Behind Black Panther : The African Culture
Black Panther and its sequel, Wakanda Forever are films with profound cultural impact. Its sequel that will be released worldwide on November 11, 2022 will be starring Letitia Wright as the main character. The film’s success lay in its use of fantasy storytelling to articulate a narrative of black prosperity, dreaming up a world in which an African nation is the richest in the world. It is finally giving black audiences an upbeat glimpse of a proud future for Africa.
Through Wakanda, we can notice on how it appealingly represents African cultures. From its Golden City with its skyscrapers, various tribal tribes and astonishingly intricate costumes.
Not to mention, this movie shows the importance of having black people and worlds that go beyond racial stereotypes. It affects as so much of how we view ourselves and our identity is influenced by media like movies and television.
Wakanda Golden City Architecture
Hannah Beachler, the movies’ production designer, stated that she aimed to create Wakanda with the existing African tribes and advanced the technology naturally. Wakanda was primarily based on the nation of Lesotho in southern Africa. Much of the production style was also influenced by Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, D.R.C. and Ethiopia architecture. Many of the buildings are abstract-shaped with futuristic elements. To add the African fundamental, Beachler added rondavel roofs on it. Rondavel roofs are the typical thatched roofs on rural southern African huts.
Behind Black Panther, in one of the scene, there were a series of logs. The inspiration of these logs came from Native American gift to European settlers as a peace offering. It represents ages-old wisdom and truth. The wood also represents the violent reprisal of white settlers’ hypocrisy between Native American and African experiences. It might be a subtle detailed symbolic, but it brings a deep political meaning throughout the movie.
Traditionally Detailed African Costumes
The incredible costumes are designed by Ruth E. Carter that took a great inspiration from African cultures. Inspired by Maasai people’s traditional clothing, she was combining red cloth clothes to large, pointed spears, rings of necklaces and metal bangles. In addition of using Lesotho as the model for Wakanda, the movie also adopted the special blanket design known as Basotho blankets. This blanket is commonly worn wrapped around the body as cloak. Carter ensure that traditional objects were not appropriated or misrepresented. To do this, he traveled to places like Lesotho, obtained permission from the locals, and purchased as many items as he could on the continent.
Not only clothes, the film also chose the hairstyle that affected from African cultures. One of the character applied the hairstyle of Ovahimba women. This style is very distinctive, by using some kind of red clay that also be used to cover the skin as natural sun protection.
Another costumes to be mentioned is what Queen Mother Ramonda wears. She wears a stunning matching robe and wide circular headpiece. The particular style of hat can be found in Zulu culture. The hat is known as an isicolo, the traditional weaved hats from grass and cotton that usually be worn on special ceremonies such as weddings.
Using African Native Language
Throughout the film, the movie’s characters occasionally communicate with one another in a native African language. The filmmakers chose to use isiXhosa, a language native to South Africa with approximately eight million speakers. This language was recommended by John Kani, one of the actors in the movie. He is a native of South Africa’s Eastern Cape and speaks isiXhosa fluently. He then advised the directors to use some isiXhosa in the dialogue to make the movie feel more authentically African.
Marvel has produced a great ton of entertaining movies in the past decade, Black Panther not only portrays what unusual, but also represents a sentiment meaning behind it. By using African culture as their inspiration, they also successfully articulate a narrative of black prosperity to the movie. Each details that been poured into the movie has amazed the audience has inspired viewers to consider more than a single story, and has increased pride for African culture, language, and history.
