Wakanda


Wakanda is a fictional country appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is located in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is home to the superhero Black Panther. Wakanda first appeared in Fantastic Four #52, and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Wakanda has appeared in comics and various media adaptations, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe films ', Black Panther, ', and . A highly developed country, Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation on the planet.

Location

Wakanda is located in East Africa, although its exact location has varied throughout the nation's publication history: some sources place Wakanda just north of Tanzania and exactly at Burundi, while others such as Marvel Atlas #2 show it at the north end of Lake Turkana, in between South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, on-screen maps use the location given in Marvel Atlas #2.
In recent stories by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, Wakanda is located on Lake Victoria, near Mohannda, Canaan, Azania and Niganda. This places these nations mostly in what in real life is the eastern half of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Director Ryan Coogler stated that his depiction of Wakanda in the 2018 film Black Panther was inspired by the Southern African Kingdom of Lesotho.

History

Before the emergence of the Wakanda nation, mystic beings known as Originators were expelled from the region by the Heliopolitans. This was later retconned as the Orisha, the pantheon of Wakanda consisting of Thoth, Ptah, Mujaji, Kokou and Bast, the Panther Goddess.
In the distant past, a massive meteorite made up of the element vibranium crashed in Wakanda. It was unearthed a generation before the events of the present day. T'Challa, the current Black Panther, is the son of T'Chaka, the Black Panther before him and a descendant of Bashenga. Knowing that others would attempt to manipulate and dominate Wakanda for this rare and valuable resource, T'Chaka conceals his country from the outside world. He sells off minute amounts of the valuable vibranium while surreptitiously sending the country's best scholars to study abroad, consequently turning Wakanda into one of the world's most technologically advanced nations. Eventually, however, the explorer Ulysses Klaue finds his way to Wakanda and covers up his work on a vibranium-powered, sound-based weapon. When exposed, Klaue kills T'Chaka, only to see his "sound blaster" turned on him by a grieving teenaged T'Challa. Klaue's right hand is destroyed, and he and his men flee.
Wakanda has an unusually high rate of mutation due to the dangerously mutagenic properties of the Vibranium Mound. A large number of these Wakandan Mutates are working for Erik Killmonger.
Vibranium radiation has permeated much of Wakanda's flora and fauna, including the Heart-Shaped Herb eaten by members of the Black Panther Cult and the flesh of the White Gorilla eaten by the members of the White Gorilla Cult.
In the 2008 "Secret Invasion" storyline, Skrull forces led by Commander K'vvvr invade Wakanda and engage Black Panther and his forces. Due to heavy resistance to the deployment of technological developments, both sides are forced to fight with swords and spears. The Wakandan forces voluntarily wear panther masks; this prevents the Skrulls from focusing attacks on their leader. Despite losses, the Wakandans defeat the Skrulls. They kill every single one, including K'vvvr, and send their ship back, packed with the bodies. A warning against invading Wakanda is left written on the wall of the ship's control center.
While under the cosmic power of the Phoenix Force, Namor attacks Wakanda for hiding the Avengers and destroys much of the country with a tidal wave. After the attack, all mutants are banned from Wakanda as stated by Black Panther. Some students from the Jean Grey school are attacked by the Wakandan people; the students barely flee with the help of Storm.
Wakanda expanded his legacy to form an intergalactic empire on Planet Bast.

Wakanda's cults

Wakanda contains a number of religious cults devoted to Heliopolitan deities, who left ancient Egypt at the time of the pharaohs.

Panther cult

the Panther Goddess, based on Bastet the ancient Egyptian deity, is the primary deity of Wakanda. After the vibranium meteor fell, a number of Wakandans were painfully mutated into "demon spirits" and began attacking their fellow Wakandans.
T'Challa's ancestor Bashenga begun to close the vibranium mound to outsiders. He formed a religious order that guarded the mound and fought to keep the "demon spirits" from spreading across the kingdom. As the ceremonial and religious role, he took the title of Black Panther as chief of the Panther Tribe. As part of the cult's ceremonies, a Black Panther is entitled to the use of a heart-shaped herb. The herb enhances the physical attributes of the person who consumes it to near-superhuman levels, in a similar manner to the super-soldier serum.

White Gorilla cult

The Jabari tribe is known for worshiping gorilla gods: Ghekre, based on the Baoulé deity of the same name and Ngi, based on the Yaounde deity of the same name, Wakanda evolved from a hunter-warrior society, and was traditionally ruled by its greatest warrior. The dominant Black Panther Cult outlawed the rival White Gorilla Cult's worship in Wakanda. M'Baku of the Jabari tribe is one of Wakanda's greatest warriors, second only to T'Challa, the Black Panther himself. While T'Challa, king of Wakanda, is on a several month leave of absence from Wakanda, the ambitious M'Baku plots to usurp the throne. M'Baku flouts T'Challa's edicts and revives the White Gorilla Cult, killing one of the rare white gorillas living in the jungles near Wakanda. M'Baku bathes in the gorilla's blood and eats its flesh which "mystically" confers the gorilla's great strength upon M'Baku. He tries to defeat T'Challa in combat, hoping to take over the country, but is beaten and banished from Wakanda. According to the 2018 film, the White Gorilla cult, known in the film as the Jabari, revere the monkey god Hanuman.

Lion cult

the Lion Goddess, based on the deity of the same name, could possess the form of any human worshipers or the bodies of those sanctified and sacrificed by her worshipers, she transformed these subjects into human avatars of herself. She has a number of other powers, some of which she has demonstrated. Sekhmet could grow in size, move at rapid speeds, teleport herself and others, and alter her specific density. The Lion goddess possessed superhuman strength and durability, and she was immortal. She can manipulate the minds of the weak-willed.
Little is known of the history of the Lion Goddess. She had apparently lost many worshipers over the years to the Cult of the Panther God, despite the fact that Sekhmet physically manifested before its followers, and the Panther God only appears to its priests.

Crocodile cult

the Crocodile God, based on the deity of the same name, appears to be an ancient and somewhat forgotten Wakandan deity.

Name

There are several theories for the name of Wakanda. The name may be inspired by a Siouan god called Wakanda, Wakonda, or Waconda, or Wakandas, a fictional African tribe from Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel The Man-Eater, written in 1915 but published posthumously in 1957, or the Kenyan tribe Kamba, Akamba or Wakamba, or the word "kanda", which means "family" in Kikongo.

Language

In the comics, Wakanda has three official languages: Wakandan, Yoruba and Hausa.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters from Wakanda are portrayed speaking the South-East African Xhosa language. The Jabari Tribe are portrayed speaking a dialect similar to Igbo dialect from Nigeria.

Defenses

In the comics, Wakanda is the foremost military power on Marvel Earth. The Wakandan Army is the country's main ground forces, while the Wakandan Navy oversees naval operations. The Wakandan Air Guard is the Nation's air force, which includes pilots wearing powerful suits of combat armor. In order to ensure peace and stability in Wakanda, the Black Panther picked Dora Milaje from rival tribes to serve as his personal guard and ceremonial wives-in-training.. Wakanda has its own intelligence system known as the N'Charu Silema; a spy network that worked across the globe to maintain the nation's secrecy. It was considered as good as the Mossad and certainly better than the CIA and MI6. later, P.R.I.D.E. was developed as the nation's protection agency. Wakanda is one of the few Earth-616 civilizations who have contingency plans for dealing with Galactus,"The Devourer of Worlds".

Cultural impact

In December 2019, it was discovered that the US Department of Agriculture's website listed Wakanda as a free-trade partner, with a list of traded goods which included ducks, donkeys and dairy cows. The USDA claimed the fictional country had been added to the list "by accident during a staff test" and removed it soon after the public became aware of it.

In other media

Novels

Two Little Golden Books were published.

Animation

Animation

In 2016, Wakanda appears in the short film Black Panther in... The Visitor released by Disney XD on their YouTube channel.

Video games