Whether you're excited for Marvel's Black Panther or you have already seen it and loved it, you likely want to know more about Wakanda. This isolated East African nation is one of the most fully realized and recognized fictional countries in all of comics. Its people are proud, but also xenophobic, and up until the past decade of Black Panther comics continuity, this country had never been conquered by outside forces due to its superior technology.

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The Wakanda of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is similar, at least in some ways, to Japan in terms of how the traditional and the futuristic co-exist in harmony. The filmmakers have done an outstanding job of realizing an African aesthetic accented by high-tech flourishes. There is a look to Wakanda in the comics, but the Black Panther film establishes a visual language that makes Wakandan design and style unmistakable. Thus, we've put together a travel guide of sorts that outlines the country’s history, politics, technology and much more.

History

Wakanda is a fiercely independent African nation ruled by a warrior-king monarchy. The throne and ceremonial title of Black Panther are passed down from father to first born son. However, as a warrior king, The Black Panther must be ready and willing to take on any challenger in to-the-death combat. This is the same in the comics and film, except for the fact that in the movie the challenger must be from a royal line.

The Panther tribe has reigned in Wakanda since the arrival of the Vibranium meteorite. They worship the Panther god Bast and believe that ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb makes the Black Panther a representative of the deity. The herb also gives those that take it superhuman strength, speed, and heightened senses.

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When Ulysses Klaw led a pack of mercenaries on a raid of Wakanda to pilfer its Vibranium reserves, he murdered T’Challa’s father T’Chaka in cold blood. Although T’Challa eventually succeeded him as Black Panther, he was only a teenager at the time, so T’Chaka’s brother Y’San took the Black Panther mantle in the interim. After receiving an education at the best schools in Europe and the US, T’Challa returned to Wakanda to endure the rites of the Black Panther. a process that included several arduous trials and preparations.

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Politics

Wakanda’s history, or more accurately Black Panther continuity, has been full of challenges for the throne, sudden revolts and violent coups. There are 18 united tribes that make up Wakanda in the comics but we only know the names of a handful: White Gorilla Cult, The Lord’s Conquering Lions, Order of the Knife, and the Marsh Tribe. Like in the film, M’Baku (aka Man-Ape) is the leader of the outlawed White Gorilla Cult. He gained his great strength from eating the flesh and bathing in the blood of the mystical white gorilla. Jabari-Lands is the name of the area M'Baku is from, which is located in the North-East of the country. This province has a mountainous, snowy region just like in the movie. M’Baku has challenged for the throne numerous times and even controlled Wakanda during T’Challa’s absence when he joined the Avengers.

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Also, like in the film, Erik Killmonger tried to violently usurp the throne. In fact, throwing T’Challa over a waterfall is straight out of Jungle Action #6 (1973). While T’Challa regained leadership of his country, he had to fight off Killmonger and his allies repeatedly. Interestingly, in the comics it was actually Killmonger, not the royal family, who set up an “immense mining operation” under the Vibranium mound.

In the Doomwar arc, an extremist group called the Desturi wished to return Wakanda to its former isolationist ways. They partnered with Latverian despot Doctor Doom and managed to gain control of the Wakandan Army, Navy and government. It turned out Doom was just using the Desturi to get to Wakanda’s Vibranium, and the coalition’s ambitions were thwarted by the combined efforts of T’Challa, Shuri, an army of Dora Milaje, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and Deadpool. Fun fact: This was the second time Doom attempted to steal Wakanda’s vibranium; the first was in Astonishing Tales #6 (1971).

In award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’ current run on Black Panther a group calling themselves The People sparked a revolution in Wakanda. They were led by a powerful shaman named Tetu and the mind-controlling Zenzi, who were allied with a pair of rogue Dora Milaje, Aneka and Ayo. A former mentor of the royal court and known dissident, Changamire, riled the population against the tyranny of the current regime, but refused to side with The People because of their violent methods. The outcome of the uprising was that T’Challa agreed to transition the government into a democratic system, while the Black Panther would remain as a representative king (much like the Emperor in Japan or the Queen in England).

Dora Milaje & Hatut Zeraze

These two groups are the Black Panther’s security services. Wakanda's FBI and CIA, if you will. The Dora Milaje are the king’s all-female personal guard. These women represent the best of Wakanda and are “drawn from all tribes.” Not only are they the king’s protectors, they are also the harem from which the king chooses his queen. This gives every Wakandan tribe a chance to produce a queen. The tradition was terminated during T’Chaka’s rule, but T’Challa reinstated the practice during a time of turmoil to bring unity to the nation. This aspect of the Dora Milaje was not broached in the film.

The Hatut Zeraze a.k.a. Dogs of War are essentially his secret police. In the comics they were exiled early on in continuity, but have since returned to the king's service. They wear white uniforms that incorporate many of the same technologies as the Black Panther’s suit, including cloaking tech, Vibranium boot soles, and Vibranium weaved into the fabric of the suits, making them bulletproof.

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Vibranium

Vibranium is an ore that can absorb vibrations and store the energy. Exploiting these properties is the base of Wakandan science and medicine. Vibranium is only found in Wakanda, making it extremely hard to obtain and coveted. Klaw and Doom are only two of the villains who have tried to get their hands on the precious metal for nefarious purposes.

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Just like at the beginning of the film, a Vibranium meteorite crashed in Wakanda in ancient times in the comics as well. T’Challa’s ancestor Bashenga believed the meteorite to be a gift from the gods. When energy from the Vibranium started mutating his villagers, as well as nearby vegetation and animals, he asked the Panther god Bast to give him the strength to defeat the mutates and close the Vibranium meteorite off. He was the first ever Black Panther. The heart-shaped herb that gives T’Challa’s line their enhanced abilities and connects them to Bast, was one of the plants effected by the Vibranium meteorite.

Technology

In Ta-Nehisi Coates Black Panther run he stated that Wakanda “is the most scientifically and technologically advanced country on the planet.” With Vibranium as a building material and power source, the Wakandans have progressed exponentially in comparison to the rest of the world. In fact, in Fantastic Four #607 (2012) it is stated that Wakanda split the atom almost a century before the U.S. Almost all the tech seen in the film is pulled straight from the pages of the comics, including Wakanda’s advanced aircrafts, energy shields, spears that can fire energy blasts, and Kimoyo beads and bands. However, some of Shuri’s ingenious inventions like her sonic-cannon gauntlets and her EMP grenades only exist in live action.

In the film Ulysses’ sonic cannon arm is of Wakandan design, but in the comics his sonic blaster is invented by Klaw himself and is made of Vibranium bought on the black market. He created the blaster to replace his left hand which had been shattered by T’Challa, who used Klaw’s own prototype sound weapon against him. This fringe scientist was obsessed with converting sound into solid matter and not only did he succeed, he eventually even converted his body into living sound.

Remapping Wakanda for the 21st Century

In the comics, the initial map of Wakanda was uninformed and unintentionally racist. Instead of names that sounded even remotely African, the Caucasian writers labeled regions of Wakanda with questionable titles like Primitive Peaks. However, when Coates took over Black Panther writing duties in 2016, he and artist Manny Mederos redrew the map and gave Wakanda’s cities and territories proper names. They established that “birnin” means city, and every major metropolis in the country has been named after a former Black Panther.

Wakanda is isolated and hidden in the comics but not actually cloaked like in the film. However, Ta-Nehisi’s revamp of the map established that its borders are encircled by “hills, mountains, and the sprawling Lake Nyanza,” which make it almost impossible to find.

Directed by Ryan Coogler from a script he wrote with Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabi, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue, Winston Duke as M’Baku and Forest Whitaker as Zuri. The film opens Friday nationwide.