Nigerian fans react as Wakanda’s Angela, Lupita & Danai grace ‘Elle’ cover

Since Tuesday when news broke that Wakanda queens, Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o and Dania Gurira Peace would be gracing the November issue of ‘Elle’ magazine, fans of the ‘Black Panther’ movie have been agog with excitement and expectations for the edition. The movie set in Wakanda, a fictional African country, in which the women played […]

Since Tuesday when news broke that Wakanda queens, Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o and Dania Gurira Peace would be gracing the November issue of ‘Elle’ magazine, fans of the ‘Black Panther’ movie have been agog with excitement and expectations for the edition.

The movie set in Wakanda, a fictional African country, in which the women played distinct roles, was a major cultural event around the world when it hit cinemas in February this year. It also showed black women in different perspectives including as being able to hold their own.

In an article coming out in the edition, Bassett who spoke about the significance of the women in relation to Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa, central character, said, “The women were integral to the storytelling and the wisdom that the main character possessed.”

“T’Challa seeks the women’s help and counsel, and they have answers-and sometimes they save the day,” Bassett adds in the piece, also saying, “It was really important in terms of the representation of black feminine strength.”

Nyong’o, who in the article describes the film as “a Marvel universe that is unapologetically black,” said, “In our story, the emphasis is on many different women holding their own space.”

Gurira who played Okoye, a warrior said she enjoyed playing her role and the scene set in a South Korean restaurant where she snatched her wig while performing her warrior stunts, wearing a gown.

She told ‘Elle’, “I loved doing that, from the minute she’s wearing that wig and complaining about it, to the minute she gets rid of it very pragmatically,” Gurira says. “That spoke to so many things about feminine aesthetics.”

For a fan of the movie, fitness instructor, Peace Emezue, “On seeing the announcement, I was impressed and excited. I said to myself, the three powerful black women of Black Panther, interesting! It is so impressive also to see women of colour on grace the ‘Elle’ cover. While they may not be the first, I think their roles in the movie and the way they played them, stands them out and worthy of being the cover images. It says a lot about their quality and talents and how much they have made their audiences happy.

For Engr. Teken West, “These are three strong and confident black women who in their own ways have overcome the various prejudicial obstacles mostly associated with race and gender.

“They are all successful, which proves that being a black woman, living in a prejudicial America where women’s rights is an issue in most states, and where being black doesn’t always proffer the associated privileges enjoyed by white people, does stop someone from chasing and fulfilling their dreams. They’ve shown beyond all reasonable doubts, that success has got nothing to do with race, gender, place of origin, who your parents are, and all that. The young can look up to these women and see for themselves that being black is indeed beautiful.

An excited Ayuba Tete, a visual artist who can’t wait for the edition to be out, said, “Ryan Coogler cast them perfectly,” and hopes they would in their interviews speak about the challenges they encountered playing those parts. “I would like to know how difficult it was for them to translate their roles from script to screen and what parts of the Africanness and dialects have stuck with them after the movie,” he said.