Wakanda Women; a Tale of Bravery, Dogedness and Loyalty

Sometime in the third week of February of 2018, a certain movie ‘Black Panther’ was making the rounds. At the time it had gone extremely viral and i saw people making hand signs shouting ‘Wakanda’ and using it in hashtags. This sparked my interest. For several weeks, i postponed going to see the movie but hearing about the ‘Wakanda Women' got me decided. And i didn’t regret it. A nice friend has asked what my thoughts are on the story.

The Wakanda women are fierce, dogged, audacious and loyal. Talk about all in one and one in all. I was thrilled by their extreme fearless nature. It’s little wonder that Wakanda land chooses and trains them to serve as their soldiers. A move which buttresses the fact that women can do it all.

Most African young women were raised to be dependent of men. Our society, which is predominantly patriachal tells us to ‘look up’ to men either as head of the families, the provider or other wise. In most cases, men have always had the upper hand.

Wakanda women inspired girls and women to know they have the power and begin to stand up for themselves and the causes they care about.

The tale of loyalty. The Wakandan women were loyal. I remember a scene in the movie when it was thought that Tchalla was dead after the seemingly defeat by an opposing party. His sister who believed so much in him stood her ground by maintaining allegiance and loyalty to the throne instead of fighting a seemingly lost cause. I thought that was very important. Focused. That’s the key word. They refused to be distracted by a temporary defeat even when a loved one was involved.

The tale of Originality. Their originality was inspiring. Perhaps this is the most important lesson. Wakandan women were as black as they come and unborthered. In this day and age, the black skin is seen as somewhat inferior to a lighter skin. Its also sad that music videos and the media propagates the idea that ‘light’ complexioned is beautiful while ‘dark’ complexioned is ugly by ‘adoring’ the light skinned girl in the music video and inadvertently paints the picture of beauty and perfection in light skin colour.

I’ve even heard that dark skinned girls get rejected at music videos and movie auditions as they do not meet the ‘beauty requirement’. Romantically, a higher percentage of men prefer to date the light skinned girl. This puts an unimaginable and overwhelming amount of pressure on a dark skinned girl and misleads them to truly think they are not beautiful. A majority of them have now gone ahead to bleach their skins in order to be ‘beautiful’.

According to a report by WHO 77 percent of women in Nigeria use skin lightening agents. An article by Aljazeera confirms that Nigeria has the world’s highest percentage of women who bleach their skins in the quest for beauty. Sadly this dangerous belief has eaten deep into some women’s self-esteem.

According to a report by Aljazeera, Taiwo Soloman, 32, is bleaching her skin. She believes fairer skin could be her ticket to a better life.

“Bleaching just makes me feel special, like am walking around in a spotlight,” she told Al Jazeera. “I am not seeking to be totally white, I just want to look beautiful. I cannot stop using the lightening agents,”

Sadly, skin bleaching comes with hazardous health consequences. The dangers associated with the use of toxic compounds for skin bleaching include blood cancers such as leukemia and cancers of the liver and kidneys as well as severe skin conditions.

I foresee a time in the future when dark skin will be the new beautiful. There will come a time when parents will take their little kids to see a dark skinned model and pay huge amounts just to be granted access. That time is near and fast approaching. This has been enabled by lots of women running away from their original skin colour and embracing what they are not.

Wakanda women embraced their skin colour. They were very black. There was no mincing words. This analogy speaks directly about the self confidence of a black woman. They were beautiful, they contributed to national development, they also found love. A colleague of mine was so inspired by the Wakandan women that she decided to go completely bald.

They left a strong message that your skin tone is never a hindrance. You can be all that you want to be and much more. The key is being confident in who you are and your purpose and carrying yourself as same.

And Love. My favourite part. The theme of love was apparent in the movie. Because of love, a stronger connection and belief to a cause, Tchalla’s EX rose up and led the way even when his sister and mother were unsure of the path, she was able to get them reason with her. I couldn’t stop thinking what would have happened if she hadn’t made the move. The whole clan would have lost their wealth, purpose and possibly wiped out. We also see this theme play out between Tchalla and his sister who believed in him and his purpose, aligned herself with it and played a key role in ensuring their joint victory in the end.

The lesson is that when love is connected to a stronger purpose, there can be no impossibility.

The Wakandan women demonstrated togetherness, great team work and stood together even when the throne was against them. They refused to go with the status quo and instead chose to stand by the truth.