Wakanda: A Hopeful Vision Of The Future

Could Afrofuturism & Solarpunk help us envision a better future?

‘We need new, optimistic visions of the future!’

I hear that everywhere. As old stories of the world crumble, people are longing for new visions of the future that ‘bring everything together’. Visions that really help one picture the goal, the new world we are working towards and ultimately allow us to create and tell new (and perhaps, clearer) stories.

‘Pictures are worth a thousand words.’

It’s a cheesy saying but it’s kinda true: complex and sometimes multiple ideas can often be conveyed better by images than by verbal descriptions. The recent success of TikTok by the way only underlines the power of images in today’s world. But where are the images (or memes, let alone TikToks) depicting visions of a positive future?

‘We are what we pretend to be, so we must be very careful what we pretend to be.’ Kurt Vonnegut

Our brains are wired for stories, and stories are essential ingredients for human cooperation. Yuval Harari talks about how the imagination of the collective, the ability to believe in something that is purely imaginary, has helped to ensure that Homo Sapiens have dominated development. A 2017 study in the journal Nature Communications found that among hunter-gatherer societies, those with better storytellers are more cooperative. The stories that we tell about ourselves and our place in the world are the raw materials from which we build our cooperation and existence. So, where are the stories of a positive future?

Back a few decades ago we had stories like Star Trek showing us a future of advanced technologies, resource abundance and space exploration. These older sci-fi stories of technological progress and exploration have influenced many entrepreneurs and innovators until today. However, more recently sci-fi stories went from utopia to dystopia as we’ve been watching more stories of humanity failing to take care of our planet and our future:

• Humans create machines that destroy our world: Terminator, The Matrix…

• Humans destroy planet earth’s ecosystem: Avatar, Interstellar, Mad Max…

So, even at the cinemas - the sort of visual storytelling establishment of today’s age - we lack new images and stories of positive futures. Stories that show us the future of 🌳 sustainability and regeneration, with 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 vibrant communities, ✊ social justice, 🌍 decolonized societies and minds, where humans live in symbiosis with 🌱 nature and a world in which human 🧗‍♂️ health and 🧘 well-being flourish.

Introducing: Wakanda

This November, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the second part of the highly successful superhero movie is coming to theatres and what’s interesting about this story is not necessarily the superhero part of it, but the vision of Wakanda, a fictional world that depicts a future in which humans and technology live in symbiosis with nature.

“Black Panther’s vision of Wakanda rejects the oft-repeated story that we humans and our environment are natural enemies. Instead, it tells a story in which humans have become technologically sophisticated while maintaining a flourishing relationship with their surrounding environment. […] The message seems to be that Wakanda is a country whose greatest technological achievement is maintaining its environment.”
‘Wakanda Doesn’t Have Suburbs’: How Movies Like Black Panther Could Help Us Save The Planet

The idea of Wakanda is based on existing and historical African cultures – the Maasai people of eastern Africa, the Zulu people of South Africa, the Sotho people of southern Africa, and the Himba tribes of Namibia, among others – with the authors basically asking themselves:

“If these groups had not been colonized and had opted to live within their ecological limits, what would the resultant societies and cities look like?”

Wakanda is therefore a futuristic world that is driven by Afrofuturism. While Western visions of the future (as already mentioned above) emphasize technological progress and space exploration (or rather the colonization (!) of other worlds), Afrofuturism focuses more on social justice, liberation and empowerment while retaining African elements such as certain traditions, clothing, architecture and landscapes.

What’s more, Wakanda is also Solarpunk which is a movement in speculative fiction and art of images and ideas that basically seek to answer the question: What does a sustainable civilization look like? Solarpunk art often showcases cities merging with nature, powered by clean energy, in a future usually implied to be much more peaceful, diverse and egalitarian.

“The point of solarpunk is to start telling that new, creative story. Illustrating a world where humans don’t live in opposition to nature, and where we also don’t forfeit the advancements of modern life, but instead flourish in harmony with the environment. The air is clean because we’ve decarbonized. The soil is healthy, people are healthy, communities are healthy. Food tastes better. People are happier. Technology facilitates life without undermining it.”
Why ‘Solarpunk’ Gives Me Hope For A More Sustainable Future

Already after the release of the first Black Panther movie, architects and urban planners geeked out about how remarkable Wakanda’s fictional capital, Birnin Zana, looked:

“…Instead of the typical tropes seen in cinematic cities of the future – sleek glass towers of uniform height – Wakanda shows not a master-planned, top-down metropolis but a type of grassroots urbanism where the residents have customized their structures and their communities to fit their needs.”
Wakanda is where every urbanist wants to live

“In Birnin Zana the skyscrapers, as envisioned by director Ryan Coogler, are high, organic structures that rise out of surrounding forests so lush they have likely never been chopped down. And many of the buildings have plants growing off terraces and rooftops. […] Wakanda doesn’t have cars, and thus its streets have no need for separation.”
‘Wakanda Doesn’t Have Suburbs’: How Movies Like Black Panther Could Help Us Save The Planet

The response to the vision of Wakanda shows the power of new images (Wakanda) and new stories (Afrofuturism and Solarpunk). Sara Lazarovic, who got me into this Wakanda rabbit hole with her article “Why ‘Solarpunk’ Gives Me Hope for a More Sustainable Future” ends her piece with an excellent perspective shift (and you know I like those 😉):

“…When we talk about climate change, there’s often a hidden resignation – like, of course we harmed the Earth. And when we talk about acting on it, there’s also an undercurrent: that it will require a level of sacrifice that is worth it, but just barely.

What if, instead, the story we tell about climate change is that it is an opportunity?

One for humans to repair our relationship with the Earth and re-envision our societies in ways that are not just in keeping with our ecosystems but also make our lives better?

Maybe we should start telling ourselves a different story. One that is a bit more like Wakanda.”

Why ‘Solarpunk’ Gives Me Hope For A More Sustainable Future

I for one am very excited about the new Black Panther movie coming out this November. I hope we’ll get to see more details of the vision and story of Wakanda in the new movie. And if you’re anything like me, you might wanna watch the trailer of the new movie now, so here we go:

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That’s it for this week!

Thomas