“Wakanda is strong enough to help others and protect ourselves at the same time.” Bell Hooks argues that Black Women go beyond just resisting sexism and racism. They reinvent themselves through alternative texts that take control of how audiences look at them. It takes the gaze of Black women and contests and interrogates the vision of their embodiment on multiple levels.
Nakia (the external spy of Wakanda) is a character that does just that, not only taking apart the White saviour trope as a Black African woman saving her people but being beyond a romantic partner as someone who can intellectually think about her own pursuits. She is an intellectual who is aware of African’s colonial history and she is able to think about the security of her people, while thinking about Black people and people at large. Her story pursuits are not stagnant and neither is her story in Black Panther (2018) dir. Ryan Coogler
