'Wakanda' or how a black superheroine dazzles the public in a cinema in Ghana

It is Monday afternoon in the cinemas of Accra Mall, a huge shopping center in the north of the capital of Ghana.

The room where

is projected is half full.

Most of the seats are occupied by groups of friends, girls who wear multicolored dresses and speak English to each other, rather than

or another local language.

In an overwhelming female predominance, some guy is wearing expensive clothes (brand name clearly visible) and looking around with a clueless air.

Two or three couples lie down in the last rows.

They are watching Shuri, the protagonist, rise to the throne of Wakanda, the fictional country located in sub-Saharan Africa.

They watch her battle, always escorted by her faithful warriors.

She will also defend her kingdom against the rapacity of the West.

The latest Marvel production —with a black and female protagonist— has caused great expectations in the country, one of the nerve centers of pan-Africanism.

On social networks, on the street, even in playful university meetings —Webster University organized a private screening for its students— there is a debate about the contribution of the film towards racial and gender equality.

Its possible impact on the slow banishment of prejudices is argued.

Its symbolic power is calibrated.

Trushna Buddhdev-Patel, managing director of a film distributor that represents Walt Disney and Warner Bros. in the East Africa region, said at a premiere in Lagos, Nigeria on November 6 that more than 39,000 people in Kenya , Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda watched the film.

According to information collected by

, this makes

the second biggest opening of all time for the region, behind

.

Katherine, a young Ghanaian, at the exit of the movie 'Wakanda Forever' in the Accra Mall cinemas, in the capital of the African country.Tasos Karantakos

After the screening, Katherine happily displays her enthusiasm: "I have totally identified with Shuri, I would see the film again a thousand times."

This Ghanaian viewer situates the new Marvel release at "the right time, right in the middle of a new wave of feminism, when her message about the strength of black women can reach deeper."

For her, these types of cultural products are not the anti-discrimination panacea, although "they help a lot to change the story, especially among the new generations, who grow up with references that did not exist before."

Katherine highlights the "subtlety" with which the film pumps "hidden messages."

For example, the criticism of the voracity of the West "in the extraction of African natural resources", she adds.

[This type of cultural product] helps a lot to change the story, especially among the new generations, who grow up with references that did not exist before

Katherine, young Ghanaian

Fawaz, a neat-looking boy, with a nuclear white shirt and thin dark tie, does not abandon his broad smile even to make solemn statements: "

exalts the very concept of blackness, which little by little is becoming normal in large productions."

Praise, barely a teenager, celebrates the "global message of equality" that runs through all the footage, beyond "genders, races or cultures."

Chance places two Mexican friends outside the Accra Mall theaters. They walk slowly, engaged in an exchange of opinions about the film, whose villain, Namor, represents a cruel Mayan despot.

In the film, African and pre-Columbian identity converge.

“It has been magical for me to see this cultural combination right now that I am here,” says Sharon, a Mexican, who has her own craft business in Accra.

This young woman from Yucatán appreciates the respite that

gives in terms of hegemonic representations, with "the white man, finally, in the background."

Her friend Gabriela of hers enriches her identity melting pot with a disconcerting outfit, typical of a Muslim woman: dressed in black, with a rigorous air, with a hijab and ankle-length fabrics.

“But I'm not a believer, I was simply attracted to everything that has to do with Islam since I was little,” she explains.

The movie?

"I am interested above all in his message against racism and that it does not focus only on what people of color may suffer," continues Gabriela.

However, today there are plenty of seats to see the feature film in one of the two cinemas operating in Accra.

The changes in audiovisual consumption and the price of admission (about ten euros, prohibitive for the majority of the population) have made the bulk of the Ghanaian youth opt for the shortcut of illegal downloads on the Internet on their mobiles, tablets or laptops.

On September 24, long before the global release of

, the Global Citizen Festival (organized by the NGO of the same name) had already used this imaginary kingdom as the theme of its tenth edition, held in Accra.

The event was hosted by Zimbabwean actress Danai Gurira, who plays General Okoye in the film, an essential character in the plot, always fierce in command of her army of warriors.

Introducing Nigerian artist TEMS (who appears on the film's soundtrack), Gurira turned to the umpteenth Wakandan reference.

"Let's welcome," she said, "a girl from Lagos who managed to fulfill her dreams and today is a queen."

The actress recalled how Ghana had served, upon reaching its independence in 1957, as an inspiration to other African countries in their struggle for emancipation.

Looking to the future, she and other attendees referred to Wakanda as the ideal horizon for an African country:

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