MBANGAWI
MBANGAWI
Official Name: Blessed Kingdom of Mbangawi (Baraka Ufalme Cha Mbangawi)
Continent: Africa
Population: 6,523,000
Capital City: Uzuri
Government: Absolute Monarchy
Major Languages: Swahili, English
Monetary Unit: Mbangawi Shilling
Major Resources: Gold, hydroelectric power
National Defense: Ujeshi la Mbangawi (The Fighting Service of Mbangawi), consisting of an Army, Air Force and small Navy.
International Relations: Mbangawi maintains steadfastly amicable relations with its larger neighbors Kenya and Tanzania, with President N'Dingi a close friend of Zanzibar's president Jono Baraka. Though it rarely has direct relations, Mbangawi has openly condemned the racist policies pursued by both Azania and Rudyarda to the north. It is member of the UN, UNESCO, SADC (Southern African Development Committee), AU (African Union), and British Commonwealth, and was an active participant in the recent Pan-African Congress on the Treatment of Superhumans.
Extraterrestrial Relations: The time/space-spanning mercenaries called the Technet once invaded Mbangawi to steal Jamie Braddock from Dr. Crocodile
Places of Interest: Emperor's Compound, Karere
Domestic Super Humans: Dr. Crocodile (Joshua N'Dingi), Witch Woman (Kura), Howitzer (Shaka), numerous unidentified Warpies including "Baby Boom"
Non Human Population: The Maasai sky god Engai, who may be another name for the creator god Mulungu, has occasionally manifested himself in Mbangawi.
Prominent Citizens: The late Samuel N'Dingi, leader of the dominant Gawan tribe, led Mbangawi to independence in 1961, garnering himself the nickname "Maliki Uhuru" (King Liberty). His family have ruled Mbangawi to the present day, absolute monarchs, but ruling (mostly) through popular acclaim of their people. Jonas N'Dingi was the last ruler of Mbangawi prior to his son, Joshua, becoming the ruler.
Superhuman Residents: None identified.
Domestic Crime: Up until the rule of Jonas N'Dingi, Mbangawi suffered from chronic low level governmental corruption; since coming to power, Jonas' son Joshua has made a point of rooting out such corruption using his Witch Woman's powers to see into men's minds. He has also clamped down on the formerly grievous problems of muggings, burglary and armed robbery, and Mbangawi now enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in Africa.
International Crime: Mbangawi's veldt suffers from ruthless poacher gangs who target the native wildlife, though such incursions have become much rarer under President N'Dingi's rule. Not limiting his desire for justice to crimes which had directly impacted on Mbangawi, Dr. Crocodile had his soldiers abduct Jamie Braddock, a British drug-runner and slaver who had raided aid convoys in other parts of Africa, bringing him to Mbangawi to administer justice and mystical rehabilitation. Doc Croc also lured Jamie's brother, Brian (Captain Britain) to Mbangawi, wrongly believing him involved with Jamie's crimes; upon learning otherwise, Joshua let Brian go. Hired by the UK-based crimelord Sat-Yr9, the extradimensional parahuman mercenaries, the Technet, invaded Mbangawi to rescue Jamie, inadvertently taking Joshua with them when they teleported back to the UK.
First
Appearance: (Interior room of Emperor's Compound only) Captain Britain
II#9 (September, 1985); (Mbangawi proper) Captain Britain II#10 (October,
1985)
History: (Captain Britain II#10) - Mbangawi is an East African nation with luscious grasslands and savannas, and counts lions and flamingoes among the native animals.
(Marvel Atlas#2) - At least as 10,000 years ago Mbangawi was the home of Khoisan-speaking hunter-gatherer tribes; around 5,000 years ago Cushitic-speakers migrated into the region, gradually assimilating the existing population, and introducing a more agricultural society. Further immigrations brought fresh concepts, and with the establishing of trade with Arabia and Persia, coastal cities arose, including Uzuri, where gold and ivory was exported, and which would eventually become the Mbangawi capital. However in the 16th century, the Portuguese conquered the region, beginning a lengthy period of European rule; Germany took the region from Portugal late in the 19th century, only to lose it to the UK following WW I. In 1961 Mbangawi gained independence, with the dominant Gawan tribe's chieftain Samuel N'Dingi becoming the king, taking the Emperor's Compound (formerly the Kaiser's Compound) as his new palace. Though the N'Dingi family ruled as fairly and equitably as they could, and largely with popular support, the country suffered from tribal rivalries, notably between the J'Dare tribe and the Gawan, whom the N'Dingi family belonged to, and corrupt government officials working secretly in conjunction with foreign companies to exploit Mbangawi's natural resources purely for their own gain.
(Captain Britain II#10 (fb) - BTS) - Jonas N'Dingi was the last but one ruler of Mbangawi. He sent his son Joshua to England, specifically to Eton, for an education. Joshua stayed there after leaving school, apparently gaining a doctorate in an unspecified discipline, and then became an agent of the British government's RCX, but then Jonas died under unspecified circumstances.
(Captain Britain II#10 (fb)) - Joshua, who had been badly injured while working for RCX, returned home, now a cyborg. Because his burn-scarred skin appeared scaly, and left some of his teeth permanently exposed, the people dubbed him Dr. Crocodile.
(Marvel Atlas#2) - Joshua took immediate steps to try and reduce tribal rivalries and stamp out corruption within the government. Against advice from his own tribe's elders, he took on the rival J'Dare tribe's "witch woman" Kura as his confidante and advisor, using her powers to root out governmental corruption.
(Captain Britain II#10) - Dr. Crocodile's people came to consider him more a god than a king or emperor, uncomfortable with this idolation, Joshua preferred to use the title of President.
(Captain Britain II#10 (fb) - BTS) - Joshua's old allies in RCX leaked information to him showing that British noble and celebrity racing driver Jamie Braddock was guilty of atrocities in Africa, including raiding aid convoys, murder, abduction and slave trading. Wishing to lure Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) out of the U.K. for a while, RCX also gave Joshua faked documents suggesting that Brian was complicit in Jamie's crimes, using his influence to shield Jamie from official scrutiny and prosecution.
(Captain Britain II#9 (fb) - BTS/Uncanny X-Men I#474 (fb) - BTS) - Dr. Crocodile's men secretly captured Jamie Braddock when he entered Mbangawi while taking part in the Trans-Africa Rally / Dr. Crocodile secretly sent men into another African nation to capture Jamie Braddock while he was taking part in the Trans-Sahara Rally (see comments).
(Captain Britain II#9) - With Jamie in custody, Dr. Crocodile allowed him to make a phone call to Brian in order to lure him to Mbangawi.
(Captain Britain II#10) - Captain Britain and his companion (soon to be girlfriend) Meggan Puceanu came to Mbangawi, and, after Meggan used her powers to communicate with the locals and learn what she could about Dr. Crocodile, Captain Britain stormed the Emperor's Compound seeking to free Jamie, with a more cautious Meggan following on. Dr. Crocodile used an unidentified gas and the Witch-Woman's magic to place Captain Britain in a hallucinogenic state, showing him Jamie's crimes and determining that he had not known what Jamie had been doing. With Captain Britain's innocence proven, Dr. Crocodile was content to let him go, while Captain Britain, for his part, was disgusted at his sibling's depravity and more than willing to leave Jamie to face Mbangawi justice.
(Excalibur I#15) - Through a proxy, Sat-Yr-Nin sent the extradimensional Technet to rescue Jamie. They attacked the Emperor's Compound, and though, like Captain Britain, the Technet's leader Gatecrasher soon learned the true nature of the man she had been sent to free and changed her mind about releasing him, the panicked Technet member Yap teleported the Technet, Jamie and Dr. Crocodile to the Technet's base on Brighton Pier in Britain. No longer restrained, Jamie easily beat the Technet and transformed Dr. Crocodile into an actual, albeit tiny, crocodile.
(Marvel Atlas#2) - Kura tracked Dr. Crocodile down and restored his human form. He returned to Mbangawi, and continued to protect his country, while working alongside like-minded African leaders, such as Wakanda's King T'Challa, for the advancement of the continent as a whole.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1) - Curious to see what there was beyond his home reality, Jim Jaspers of Earth-10083 jumped timelines and arrived on Earth-616 in Karere, a village in southern Mbangawi, unwittingly releasing xenogenetic "Ghost Box" radiation. Like the energies of his Earth-616 counterpart, Mad Jim Jaspers, this caused babies in the region to be born transformed into non-human forms and with superhuman abilities, often destructive; it also caused the birth rate in the region to spike. Unaware that every reality jump released radiation at both the departure and arrival sites, Jaspers jumped onwards on his sightseeing trip.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#2 (fb) - BTS) - The strange births went on for months, and Karere's citizens felt they were receiving no support from their government (see Comments). Locals, perhaps having caught sight of Jaspers out in the countryside, blamed what was happening on a devil.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#3 (fb) - BTS/Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#5 (fb) - BTS) - Jaspers returned home to discover he had irradiated his home site. Superhuman-killing Fury cyborgs were set on him and he fled back into the multiverse.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1) - In Karere, one child exploded moments after birth, destroying much of the local hospital. Mutantes Sans Frontieres (Mutants Without Borders), a philanthropic global outreach organization designed to provide emerging mutants cope with their awakening powers learned of the births three weeks after that incident and mistakenly assumed the children to be mutants, passing this information on in turn to one of their financial donors, Black Panther (T'Challa) in Wakanda, who then informed the X-Men via his then-wife, Storm (Ororo Iqadi T'Challa, nee Munroe). Cyclops (Scott Summers) instructed a Mutant Sans Frontieres team to go in, while he took an X-Men squad consisting of himself, Storm, Beast (Hank McCoy), Armor (Hisako Ichiki), Wolverine (Logan/James Howlett) and Emma Frost to Mbangawi to investigate.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1 - BTS) - Dr. Crocodile, who had allegedly been out of Mbangawi for medical maintenance of his cyborg form, also learned of the births. While he hastily returned home, he ordered soldiers on ahead to Karere to contain the situation.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#2 (fb) - BTS) - Mutantes Sans Frontieres doctors and nurses led by Helene St. Just reached Karere, but ten minutes after they arrived, so too did Mbangawi soldiers, who prevented them treating the infants.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1) - When the X-Men landed their plane in Karere they were confronted by Dr. Crocodile's soldiers.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#2) - The X-Men swiftly overpowered the soldiers at their landing site, and when they found more soldiers at the village hall, which was serving as a makeshift hospital since the real one had been destroyed, telepath Emma Frost used her powers to get them to leave. While Beast oversaw treating the children, Storm ascertained from the locals just how long the situation had been ongoing, and that the locals blamed it on a "devil" living outside the village. Beast meanwhile identified the cause of the mutations as interdimensional radiation (what he called "Ghost Box radiation," based on previous encounters with interdimensional travel devices called Ghost Boxes), and swiftly informed his fellow X-Men of this finding. At that moment Dr. Crocodile arrived, backed by additional soldiers, and he ordered them to leave or his men would execute the Mutantes Sans Frontieres doctors.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#3) - Emma Frost used her telepathy to take over the minds of Dr. Crocodile's soldiers, but Dr. Crocodile countered by explaining the true nature of the mutated babies, and informing the X-Men of his own personal history with Warpie children. He explained that he had inherited rule of Mbangawi and that it was his responsibility to keep the people safe, even from their own sick children, pointing out that few Warpies survived any length of time, that what lives they had were often painful, and that they endangered those around them. Mbangawi did not have the capability to deal with Warpie children, and when Beast said that Mutantes Sans Frontieres could handle that, Dr. Crocodile countered that they could not, not when more were continuing to be born all the time, and cynically asked what would happen once the X-Men got bored and distracted by other concerns? He acknowledged that his way, killing the children and evacuating the area then sealing it off was brutal and painful and would leave him hated, but it would also be swift, minimizing the suffering, and ensure it could not happen again. He berated the X-Men for their attitude, telling them to take the Warpies to America if that is what they wanted, but Beast rebutted his comments, pointing out that the X-Men intended to stay until they discovered the source of the radiation, especially as it might be evidence of an invasion from another dimension.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#3) - While the X-Men and Dr. Crocodile argued, Jim Jaspers returned to Earth-616, now fleeing from Furies from his native reality who had been pursuing him from one world to the next ever since he returned home. The heat haze and noise surrounding his arrival was noticed by some soldiers stationed outside the town hall, one of whom opened fire, thinking something was about to emerge from the trees.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#3) - In the town hall the argument ended when Dr. Crocodile heard gunfire outside. At his request, Emma released his men, and he ordered them to take defensive positions to protect the townspeople. Dr. Crocodile agreed to let the X-Men help investigate what was happening outside the town, and Storm, Wolverine and Beast, accompanied by two of the soldiers, Nagenda and Musere, headed into the woods, where they soon ran into Jaspers. One of the soldiers opened fire and wounded Jaspers, before being subdued by Storm. As Jaspers told the three X-Men who he was, a large metal box materialized and disgorged a squad of Furies.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#4) - Carrying Jaspers, Storm flew away, leaving her colleagues to try and negotiate with the new arrivals, but the Furies identified the two mutants as an "infestation" and opened fire. The two X-Men fought bravely, damaging their foes, but suffered severe wounds and were about to be slain when the rest of the X-Men and Dr. Crocodile intervened, with Cyclops and Dr. Crocodile blasting the cyborgs to pieces with an optic beam and a minigun respectively. Within seconds however, the cyborgs reformed, looking stronger than ever. At Cyclops' request, Storm blasted them with a massive bolt of lightning strong enough to kill any human, but the Furies weathered it without any discernible distress. While the X-Men sought to extract their wounded colleagues, Dr. Crocodile recognized the Furies for what they were from his time reading RCX Files, and ordered his men to supply covering fire, then concentrate on terminating the cyborgs. The Furies ripped apart the soldiers, and had the X-Men on the ropes, until a partially recovered Wolverine rejoined the fight. Meanwhile Emma Frost telepathically probed Jaspers back at the town hall, learning that if the Furies were destroyed, another, much larger force would follow, and would lay waste the entire world.
(Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#5) - After a punishing fight that saw many of the soldiers slain, all bar one Fury was slain; Emma Frost telepathically rewrote the final one's brain to return home reporting its fellows lost hunting a terminally wounded Jaspers, and that there was nothing on Earth-616 to interest them. In the aftermath of the battle, Dr. Crocodile instructed that Karere would need to be evacuated and quarantined because of the lingering radiation risks, but offered to Cyclops to make some buildings outside the capital available to treat the people and Warpie children of Karere under Mutantes Sans Frontieres' care, then shot the unconscious Jaspers dead, unwilling to let him continue to endanger Mbangawi.
Comments: Created by Jamie Delano and Alan Davis.
There's
some discrepancy about where exactly Mbangawi is located. Based on the first
(and then only) Mbangawi story, the Marvel Atlas placed it between Kenya
and Tanzania, with a small amount of coastline on Africa's eastern edge (see
map at top of page). This tied with the depiction of Mbangawi being in East
Africa, and having grasslands with lions
(map
showing past and present distribution of lions in Africa) and flamingoes
(global
distribution map for flamingoes). However, in Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis
#1, Wolverine places Mbangawi as having "Rwanda to the west, Burundi to the
southwest, Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east" and "having to deal
with pirates on Lake Victoria."That would place Mbangawi where the orange
spot is on the map to the left (modified from the main one above). The
Xenogenesis Director's Cut makes it clear that writer Warren Ellis was unaware
that Mbangawi's exact position had already been given ("Mbangawi is generally
east Africa"), so the contradiction wasn't a deliberate choice. The Xenogenesis
location doesn't fit so well with the presence of lions in Mbangawi, but
otherwise there's nothing to that wouldn't work. So where is Mbangawi actually
placed? Take your pick - maybe the Atlas got it wrong, maybe Wolverine did,
and let's face it, in many ways it won't matter because the next writer to
use Mbangawi will probably place it somewhere else entirely - after all,
the similarly fictional nation of Halwan managed to end up on two different
continents!
Jamie Braddock was originally taking part in the Trans-African Rally and was reported lost (e.g. captured) while traversing Mbangawi, per Captain Britain II#9; however, some of these details were misremembered or deliberately retconned by Chris Claremont for his Uncanny X-Men "Foursaken" storyline, which showed Jamie going missing during the Trans-Saharan Rally, nowhere near either proposed location of Mbangawi. So instead of Dr. Crocodile taking advantage of the fact that the criminal Jamie Braddock was actually in Mbangawi to arrest him, it seems Dr. Crocodile must have sent a team out into another African nation to do a bit of extraordinary rendition.
According to the information the X-Men get in Xenogenesis#1, the exploding child incident happened three weeks prior to them hearing of it. In Xenogenesis#2, Storm learns from some locals that the strange "mutant" births had been happening for "months," so for some time prior to the exploding baby being born, and that the government had done nothing. While this doesn't seem unfeasible, I find it hard to believe that Dr. Crocodile wouldn't have investigated an incident such as multiple monster children being born much more quickly - it just doesn't fit his personality. Presumably then, whichever government officials were originally informed didn't pass the information up the chain to Dr. Crocodile for some considerable length of time, perhaps discounting what they were told because the locals were seen as superstitious hicks (after all, they blamed what was happening on an unseen devil).
Mbangawi is misspelled both as M'bangawi and M'bangwi in later issues of Xenogenesis, despite being correctly spelled (with no apostrophe) in the first couple of issues.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mbangawi has no known connections to:
(Marvel Atlas#2) - Constructed to be the German Kaiser's home some time between the late 19th Century and the end of World War I, during the period when Germany ruled Mbangawi, the Kaiser's Compound was renamed the Emperor's Compound when the country fell under British rule. After Mbangawi gained independence, the compound became the palace of the ruling N'Dingi family.
(Captain Britain II#9) - Jamie Braddock was held at the compound after being arrested by Mbangawi's forces for his crimes.
(Captain Britain II#10) - Seeking to rescue his brother, and unaware of Jamie's crimes, Captain Britain and his companion Meggan invaded the compound, the Captain smashing down several walls as he stormed the building. However, upon learning the heinous things Jamie had done, they departed, leaving Jamie to his punishment.
(Excalibur
I#15) - The Technet invaded the repaired compound, causing extensive damage
as they fought the guards.
--Captain Britain II#9 (Captain Britain II#9-10, Excalibur I#15
(Astonishing X-Men; Xenogenesis#1) - Karere was a small village in southern Mbangawi. Despite its size, it had a reasonably sized hospital, at least until a seconds-old Warpie baby blew up and took out part of the building.
(Astonishing X-Men; Xenogenesis#2) - Several other Warpie babies were born in the area soon after this. The locals spoke a smattering of English and a little French, but the main language was an obscure local dialect (presumably of Swahili, Mbangawi's main language).
Mildly notable though unidentified Karere citizens include the ill-fated Doctor who delivered "Baby Boom," and "Baby Boom's" parents.
|
|
--Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1 (Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1-5
The Mbangawi Warpies were infants, none identified by name
(Astonishing X-Men; Xenogenesis#1) - They included the child who exploded (and presumably died in so doing) within moments of being born (whom I've dubbed "Baby Boom" for ease of reference).
|
(Astonishing X-Men; Xenogenesis#1) - Other unseen Warpies were described, including a boneless baby (or babies) born able to speak, babies who were hard to see because they were either partially insubstantial or were vibrating at superhuman speeds, babies who floated in the air like balloons, and babies who vomited acid.
(Astonishing X-Men; Xenogenesis#2) - Mutantes Sans Frontieres treated the surviving Warpie babies, which included a baby with transparent flesh and organs, a tentacled thing, a burning child, and a blue baby that Emma Frost took an unexpectedly maternal stance with. Some infants did not survive, including a skeletal pterodactyl-like baby and a child with a mouth like a leech.
|
|
|
|
--Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1 (Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1-3
images: (without ads)
Marvel Atlas#2, Mbangawi entry (main image)
Captain Britain II#10, p11, pan6 (sunrise over Mbangawi)
Captain Britain II#10, p1, pan1 (exterior of Emperor's Compound)
Excalibur I#15, p6, pan 2 (interior of Emperor's Compound)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1, p4-5 (Karere, prior to the Warpie
births)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1, p7, pan2 (Karere hospital doctor)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1, p7, pan1 ("Baby Boom's" parents)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1, p6, pan6 ("Baby Boom" prior to powering
up)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1, p7, pan4 ("Baby Boom" about to blow)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#2, p11, pan4 (glowing transparent skinned
Warpie)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#2, p12, pan1 (tentacled Warpie and burning
Warpie)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#2, p18, pan3 (blue Warpie)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#2, p12, pan3 (pterodactyl Warpie and leech
Warpie)
Appearances:
Captain Britain II#10 (October 1985) - Jamie Delano (writer), Alan Davis
(writer, art), Ian Rimmer (editor)
Excalibur I#15 (Mid-November 1989) - Chris Claremont (writer), Alan Davis
(pencils), Paul Neary (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis#1-5 (July 2010-April 2011) - Warren Ellis
(writer), Kaare Andrews (art), Daniel Ketchum (associate editor), Axel Alonso
(executive editor)
First Posted: 03/06/2014
Last updated: 03/11/2014
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at:
http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
