Wakanda Forever: Afrofuturism, Healing, and Creating a New Diaspora

• In Event: 20420 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5: Materiality and Affordances

Abstract

This article explores Afrofuturistic themes in Wakanda Forever. While the first movie explored themes that centered on liberation, colonization and US social institutions, Wakanda Forever extends the Afrofuturistic themes throughout the franchise by exploring collective healing. It can be argued that the deaths during the height of COVID-19 left the public in grief and mourning but also isolated because of the virus. The timing of the movie and the presence of the African healing rituals provided a space for public and collective healing. The movie also complicates and expands the idea of the diaspora. While the diaspora has largely been thought of as the shared history and experiences like Transatlantic Slave Trade and patterns of migration of racialized groups, this new diaspora expands the idea to Vibranium. The shared experience of two cultures is connected by
colonial history and otherworldly sources and creates a new type of kinship.

Authors

• Myron T. Strong, Community College of Baltimore County

• Jennifer L. Lê, Bellevue College