Dambala and the child soldiers hustle Chuma into a slave caravan – long chained lines of bleeding men, injured women and frightened children.  Chuma’s warrior father sees him, breaks out of his chains and charges towards his son, only to be sadistically cut down by Shetani’s henchman, Dambala.  Chuma struggles and is knocked out.  When he comes to, he finds himself chained to a young Yao warrior named Wakatani.  The caravan arrives at a riverbank where Arab traders wait.  Chuma and Wakatani are sent to be castrated.  As Wakatani chants a death song, a small steamboat, comes shrieking, steaming, and belching fire, around the river bend.  The Arabs, Shetani and his men fear this howling apparition and run.   An eccentric Scotsman, Dr. David Livingstone and his African partner Susi step off the boat, fire rifles and rescue Chuma, Wakatani and others before launching the boat downstream again.  Wakatani has eyes for nothing but the white man’s guns. Livingstone presents Chuma and Wakatani with a choice.

Chuma secretly follows the warrior Wakatani and his quest for revenge into the jungle.  Wakatani realizes he is being followed and tries to discourage the boy. Chuma stubbornly sticks with him. As night falls Wakatani tests Chuma’s spirit by sharing warrior’s medicine.  The medicine reveals the spirit world and leads them to Umi. The way forward is made clear.  At first light Chuma and Wakatani race to catch up with Livingstone, Susi, and the steamboat The Lady Nyassa.   In a last mad sprint they make it on board.  The small Lady Nyassa steams for Bombay; a four thousand mile journey across the entire Indian Ocean.  They battle massive storms and suffer oppressive calms.  Hunger and thirst; heat and cold force them into a delirium.  Wood for the boiler gives out.  Near death, not sure they will survive, Livingstone and Susi make a pact with Chuma and Wakatani: if they live, guns and ships will be gathered, they will return..and they will find Shetani and Dambala.  

Chuma, Wakatani, Susi, and Livingstone return to Africa.  They lead a hired army of Indian mercenaries and hundreds of bearers carrying guns, ammunition, and supplies. Their excitement and desire for revenge soon slides into despair as disease, wild animals, and attacks by Shetani’s demons take their toll.  Every night bearers and mercenaries sneak away.  They reach a fortified village, inhabited by survivors of Chuma and Wakatani’s own tribe and ruled by a Chieftainess.  That night the remaining bearers and mercenary soldiers abscond with most of the rifles, ammunition, and supplies.  Livingstone accepts their desertion as God’s will.  Wakatani is furious and dresses for war.  With the blessings of the Chieftainess he will captain a mission to recover what was stolen.  Livingstone says he doesn’t stand a chance with arrows and spears against the mercenaries guns.  Wakatani calls Livingstone a coward, refuses Chuma’s offer to help, and goes after the deserters.   Chuma, Susi, and Livingstone, the only survivors of the expedition have a choice:  Abandon their cause and return to the coast, or continue on alone to try and locate Shetani’s hidden base.  All agreed, they disappear into the great unknown.

Five Years Later

“LIVINGSTONE DEAD!”  The rumors of Livingstone’s death dominate newspaper headlines.  In New York City, sensing a story “greater than the death of Christ himself”, the publisher of The New York Herald hires a little-known journalist named Henry Morton Stanley to head an expedition into darkest Africa to search for Dr. Livingstone and find him, “Dead or alive”.  Stanley leaves immediately, his lurid, sensationalist, and even fabricated dispatches are read by tens of thousands of people around the world.  His massive and cruel expedition takes an unexpected turn when he meets the Oracle Umi and her apprentice Entika, who has grown into a beautiful and alluring young woman.   

In the Arab town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika Stanley “finds” Dr. Livingstone, Chuma and Susi, half-starved and begging for scraps.  Chuma has grown into a handsome young man.  That night Chuma explains their true mission to Stanley:  Livingstone’s search for the Nile is only a ruse to gain entry into the Arab territories in their quest to find Shetani’s fortress.  Now broke, they beg Stanley to help them find and map the fortress so the Queen of England can send troops to stop the slavers. Stanley says he will support them, but he has an ulterior motive: Fame.  The expedition travels by canoe to the far side of the lake.  Entika, who had been led to believe that Chuma was killed, passionately reunites with Chuma but their romance is cut short when they make a grisly discovery.  Unnerved, Stanley panics and orders Wainwright, his talkative translator, along with a pair of Khoi San Bushman twins to stay with Chuma, Livingstone, and Susi to help search for Shetani’s lair.  Stanley’s expedition paddle away. The small group on shore turns crosses into the heart of slaver territory.        

Hacking their way through thick forest the group is ambushed by Child Soldiers, painted to look like ghostly demons.  The group fights off the attack but not before losing Livingstone’s maps and diaries.  Wainwright chatters incessantly about turning back, but Entika has a vision from the ancestors.  Leaving Livingstone and the twins behind, she, Chuma and Susi track the child soldiers to Shetani’s lair.  At dusk they sneak into the fortress.  Entika is captured.  A tall Tutsi captive helps the others create a diversion.  Chuma and Susi steal back the maps, release hundreds of captured slaves, and run for their lives. The Chase is on.  Through forests, jungles and swamps Chuma and the others are relentlessly pursued.  Hopelessly trapped by a crocodile infested river Chuma’s group prepares for the inevitable. Wakatani surprises them and whisks them out of harm’s way on canoes.  Dambala and his men howl in frustration.       

Chuma discovers that he has been betrayed; his old friend Wakatani is trading in slaves.  Wakatani is unrepentant.  He says he trades captured enemies of his tribe for guns so that his own tribe, Chuma’s tribe, can survive. He asks Chuma to join him, to give up the white man’s ways and become a Yao warrior like his father.  Chuma is stunned.  He refuses. Furious, Wakatani destroys Chuma’s tents and food.  He calls Chuma a traitor and abandons Chuma and his little group.  The monsoons begin.  Chuma and his group slog through swamps and mud.  Livingstone falls deathly ill.  At that exact same time, in Paris, Stanley feasts with the rich and famous.  He has more fame than he ever dreamed of.  All want to hear his story. Chuma and his group slog on through the swamps, they starve.  Livingstone is so ill and weak he has to be carried. Chuma, depressed about Wakatani, thinks Stanley has betrayed them too.  Stanley drinks tea with the Queen of England.  He tells the Queen about Arab atrocities.  HRH Queen Victoria addresses Parliament about eliminating the Arab slave trade.  Chuma and his group, half dead, struggle through malarial swamps.  They find a village.  Friend or foe?  They have no choice but to seek refuge.   

Livingstone dies during the first night in the village.  The group tries to sneak away with his corpse but is caught by the Chief and his ghostly “Keepers of the Dead” who carry the body away.  Chuma is surprised when the Chief decides to help. He says many have heard of Chuma and those who fight Shetani.  The “Keepers” mummify Livingstone’s body to be hidden along with the maps of Shetani’s fortress and carried to English ships on the coast, over two thousand miles away.  Meanwhile, back at his fortress Shetani plots to stop the group from revealing the location of his secret lair.  He threatens a horrible death to any who give aid to Chuma and those with him.  Back in the village, when Livingstone’s body is finally prepared, our heroes head for the friendly territory of the Chieftainess.  Dodging Shetani’s spies and Ruga patrols, the group is surprisingly attacked by the Chieftainess’s warriors.  Chuma discovers that he has been sentenced to death.  The group has no choice but to make a huge detour that doubles the distance to the coast.  They arrive at the edge of a great saltpan.  Towering funnels of dust move in slow motion across the vast, empty landscape.  An impossible journey lies before them.  Few if any have travelers have ever made it through the salt pan alive. 

The group struggles for days across the pan.  The sun and heat are merciless.  The Khoi San twins hold the group together with their knowledge of desert landscapes but the heat and desert takes its toll.  The food runs out, then their water.  The San urge the group forward, their click language as alien as the environment they walk through.  The twins find food but it leads to the terrible death of one of the twins.  Losing hope the group struggles on.  A massive sandstorm overwhelms them.  The second twin disappears.  Chuma despairs.  Counseled by Susi and Wainwright Chuma makes a fateful decision.  He leaves the missing twin behind.  On the verge of death Chuma sees a shimmering Arab town in the distance.  Is it just another mirage or salvation?        

Disguised as Arabs Chuma and Susi warily collect supplies and water in the market.  They are forced to hide when they see Wakatani and his men searching the market.  An unexpected ally warns them that Shetani’s men block the mountain pass to the coast but he tells them of another way.  Of one that can help them.  Guided by the man with a heart of a lion Chuma and the group climb straight up the cliffs.  They all make it to the top and celebrate when they see the coast in the distance but their hopes are suddenly crushed when they not only discover that Shetani’s entire army blocks their path to the coast in front of them but discover that Dambala and his demons are closing in from behind.  They are trapped.  With time running out Chuma comes up with a plan.  He orders the others to unwrap Livingstone’s body from the trade cloth.        

Chuma throws his Indian shirt away and paints himself as a Yao warrior.  Leaving the others to carry Livingstone’s corpse and sneak around Shetani’s men Chuma walks into the middle of a field and faces Shetani’s entire army…alone.  He taunts them.  Shetani’s army rages; they surge forward in anger but Shetani holds them back.   With the army completely distracted Entika and the rest of the group make their way around the outer sentries.  The old sorcerer Umi appears, reunites with Entika and leads them past Shetani and his distracted minions.  Back on the battlefield Shetani orders a signal and a huge army charges out of the forest behind Chuma.  Wakatani leads them.  Chuma stands alone, arms out, accepting death.  The warriors rush by Chuma.  Wakatani laughs.  He says they have joined the fight against Shetani.  The two armies engage.  Shetani’s forces weaken but gain ground and sense victory when Dambala arrives with reinforcements.  Wakatani his warriors and Chuma are completely surrounded. Defeat seems certain.  A horn is heard.  A hundred tribes, a thousand men led by the Tutsi, Lion Man, the village Chief, and the lost Khoi San twin slam into the battle.  They have joined Chuma’s cause.  The battle shifts.  Sensing the direction of the battle Shetani and Dambala mount a white stallion and flee the field.  In mid battle Chuma watches them disappear.  He hacks his way to the edge of the battle and ducks into the forest after them.  Alone. 

Chuma races through the forest far away from the din of battle.  He finds Shetani leaning against a tree.  Dambala’s bloody dagger is imbedded in his side.  Shetani is dying. Shetani is defiant and unrepentant.  Chuma offers Shetani water.  Shetani talks.  He sneers at Chuma’s innocence.  He curses the white men and what they will bring.  Chuma pulls out his own dagger…  Meanwhile Dambala flees through the forest he rounds a corner and stumbles upon Entika and the ancient sorcerer Umi.  The two women are alone.  Wainwright has carried Livingstone’s body and the maps to the port leaving Entika to help the old sorcerer along the trail.  Dambala grins.  His eyes locked on the beautiful Entika.  Umi tries to protect her apprentice.  Dambala viciously cuts the old woman down.  Entika cries out then stands tall.  She sings.  Hyena come out of the forest.  They stand next to her.  At her command the wild animals attack; Dambala is torn apart and eaten by the savage creatures.  Chuma rushes out of the forest and embraces 

Entika.  They hold each other tight to celebrate their survival and their love.  They are blessed by the trees, the sun, the animals, the very spirit of Umi herself.    

Chuma and Entika walk through the small port town to the docks.  Men chant and sing and women ululate as they walk by.  A ship, flying the flag of England, prepares for departure.  Chuma runs up the dock and shouts a greeting in English.  The Captain leans over the deck above them. Wainwright is at his side.  The Captain asks who they are.  Chuma replies.  The Captain says Wainwright has told him about Chuma and he thinks Chuma is a loyal and useful servant and thanks him for bringing Dr. Livingstone’s remains and maps back to the British.  He tosses a handful of coins towards Chuma then calls for lines to be cast off.  The ship raises sail and drifts away.  Stunned, Chuma and Entika stand together at the end of the dock.  Susi comes up from behind them.  He glances at the boat then whispers in Chuma’s ear.  Back at the battlefield the hundred tribes and the thousand men greet Chuma, Entika, and Susi with roaring cheers and African song.  Old African Chiefs bestow honors and glory.  Wakatani, the Lion Man, the Chieftainess, the Tutsi, and many others from Chuma’s journey raise their arms and cheer.   

“Dr. David Livingstone was given the largest private funeral in the history of England.

His remains are buried in Westminster Abbey”

“After a Royal request a boat was sent for Chuma and Susi. They arrived in London two months after Dr. Livingstone’s burial.

They were both awarded medals from The Royal Geographic Society, etc.

FADE OUT