While traveling to an imaginary Wakanda is unlikely, chef Nyanyika Banda has created a cookbook to provide consumers with a culinary trip to the mythical nation.
Banda, a Malawian American who graduated from Madison College with a Culinary Degree in 2012, created 70 recipes for “The Official Wakanda Cookbook” in three months.
“I think that’s such a beautiful part of (Wakanda) being this fictional place,” Banda remarked. “Definitely, the impact that ‘Black Panther’ has socially right now for us, and this time and age was always something that I was like taking consideration to when thinking about the recipes.”
“The lore of Black Panther and what Wakanda means now socially is so important, not just for Black Americans but to people of African descent around the world.”
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It’s been available since April 12th.
Banda consumed various Black Panther comics and immersed herself in fan-created websites before signing on with Marvel to work on the project to gain a deeper understanding of the characters and the country of Wakanda.
Jennifer Simms, the Wakanda cookbook’s publisher and Banda’s editor at Insight Editions, did not want the recipes to represent a generic Africa. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t portraying Africa as having a single food culture,” she says.
Both women collaborated closely with Marvel’s team to create dishes that complemented the comic book’s storytelling.
Banda’s recipes reflected Wakandan folklore as a result of her research. For example, because Wakanda has a lake, Banda considered creating fish dishes.
According to the Marvel comics, Wakanda is located in Sub-Saharan Africa, where food items such as cassava, mangoes, and goat meat are abundant.
Banda was inspired to create smoked mushroom jerky for Wakanda’s all-female military warriors, the Dora Milaje. “I imagined it would be something that would be fueling but that would carry well,” she said.
Banda was inspired to create dishes that included eggplants and herbs by a scene in the film in which tribal leader M’Baku barks at the CIA agent character and threatens to feed him to his children but quips that he’s a vegetarian.
To complement the Wakandan cuisine, Banda created a savory sweet and spicy oxtail with cassava dumplings, okra fritters, basbousa, a creamy cake, and a tamarind cola.
She said:
“I think that’s such a beautiful part of (Wakanda) being this fictional place, “Definitely, the impact that ‘Black Panther’ has socially right now for us, and this time and age was always something that I was like taking into consideration when thinking about the recipes.”
“The lore of Black Panther and what Wakanda means now socially is so important, not just for Black Americans but to people of African descent around the world.”
