Chapter 16:Watu Wa Wanyama
"People of the Panther, we implore you to grant us asylum in your borders," the man-leopard said to the crowded council chamber. The man-leopard, the only representative of the animal people allowed into the assembly, stood in a long, bark cloth robe which seemed to make his yellow-tinted skin glow under the lights of the council room. His black-rimmed yellow eyes met the stares of the elders without flinching. He addressed them in a formal, ancient form of Kiswahili, the firstborn tongue born of the marriage of the Arab, Bantu, Portuguese, and Indian languages that merged on the coast and followed human rivers inland.
"We knew your ancestors back when Bashenga first found the meteor that united Wakanda," he said with somber gravity. "And when the Chwezi first brought cattle and established the kingdoms of Bunyoro. We, the Watu wa Wanyama, People of the Animals, we have seen but we have not spoken into the affairs of men for ten generations of kings and chiefs. But now, our silence is uprooted by the evil that is gathering around your borders, like storm clouds over Nyanza.
"There is an evil coming that all of your mighty warriors, technology, and vibranium cannot stop. Can the weapons of earth stop the weapons of the heavens? Can the weapons of man stop the armies of the spirits?
"The mchawi, this sorceress, has been tapping at the walls of Wakanda since the early days of T'Chaka's rule, listening for your strengths and weaknesses. She has stalked you as patiently and as silently as a leopard on the hunt. She has been stirring the conflicts in your neighbors so she may cut you off from the peoples surrounding you. Now, you float as an island, unmoored to your allies and ripe for her to pounce upon you and tear out your throat. She will not rest until Wakanda is hers and she will launch her offensive on the rest of the world from here.
"We are here to fight on your behalf and because it is our only hope of survival. We cannot overcome on our own and neither can you."
The man-leopard paced noiselessly to the back of the large room and took his seat as the council hall erupted into arguments and discussions.
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T'Challa sat in his father's favorite chair and closed his eyes. He saw himself as a young boy again, nuzzling into his father's chest, reading a picture book together. His father's wise, patient voice read the words out loud. He sometimes changed the events of their favorites, his eyes twinkling with amusement whenever his alterations caught T'Challa's notice.
T'Challa opened his eyes and the emptiness of the room oppressed him.
The heavy, carved door leading to the hallway creaked open, and a man's head peeked in.
"My King, the council is almost ready to reconvene," the Secretary of Domestic Affairs said and disappeared again.
T'Challa groaned internally and moved to stand on his sandaled feet when another light knock sounded.
"Hodi," came his mother's voice.
"Enter, Mama," he said.
His mother pushed open the great door and entered, her face heavy with questions but her arms outstretched to take him into an embrace. She fixed his short shirt collar and looked deeply into his eyes.
"My son, you are here?" she asked.
"Yes," he said.
"You haven't come in here since Baba…."
"I know," he said, sitting back into the carved ebony, ivory, and leather chair. He placed his head into his hands and closed his eyes again, soaking in the feel of the leather, the scent of his mother's perfume and hair oil, and the sounds of a gecko chirping from the ceiling. These grounded him into the familiar present, things he understood.
His mother sat on a stool besides him in silence.
"Baba would have known what to do," he said, eyes still closed.
"With a gathering of Watu wa Wanyama, People of the Animals, seeking refuge in our borders? With mchawi, a sorceress, powerful enough to turn the living into stone? With an enemy we cannot predict or understand? No, my son, Baba would not have known what to do."
Ramonda cupped her hands on T'Challa's rough, bearded chin and forced him to face her. He opened his eyes to listen to the comforting sound of her voice.
"Baba used to tell stories of when he first became king…aye, things were not easy for him either. The entire continent was like gunpowder near an open flame-ready to explode in its desire for independence. Baba received pressure from all sides-the European governments and the indigenous powers. Each said he must support their cause or be considered an enemy.
"Unajua, it did not get easier for him. The colonists never left, only their color changed. Those in power and those oppressed by that power continued to struggle and each side pressured Wakanda to support their cause. Rivers of blood deeper than the Nile have been shed and for what?
"Wimbo huja ngomani, mwana wangu. The song goes with the drum. Baba had his own fields to plow and you have yours. You are the King chosen to bear this crown and this is your season to plant and harvest," Ramonda told her son.
"Aye, my son, too many griefs to make your heart heavy. If Nakia had agreed to stay, she would have helped you plow your field," she said, taking him into her arms again. "But you are strong. And your family, your people, we are here to lend you strength where you feel lacking."
T'Challa listened intently and straightened his tall shoulders, attempting to project the strength he did not feel.
"I must return," he told his mother and walked with her through the familiar, echoing halls of the palace into the council chamber.
They entered and found the elders and officials reconvened in their chairs, waiting his entry. T'Challa nodded for them to proceed.
"We have heard the request of the animal-people," Zuri said, waving his hand towards where the man-leopard sat quarantined by empty chairs. "We have taken time to carefully consider the matter. Please speak your words now."
"If we are indeed facing an impending battle, the more allies the better," elder of the River Tribe said. "These People of the Animals are powerful and we could benefit from an alliance."
"What proof do we have that they are our allies? They could just as easily be planted by our enemies to bring us harm," responded the elder of the Border Tribe.
"But it could also bring harm on us to refuse them!" spoke the Mining Tribe. "If we send them away, they could be forced to seek refuge with our enemies and also be turned against us. I would rather fight alongside a lion than against him."
"We are vulnerable," said the elder of the Merchant Tribe. "Already, we have given asylum to two dangerous supernatural creatures, only one of which would be nearly more than our Black Panther could manage and we now have two. How many more do we need before they are powerful enough to crown themselves as our conquerors?"
The General tsked and clicked her tongue. "Bella Swan is loyal to us. She has already saved the lives of our general, our king, our prince, and our princess during her years here. She has been a faithful servant to our kingdom."
"Yes, but this other, this Winter Soldier, what of him? We have hard evidence that he has been used to assassinate, disintegrate, and destroy with absolute efficiency. Look how Hydra succeeded in their plots to frame and murder Patrice Lumumba, ushering in their own bloody tyrant Mobutu in his stead? Or the assassinations of the Rwandan and Burundian presidents which set the entire Great Lakes into chaos for the next decade?
"And now you want this Hydra agent within our borders? He could dismantle our entire council before we even wake for chai. My King, you are placing us all at risk.
"I must speak truth, now we are asked to bring an even greater number of potentially dangerous creatures of the spirit world? How do we know this sorceress has not planned for them to infiltrate our borders and do her work for her?" said the elder of the Merchant Tribe.
"What would you have me do?" T'Challa interjected, his voice calm as a brewing thunderstorm. "I personally invited Sergeant Barnes to Wakanda. I will be held responsible for any misdeeds that fall on us from that decision. Is he a risk? Yes. But even our Black Panther is a risk if he chooses to use his power for evil instead of good."
"My King, allow me to speak plainly," the Merchant Tribe elder continued. "You ask us to hold you responsible for the potential actions of this Winter Soldier and yet those consequences would not be borne by you alone. You are basing your decisions on the mystical dreams of a prophet instead of on common sense and the council of your elders. And where is your prophet now? Gone far away from where the fruit of her council will be reaped."
Three different council members hissed in response.
"That is unnecessary, mzee," spoke the Queen Mother, giving the turbaned man the haughty stare of a disgruntled mother hen protecting her chick. "We are not gathered to debate Nakia's dreams nor the decisions of the past. Stop serving yesterday's porridge."
"Someone must speak truth, even if the truth slices like a newly sharpened panga," he responded. "If our Black Panther cannot even protect one King, how can he hope to protect the entire nation?"
Now the entire council jumped to their feet shouting and hissing their disapproval. T'Challa stared at the elder, lips pursed and hands wringing on his lap.
"Mzee, you have gone too far," Zuri spoke in anger, pounding his fist against a table.
"I have something to say," Okoye interjected, banging her spear on the ground so its metallic ring regathered the warring side conversations to face her.
"Speak, General," Zuri responded.
"A black mamba can be more deadly than a lion. For ten years, this American petroleum company has stationed itself on our Ugandan border and claimed to be drilling for oil. We have conducted scans of a ten mile radius of where they are stationed and there is no oil. "
"What are you saying, General?" Zuri said.
"I am saying that this company, they call themselves Ketterly International, they are not there for petroleum. Our sources have observed an unnecessary amount of long distance surveillance equipment hidden within their drilling instruments. They have kept a close eye on all surrounding countries…All countries," the General said, with a meaningful stare. "In addition, I have received reports that representatives from both the Merchant Tribe and the Mining Tribe have held conversations with the company. Tell me, council, if we should not be concerned about these developments?"
The room erupted anew into accusations, defenses, shouts, and whispers.
"It is enough," T'Challa said, the very quiet of his words louder than any shouting of his council members. "I have listened to your council and will speak my decision. The People of the Animals have shown us a great honor in requesting assistance from Wakanda. If we refuse their pleas for help out of fear, where will we turn when we are in need of refuge? If we make this decision out of fear, we have already lost our honor.
"They have come to us as allies and asking for the aid of the People of the Panther. We will give it. They can stay in the Impenetrable Forest. If we are worried of their proximity to our people, we will track their movements, the same as we continue to do with our other refugees; however, they are welcome within our borders and under our protection as long as they live peaceably with our people."
At this, the man-leopard rose and bowed, leaving T'Challa to wade through the aftermath of his pronouncement with his council members.
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"I've never seen anything like it," Shuri said. She projected a series of images on screens and began to point at reds and oranges and greens and blues.
"This is a scan we conducted on the statue of the man-leopard. To compare, this is a scan of a regular rock-here is granite, marble, quartz, and obsidian. They rocks are the same in every scan. Yet, our subject, here, his scans are not the same. We ran a series of tests, and you can see, here the scans change."
"What are you saying?" T'Challa asked.
"I'm saying, the subject responds to stimuli internally. He is, at least in a limited degree, conscious. In other words, the subject has been imprisoned within his own body. His own cells have been taken over and changed into a foreign matter that I cannot fully explain but he is still in there somehow."
"So, unlike Nyelu's work, the soul remains."
"Yes."
"Do you think it is possible to restore him?"
"I do not know," Shuri said. "I do not think our technology will be the answer."
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A/N
Kiswahili note: Technically, if Wakanda was a real uncolonized African country made up of five tribes, it most likely would have their own one to five distinct mother tongues. And, technically, Kiswahili is much younger than Wakanda and developed through adding Portuguese and Arabic words into a Bantu language primarily on the coast of the Indian Ocean. However, it's not a real country and I'm not cool enough to make up my own language (we'll leave that to Tolkien) so we'll pretend Kiswahili is somehow super old and developed inland since that's more plausible than the Xhosa spoken in the movie.
Chwezi: Mythical kingdom that laid the foundation for all the kingdoms of the Great Lakes region.
Patrice Lumumba: first leader of the DRC after Independence from Belgium in 1960. He was a casualty of the international politics of the cold war and assassinated with U.S. and Belgian support.
Assassinations of the Rwandan and Burundian presidents: 1994 missiles shot down the plane carrying both presidents. The event sparked both the Rwandan genocide and Second Congo War. The identity of the guilty party still remains unknown.
Translations:
Nyanza: Lake Victoria
Mchawi: worker of black magic. The opposite of mganga, the worker of white magic.
Hodi: can I come in?
Unajua: You know
Wimbo huja ngomani: the song goes with the drum or the dance
mwana wangu: my son
mzee: respectful term for elder
Panga: machete