Sheena C. Howard - Why Wakanda Matters: What Black Panther Reveals About Psychology, Identity, and Communication

Several contributors apply African-centered psychology to themes within Black Panther. It is refreshing to see inclusion of Afrikana worldview, Fanonian theory, decolonization, and African spiritual identity in the analyses of the popular media phenomenon that is Black Panther. This work further exposes readers to tenets of Black psychology that are unrepresented in Western psychology.

Michele K. Lewis, psychology professor, member of the Association of Black Psychologists, and author of Our Biosocial Brains: Cultural Neuroscience of Bias, Power, and Injustice

Why Wakanda Matters is a tour de force centered on identity, perception, and racial trauma. The essayists give readers a new way of looking at the classic film Black Panther, as well as capitalism, US history, and nationalism. Why Wakanda Matters isnt one of those books that you read once and toss to the side. It is an inspirational book that one should carefully read at least once a year. This opus will live for generations to come.

Darryl Robertson, former staff writer for VIBE magazine, whose work has also appeared in Ebony, XXL, Billboard, Salon, Black Perspectives, and Washington Post

In this interdisciplinary, transnational, theoretically astute, and brilliantly curated anthology, Sheena Howard, the Eisner Awardwinning and acclaimed scholar of comics, race, and representation, brings us another scholarly tour de force for a wide audience. The authors attention to variables of difference (e.g., gender, race, culture, and region) as well as teaching, watching, and wondering about the Black Panther franchiseis a timely and significant contribution to books about sequential art and comics. Why Wakanda Matters situates the meaningful, mythical, and the phantasmagorical aspects of Wakanda within the promise of a more just and representational reality. Taken together, the chapters tell us why #WakandaForever is more than a hashtag; its a movement for and among fans, activists, scholars, and dreamers.

Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, professor of American Studies and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and author of Black Women in Sequence: Reinking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime

Sheena Howard continues to make extraordinary contributions to comic scholarship. Why Wakanda Matters is another exceptional volume in her impressive catalog.

Joel Christian Gill, cartoonist and historian

Dr. Howard deftly weaves together an amazing array of insights regarding one of the most important pop culture phenomena in the history of cinema. Each essay breathes life into the layered discourse around the utility of the Black radical imagination and the inherent and necessary joy regarding Blackness and speculation. Why Wakanda Matters is a great guide to the newest addition to Blackness in conversation with radicalized spatial narratives.

John Jennings, New York Times bestselling illustrator of the Eisner Awardwinning graphic novel adaptation of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation (2013)

Black Queer Identity Matrix: Towards an Integrated

Queer of Color Framework (2014)

Critical Articulations of Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation (2014)

Encyclopedia of Black Comics (2017)

This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by any entity that created or produced the well-known Black Panther film or comics.

Foreword copyright 2021 by Phillip Boutt Jr.

Introduction and Afterword 2021 by Sheena C. Howard

Cross My Heart and Hope to Die in Wakanda: Expressions of Solidarity in Black Panther copyright 2021 by Felicia Stewart

The Symbolic, the Real, and the Ladies of Wakanda copyright 2021 by Claudia Bucciferro

Wakanda, Pan-Afrikanism, and the Afrikana Worldview: A Representation of the New Afrikana Nation copyright 2021 by Olsa Yaa Tolkun and Aynda Mariama Kanyama-Jackson

Killmonger and the Wretched of the Earth copyright 2021 by Dominique Thomas

The Black Panther Is Black copyright 2021 by Mikhail Lyubansky and Erynn Nicholson

The Oreo, the King, and the Wakandan Salute: What Black Panther Shows Us About Why Representation Matters copyright 2021 by Mercedes Samudio

Ritual in Black Panther: The Decolonization of African Narratives and Implications for the Reclamation of African Spiritual Identification and Practice copyright 2021 by Chate Omsad Richardson and L. Nzingha Samuel

Erik Killmonger and the Psychology of Inner-City Trauma copyright 2021 by Chate Omsad Richardson

Black Radical Thought as Pathology in Black Panther copyright 2021 by Charles Athanasopoulos

Vibranium Healing copyright 2021 by Mishelle Rodriguez

NJadaka and Intergenerational Trauma: A Case Study of Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome copyright 2021 by Olsa Yaa Tolkun

Representation, Identification, and Pride: Teaching with (and Through) Black Panther copyright 2021 by Evan Jones

Identification and Decentering Whiteness in Black Panther copyright 2021 by Tehia Starker Glass, Joseph W. Allen, and GiShawn A. Mance

Cognitive Dissonance and TChallas Evolution copyright 2021 by Sheena C. Howard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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First E-Book Edition: February 2020

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020040652

ISBN 9781950665419 (trade paper)

ISBN 9781950665617 (electronic)

Editing by Sheena C. Howard

Copyediting by Michael Fedison

Proofreading by Kim Broderick and Amy Zarkos

Text design and composition by Aaron Edmiston

Cover design by Faceout Studio, Amanda Hudson

Cover images Getty / Ryan McVay (panther) and Shutterstock / Bayanova Svetlana (paper)

Printed by Lake Book Manufacturing

Distributed to the trade by Two Rivers Distribution, an Ingram brand www.tworiversdistribution.com

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To my son, Che, that his imagination is not defined solely by his reality.

In memory of Chadwick Boseman

Phillip Boutt Jr.

Sheena C. Howard

Felicia Stewart

Claudia Bucciferro

Olsa Yaa Tolkun and Aynda Mariama Kanyama-Jackson

Dominique Thomas

Mikhail Lyubansky and Erynn Nicholson

Mercedes Samudio

Chate Omsad Richardson and L. Nzingha Samuel