This, too, is consistent with the movie although it appears to overlap: surely three years after the events in the movie, things would have moved on? T’Challa planned to become more active, after all. When in London, Shuri notices other people noticing her for being black, the way I noticed people noticing me when I walked through Little India in Dandenong (white people drive through that area unless they’re old and poor.) Shuri and co’s comments about “colonizers” and worries about white people are consistent with history and the movie.įurthermore, Wakanda’s near neighbors, African countries envious of Wakanda’s wealth and technology while resenting Wakanda’s isolationist policy, invade Wakanda to seize wealth. Shuri notices the occasional white person in Wakanda the way I noticed the occasional colored person in Hobart, Tasmania, after the White Australia Policy was repealed. (I recently watched a discussion online where a black guy said not to call black Americans African Americans and why.) The story felt real in terms of race. RaceĪ black American wrote Shuri, so she’s an #OwnVoices author. In short, Shuri is a kick-ass feminist questioning the status quo. She obsesses over the absence of women Black Panthers and her future as an “invisible” princess. Throughout the novel but especially in the early scenes where Shuri submits to ceremonial preparations, she ponders the restrictions imposed upon royal women and the apparent absence of royal princesses and Dora Milajae (Wakanda’s revered warrior women) from memoriums like portraiture and scupltures. Unfortunately, Shuri finds mother’s requirements ill-suited to her nature and passions. The Queen Mother ended Shuri’s combat training and requires her to dress and behave “appropriately”. Shuri is a princess whose mother is intent on forcing her to be “ladylike”.

They race to save the herb while Challenge Day looms ever closer and armies amass outside Wakanda’s border. During this expedition, Shuri has a vision before learning the Heart Shaped Herb that gives the Black Panther his powers is dying. She enlists Shuri for an (illicit) expedition to a ceremony outside the palace. K’Marah is the granddaughter of the ruler of the Wakandan Mining Tribe.

Her “friend” (as arranged by her mother the Queen Mother), is Dora Milajae in training K’Marah. She works in a laboratory, developing splodey technology. Shuri is the 13-year-old sister of King T’Challa, Black Panther of Wakanda, who has reigned for the last 3 years since his father’s death.

Shuri by Nic Stone