Who is Mubutu?
Mubutu is an elder of the royal house of Kongo and one of the most feared warriors in the ISOLELE Universe. He is the brother of King Zola and King Shaka Zulu, three brothers whose names still shake the earth. To Kimoya and Zattar he is their uncle. To Zaiire he is blood, and a question.
The warrior of the Kandake
In the age of the Kandake, when Rome pushed south along the Nile, Kimoya sent Mubutu into battle. Before he left, she gave him the Masque de Sese Seko, a mask that channels the ancestral spirits and turns a man into a living legend. He came back from that war as more than a man.
Master of All Masks
The Masque de Sese Seko gives Mubutu a power no one else holds: every mask in the world answers to him. Ceremonial masks, war masks, the masks of spirits and the masks of kings all bend to his will.
There is only one he cannot touch: the mask of Zaiire. No one knows yet why the Prince of Kongo is the only one beyond his reach, and that single exception may decide everything.
Two faces of one man
In his everyday form he is a quiet elder: a pinstriped suit with a pocket square, a patterned scarf, heavy glasses, a leopard-print toque and a carved cane. When the mask awakens, he becomes the golden leopard: a helm with burning white eyes, golden armor covered in leopard spots, a black panther sigil glowing on his chest, the ISOLELE crest at his belt and a cape of red and ivory.
The arrival of Mubutu
When Mubutu comes, the city knows it. A motorcade of black limousines bearing the ISOLELE crest rolls past the palace fountain of great horns, under the dome crowned with flame. A polished shoe touches the ground, a hand grips the door, and the elder steps out without a word.
Appearances
Mubutu appears in Zaiire: The Prince of Kongo, Chapter II: The Sacred Flame of the Forgotten Kings and Queens That Crowned the Afrikan Excellence, and in the story of Kimoya, Kandake of Kush.
