Tradition & Innovation
Churi looked up from her table. Surely she had heard wrong.
"I'm sorry?"
T'Challa was exiting the lab.
"I've convinced Lord M'baku to take some samples of our technology back to J'bhari land."
"Yes, but what was the part involving me?"
"You will be M'baku's technical support."
Churi's jaw dropped.
"Is that helmet cutting off the air to your brain? On challenge day, he vehemently opposed my inventions. All our citizens know how our technology works. Anyone can teach him. Why must I do it?"
"If M'Baku can see the benefits of our technology, then there is a higher probability that the J'bhari will assimilate more into Wakanda. Every day you create new solutions for our nation's problems. M'baku and the J'bhari damaged relationship with the other tribes is our nation's problem. For you? This will be a piece of cake."
"They walked away from Wakanda centuries ago. They made their hut let them be imprisoned by it!"
"Churi, don't be like that. Our nation needs you. I need you to do this for me. Not as an engineer, but as a favor to your big brother. What is the cause of all this apprehension? You're not fearful that he will attack as a way to hurt me, are you?"
Churi remained silent.
T'Challa sighed.
Your reasoning is not entirely illogical, but let me pose a few questions to you first. First question: Did he harm mother when she stayed in J'bhari land?"
Churi cut her eyes away from her brother's gaze.
"No."
"Correct, he did not. He could have used her as a bargaining chip against me, but he didn't. This shows us that he is a protector. Next question: Did he order his fisherman to throw me back into the river so that I could join the ancestral plane for eternity?"
"...No."
"This girl's so smart! Correct, again. He did not. He could have ordered his men to speed up my death, but instead he made sure that I stayed alive long enough for some miracle to happen. This shows us that he is honorable. 'A life for a life' he said. Not many outside of our borders would even give way to such thoughts."
"You give him too much credit. M'baku is an opportunistic obsessed with tradition. Just because he has done two good deeds, you are ready to overlook all of his faults."
"No man, woman, nor child is without faults, Churi, including you. Judge less harshly, it puts wrinkles on your skin. You're starting to look like our grandmother. .Tsk. And at such a young age, too. May I ask one last question?"
"You're on a roll, why stop before you reach insanity?"
"Did he choose to not fight for Wakanda even though we have never aided him or his people in anyway throughout these past centuries?
"No, brother…" She looked down.
T'Challa put his hands on his sister's shoulders.
"Come. Look at me. I will give you this. His words to you were his own truth. He believes you too young to lead. He believes you too arrogant to not honor the ways of our people's past. But that is no slight against you personally, Churi. He is a traditionalist and he is also from a long line of separatists that have never agreed with the union of the other four tribes under the Black Panther. For him to go against all that he is for the strained threads that hold us all together is Bast's grace and mercy.
"I guess."
T'Challa smiled. "Will you assist our rival, faults and all, to at least become comfortable with the idea of our technology? It may serve a greater purpose than we could ever imagine. Can you think of it, Churi? A completely unified Wakanda!"
"A unified Wakanda. Brother, I think you've taken too much of the heart-shaped herb today, but sure I guess I can equip our enemy with the tools for our destruction if you deem it necessary, my king."
"Thank you." His kinoe beads rang. "That's Nakia- I have to go."
He sped towards the exit. Over his shoulder he yelled.
"Lord M'baku will be here in the morning. Try to wear something quasi-traditional! First or second impressions are everything!"
Churi buried her head in her hands.
"Bast, give me strength." She whispered. This was going to be a very trying day. A very trying day, indeed.
M'Baku put the kinoe beads up to the light.
"The beads act as a visual and audio communication system between parties. It's range hasn't been tested in J'bhariland but we can give you a few samples to try."
M'Baku stretched out the bracelet, tossed it in the air, dropped it, and tossed it back up again. Churi was sure he wasn't even listening to her. The entire morning had been awkward, tension-heavy, and exasperating. Churi had thought that a couple of quick instructions over five gadgets would satisfy the Gorilla lord. She had been wrong. Everything he saw, he touched. Everything he touched, he purposely tried to brake. And everything that he purposely tried to break, he scoffed at as if her innovations were weak and faulty. She had cursed her king lots this morning.
Now if she could just get through this last demonstration then she could meet up with Nakia at the café.
"You just-" she reached for the bracelet.
He moved the bracelet to his left hand and fiddled with it some more. She tried to move to the other side, but his massive size made maneuvering a little like walking around ostrich eggshells.
"Slide it-" she reached for the bracelet again. "No, not like-"
Pop!
Ker-ker-kerplink-plink-plink!
Ker-ker-ker-plank-plank...plank...plank!"
The ten beads scattered around the lab.
M'Baku pointedly glared at Churi. "Why does it break so easily? I have floss more durable than this."
"First, ew. I didn't need that information. Second, it's fine. It's okay. It's not broken. The beads just had their magnetic force broken for a few seconds. We easily put it back together. It's fine."
She hurried to pick up the beads and reassembled them slowly to show how the magnets attached to each other.
"Do you see? The beads are not woven with string, but by magnetic charges."
"I know about the magnets, girl. They have been around for more than 4,000 years. What I don't know is how is it used to communicate?"
She pinched his bracelet's bead and her bracelet began to ring. She glanced at his reaction.
Nothing. Go figure.
She answered and both their images appeared on triangular projections.
"You don't have to speak directly into the beads. Just speak at the image. The other person will hear you clearly."
"Why would I speak into a metal to converse with other, when I can just walk to where they are and have a conversation in person?
Sick and tired of having already answered his biased questions early today. Churi decided that it was time to end their session before she flung herself over the Warrior Falls. No, wait…then one of his men would just find her on the river bank and then she'd be stuck in Jbhari land forever. Never mind.
"Will you need anything else today, Lord M'baku?" She asked quickly as she walked around to another desk.
"13."
She stopped. "Sorry. Thirteen what?"
"I'll need 13 more". He walked past her.
Shocked that M'baku actually wanted to something he had just criticized, Churi was a little caught off guard.
"O-kay. Um. Well, tomorrow I can-"
"We return to the mountains tonight, girl. I will need thirteen of these weak bracelets by the end the day."
"Tonight? I don't think…Lord M'baku, our manufacturing is efficient, yes, but it is not magic. I assure you if you can just wait an extra day, my team and I will have 13 more bracelets for you and your tribe."
"All these technological advancements and you can't even tell that the ice will begin covering the mountain pass tonight. What blasphemy. If we wait another day, we will be here another week waiting for the ice to melt."
Churi looked confused.
"But you could just take hover bikes. They would carry you over the ice and get you home quicker."
"We leave tonight with 13 of these bracelets."
And with that said he strode towards the exit.
She waited until he heard his steps decrescendo up the staircase before giving him the bird.
"Honorable." She scoffed. "Protective."
"No, what he is is impatient!
Nakia laughed as she sipped her honey bush tea in front of the cafe with T'Challa.
"I heard you were depressed for weeks, dragging your sandals into the council room and barely eating! .Nn. Did your mother really have to force feed you? I swear it's a wonder how you ever survived before meeting me."
T'Challa reached across the table and took her hand in his.
"I don't have to worry about that now, or do I? I thought you said you would stay." Nakia cradled his hand in between her own.
"I am staying, but remember I will be flying back and forth between Oakland and Wakanda now. You said I could answer my calling and my heart. Or are you a king of false promises? And speaking of false promises…does Churi know explicitly why you want her to help M'baku?
Of course. She is the best person to teach him about our technology so that The Jbhari tribe can finally come home after all these years.
Nakia narrowed her eyes at her love. She wasn't buying it.
"I may love you, but I also see straight through you, T'Challa. You seem to forget that I am a spy. I pick up on social cues, body language, and anticipate my targets reactions and actions. I am a collector of highly valuable information."
"Yes, you are the best. I have no doubts about your skills." He brought her hand his lips and kissed it multiple times before placing it back on the table. "Forget about M'baku and the Jbhari for tonight. I think I can help you collect some other high valuable information…"
Nakia pulled her hand away, leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms.
"Not tonight. I have some preparations to make before we leave next week for Oakland. King's orders, you understand."
T'Challa was about to convince her otherwise, but before he could get a word in she had gotten up and left.
Hard to be a good king, indeed, baba.