WAKANDA FOREVER: AN AFROCENTRIC ANALYSIS OF THE FILM BLACK PANTHER

Abstract

Upon its release, Black Panther became a symbol of Afrofuturism and how the Black imagination could redefine Blackness and one's interpretation of Black People. Many asserted that African Americans had no "Wakanda" to call their own, but it was merely a fictional land from a comic book. This dissertation examines the Black imagination as a tool of Black resistance and liberation through the film Black Panther. It looks to see how the Black imagination has been used to redefine Black people, reinterpret the Black past, and place Black people in the future. This dissertation also asserts that Wakanda is not some mythical place only found in the pages of a comic book but exists throughout the Africana diaspora. Using the theory of Afrofuturism and Afrocentricity, this research will analyze how there are spaces of Black excellence that appear lackluster to the outside (White) world but, in reality, are hidden jewels of thriving Black spaces that encourage Black survival, creativity, brilliance, and innovation. These "Wakanda's" are African American institutions, neighborhoods, schools, barbershops, beauty salons, and churches. By demonstrating the Wakandan-ness of these spaces, Black Americans do more than struggle against oppression or subversion but use them to build advanced Black futures away from the world and seek to preserve them. Finally, this research examines the factors that led up to the cultural phenomenon of Black Panther, its lasting impact, and what did this moment say about the Black Imagination and what Black people want to see.