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Description
The most populous state in the Solar System, the African Federation is oft-lauded as the next superpower of Earth, to topple the American Directorate or even the hegemony of the Orbitals. However, widespread rural illiteracy, religious opposition to certain technologies essential to advancement, extreme inequality, political corruption, and ethnic tensions have all prevented the African Federation from reaching its full potential. A product of Chinese neo-colonialism, the African Federation is a mix of hundreds of different peoples across an entire continent, and its ramshackle nature is a problem that its leaders have yet to properly resolve.

History

Sub-Saharan Africa has been inhabited by humans since before recorded history. In fact, it is hypothesized that Africa is the origin of the human species. The continent was home to many civilizations of varying development, from hunter-gatherers to the mighty empires of Ethiopia and West Africa. The continent was heavily colonized by Europe, and at one point all but one country - Liberia - was under some form of European control. European colonial control receded after the Second World War, and Africa enjoyed about a century of independence, prior to domination by predominantly Chinese and Indian corporate and state entities. While theoretically independent, most African governments became de facto possessions of Asian powers.

Africa became a major source of needed raw materials during the First Space Race. It also became a dumping ground for political and religious dissidents around the world. The Yankees and Chinese both sent their Christians to Africa, which helped accelerate the Christianization of the continent. China and India, through their corporate and local proxies, fought several wars over control of Africa, which ended with much of the continent under Chinese control. Only Egypt remained largely outside of the Chinese sphere.

Chinese rule would persist through most of the third millennium, growing from heavy influence to direct control by the time of the New Dynasties. This would prove necessary to the future cohesion of the African Federation. Chinese rule established, for the first time, a uniform system of laws throughout the entire continent. Chinese infrastructure connected the continent like never before, allowing for efficient travel through jungles, deserts and mountain ranges through vactrains. Standardized education in the cities and the adoption of Mandarin as the official language allowed for easy communication, even if most Africans still spoke their native languages. By the time the Chinese left at the end of the 2800s, Africa was a far more cohesive unit that many hoped would enter the 30th century as a united continent.

It was not to be. The African Federation still suffered from major divides in its society. One major divide was religious: while much of Africa was Christian, North Africa remained heavily Muslim, and the Muslims felt they were not represented in Africa’s government. This eventually led to the secession of North Africa under the Islamic Republic of Al-Maghrib. This secession was not a clean break, and many populations remain on the wrong side of the Armistice Line.

Demographics

At nearly five billion people, the African Federation has the largest population of any state in the Solar System. Fertility rates on the continent have been consistently high, only dropping off in times of extreme hardship. Even today, the average African woman has five or more children, a result of the country’s still-agrarian society and traditional values.

Africa has the most natural genetic diversity among baseline humans, and is home to thousands of ethnic groups. No one group has any dominance over the others, although the largest are the Kanuri, Kongo, Oromo, Mongo, Luba, Amhara, Somali, Shona, Hutu, Chewa, Zulu, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Mande, Akan and Fulbe. There are also small, but economically powerful non-African minorities, particularly Han Chinese and Indians, mostly residing on the east coast. The largest African ethnicities have their own states within the Federation.

Linguistically, Africa is home to thousands of languages, such a massive number that the government does not keep track of them. While individual states may have some officially-recognized languages, the African Federation itself only recognizes one language: Mandarin. Mandarin is the lingua franca of Africa, and is spoken as a first language in most major cities. African media is produced in Mandarin, and the African educational system teaches in Mandarin. While the upper and academic classes speak Mandarin exclusively, most Africans speak their ethnic group’s native tongue, and speak Mandarin as a second language. In rural areas, where illiteracy is widespread, Mandarin is understood but cannot be spoken.

Compared with much of the Solar System, Africans are deeply religious. The African Federation is majority Christian, specifically American and Chinese Protestant sects. Many Christians from both countries were exiled to Africa from the American and Chinese empires, with local Chinese authorities tolerating the spread of Christianity so long as they agreed to cooperate with the Chinese. Africa also contains large populations of Muslims, Catholics, Animists, and Confucians. Protestant Christians hold much of the political power in the country by virtue of being the overwhelming majority, but no one Protestant sect holds enough power in the country to be able to remain in power continuously and without challenge.

Internal Politics

Africa is a representative democratic federation, rejecting the autocratic forms of government imposed upon the continent by the Chinese. Inspired by the old American Republic, Africa is governed primarily by a single constitution which guarantees individual liberty and establishes separate legislative, executive and judicial branches. The African constitution is explicitly a “living” document, with its words encouraged to be interpreted by each successive generation differently. This has made the African constitution effectively toothless, as politicians could do whatever they please through loose interpretation of the constitution’s words.

While no one group dominates African politics to a degree that it can oppress the others, the ramshackle nature of the African Federation makes it impossible for any lasting national initiatives to pass. Africa has hundreds of political parties, almost all of which are ethnic in nature, and they have no policies apart from getting more resources for the ethnic group they represent. In order for anything to be done, broad coalitions have to be formed. Presently, the African Federation is dominated by the United Africa Front, which is made up of the ten largest political parties in Africa. The United Africa Front has no goals apart from staying in office and ensuring their voters and donors get the lion’s share of government resources.

The African federal government is extremely weak, save for its ability to regulate the economy and technological development, and manage social welfare programs. The African constitution restrains the African government, but not the states. Social laws are under the complete purview of the states; to do otherwise would provoke outrage that the ethnic group that currently has the most influence in government is making an attempt to control all of the others. While liberties are guaranteed in the African constitution, state governments often make flagrant violations, such as laws banning homosexuality that are popular among the more religious states. Most states allow open discrimination against outsiders and minorities.

State governments in Africa are notoriously corrupt. In state government, politicians see one another as part of the same family, and thus will not rat one another out to federal investigation. Often, a state official is of a different ethnic group to the ruling government, so possible accusations of prejudice and targeted prosecution make pursuing all but the most egregiously corrupt officials political suicide.

Astropolitics

Africa intends to become the center of Earth's restoration as a dominant power in the Solar System. Its greatest ally is Germania, which has a long history of supporting Africa and other non-American states on Earth, to act as a counterbalance against the Orbitals. Africa has a cool relationship with the American Directorate, sometimes cooperating with the Americans, but more often acting as their rival. The Africans have a strong bias against the Orbitals, which they see as inhuman oppressors of all mankind. Ironically, the Africans are friendly to and admire China, but they also admire China's Cytherean occupiers.

Economy and Technology

Modern Africa is on the rise, but it still has a way to go before competing with the Americans or the Yankees. Africa remains a largely agrarian society, even if the cities are growing to resemble those of the American Directorate. While on other parts of Earth, the deurbanization of society led to the creation of large swathes of the population reliant on universal basic income, in Africa, improved agricultural technology and the relative lack of automation simply allowed most Africans to become farmers. Africa's agricultural economy largely goes to feed its own massive population, although Africa is a net exporter of agricultural goods. The other major industry in Africa is producing raw materials, particularly metals, for export. Several hundred million Africans are on universal basic income, mostly living in the cities, but this is a tiny share of the African population compared to Europe.

A factor restricting African development is its strict bioconservatism and limits on automation. Despite being part of the transhumanist Chinese sphere, the African continent was always poorly developed with regard to both, as the Chinese simply used the continent for raw materials, and its population to cheaply recover those materials. With its massive population, and thus extremely low labor cost, automation on the continent was not as profitable as it was in other parts of the Solar System. After independence, Africa's highly religious society and belief that automation would only put large swathes of the population out of work. Africa has been gradually adopting limited transhumanist modifications, often basic, lower-technology mods that have been use elsewhere for centuries. Even then, these mods are only available to the absolute upper classes.

Military

The African Federation has two primary military branches: the African Army and the African Space Force. Both are modeled on the old Chinese military, and the Africans continue to use equipment derived from Chinese designs. The African Army is the largest army in the Solar System, but is made up almost entirely of baseline human volunteers. In case of war, the African Federation's government does have the power to conscript all fighting-age males. The African Army tends to use outdated, but reliable and cheap, equipment, and eschews automated or augmented forces. All maritime activities are under the purview of the African Army, and the African Army Maritime Forces are small and charged primarily with defending African coastal cities and trade routes in the Red Sea. The African Space Force is a small force, as the Africans have only a single space station and no commitments elsewhere in the Solar System. This is changing as the Africans try to become a significant force in solar politics.

Description
The most populous state in the Solar System, the African Federation is oft-lauded as the next superpower of Earth, to topple the American Directorate or even the hegemony of the Orbitals. However, widespread rural illiteracy, religious opposition to certain technologies essential to advancement, extreme inequality, political corruption, and ethnic tensions have all prevented the African Federation from reaching its full potential. A product of Chinese neo-colonialism, the African Federation is a mix of hundreds of different peoples across an entire continent, and its ramshackle nature is a problem that its leaders have yet to properly resolve.

History

Sub-Saharan Africa has been inhabited by humans since before recorded history. In fact, it is hypothesized that Africa is the origin of the human species. The continent was home to many civilizations of varying development, from hunter-gatherers to the mighty empires of Ethiopia and West Africa. The continent was heavily colonized by Europe, and at one point all but one country - Liberia - was under some form of European control. European colonial control receded after the Second World War, and Africa enjoyed about a century of independence, prior to domination by predominantly Chinese and Indian corporate and state entities. While theoretically independent, most African governments became de facto possessions of Asian powers.

Africa became a major source of needed raw materials during the First Space Race. It also became a dumping ground for political and religious dissidents around the world. The Yankees and Chinese both sent their Christians to Africa, which helped accelerate the Christianization of the continent. China and India, through their corporate and local proxies, fought several wars over control of Africa, which ended with much of the continent under Chinese control. Only Egypt remained largely outside of the Chinese sphere.

Chinese rule would persist through most of the third millennium, growing from heavy influence to direct control by the time of the New Dynasties. This would prove necessary to the future cohesion of the African Federation. Chinese rule established, for the first time, a uniform system of laws throughout the entire continent. Chinese infrastructure connected the continent like never before, allowing for efficient travel through jungles, deserts and mountain ranges through vactrains. Standardized education in the cities and the adoption of Mandarin as the official language allowed for easy communication, even if most Africans still spoke their native languages. By the time the Chinese left at the end of the 2800s, Africa was a far more cohesive unit that many hoped would enter the 30th century as a united continent.

It was not to be. The African Federation still suffered from major divides in its society. One major divide was religious: while much of Africa was Christian, North Africa remained heavily Muslim, and the Muslims felt they were not represented in Africa’s government. This eventually led to the secession of North Africa under the Islamic Republic of Al-Maghrib. This secession was not a clean break, and many populations remain on the wrong side of the Armistice Line.

Demographics

At nearly five billion people, the African Federation has the largest population of any state in the Solar System. Fertility rates on the continent have been consistently high, only dropping off in times of extreme hardship. Even today, the average African woman has five or more children, a result of the country’s still-agrarian society and traditional values.

Africa has the most natural genetic diversity among baseline humans, and is home to thousands of ethnic groups. No one group has any dominance over the others, although the largest are the Kanuri, Kongo, Oromo, Mongo, Luba, Amhara, Somali, Shona, Hutu, Chewa, Zulu, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Mande, Akan and Fulbe. There are also small, but economically powerful non-African minorities, particularly Han Chinese and Indians, mostly residing on the east coast. The largest African ethnicities have their own states within the Federation.

Linguistically, Africa is home to thousands of languages, such a massive number that the government does not keep track of them. While individual states may have some officially-recognized languages, the African Federation itself only recognizes one language: Mandarin. Mandarin is the lingua franca of Africa, and is spoken as a first language in most major cities. African media is produced in Mandarin, and the African educational system teaches in Mandarin. While the upper and academic classes speak Mandarin exclusively, most Africans speak their ethnic group’s native tongue, and speak Mandarin as a second language. In rural areas, where illiteracy is widespread, Mandarin is understood but cannot be spoken.

Compared with much of the Solar System, Africans are deeply religious. The African Federation is majority Christian, specifically American and Chinese Protestant sects. Many Christians from both countries were exiled to Africa from the American and Chinese empires, with local Chinese authorities tolerating the spread of Christianity so long as they agreed to cooperate with the Chinese. Africa also contains large populations of Muslims, Catholics, Animists, and Confucians. Protestant Christians hold much of the political power in the country by virtue of being the overwhelming majority, but no one Protestant sect holds enough power in the country to be able to remain in power continuously and without challenge.

Internal Politics

Africa is a representative democratic federation, rejecting the autocratic forms of government imposed upon the continent by the Chinese. Inspired by the old American Republic, Africa is governed primarily by a single constitution which guarantees individual liberty and establishes separate legislative, executive and judicial branches. The African constitution is explicitly a “living” document, with its words encouraged to be interpreted by each successive generation differently. This has made the African constitution effectively toothless, as politicians could do whatever they please through loose interpretation of the constitution’s words.

While no one group dominates African politics to a degree that it can oppress the others, the ramshackle nature of the African Federation makes it impossible for any lasting national initiatives to pass. Africa has hundreds of political parties, almost all of which are ethnic in nature, and they have no policies apart from getting more resources for the ethnic group they represent. In order for anything to be done, broad coalitions have to be formed. Presently, the African Federation is dominated by the United Africa Front, which is made up of the ten largest political parties in Africa. The United Africa Front has no goals apart from staying in office and ensuring their voters and donors get the lion’s share of government resources.

The African federal government is extremely weak, save for its ability to regulate the economy and technological development, and manage social welfare programs. The African constitution restrains the African government, but not the states. Social laws are under the complete purview of the states; to do otherwise would provoke outrage that the ethnic group that currently has the most influence in government is making an attempt to control all of the others. While liberties are guaranteed in the African constitution, state governments often make flagrant violations, such as laws banning homosexuality that are popular among the more religious states. Most states allow open discrimination against outsiders and minorities.

State governments in Africa are notoriously corrupt. In state government, politicians see one another as part of the same family, and thus will not rat one another out to federal investigation. Often, a state official is of a different ethnic group to the ruling government, so possible accusations of prejudice and targeted prosecution make pursuing all but the most egregiously corrupt officials political suicide.

Astropolitics

Africa intends to become the center of Earth's restoration as a dominant power in the Solar System. Its greatest ally is Germania, which has a long history of supporting Africa and other non-American states on Earth, to act as a counterbalance against the Orbitals. Africa has a cool relationship with the American Directorate, sometimes cooperating with the Americans, but more often acting as their rival. The Africans have a strong bias against the Orbitals, which they see as inhuman oppressors of all mankind. Ironically, the Africans are friendly to and admire China, but they also admire China's Cytherean occupiers.

Economy and Technology

Modern Africa is on the rise, but it still has a way to go before competing with the Americans or the Yankees. Africa remains a largely agrarian society, even if the cities are growing to resemble those of the American Directorate. While on other parts of Earth, the deurbanization of society led to the creation of large swathes of the population reliant on universal basic income, in Africa, improved agricultural technology and the relative lack of automation simply allowed most Africans to become farmers. Africa's agricultural economy largely goes to feed its own massive population, although Africa is a net exporter of agricultural goods. The other major industry in Africa is producing raw materials, particularly metals, for export. Several hundred million Africans are on universal basic income, mostly living in the cities, but this is a tiny share of the African population compared to Europe.

A factor restricting African development is its strict bioconservatism and limits on automation. Despite being part of the transhumanist Chinese sphere, the African continent was always poorly developed with regard to both, as the Chinese simply used the continent for raw materials, and its population to cheaply recover those materials. With its massive population, and thus extremely low labor cost, automation on the continent was not as profitable as it was in other parts of the Solar System. After independence, Africa's highly religious society and belief that automation would only put large swathes of the population out of work. Africa has been gradually adopting limited transhumanist modifications, often basic, lower-technology mods that have been use elsewhere for centuries. Even then, these mods are only available to the absolute upper classes.

Military

The African Federation has two primary military branches: the African Army and the African Space Force. Both are modeled on the old Chinese military, and the Africans continue to use equipment derived from Chinese designs. The African Army is the largest army in the Solar System, but is made up almost entirely of baseline human volunteers. In case of war, the African Federation's government does have the power to conscript all fighting-age males. The African Army tends to use outdated, but reliable and cheap, equipment, and eschews automated or augmented forces. All maritime activities are under the purview of the African Army, and the African Army Maritime Forces are small and charged primarily with defending African coastal cities and trade routes in the Red Sea. The African Space Force is a small force, as the Africans have only a single space station and no commitments elsewhere in the Solar System. This is changing as the Africans try to become a significant force in solar politics.