“Wakandacon started as a tentative, nerdy idea: how can black people make Wakanda, the utopian advanced African nation where Black Panther takes place, real?”
At the beginning of this month a new convention started called WAKANDACON and I am so mad I missed it! WAKANDACON is a convention inspired by the Black Panther movie that came out in February of this year. The idea for a convention of this sort started when a group of black millennials came together and asked the question “How can we make Wakanda real?” That is, how can we created a afrocentric community right here in the United States? This is not the first time that I’ve heard of diverse conventions. BLERDCON is very similar in scope except it focuses more on geek culture and not black culture as a whole. I always wanted to go to BLERDCON...but it is hosted in DC. I usually prefer to save up my travel dollars for something involving sandy beaches and tropical drinks and not sweaty people on cosplay. Not to mention that to get a booth at these conventions would cost me upwards of $300. Just to break even I would have to sell at least 20 coloring books and that does not include the traveling costs. So sadly, I never went to BLERDCON, instead making due with GENCON, WHOSYOURCON, TOYFEST, and the INDYPENDENT SHOW. All conventions that are within the Indianapolis area. But I might have a chance to do WAKANDACON. It is hosted in Chicago ( only a 3 hour drive away). Conventions like this make me happy because...African Americans have a dark spot in our history that we are still feeling the affects from. Our ancestors were brought from Africa, but we are not African. We are American, but (ironically) as a race feel that we are not welcome in America. So what do we do? I think that the creators of WAKANDACON have gave us a very good answer.