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But Fracophonic Africa is almost exclusively west Africa, while Wakanda is depicted (in its culture and in the very brief glimpses of its location on a holographic map) as belonging to east-central Africa -- specifically near Kenya and Tanzania. I can't really complain, since at least the France angle is rooted in some sense of history, but it's another example of Hollywood and pop culture smearing and blurring the historical lines between different regions of the world. It's comparable to assuming that Cleopatra was black since Egypt is in Africa -- the Ptolemys were Greek, and Egypt has always been closer to Mediterranean culture than sub-Saharan African culture.
Funny things is, it appears Ancient Egyptians had darker skin than modern Egyptians but less Sub-Saharan African admixture. Apparently in last millenia people in Egypt were racist towards visible traits but otherwise fine mixing.
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The site of the conflict was an outreach centre in West Africa.
If Wakanda really is the most powerful nation on Earth - let's go with the film's logic despite the obvious problems with this - and it's moving deeper into Africa to help (or, more cynically, gain influence) tensions with France are pretty natural.
Location, yes. It's aesthetic and hell, even religious culture varies and has influences from everywhere.
This is a feature, not a bug. It's not that Coogler is unaware that worshiping Bast would be strange, even for Eastern Africans. It's not a Hotep thing where they legitimately believe Cleopatra is black.
Wakanda is a fairytale-land standing for an uncolonized, pristine (an incoherent concept but it appeals to people under someone else's cultural hegemony) Africa. As such you get a mix of West African music and clothing, Egyptian gods (since those are the most documented "African" gods), South African Xhosa and so on.
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