“You need to sit here with me… It is the only way you are going to heal yourself from the wound caused by T’Challa’s death”, says Queen Ramonda to Shuri one year after T’Challa passed away due to an unknown illness. In the conversation that follows, Queen Ramonda asks Shuri to process her grief in a healthy manner. Shuri meanwhile isn’t ready to acknowledge her grief let alone confront it. “I am fine, mother. You don’t have to worry about me”, she says repeatedly. It becomes clear at this point that grief is a complex emotion. There is no timeline or formula to it and everyone processes grief at their own pace. Grief is also very subjective and individualistic. While Queen Ramonda, has to a large extent, processed the trauma of losing her son, Shuri is still struggling to make sense of a world where T’Challa doesn’t exist.
This becomes painfully obvious when Shuri, in a conversation with Namor, asks him – “How does it make sense – That our ancestors would give me gifts and skills to save my brother but I couldn’t [save him]?” Namor says that he has no answer to the question. An important part of grieving is to make peace with the lack of closure, the unsaid goodbyes and the loose ends which will never be tied. #RecastTChalla continues to trend on Twitter still, as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is playing in theaters. Many MCU fans are complaining that there aren’t enough scenes with T’Challa barring a few flashbacks and montages. Others are unhappy that there is very little ‘Black Panther’ in the sequel. Perhaps, the film is trying to make the same point – life doesn’t always resolve all plot points and give a ‘fitting farewell’ or a ‘tearful tribute’ to a beloved fictional character and an equally adored actor who played him. Sometimes, one has to make peace with flashbacks. It might seem unfair – but that is how life is. Shuri learns this through the course of the film. In the end, she performs a family ritual which she had been long evading (more on that later).
As Ramonda tries to comfort Shuri, she says “T’Challa is dead but that doesn’t mean he is gone”. Ramonda then proceeds to tell her daughter how she felt T’Challa’s presence around her as she took on the difficult task of ruling Wakanda after his death. Shuri is dismissive of this ‘presence’. “It is a construct of your mind so you could feel some comfort or joy”, Shuri argues. Just like Ramonda struggles to accept that Shuri has not fully processed T’Challa death, Shuri, too, dismisses Ramonda’s way to cope with her son’s death by calling it a ‘construct’. Perhaps, Shuri doesn’t realize it can come across as hurtful. Ramonda then asks Shuri to perform a ritual which involves burning the funeral clothes which in many cultures marks the “end of the mourning period and the beginning of a new relationship with the loved ones who have passed away”.
Shuri vehemently opposes the idea of burning the clothes. It is here that another harsh reality comes to the forefront – one can take however long one needs to process grief and mourn the loss of a loved one. But the rituals and traditions surrounding the loss cannot wait. When should one ‘move on’, then? Is it when the ritualistic mourning period ends? Or is it when one has managed to process or at the very least, come to terms with their loss? Not just Shuri but many in the African and South Asian cultures struggle with the ideas of grief and family rituals only make this struggle harder. Shuri’s grief is compounded when she loses her mother, Queen Ramonda. “You must mourn her [Ramonda] as per the rituals of your ancestors”, says M’Baku to Shuri who later admits she “scoffs at tradition”. After returning from the ancestral realm, a frustrated Shuri asks Nakia “They abandoned me. What am I supposed to do? Their stupid ritual? For what?” Shuri is twice as heartbroken that she didn’t get to see T’Challa or Ramonda. Again, her search for closure yields no result. And she still has to do the ritual.
Shuri does burn the funeral clothes towards the end of the film – an act symbolic of her having finally accepted T’Challa’s and Ramonda’s death. Acceptance of course doesn’t mean that Shuri would feel no pain. Grief lasts a lifetime. Contrary to other human emotions like happiness or sadness, grief cannot simply ‘exist’ or ‘not exist’. One can either accept it or run from it. Once accepted, grief becomes an inseparable part of one’s existence. There are times when one feels it and times when one does not.
Once the grief is processed, a comforting truth hits you – the ones who are dead have not left us or as Queen Ramonda told Shuri “T’Challa is dead but that doesn’t mean he is gone”. We continue to feel their presence around us in the form of intangible things such as our memories, their love and their impact on our lives.
No matter how Black Panther: Wakanda Forever chose to handle Chadwick Boseman’s death – making everyone happy just wasn’t possible. However the film did manage to portray grief and its many shades in a rather nuanced manner. This, alone, is worthy of appreciation.
Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75.
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