In the new Marvel Studios film Black Panther (2018) by Ryan Coogler, released on February 14, 2018, the character Zuri, portrayed by Forest Whitaker, is the nganga of Wakanda. An institution common to a large part of Africa, the nganga embodies the wise old man (or wise old woman) who masters the natural properties of organic elements, making him a traditional healer.
The character of Zuri, played by Forest Whitaker in the blockbuster film Black Panther (in theaters February 14, 2018), has been compared to Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Director Ryan Coogler described him as follows :
“He is like a religious or spiritual figure. Spirituality is something that exists in Wakanda in the comic book, and it’s something we wanted to show elements of in the film. Forest’s [Whitaker, editor’s note] character, more than anything else, serves as a true living link between T’Challa and his father. T’Challa finds in Zuri someone who can guide and advise him.”
In the comic book, Zuri is a former warrior who fought alongside the current king’s father, T’Chaka, and serves as his companion and advisor, somewhat like the old monkey Rafiki in The Lion King. In the ancient Kongo kingdom, just as in Wakanda, the king was symbolized by the leopard. In Kongo, the king was surrounded by nganga, practitioners of traditional African medicine and spiritual leaders within their societies. The word nganga, used to designate this traditional practitioner and spiritual leader, is found in Kikongo, the language of Kongo, as well as in Lingala and Luba, which are derived from it, but also in Fang and Shona, languages spoken in present-day Zimbabwe. The Nganga is typically a specialist in pharmacopoeia who knows the secrets of nature and is able to harness them to protect and maintain balance within the community. A task made easier by the incredible fertility of Wakandan nature, whose subsoil is extremely rich in raw materials and which has reached an extraordinary level of development thanks to its isolationist policies.
The equivalence between a key Wakandan institution and that of the Nganga therefore reflects the Black Panther team’s desire to root the film’s universe in the cultural reality of the African world. One can only celebrate that.
Discover Zuri in theaters in Black Panther, released February 14.
