Black Panther: Wakanda Forever reclaims the myth of an African utopia

By Emily Zobel Marshall, Reader in Postcolonial Literature, Leeds Beckett University

Black Panther is set in the fictional country of Wakanda. The creation of the Wakandan African identity has been a contentious issue. Borrowing aspects of cultures from around Africa, it presents the world with a confusing sense of “Africaness”.

Wakanda is an amalgamation of African ethnic groups, with its “indigenous” outfits and symbols: cowry shells adornments, grass skirts, decorative scarring and lip plates. The average viewer won’t know that the language being spoken is Xhosa, a South African language, or…

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