Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America turns 30

Before Wakanda hit the big screen, there was another African kingdom

Before there was Wakanda in Black Panther, there was Zamunda in Coming to America.

It was a fantasized African kingdom ruled by an absurdly rich king whose son, the heir to the throne, confronts the marriage arranged for him by tradition and his parents, and balks.

The film then follows the im- probable adventures of Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) and his loyal servant, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), as they head to New York in search of a princess.

In America, they disguise themselves as poor international students. They live in a rat-infested apartment and work as dishwashers at a fastfood restaurant called McDowell’s.

Akeem falls in love with Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley), the daughter of the restaurant’s owner.

Coming to America was ahead of its time when it hit theatres on June 29, 1988, especially for Black people.

The basic plot itself was standard boy meets girl and falls in love. But it provided an alternative representation of Blackness and created a space for actors of colour that was anything but standard.

And 30 years later, the movie still remains one of the very few mainstream Hollywood Black romantic comedies.

The film wasn’t a critical success for Paramount Pictures. But it became one of the high- est-grossing films of all time featuring Black people, reaping $128 million (U.S.) domestically at box offices.

“It’s really a milestone in Black films,” Monica White Ndounou, associate professor of theatre at Dartmouth College, told the Washington Post.

“I haven’t encountered one Black person on this planet who doesn’t know at least one line from the movie.”

Wakanda in Black Panther and Zamunda in Coming to America have inevitably evoked comparisons.

As Zeba Blay wrote in HuffPost in February: “The last time we saw the kind of opulence, grandeur and pure African style displayed in Marvel’s latest box office juggernaut Black Panther was, perhaps, 30 years ago, in the classic Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America.”

When Black Panther swept through theatres, more than a few fans showed up to see it dressed as Prince Akeem of Zamunda.

And 30 years later, said Headley, “People still stop me on the street and call me Lisa.”