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The Black Man's Burden

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This is my cover of reagent's MotF: The Pale Continent entry, whose description and backstory were made by GottfreyUndRoy. Many thanks to Flashman for working with me on this!
  • The PoD is 2500 BCE or thereabouts, with Africa becoming the "center of civilization," as it were, while plagues keep Europe a backwater that is eventually colonized.
  • Monomotopa and Kadik are once-enemies, now-allies, which once ruled most of the world through their extensive colonial empires. Both are wealthy constitutional monarchies.
  • Central and Western Africa was once dominated by a vast empire known as the "Dread Anziku" or the "Cannibal Anziku," a Bascongo Aztec-esque affair if they had the technology of the Third Reich. They were fractured during the last big war and the societal collapse that followed, although the rump Anziku kingdom is trying to pick up the pieces.
  • Dolophu was controlled by Monomotpa and was run as a settler colony. It is now this world's South Africa, backing Mwmakazi while having problems with the non-subsaharan African population it rules over. 
  • Egypt had a similar relationship with African powers as it did with European powers IOTL, but eventually became far more powerful. Today, it leads a Soviet-esque anti-colonial state alongside a variety of Aramaic and Arabic constituent states.
  • Persia was once very powerful, and worshiped an extremely divergent from of Zoroastrianism (where immolation was a form of execution) but their empire collapsed after the religious East African revolt. The modern Parsans are currently dealing with a Collectivist revolt, one that is dragging in Anziku and Kemetite fighters. 
  • There is no accepted name for Asia as a whole. Tongwo applies to North China, Korea and Japan, but it's usually used to refer to the Japanese (think Americans/United Statesians). The Near East is Mawodnyika, India is Zuma-Gumbo, Indochina and Indonesia is Inonkyia, and Siberia is Nzvimboyachambo.
  • Cathay has always been almost completely isolated. Siberia and North Asia are still dominated by semi-nomadic societies. 
  • The Tongwo (the Japanese, although Africans confused them for Chinese) are a bit like the OTL PRC: radical Collectivists at first, but mellowed out later and they now make electronics and cartoons for the world.
  • Hukuruamainyika is a matriarchal society, although of the "inverted patriarchy" style rather than an egalitarian state before its time. It has modernized and become less matriarchal. 
  • The Africans eventually discovered the Americas, known collectively as "Kuhlukhu" (the Africans make no distinction between the two). The Chinese also discover it independently, establishing the gradually independent kingdom of Jiegwo.
  • North America is also made up of settler colonies, but were predominantly settled by Near Eastern and East Asian civilizations. New Iaro is a mix of West African and Egyptian colonists.
  • South America was where the settler colonies went ITTL, with only the Inca being spared the major diseases. The Confederation of Kulukhu and the United Commonwealths of Lower Kulukhu are the big dogs. The Confederation of Kulukhu was settled by the Anziku and so they're pretty nasty pieces of work, having a byzantine system of state-mandated racial hierarchy.
  • Lower Kulukhu is pivotal both for its position for shipping and its cattle production. A lot of white slaves were imported there, leading to them becoming extremely mixed, despite their assertions that they're black.
  • On the other hand, the Haduna and other Native Americans in North America survived, thanks to the plagues reaching them later and the settlers much later, giving them time to adapt. Haduna, for instance, was never colonized.
  • Eriuland was the most depopulated region of Europe by the African slave-trade. The majority of its populace was freemen taken to the colonies in Kuhlukhu. Mahala, a former Monomotopan colony, was intended to be their promised land. Unfortunately, it's a corrupt mess that has to be propped up by the rest of the world.
  • Scandinavia is one of the poorest regions in the world. 
  • Ethnically Germanic peoples don't exist in "Germany" proper outside of the south, having been driven out by *Slavic migrants. Today they exist in Italy (lots of tension with Remic peoples), Scandinavia and France.
  • Gaul is the most anti-colonial of the Collectivists, encouraging revolution everywhere. They take it a bit too far at home and have become rather ardent pink nationalists, seeking to purge any trace of African influence from their society.
  • The modern world is divided into four blocs: the status quo monarchists led by Monomotopa, the Collectivists led by Kemet, the reactionaries led by Anziku, and the liberal democrats led by the United Commonwealths.
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Comments44
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Monomotopa = UK?

Kadik = ???

Zuma-Gumbo = ???

Hukuruamainyika = ???

Haduna = ???

Kemet = USSR? China?

Hattiland = ???

Gaul = ???

Tongwo = China?

Parsan Liberation Front = ???

Lower Kuhlukhu = United States

New Iaro = ???

Jalania = ???

Tuiskland = ???

Mahala = ???

Anziku = Germany?

Anoshas = ???

Parsan = ???

Kuhlukhu = ???

Cathay = ???

Jiegwo = ???

Mi'ti = ???

Inonkyia = ???

Bjarmaland = ???

Mwmakazi = North Korea? Rhodesia?

Dolophu = South Africa

Naroland = Somalia?