African Superpower story

[Valentina93]

I plan to write this myself but I am looking for people wanting to discuss and contribute. All contributions would, of course, be credited.

This story would be based on an alternate world where Africa has been united under a single flag by the African Union, an authoritative, oligarchic state founded on the principles of Pan-Africanism and Black Supremacy. The AU has become the world’s premier superpower and its largest economy, and possesses a powerful military and nuclear weaponry. Slavery has been legalized in Africa, but it is restricted to non-black races. This scenario is based on slavery, conquest and racial domination, specifically black supremacy.

I would like to make it a series exploring the lifes of diferent people in this world. I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this thread, please feel free to tell me if I'm wrong.

 

[Hypoxia]

Right forum. Interesting premise, with major geopolitical problems, but why let that muck up a vivid fantasy? Africa is NOT well sited for global power; neither are China, Russia, India, or Brazil. There are real geo-reasons West Europe and North America dominate the globe, and Argentina was once a significant player, because of production and transport. But I digress.

A united Africa could plausibly become the world superpower AFTER other actors have creamed each other. Or after the Syphilis epidemic Columbus inflicted on Europe spreads across Asia too, leaving only the Mediterranean and Cape regions of Africa as surviving organized states in the Old World, and maybe the Khmer empire. Those states would necessarily contend with the Inca, Aztec, and Iroquois empires. Mediterranean Africans possess the advanced technologies needed to unite Africa, but they are of Euro+Semitic heritages. Their palace guards of black Africans, like non-Turkish cadres of the Ottoman empire, overthrew the Mediterraneans and forged the Black African Union you describe. Yeah, that could work.

 

[Valentina93]

Thank you for the reply. Rest assured, I am not oblivious to geopolitics, and I know uniting the whole of Africa, with its multiple ethnic groups and cultures, would be impossible in real life. However, I plan to take some artistic license with this.

It's clearly going to be a dystopic world too.

I appreciate this contribution and any others you deem fit to share.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Right forum. Interesting premise, with major geopolitical problems, but why let that muck up a vivid fantasy? Africa is NOT well sited for global power; neither are China, Russia, India, or Brazil. There are real geo-reasons West Europe and North America dominate the globe, and Argentina was once a significant player, because of production and transport. But I digress.

A united Africa could plausibly become the world superpower AFTER other actors have creamed each other. Or after the Syphilis epidemic Columbus inflicted on Europe spreads across Asia too, leaving only the Mediterranean and Cape regions of Africa as surviving organized states in the Old World, and maybe the Khmer empire. Those states would necessarily contend with the Inca, Aztec, and Iroquois empires. Mediterranean Africans possess the advanced technologies needed to unite Africa, but they are of Euro+Semitic heritages. Their palace guards of black Africans, like non-Turkish cadres of the Ottoman empire, overthrew the Mediterraneans and forged the Black African Union you describe. Yeah, that could work.

North America I mostly get. I'm not competely sure why with some minor tech advances why Africa or South America aren't well suited.

The truth historically is a combination of isolation, a lack of domesticatable animals and fresh water. But those are mostly easy fixes TODAY much less with some tech advances.

 

[Hypoxia]

North America I mostly get. I'm not competely sure why with some minor tech advances why Africa or South America aren't well suited.

The truth historically is a combination of isolation, a lack of domesticatable animals and fresh water. But those are mostly easy fixes TODAY much less with some tech advances.

The major factor is a temperate breadbasket with good communications i.e. transport paths. Africa and South America pretty much lack temperate-climate river systems -- the Rio Plate does not really serve the Argentinian breadbasket in any way like the Ohio-Mississippi-Missouri system or the Great Lakes. The equatorial Congo and Amazon do not drain breadbaskets.

Uniquely, North America has major industrial regions on two oceans and in areas linked by internal waterways, a vast breadbasket in between, and efficient surface transport.

China is trying a tech fix for its transport problems by building a high-speed rail link to Europe, the New Silk Road project, and a trans-Nicaragua canal. But China is really too boxed-in to project global power past hostile neighbors.

A united South America needs to deal with the Andes barrier and vast low-productivity jungles. Does the Amazon need to be rebuilt?

A united Africa needs to build a huge network of roads and canals, and probably fill the Sahara as an internal sea. Northernmost Africa *was* a breadbasket; that could be fixed. But much of the rest of Africa is physically challenged.

How could a united Africa rule the world stage? As I said earlier, other players need to be neutralized. OR (this just hit me) let's posit that a quirky Global Cooling Climate Change event, a new Ice Age, shrinks Earth's tropics, grows the arctics, and moves the temperate zones toward the equator. NOW the Congo and Amazon basins are equivalent to the old Mississippi-Missouri valley, and the Sahara is a watered breadbasket again. Yeah, that works!

 

[Monazwx]

I would like to make it a series exploring the lifes of different people in this world.

Yeah, I was wondering about the plot lines, etc. of this presumed saga. You've set the premise of the background/environment, but what exactly are you writing about? Lives of the black slaveowners? Lives of the non-black slaves? (Interactions between the two and how that affects the dynamic you've created I'm assuming). Let's flesh this out a bit.

 

[Got2]

Um....Why so many political details with an erotic short story plot?

Right now, in Africa, there are plenty of potentates who LOVE to enjoy, sexually, the White Wives of workers there.

Just saying

 

[Valentina93]

Yeah, I was wondering about the plot lines, etc. of this presumed saga. You've set the premise of the background/environment, but what exactly are you writing about? Lives of the black slaveowners? Lives of the non-black slaves? (Interactions between the two and how that affects the dynamic you've created I'm assuming). Let's flesh this out a bit.

Good point.

I want write about the lives of the slaves mostly, and not just the sexual aspect of it. I want this project to be larger than most erotic story, sort of a literally cycle. I would also write about the African elite and their power struggles, ambitions and Africa's global influence.

 

[Valentina93]

Um....Why so many political details with an erotic short story plot?

Right now, in Africa, there are plenty of potentates who LOVE to enjoy, sexually, the White Wives of workers there.

Just saying

Because I want this to be bigger than just wank-fodder.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I like this concept. It reminds me of David Wingrove's series, "Chung Kuo: Thje Middle Kingdom," which involved a world where China dominated the globe as the sole superpower following economic upheavals and war.

The difficult part of this idea is setting up a credible sequence of events by which the scenario could occur. Previous posters have established the inherent difficulties in creating an Afro-dominant world. Some of those could be reduced or eliminated if the rise of the African State follows a devastating nuclear war involving the Northern Hemisphere powers: US, China, Russia, and Europe. If the Southern Hemisphere somehow stays out through non-alignment or due to the quick instigation and termination of the war, Africa would be in a position of strength, along with South American and Australia. Oil would give Africa a means to assert dominance, with Venezuela the only other credible challenger. An African incursion and annexation of Australia would provide the food resources it needs fend off a Venezuela-led South America.

As in Chung Kuo, it makes sense to begin the story long after the new order is already established and dominant. It just takes a few paragraphs of exposition to summarize the how it all happened. You don't have to get too bogged down in all the details--just create a credible story that works and take it from there.

Good luck!

 

[Hypoxia]

The difficult part of this idea is setting up a credible sequence of events by which the scenario could occur.

I mentioned above that other players would be 'neutralized' to give a united Africa access to the world stage. Of course I meant war -- probably nuclear. But I did not want to imply that Africans are incapable of competing with the rest of the world. Such approaches racism. I also did not want to delve into current politics, likely quite irrelevant to this story's world-building.

Yes, we *could* see an ascendant united Africa after the First World nukes itself to ashes. (*) But I prefer my suggestions of either a credible epidemic, like the Syphilis that killed 1/4 of Europe after Columbus's return, or an Ice Age that turns the Congo and Amazon basins into breadbaskets in the span of a century or two. It's almost space opera -- call out the planet-busters!

(*) I'm reminded of an old R.Crumb cartoon. A stereotypical 'nigger' is at the beach, envying buff white surfers. He pulls a knife to steal a surfboard. The surfer hands it over willingly, saying he's sick of surfing anyway. The robber gets out on the waves -- which are polluted with oil, chemicals, shit, dead critters, etc. He says something like, "By the time us niggers get anything, it ain't worth having." That's how I see the Africa-rises-after-nuclear-war trope.

As in Chung Kuo, it makes sense to begin the story long after the new order is already established and dominant. It just takes a few paragraphs of exposition to summarize the how it all happened. You don't have to get too bogged down in all the details--just create a credible story that works and take it from there.

Quite right. Establish a background, create some characters, invent a few plot points, then set the players loose and see what they do.

 

[Texguy84]

Well, as far as how a united Africa got to be the dominant world power, we could explain it with... hey what's that over there? *waves hands, makes it happen*

Cool, with that done, I'd say have the different stories take place in different parts of the world to see how the society plays out differently. Maybe white slaves being used as household servants or in brothels in Africa proper in one story, while in another story, you have black plantation owners working African and Native American slaves in the fields. You could get some drama out of the varying degrees of accepting or fighting their fate that different groups of people have in different parts of the world.

Here's another idea, multiple world powers centered around Africa and/or other nearby areas, rather than one all-dominating power. Each region has it's own particular "flavor", so to speak, and maybe dominates different parts of the world. They compete and trade with each other in different ways.

 

[MatthewVett]

Historically, I'd probably have the progenitor either be Phoenicians who got shipwrecked while circumnavigating Africa, or the Mali Empire.

When they settled Northern Africa, Phoenicians managed to build the Carthaginian Empire. Imagine what they could have done elsewhere? Maybe they find a sea route to the spice trade early, and use it to monopolize the spice trade to the Mediterranean, cutting out the land route.

As for the Mali Empire, what if Musa hadn't come on his pilgrimage? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali Maybe he converts to Christianity, has no need to go to Mecca, and instead initiates contact with Europeans. He starts an Age of Discovery early, and again, gets the spice trade, makes massive amounts of cash, and with African resources, begins planting colonies in the New World. Just thoughts.

 

[Valentina93]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Matthew, that Mali scenario seems very interesting and plausible enough. Tex, I'd definitely consider going that route and having multiple African powers. I need to think about it, but I love the idea.

 

[Texguy84]

And of course, there's always options for smaller parts of the world which haven't been conquered yet, or are independent but weak, with African groups either launching raids to capture new slave stock or outright buying them from their home countries in return for leaving the place more or less unconquered. Some places possibly put up more resistance than others. I'm picturing a fierce blonde Norse woman putting up quite the fight before she is captured and enslaved.

 

[Valentina93]

And of course, there's always options for smaller parts of the world which haven't been conquered yet, or are independent but weak, with African groups either launching raids to capture new slave stock or outright buying them from their home countries in return for leaving the place more or less unconquered. Some places possibly put up more resistance than others. I'm picturing a fierce blonde Norse woman putting up quite the fight before she is captured and enslaved.

Oh of course, even I go with the united Africa option, many countries would still be independent.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

I think Busybody has written a bunch of stories like that. You should I.M. him.

 

[Valentina93]

I think Busybody has written a bunch of stories like that. You should I.M. him.

A quick look at his profile reveals that he would never approve of an African superpower. He seems like a bigot to be honest, a real one.

 

[Mello_SixtyNine]

A quick look at his profile reveals that he would never approve of an African superpower. He seems like a bigot to be honest, a real one.

I just like the idea of him reading that I.M.
I imagine that one of his eyebrows would rise up as he says:

"Daffuq???"