Aside from the textbook examples, some of Africa's most atrocious stories are from the early years of independence movements, colonial powers realising their "civilising missions" were working too well in regards to the indigenous elites, that is, in ways the Europeans didn't like. A different US policy post-WWII giving the Europeans more leeway, or an alternative WWII not damaging the Empires so much could do the trick.
A worse scramble for Africa
- Thread starter AussieHawker
- Start date
A Kenyan Emergency or Rhodesian/Angolan/Mozambican/Algerian bush war writ large throughout the continent, you mean?
Most of the atrocities of that era occurred in settler colonies, which makes their spread self-limiting; the colonial powers didn't fight that hard in the non-settler colonies, especially the ones that didn't make money. But then again, there was Madagascar. And, hmmm, money - maybe earlier discovery of the Niger Delta oil, turning Nigerian independence into a bloody, generation-long insurgency? Or Belgium deciding to dead-end it in the Congo, Portugal-style?
"I'm a writer" I whisper to myself as I consider putting this in a TL.
I'm going to have to write this into one of my prospective TLs now.
First, a slightly-longer slavery, along with four *Mfecanes (Sahel, East, Central, South) and no Great War for extra-long Imperialism. And then decades of ideological proxy wars led by postcolonial dictators.
Highlights include:
Some durable states lasting: small Xhosa kingdoms Pondoland and Fingoland, the Tswana Ngwato kingdom, and not much else, at least in southern or central Africa. And even then they'd be proxies.
An even worse cattle-killing among the Xhosa
Slave trade out of South Africa for a few decades (maybe 1760s-1800), leading to even more violence
No German colonies- instead, massive Franco-British cold war with a number of minor colonies
Filibuster Congo
Private German company colony somewhere, no German government involvement
More cults/millenialism
More coolies and eventually coolie rebellions/wars with natives
A Mahdi not in the Sudan
and much more incalculable human suffering. I'm terrible.
First, a slightly-longer slavery, along with four *Mfecanes (Sahel, East, Central, South) and no Great War for extra-long Imperialism. And then decades of ideological proxy wars led by postcolonial dictators.
Highlights include:
Some durable states lasting: small Xhosa kingdoms Pondoland and Fingoland, the Tswana Ngwato kingdom, and not much else, at least in southern or central Africa. And even then they'd be proxies.
An even worse cattle-killing among the Xhosa
Slave trade out of South Africa for a few decades (maybe 1760s-1800), leading to even more violence
No German colonies- instead, massive Franco-British cold war with a number of minor colonies
Filibuster Congo
Private German company colony somewhere, no German government involvement
More cults/millenialism
More coolies and eventually coolie rebellions/wars with natives
A Mahdi not in the Sudan
and much more incalculable human suffering. I'm terrible.
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