For his international marketing class, this student made the power struggle of the “small African nation” of Wakanda the subject of his presentation. During his 10-minute-long slide show, he talked about the country’s history, and its legendary warrior, who is known as the Black Panther. His classmates had many questions for him. The teacher was none the wiser – perhaps until she went home and googled Wakanda.
Wakanda is a fictional kingdom in Marvel’s Black Panther comic books, which were adapted into a feature film in 2018. The superhero film was hard to miss – it was among this year’s top draws at the box office.
As the student goes to ridiculous lengths to make his teacher believe that Wakanda is an actual country and that the film’s plot is unfolding right now as a geopolitical crisis, the entire classroom is obviously in on the joke. Some of them don’t even bother holding back their laughter. It makes me wonder what grade the student got for his effort.