In case you still have not seen Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, proceed with caution: This article contains major spoilers.
But if you have seen it, you’ll know that Queen Ramonda dies, brutally drowned by Namor in her own palace. A shame, really, considering how Angela Basset, who plays the queen, carried much of the film on her back. The film was always about grief, a meditation on how leaders respond to tragedy. With her brother and her mother dead, Shuri grapples with grief and anger as she leads Wakanda to face Namor and his host of aquatic people with superhuman strength, influenced by the underwater vibranium in their ocean kingdom.
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In the mid-credits scene, we see Shuri finally taking the first step to healing as she burns her ceremonial funeral white cloak on a beach in Haiti, where Nakia lives. If you remember from the first Black Panther film in 2018, Nakia is the lover of T’Challa. In the mid-credits scene, Nakia introduces her son, Touissaint, to Shuri, and reveals his true name and identity: Prince T’Challa, Son of King T’Challa. That means he was conceived before Thanos snapped his fingers.
During the introduction, Nakia explains that she and T’Challa agreed to raise Toussaint in Haiti, which is “away from the pressures of the throne.” Nakia also explains that T’Challa prepared them for his death and had wished for them not to attend his funeral because it was not yet time to reveal his son’s identity. Shuri then asks Nakia, “Did my mother meet him?” to which Nakia responds, “She did.”
This is where things get interesting.
Remember when Queen Ramonda visited Nakia at her school in Haiti to beg her to locate and rescue Shuri? There were three children who greeted her there: two girls and a boy. That boy was Toussaint.
“Bonjou?” Queen Ramonda greets a group of children in the court in Haitian Creole. Three run toward her. “Ou la pou direktris la?” (“Are you here for the headmistress?”) asked the boy.
He then walks the Queen to the headmistress, who happens to be Nakia, and a curious exchange happens between the two women.
“You were missed at T’Challa’s funeral,” says the Queen Mother, with the slightest accusation in her tone. Her eyebrows crease.
Nakia steels herself, fear eminent in her eyes.
“Oh… Queen Mother…” Nakia says in anguish.
“It’s been six years since you left us,” Queen Ramonda presses. “I thought you would at least come back for the ceremony.” There was anger in her tone.
Now, this strange bit of exchange suggests two things: It is the first time in six years they are meeting, hence, it is also the first time Ramonda has met Toussaint. When Nakia told Shuri later in the film that the Queen had met her son, she was referring to that brief moment her son greeted the Queen at school.
The film did not show if Queen Ramonda and Toussaint were properly introduced, and that much is left to our imagination. As a fan of Angela Basset’s Ramonda, I’d like to think she had met her grandson and had not passed without knowing him.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now streaming on Disney+.
