What are you doing Ryan? Please don’t let this be bad.
I might’ve prayed to the ancestors too.
So, humour aside. They mixed a lot of different cultures, traditions and religious practices into one. And when I say a lot, I mean it.
Did they make a mistake?
I don’t personally think so. Here’s why:
Tribalism and tribes as we understand them today, are in fact a colonial construct (surprise!)
Precolonialism ethnic groups shared many tribal practices that stretched beyond tribal affiliations and allegiances, which is why today many tribes though scattered, have similar practices. Ever heard of the Divide and Conquer strategy? The Colonial Powers used the creation of tribes to separate ethnic alliances and allegiances. Ethnic alliances and not tribes were more prominent than the distinguished tribes we know today. Even in present day, across Africa, tribalism versus nationalism poses a huge problem, we don’t see that in Wakanda Forever.
Wakanda is a fictional country…
But the tribal practices are very real. Yes, the country is in East Africa, wedged somewhere between Kenya, Rwanda, Southern Sudan and Ethiopia and I was hoping that they’d primarily lean on East African customs (of which there are hundreds to choose from).
They clearly emphasised the fact that there are four different ethnic groups loyal to the Wakandan Throne. Each tribe had unique symbolism and practices, we see this in the Waterfall scene where he must fight for the throne. The various tribes are united under the Throne, and that’s what the amalgamation of cultures represents - ‘unity’ despite difference.
Wakanda is Afro-Futurism defined
And Wakanda is the embodiment of magic realism, so technically they can re-imagine Africa (and reimagine they did) in whatsoever shape-shifting form they so please. In the comics, Wakanda is also supposed to be the Cradle of African people - African people spread out from Wakanda and settled elsewhere.
Some people will naturally, disagree with me and might cite the hodge podge of cultural indicators as culturally insensitive or American ignorance at best.
Now Let’s Talk About the Major Influences[1]:
The use of isiXhosa: the national language of Wakanda. IsiXhosa is a language from Southern Africa and is one of the few click languages in Africa. The use of the language is technically misplaced, but it still works well. Given that Wakanda is an isolated nation, the language would have developed differently. I personally wished they had developed a new language for Wakanda from different Bantu languages, like other Sci-fi films have done.
The Border tribe (W’kabi’s people): The Border Tribe who wear blankets (called seanamerana in Sesotho) and ride on horses, also represent another Southern African tribe - the Basotho people who occupy the mountainous region of Lesotho.
The Royal Council and The Elders: this is probably the greatest amalgamation of various cultures. The Elder wearing green from the River Tribe represents the Surma Tribes of Ethiopia and East Africa.
The Female elder with red hair (otjize) represents the Himba Tribe of Namibia and Angola. The red earthy tones of the Dora Milaje are also possibly inspired by the same tribe.
The Red ochre floor in the Royal Court looks like it’s made of the same clay.
The Queen Mother’s head gear is Nguni headgear (isicholo) worn by married women - Women in South Africa, Malawi and Zambia.
T’Challa wears a West-African-like Kaftan.
The masks are look similar to Igbo masks (Nigeria) as well as Dogon masks (East Africa).
Suri, the shaman/sangoma/spiritual leader of Wakanda and his assistant wear West African/North African Agbada. These are the long flowing robes with many layers.
Then there’s the Touareg-inspired headwear. The Touareg are a nomadic people who inhabit North and West Africa.
The Dora Milaje (the all female warriors who flank T’Challa) borrow from the Ndebele (South Africa and Zimbabwe) and Samburu and Masaai people (Kenya and Tanzania) in terms of the neck pieces, the arm bracelets, the beaded breastplates, the symmetry of the armour and colours.
The architecture in the city is also borrows from the Ndebele people.
The river ceremony once T’Challa is crowned king is directly influenced by the Kuomboka ceremony of the Lozi people in Zambia.
Conclusion
I personally feel that they represented most corners of the African continent, and that their aim was not to offend. As a Southern African, I’m immensely proud of this film, not only because of what it has done, and what it will continue to accomplish, but that Africans and African Americans came together to create something unseen in the cinematic universe. It’s indicative of the future. The world has seen nothing yet.
EDIT: Wow. Thank you so much for the incredible response everyone! I really appreciate it. My friends and I recently hosted a more critical panel on Black Panther and African responses to it. You can listen to it here.
Footnotes
Image source Google
Thanks for Reading
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