It has been fascinating to read the reviews and media bytes about Marvel's Black Panther movie. I know. There have also been trolls too, who have attempted to rain on this parade.
Some of the information I've read, I used in my sermon this past Sunday. Unfortunately, not many young adults attended so perhaps three people sitting in the pews had heard of the Marvel Universe and of Black Panther specifically!
The success of this movie, about a superhero, from a fictionalized nation on the continent of Africa is cause for celebration. It is an affirmation of black people.
There have been several articles about Oscar nominated costume designer, Ruth Carter. She is the first African American nominated for an Academy Award in costume design for Spike Lee's Malcolm X in 1993 and for Steven Spielberg's Amistad in 1998.
Black Panther is about an Afro-futurist, technologically advanced kingdom that was never conquered or colonized by the Europeans.
With five tribes represented in the movie, Ruth Carter looked to the different tribes living on the African continent, where there were no influences of colonization. Represented in the movie, through their clothing or accessories, are the people of Mali, Ethiopia, Namibia, and Lesotho, the Zulu tribe and the Ndebele tribe--both of South Africa, the Masai tribe of south Kenya and north Tanzania, and the Tuareg people of the Saharan Desert.
Here are several articles about and an interview with Ruth Carter and the Black Panther clothing and accessories: