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Full of Nigerian elements? Yes, and it should be. But Nigeria cannot be allowed to be Wakanda's alias.
For better or worse, The Black Panther is an American comicbook IP. As such, Wakanda (from a Euro-American POV) is a lens upon all of Africa, and people of Non-Arabic-African Origin. If the character has a moral imperative, it's that he must represent ALL Africa to the world, in much the same way that Wonder Woman is burdened with representing ALL Women (regardless of cultural origin), and Captain America is burdened with representing The American Ideal (even tho that encompasses both The Declaration of Independence and The Wounded Knee Massacre). So:
Draw from various African Cultural Roots, including Nigerian? Yes: The Black Panther absolutely should.
Anchor in Any Specific African Culture? No: The Black Panther absolutely should not.
Realistic? If Marvel wanted realistic they would care and stress the correct pronunciation of Thor or T'Challa's name. Realistic isn't really the goal. The goal is to have writers accomplish something close to what Americans feel how Africans or ppl outside the U.S. sound like because at the end of the day the content is mainly produced and consumed by Americans.
I can't lie, on a technical level Coates is probably the strongest writer of the BP scribes save maybe McGregor. The issue is that like McGregor his writing is too poetic and unnatural sounding. It has the effect of making all his characters sound the same and sucking the fun out of any dialogue they have lol. T'Challa and his elite friends should sound sophisticated, but not like philosophers.
Regarding the latest (and apparently last) issue of Black Panther & The Agents of Wakanda:
spoilers:end of spoilers
T'challa isn't in it. It's basically a random Fin Fang Foom & Broo story. And they used the last page to advertise an Empyre tie-in that was canceled.
So one more Black Panther tie-in ends not with a bang, but a whimper.
Perhaps but with the Naija elements I mentioned and on top of that the Orishas which are Nigerian gods/religion/spirituality, there's a lot of Nigerian culture that makeup Wakanda. I also find it interesting that Black Panther's cinematic debut features Nigeria, a country where things go south being the reason why Wakanda emerges from its covert isolation; and Nigeria once again happens to not only feature in Black Panther's debut solo movie where, imo he displays the best of his abilities in the whole film but Winston Duke tailored his accent to that of a Nigerian. Obviously, anyone following the mythology and knows about Africa can see ghat Wakanda isn't exclusively using Nigerian elements but as a Nigerian myself (Yoruba) it's satisfying to see so many Naija elements as part of the Wakandan fabric.
Nigeria is one of the few sub Sahara African countries American's could probably name. So you are going to get elements taken from it more frequently.
To Americans, Africa is simply Arabic area, South Africa, and then probably Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and maybe like Congo. The rest of National Geographic, Warlords, AIDS, Tribes, and Poachers.
Americans don't really learn much on Black History, let alone any real African geography/history outside of north african WW2 campaign for 1 paragraph, some ivory coast slave stuff, and maybe maybe nelson mendela.
It is sad that my initial reaction to this was, "hey at least he didn't get chumped in his own side book!"
The bar is really really really low lol
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That's incredibly sad. I feel like black people across the diaspora should take it upon themselves to know where they came from and have a better understanding of their heritage and the influence it's had across the world and on other cultures. This is why its so easy for people to write/rewrite African history and frame it in negativity because African descendants for the most part dont know any better and in some cases don't really care. Honestly, the amount of non Africans I know who initially had no interest in setting foot on the continent travel there now more than I do because they've seen and experienced beyond the media narrative of disease, poverty and Coates-type ignorance. Africa has some of the most beautiful and LUXURIOUS places on this planet and the sad thing is, more non Africans (European descendants) are aware of this and often take advantage of this fact for their own leisure.
Personally, I have no interest in going to Africa for culture reasons (aka bc im black). I don't have any connection to the continent. If I ever go, it is because Africa seems like it has some cool places travel wise and nothing more.
black people aren't even taught their own American Black History to even bother trying to get into knowing more about Africa. Get taught a sanitized view of slavery, emancipation, one sentence on jim crow, might mention Emmit Till if you are lucky, then you got some Malcolm/MLK, and then everything is sunshine and rainbows. Oh, and the dude that invented Peanut Butter of course.
But of course, I had a class in high school on every single petty squabble in Europe at one point.
This is relaly off topic though so um....
When tchalla got snapped in IW, Okoye is quoted as saying "Hezvo?" What is the translation for that? Google isn't bieng useful
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Many people like you don't have a connection to Africa for a variety of reasons. Obviously it's your choice to do or not do anything about it but relying on the systems of Western education in place to teach you anything is folly. If one gives a damn, they're gokngbto have to do their own research. Like I said, relying on other people to write/rewrite your history is a sad way to live. Education is key and its so easy to study up and learn about Africa and all its infinite beauty.
In other news Janelle Monae wants to be Storm in BP2 and to do her justice.
https://thedirect.com/article/janell...mpression=true
Last edited by Chesterfield; 07-08-2020 at 08:03 AM.