The main body of this article is translated from Rachel Strohm's article Where is Wakanda? (https://rachelstrohm.com/2016/05/28/where-is-wakanda/). Since this article was written after "Captain America 3" was released in 2016, it did not reflect the situation in "Black Panther" in 2018, so this article is supplemented in the form of a translator's note.
After watching " Captain America 3: Civil War", there was a question that kept circling in my mind. This question was about Africa, maps and Marvel movies. The question was: Where is Wakanda ?
Part 1: Wakanda
on the map In the comics, the location of this country is around the Sahel (Sahel) zone. But there is another more surprising fact, that is, in the comics, in just two years, Wakanda's location has moved from West Africa to East Africa, with a span of more than 1,500 miles (equivalent to more than 2,400 kilometers). Scholar Julian Chambliss proved this through maps.
Two years later...
Back to the movie universe, we can find that there was a news report in "Captain America 3", and there was a Wakanda map flashing by. If we freeze it down, we will find that its location is closer to the picture above.
So I made a clearer version on Google Maps. As shown in the figure below, Wakanda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), most of which are located around the real-life Kenya , Lake Turkana , and also contains a small part of the territory of South Sudan and Ethiopia .
Translator's note : A map in the Easter egg in "Iron Man 2" also marks the location of Wakanda, which is closer to the mark in "Captain America 3".
According to the information of Marvel Atlas #2, Wakanda is indeed arranged near Lake Turkana, near South Sudan, Uganda , Kenya and Ethiopia.
In the real world, this area is actually a region with territorial disputes, known as the Ilemi Triangle, and is currently under actual control by Kenya.
However, since this article was written before the release of "Black Panther", the latest information was not updated. And when we watch the movie "Black Panther", we will find another amazing situation: Wakanda has moved to the ground again...
The beginning of the movie "Black Panther" tells the origin of Wakanda. "Millions of years ago, a vibrator meteorite crashed into the earth and eventually landed on the African continent..." When we look at the position of the meteorite falling, it seems to be a little far from Kenya that was set before.
So where is this? The subsequent picture gives the answer:
didn't see clearly? Let's break it down again:
zoom in
zoom in
zoom in
That's right, Wakanda in "Black Panther" includes the southeast corner of the Western Region of Uganda, and part of the North Kivu Province of the Congo (Kinland) and is adjacent to Rwanda in the south.
Now many Ugandans claim that Wakanda is located in Uganda. In addition to the names with similar syllables (Wakanda - Uganda), people also use real scenes in the movie to give examples.
For example, the snow mountain behind Mbaku, the leader of the Jabari tribe, is very similar to the snow mountain in Uganda. The capital of Wakanda under the protective cover of the protective cover presents a natural scenery, which is very similar to the "Bwindi Impenetrable National Park" in Uganda (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park)
Indeed, during the filming of "Black Panther", he also went to Uganda's Ruwenzori Mountains and Buwendi's National Park for filming.
Part 2: What would it look like if there was a country like Wakanda?
I like this overhead setting very much. At the same time, I also want to know: if there really is a country like Wakanda that becomes rich because of its rare metal, then what would this country look like?
I have some rough thoughts on this:
There is no doubt that this country should never have been colonized, like its neighbor Ethiopia. This also created the almost mythical status of King Wakanda, somewhat similar to the Helselasi Emperor, who was regarded as a Messiah by the believers of the Rastfari movement.
This country still maintains an absolute monarchy in the 21st century, which seems difficult to achieve. The only realistic example is Swaziland (recently renamed "Swatini"), but the monarchy in this country has also attracted criticism for its poor economic management. Now, almost all other countries on the African continent have held elections in the 1990s (at least formal elections). Wakanda seems more likely to follow in the footsteps of Botswana , undergoing a change in the management system that reshapes traditional leaders into democratic election officials.
Economicly, Botswana is also a benchmark for Wakanda. This country is also a landlocked country with arid conditions, because the development of natural resources has achieved lasting economic growth. This photo of the capital city of Botswana Gaborone is largely what the capital city located in central Wakanda might have become. (However, the water of Lake Turkana in Wakanda is alkaline. Unless the Wakanda government discovered a way to turn the lake water into an irrigation source, Wakanda should be a wasteland country, not the jungle-covered look in the movie - so Wakanda has changed the land?)
In my opinion, the biggest problem with Wakanda in "Captain America 3" is its language policy. The "Wakanda" spoken by the movie Ritzhara's father Techaka (played by South African actor John Carney) is actually South African Xhosa, and in reality the distance from South Africa to northern Kenya is about 2,000 miles. Let King Wakanda speak Xhosa, it is like let Queen Elizabeth speak Russian. In fact, the common languages in northern Kenya are Turkana (opportune to the west of the lake) and Oromo (opportune to the east of the lake). In addition, there are many languages that belong to different languages and cannot be communicated. Therefore, if there is a country like Wakanda in our world, then the common language of the country should have some Franca Lingua color. Swahili is the choice that is close to you. This language is the common language in the entire East Africa region. Of course, in the context of globalization, English is also a very attractive choice.
Of course, there is also such a possibility. The Wakanda rulers in history had a great preference for Xhosa, so they ordered all citizens to speak this language. But since Xhosa comes from another language family, it is difficult for the Turkans or Oromos to understand, so this requires a lot of work in this regard (and possibly with some coercion). This process is like the English priority policy in Rwanda, or the revival of Hebrew in Israel. However, these two actions are comparative examples, with the purpose of achieving post-conflict national reconstruction, which is relatively rare worldwide. (It should be noted that we are now discussing not that colonists force the people of the colonies to use their own language, which is the most common reason for the language change in African countries at present, but we have set that Wakanda has never been colonized by the Xhosa or anyone else)
No matter what, it will be quite interesting to see how Black Panther further portrays this country.
Translator's note: Another thing worth mentioning is the Wakanda text that appears in the movie "Black Panther". It looks extremely African, but in fact, it is spelled in English.
(WAKANDA)
This set of text (or translation system) is designed by product designer Hannah Beachler. The text appearing in the subtitles is based on the Tifinagh letters and is an ancient text used by North African to write Berber.
The Wakanda letters in the movie have a complete alphabet, which are case-based and written from left to right, and have a complete correspondence with Latin letters.
For example: OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
PRESENT DAY
SAMBISA FOREST, NIGERIA
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA
Someone has opened a website: https://typewakanda.com/, and you can translate it online as Wakanda letters by entering English.
In addition, there is another type of text in the film, based on the ancient Nsibidi text, which is a hieroglyph that existed in the south of , Nigeria between 400 and 1400 AD.
appeared on the throne of the Black Panther, and was interpreted by foreign media that the above words were "the hall of the parliament of the Leopard King and the subjects."
or above.
Source:
https://rachelstrohm.com/201https://rachelstrohm.com/2016/05/28/where-is-wakanda/6/05/28/where-is-wakanda/
https://metro.co.uk/2018/02/23/wakanda-location-flag-black-panthers-hom eland-7336258/
http://koikoiug.com/4-reason-wakanda-is-uganda/
https://observer.ug/lifestyle/57101-ugandans-claim-wakanda.html
https://www.omniglot.com/conscripts/wakandan.html
