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Changamire offers a vision for how to do this. In the wake of the violence and rebellion in “A Nation Under Our Feet,” Changamire says, “Restoration is what is needed now. Restoration for our country.”¹² He gathers not just the powers that be (T’Challa the king and Aneka the rebel leader) but also ordinary citizens traumatized by the war, so that together they can navigate a path forward. Their interest is not retribution or reparation, but rather restorative justice .

Criminologist Howard Zehr says we can distinguish retributive justice from restorative justice by looking at how they understand crime, criminals, and victims. Retributive justice defines crime as a violation of laws, and therefore sees the state itself as the victim of crime. Restorative justice, on the other hand, defines crime in terms of harm – not in the abstract sense as an offense to the state, but harm to real people and real-world relationships. In retributive justice, criminals are law-breakers by definition and therefore deserve punishment. In restorative justice, criminals count among the people harmed by injustice. Restorative justice reminds us that people can be wrongdoers and victims at the same time, and it recognizes that oftentimes it’s because people are hurt that they hurt others.¹³ Concerned with identifying the root causes of injustice, restorative justice wants to figure out who’s a stakeholder in the situation, and then involve all the stakeholders collectively in setting things right.

Because retribution has to do with what people deserve, not what people need, you can do retributive justice without asking any questions about political power or social position. That’s not possible with restorative justice. If you want to restore a community that’s been torn apart, you can’t ignore the fact that some people are more powerful than others. You have to acknowledge things like racism and sexism. And you can’t pretend people are just one thing: every criminal is also someone’s child, someone’s neighbor, maybe someone’s employee or employer, maybe a parent or caretaker.

In fact, most of us are technically criminals. (How many laws have you broken?) Think about how your community would react to losing you. Sending someone to prison doesn’t punish one person; it creates a hole in society, a hole other people have to step in to fill. Put enough people in prison and entire communities can collapse. That’s not justice. From the standpoint of restorative justice, it’s another form of harm, this time inflicted by the state. So, when Killmonger wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed, restorative justice would have T’Challa say, “You’re no use to us locked up. How are we going to work together to heal all the damage we’ve caused?”

Sending Killmonger to prison takes away not only his freedom but also any ability he might have to repair the damage he’s done to other people. It strips him of his responsibility to right past wrongs, and in doing so it weakens the community as a whole. Moreover, it also absolves Wakanda of its responsibility to repair the damage it has done to him. Remember, Killmonger didn’t pick Wakanda at random; he’s been wronged, and he needs healing too. Putting him in a cell doesn’t address the root problem, it just sweeps the problem under the rug.

So, if it’s not going to throw him in prison, what is Wakanda to do? Changamire would have Killmonger sit down with the people he’s wronged, listen to how they’re hurting, listen to what they need, and work together with them to figure out how to restore them to their whole and healthy state. He’d put T’Challa at the table too, not to oversee the proceedings but because even the king must be held accountable for repairing the damage that’s been done. Royalty doesn’t count for much in restorative justice; what really matters is healing.

If Wakandan justice really is “more civilized,” it will acknowledge an inescapable but uncomfortable truth: when a government imprisons people, it sucks talent and energy out of communities even as those communities try to recover from the harm caused by crime. Those left behind have fewer resources to heal their communal wounds and bounce back to where they were.¹⁴ Which raises an interesting question: does Wakanda need prisons at all?