Here's how King Shaka & Madiba helped Black Panther star nail an African accent

21 February 2018 - 11:12 By Kyle Zeeman
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Chadwick Boseman played the role of the king of Wakanda in 'Black Panther'.
Chadwick Boseman played the role of the king of Wakanda in 'Black Panther'.
Image: Marvel Studios 2018

Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman researched a number of South African icons, including speeches by former President Nelson Mandela when trying to master an African accent.

Chadwick took two trips to South Africa to research for the film and told Rolling Stone magazine he drew inspiration for his character T'Challa from among others, King Shaka Zulu and Patrice Lumumba. He studied fighting by practicing Zulu stick fighting and studied the speeches of Nelson Mandela to help him nail the accent. 

He earlier told Vanity Fair that he listened to Mandela for inspiration but tried to add his own unique flavour to the accent.

"We listened to (Jomo) Kenyatta, listened to a lot of (Nelson) Mandela, young Mandela. But I didn’t want to copy them, either. I wanted to make sure that I took some things from them.”

Chadwick had a chance to try these accents out during one trip to Cape Town where he was given the name Mxolisi.

"I think it was his way of saying, 'As an African-American, I know you're disconnected from your ancestors and your culture and your traditions. Here's my way of welcoming you back.'"

Chadwick said that he "had to push for" Xhosa to be used in the film to make it more authentic.

"I felt there was no way in the world I could do the movie without an accent. But I had to convince (the studio) it was something we couldn't be afraid of. My argument was that we train the audience's ear in the first five minutes – give them subtitles, give them whatever they need – and I believe they'll follow it the same way they'll follow an Irish accent or a Cockney accent."

Speaking at a roundtable discussion attended by TshisaLIVE recently, Chadwick's co-star Lupita Nyong'o recounted her own experience learning the language and claimed it was one of the hardest languages to learn in the world.

Another of the film's stars, Danai Gurira, added that the cast worked tirelessly to speak Xhosa in as many scenes as possible.

"We worked really hard and we tried to speak Xhosa as much as we could. I was like: 'I can say that in Xhosa! I have learnt it'. We did that in every scene. They (the producers) would say we could do an alt (alternative scene), one in Xhosa and one in English. We were pushing for it all the time."

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