Charting Diaspora Within the Black Utopia: Liberia, Eatonville, Harlem, Wakanda, and Beyond

Abstract

Black utopian logic works to decolonize and delink from the colonial matrix of power by maintaining a nationality separate from European culture and thought. The latest black utopia to reach mainstream popular culture finds its home in Wakanda, a fictional, technologically advanced nation in the Marvel Universe residing at the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya, Narobia, Somalia, and Uganda. In this thesis paper, I argue that Wakanda operates as a fictional black utopia that offers a reimagining of a black culture free from colonial power. I not only chart the history of the diaspora within the black utopia from the Republic of Liberia, Eatonville, Florida, Harlem, New York, to the fictional Wakanda, I also examine what this history means for the trajectory of black peoples worldwide.