The Wakanda Reader
Everything you wanted to know about Wakanda and urbanism, but were afraid to ask.
If you haven’t seen the Marvel superhero movie Black Panther yet, you must be at least a tiny bit mystified about all of the chatter and story-sharing happening on your timelines, particularly the ones about something called “Wakanda.” If you have seen Black Panther, perhaps the only thing that mystifies you about Wakanda is why we don’t have anything like it today.
The palatial Wakanda serves as the backdrop of the movie and you can get a small taste of its majesty in the movie poster, where its skyline, decked in hieroglyphic graffiti, serves as a scaffold for the cast above it.
As the story goes, Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation in the world thanks to its heavily-protected stock of vibranium—a metal that’s stronger than steel and can manipulate energy to near-supernatural ends. Designers have been wowed by Wakanda’s mechanical marvels of hyperloop rapid transit, maglev trains, dragonfly-shaped spaceships, hoverbikes, skyscrapers orchestrated from chords of stone, wood, and metal, and other innovative spectacles.
#Wakandaforever but T’challa is really a superhero for getting that zoning change from residential to commercial in Oakland
— Caille Millner (@caillemillner) February 19, 2018
Great city planning in Black Panther – but where are the parks in #Wakanda? We volunteer our services to T'Challa to design a central park for the sequel. @NYCParks is ready to help! pic.twitter.com/Ilp7smsE8R
— Mitchell Silver (@mitchell_silver) February 21, 2018
There’s not enough time in Black Panther’s two-hour run to explain how each building and mode of transportation was constructed. However, Wakanda’s mysteries present an opportunity to address a number of issues dear to urbanists’ hearts: What the ideal model for equitable development looks like; how to preserve the traditions and culture of a place while embracing innovation and technology; how transit can co-mingle with walkability; and the role of design in facilitating spaces that protect vulnerable populations from oppressive forces.
The Wakandan metropolis also provides a platform for exploring how a city might engage with other cities and nations that may not have its best interests in mind. Fortunately a bevy of explainers have been made available not only from Marvel fanboys and fangirls, but also journalists, academics, and urban practitioners who’ve long been tracking the intersection between graphic novels, urban design, architecture, and Afro-futurism.
Citylab has pulled together a Wakanda Reader, or online bibliography of sorts, to indulge those who are interested in the larger questions around urbanism implicated in Black Panther. We would call it a syllabus, but there are already several syllabi available—this #WakandaSyllabus from Walter Greason, an economic history professor at Monmouth University and founder of the International Center of Metropolitan Growth, is particularly good. This Wakanda curriculum for middle school grades from school teacher Tess Raker has also been making the rounds.
As for what else has been circulating, here’s an exhaustive, still-living-and-growing list of articles that build upon the Wakandan mystique: