After the theft in Wakanda of a new invention capable of increasing the power of vibranium, T’Challa – aka the Black Panther – slipped into the neighboring African nation of Rudyarda to recover the device. The monarch has now gone missing, and his second-in-command contacts the Fantastic Four for assistance. While Wakanda may be technologically advanced, Rudyarda presents a special set of challenges that the American superheroes are better equipped to handle.
“That nation is one of the last remaining strongholds of white supremacy upon our continent,” T’Challa’s deputy explains. “One of my color can function there only with… difficulty.”
Reed Richards is busy with his latest experiment, so Benjamin “Thing” Grimm and Johnny “Human Torch” Storm are tasked in Fantastic Four #119 with finding the missing T’Challa on their own. Upon arriving in Rudyarda, the Fantastic Two discover a country divided into “Europeans” and “Coloreds,” with signage distinguishing which line through customs each group must utilize.
The only lead the superheroes have is an address for one of the thieves, a black man named Nathan Kumalo. Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm find him in a run-down, second floor apartment in a shanty town section of Rudyarda. At first he refuses to talk, but a quick demonstration of the Thing’s strength changes his mind. The man’s white partner, Jeff Robards, double-crossed him, and “as a black, I can only fester here in this stink hole.” Grimm and Storm agree, deciding not to take Kumalo to prison “because you’re already in one – or haven’t you noticed.”
In 1965, twenty-one-year-old Ian Robertson – head of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) – invited Senator Robert F. Kennedy to speak at Cape Town University for the annual Day of Affirmation the following spring. The NUSAS was the largest multiracial organization in the country, a strong opponent of apartheid that was condemned by the South African government. Martin Luther King Jr. had initially been invited, but when the state-run media branded him a Communist, it was doubtful that King would receive the necessary visa. A United States Senator, whose last name also happened to be Kennedy, would be far more difficult for the government to ban from the country.
South Africa had a population of seventeen million people at the time, with only 3.25 million of them white, yet it was the white Afrikaners who ruled over a racist and segregated nation through a policy known as apartheid. During the early part of the 1960s, antiapartheid leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment, television was outlawed, the books of Ernest Hemingway and Mary Shelley banned, and any opposition to the ruling party crushed.
As a result, resistance against apartheid became virtually non-existence. The United States and Europe remained silent, viewing South Africa as firmly anti-communist on a continent where Marxist beliefs were gaining supporters.
For his efforts at organizing the Day of Affirmation and inviting Robert Kennedy to South Africa, Ian Robertson was designated a “banned” person under the Suppression of Communism Act. Being “banned” essentially meant he was a “non-person,” and as such could not attend public events, be in the same room with more than one person, and was not allowed to have his name mentioned by the media. His every movement was likewise monitored by the authorities and restricted.
In the Marvel Universe, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm discover that T’Challa was arrested for not having the I.D. card that all blacks are required to carry and sentenced to a mandatory thirty days in jail. His Black Panther costume, meanwhile, was considered a uniform for an unknown terrorist group, adding to his legal troubles. Although it involves breaking the law, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm decide to rescue the Wakanda monarch rather than take a chance on the prejudiced judicial system of Rudyarda.
The now trio of superheroes make their way to the deserted metal works where Nathan Kumalo was supposed to finalize the sale of the stolen Wakandan weapon with Jeff Robards. Once again, however, they are confronted with two sets of doors. “What kind of people live on another continent for centuries and still call themselves ‘Europeans’?” Johnny Storm rhetorically asks. “They are shackled, nearly as much as we,” T’Challa responds as he chooses to ignore the designated entryways and leaps over the wall instead.
In his 2016 biography, Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon, Larry Tye writes that RFK tried to visit as much of South Africa as he could during his three-day trip, meeting as many people as possible. In upper-class neighborhoods, Kennedy would stop black servants he encountered in the streets and introduce himself. Elsewhere, he would stand on the roof of a car and lead spontaneous singings of “We Shall Overcome.” By the time his final day in South Africa arrived, he was holding campaign-style rallies for hundreds of blacks who crowded around to get a glimpse of him.
Kennedy was also able to secure a meeting with the “banned” Ian Robertson. “As soon as he walked through the door, he asked, ‘Is this place bugged?’” Robertson recalled. “I said, ‘I assume so.’ He said, ‘Do you know how to handle a bugging mechanism? You can either play music very loud or jump up and down like this.’ It was a wooden floor that made a big banging noise. That kind of set me at ease right away.”
After Kennedy departed, Robertson was amazed to see his white, middle-class neighbors rush into the street to applaud him. Later that evening, Kennedy’s wife Ethel visited Robertson to recap her husband’s appearance at the Day of Affirmation.
Over half a million blacks lived in Soweto, surrounded by wire fences and residing in matchbox houses. Nobody ever visited – except Robert Kennedy. Despite potential repercussions, the blacks in Soweto readily shook his hand anytime it was offered and listened attentively when he spoke to them from the roof of his car. “Soweto is a dreary concentration camp,” Kennedy noted afterwards. “With a curfew, limited recreation, no home ownership, and a long list of regulations whose violations could cause eviction.”
Kennedy had been invited to the white Stellenbosch University by the Current Affairs Club, but the invitation was withdrawn after public pushback. Since a large portion of the student body still wanted him to attend, one of the residence halls invited Kennedy to lunch. During the gathering, students told Kennedy that apartheid was taught by the church as a biblical truth and the will of God.
“But suppose God is black,” Kennedy countered. “What if we go to heaven, and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as inferior, and God is there, and we look up and he is not white? What then is your response?” His words were greeted by applause.
During his Day of Affirmation speech at the University of Cape Town, Kennedy recited what are arguably the most famous lines from his brief political career. “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation,” he told the crowd before adding, “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
After defeating Jeff Robards and recovering the stolen Wakandan device, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, and T’Challa find yet another set of separate-but-equal doors. “I been wantin’ ta do this ever since we set foot off the plane,” Grimm says as he uses his strength as the Thing to rip the cement wall in front of him into pieces. “An’ there’s some things you just gotta get out of your system.”
The trio of superheroes then walk through the large hole that the Thing has created, trampling on the broken “Europeans” and “Coloreds” signs that now lie on the ground as they make their exit.
Anthony Letizia