Black Panther A Nation Under Our Feet Sparknotes

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, written by Ta-Neheisi Coates and illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze can be interpreted as a fictional representation of the modern world which often fails to recognize its own history amongst technological advancement and corruption. In the middle of issue #3, the reader is shown Shuri in the land of the Djalia, a land of memory, along with a griot, discussing the loss of history and storytelling in Wakanda, which has been lost to struggles for power, industrialization and the loss of history to bigger and better things (Coats 3.9). Stelfreeze uses many elements to show this by creating a juxtaposition between the current state of Wakanda and its history, including nature, lighting and colour. Along with

The rest of the book, which occurs in present day Wakanda, represents a struggle for power and a fight against corruption while the griot explains to Shuri that Wakanda was great, even before any technology. She explains that the histories have been lost to industrialization and that its secrets are older than any metal (Coates 3.9). This sense of corruption that she explains can be compared to what is currently occurring in Wakanda, with the corruption of minds by Zenzi. Wakanda is explained to have once been a land built on storytelling and its history but that has been lost to “the acolytes of machine and the prophets of this metal age” (Coates 3.10). This shows a major difference between what Wakanda has become versus where it has come from. The griot appears to Shuri as her mother, Queen Ramonda, to create a sense of familiarity between the two and to demonstrate that everyone is connected, whether they know it or not. For many people, we have memories of our mothers telling us stories as children so Stelfreeze illustrates the griot as Ramonda to mimic this. In West African culture, Griots are tasked with keeping the history alive through storytelling, music and poetry and Coates and Stelfreeze use them to do just