The Cultural Influences of Marvel’s Black Panther
3.) Wakandan Language and Calligraphy
In the movie, everyone who lives in Wakanda spoke an unfamiliar language at some point, but this isn’t a fictional dialect akin to the various tongues such as Elvish or Orcish in The Lord of the Rings.
The symbols seen in Wakanda’s art and architecture is based on the Nsibidi script that originates from Nigeria. According to research, Nsibidi is possibly the oldest form of nonverbal communication in human history, being almost 4000 years old. Bearing more than 500 symbols with many of them representing love affairs – symbols about war and conflict are usually kept secret – Nsibidi has been found on various pre-colonial artifacts and sites all over the world, a result of the African diaspora and slave trade.
As for Wakanda’s spoken language, the Wakandans primarily use Xhosa – the so-called “clicking language” due to its unique pronunciation of the letter “x” that is spoken by more than 7.6 million people in South Africa. But to emphasize how isolated they are from Wakandan society, the isolated Jabari tribe use the Yoruba dialect, which is used in Nigeria, when talking to one another.
Source:
- Cinemablend
- The Moving Finger: A Rhetorical, Grammatological and Afrinographic Exploration of Nsibidi in Nigeria and Camero – Kevin Hales
- Quartz Africa