they aren’t standing in for those nations geographically, but sorta hagiographically, a kind of neo-modern ‘ruritania’ that represents ‘not america’ and ‘not western Europe’

wakanda has moved round Africa a bit too, iirc, to suit the needs of story and to pander to the knowledge, tastes and prejudices of their audience

when I first read BP. it was somewhere around/in Tanzania; east Africa, the country ‘below’ Kenya

it’s currently sitting in the the north of Kenya, the west of South Sudan, the south-east of Ethiopia, the north of Uganda, right by the Rwanda border: a five state spot in our world

seems like they chose there to allow for the tribal kingdoms that make up wakanda to make sense, with their very different cultural influences. great spot for it, I reckon, but also clearly a product of the more pan-African vibe of the recent stories, a globally unifying choice, rather than ‘the country actual black panther party member Pete O’Neal ran to’, from back when nobody was expecting the book to appeal outside the US