ANYWAY,  _{listen,  don’t ever underestimate the amount of love that nakia has for her people.  yes,  she wants to help the world,  but if she ever thought there was a threat to wakandan life,  she would never even think about them joining the world.  everything that she wants to offer is born out of a belief in what they can do and a pride in who they are.}

_{n.akia’s whole being is in constant battle between a deep love for her people and desire to be at home and surrounded by wakanda,  and a need to go out and see the world and experience other things and ultimately have the power to help people.  and while these things are in constant battle,  they’re also very much related to each other.  she can only have the strength to do her part in the world because she knows that somewhere wakanda is waiting.  she can live in hardship for the good of a cause because she knows she gets to go home.  and she can hold true happiness in wakanda because she knows what is out there in the world.}  

_{it’s so important to me that she is really balancing between these two parts of herself.}

_{listen nakia puts so much hope in m’baku when she goes to him with the flower.  she could take it herself,  but she does not have fighters,  and so she goes to him.  she goes to the man who challenged t’challa in the hopes that he will do what is right and help her to keep them all safe.  she goes to a man she doesn’t really know / know if she can trust,  and she asks his help because she cannot betray wakanda or do something she believes is wrong.  she steals the flower for m’baku.  she takes the princess and queen mother to m’baku.}  

_{and m’baku does more than she ever expects?  like he could have left t’challa to die,  and would maybe have somewhat been right to,  but he does not.  she gets her king back and it is all because of m’baku.  he could have taken the flower,  he could have had that strength.  he didn’t.  and then,  even when he says he will not fight,  he comes to their aide and is the reason that they are able to win the battle.  he saves wakanda as much (more so even) than anyone else.} 

_{anyway,  she puts so much faith in m’baku and he does not let her down at all.}

_{nakia’s heart is both her greatest strength and her greatest weakness.  she struggles to let go of people who have wronged her  /  to believe that a person is wholly bad or past saving.  she has almost endless amounts of hope even when she is getting kicked down.  she will give herself to a person in the hopes that she could save them  /  help them.} 

_{however,  this is only when it is her on the line.  if trusting in a person  /  believing in a person means that her people or her nation would be put at a direct risk,  she is more likely to think it through thoroughly.  she will not risk wakanda for anything.}

_{anyway i have decided that unless something else is confirmed in canon,  the elder of the river tribe who sits on the council is nakia’s father. this would pull in a lot of things,  including why she is the one to stand next to him at the coronation ceremony,  and why she would have the kind of closeness to t’challa that they would have the space to fall in love / be together. though i haven’t settled my headcanons exactly on her family,  she has her father, her mother, one older brother and one younger brother.  her paternal grandmother is alive and is a driving force in her life and her closest confident.}  

_{the differences between erik and nakia’s futures for wakanda is v simple to explain tho;       nakia be looking at it as a way of showing aid,      while erik is looking at it as black liberation.      while nakia is outward thinking and does look into what they can do for others,      she was still born in an african country untouched by colonialism / slavery, and all those other things.      to pit the two ideas against each other —-      or to wonder why erik could not see it more from her pov —-    is to misunderstand they placement of erik’s rage.      if he hadn’t killed her king,     i think nakia would be v open to listening to his points and even agreeing with some of them,     but at the time,    she only sees it from a place of her own heartbreak.      her ideas can only ever come from a different place / experience to his,    and to use her as a way to demonise erik is dumb and wrong okay.}

                       RIVER TRIBE.    headcanons #1.

_{DISCLAIMER:     my research on this has taken me to the ethiopian tribes of the omo river, and i will be basing my headcanons surrounding this matter on what i have read.  this also fits with the fact that the elder of the river tribe ( who i haven’t decided what relationship i see him as to nakia yet ) wears a lip plate,  that has commonly been found in ethiopia in the women of the suri and mursi people.  i myself am jamaican british and so a lot of this is based purely on the reading i have done,  if you have any constructive criticism pls let me know.}   

• _{the river trible control and have dominion over the water in wakanda.  they primarily make their homes around the curves of the river and these homes are based on traditional tukuls.  their villages are designed to be circular,  emphasising the precedence set on the community and what is best for all rather than the few.}  
  
• _{they are excellent fishers and their diet focuses on what they may fish from the river around them and what they can farm. whilst fish makes up a lot of their diet,  they have very healthy trade relationships with the other tribes in wakanda and do, therefore, tend to have a very mixed basis for their dishes.  other tribes do rely on them for food and as such,  they can be a rather powerful force.  a lot of the technology that is focused on within the tribe is that which will make them better fishers,  as to show yourself as talented in this can be a show of status.} 
  
• _{before fishing, they ask bast to bless the waters.  a lot of their words / speaking towards bast will end with thanks for giving them plentiful rivers.  before the challenge for the kingship,  they regularly bless the water as it is seen as bringing luck to their king.  they can be superstitions and to ignore these blessings is seen to bring bad fishing to the people.}
• _{dancing is huge in the river tribe,  and they often express extreme joy / gratitude with dancing.  their traditional dances include a lot of storytelling,  and has been used as a way that tribal legends have been passed down.}  
• _{body modification is a normal and embraced part of the culture.  it is only those who move into places such as the dora milaje and the war dogs who do not subscribe to this as readily, and it is only due to the roles they fall into.  likewise,  body painting is used at all cultural events and is considered to be a pinnacle of beauty.   lip plates are worn by men and women alike,  and can be seen as a show of status,  with the elder wearing the largest (at present moment)}
• _{they have a very good relationship with other tribes and tend to come and go from the central town as they live very close.  they are particularly close with the merchant tribe and offer a lot to trade / sell in the present economy.}

_{inheritguilt sent one more and i am here for it.}

_{@wcrdogs do nakia’s ringblades have names}

_{alright imma tell you that my first answer to this was just gonna be commentary on how my mammy  just call everything ‘ting’ and then i laughed abt nakia calling them ‘ting 1′ and ‘ting 2′ in tribute to the frustration of picking things up in my house.     (  see:    my mammy like “get the ting” and me and my brother frantically tryin a find what ‘ting’ she referring to from context ‘cause she ain’t never about to explain that shit.  )}

_{anyway,  the real answer is that she doesn’t have specific names for them,   not like individual ones or anything.  but she does refer to them super affectionately and will be like polishing them and saying they did well today and calling them ‘my love’ and likewise things.    same way my mama call me ‘pretty’ as an affection thing ( like when i bring the ting before my brother and she be like “you a good girl, pretty”),    nakia refers to her ringblades like they’re her pet / her family bc she love them so much.    she out here calling her weapons ‘precious’ and stuff.}

(via inheritguilt-deactivated2018100)