What to do with Azania?

[rfmcdpei]

I was curious as to whether anyone had use Azania in their campaigns.

That country strikes me as curiously underdeveloped, even though it's a large and technologically advanced country with a large sphere of influence in southern Africa, a populous colony on Tirane, some sort of demographic presence on Nibelungen and an economically lucrative one on Kimanjano.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Ummm.....

I like owned Traveller 2300AD back in the day in the Box with The Map...though I did catch a nice one on the Net somewhere.....

Anyway, what I mean is it's been like....let's see we invaded Panama in....1990? Anyway, sometime around then...had a friend in the 1/75 Rangers and well, he...Traded...dangnabbit Rob...well, I got Space Opera which is my basement collecting dust..he got my T2300AD...he won and I consider it my Sacrifice for his Service both in Combat but also as My Friend...um...sorry getting older and thus tend to ramble down Memory Lane....

What I meant is that I don't remember the Canon of T23 much at all, but if they are a Union of the current up and coming African States...I suspect they should be quietly kicking butt in areas the Big Govs haven't figured out yet. If they African Nations come out of the War ok...WWIII that is and they get to space I would think they will resemble the Early Republic of the United States...not the US now, but like in the real early days when rebels where making the rules up as they went along and picking out the best parts of what the Bigs left around or didn't see. Inventors, Pioneers, Explorers, Escapists...All these can be found in the Reaches of Stellar Africa....tune in next post.

 

[su_liam]

Nuke it from orbit! It's the only way to be sure...

 

[Anders]

Azania has been involved in a roundabout way in my Kimanjano campaign, since they run the Okawango colony on the planet. Compared to the French military-run colony in the middle of violent insurrection and rampant corruption Okawango looks positively paradisaical. It is a bit anarchic and slapdash, rebuilding after the Kafer war in a fairly libertarian mode (little central control, lots of private initiatives). The local political system is more about getting the different networks to cooperate than making any rules.

On the more sinister side, there are not just smuggling operations going on but apparently some low-key support for the French separatists from certain officials - keeping the French colony in chaos means the Azanian colony will be dominating the hydrocarbon market. This might be just some local loose cannons or a strategy that has been approved in the higher echelons. Totally deniable, of course. Just like how the desperate refugees in Fromme sell scavenged industrial parts to the Azanian rebuilding efforts: it might not be a deliberate strategy of sabotage, but it has the same effect.

As I view Azania itself, it is a federation that has learned to solve things through endless democratic deliberation. Every tribe, network, stakeholder group or whatever gets dragged into a federal apparatus that is fair and based on endless compromising. This is of course very inefficient for actually doing something but it ensures that extremists never get a chance. Azania is less of a nanny state than many other major nations, partially because actually deciding on implementing it would be so troublesome. This has the paradoxical effect that it is more libertarian than many other major nations: the slow political system actually doesn't get involved in too much everyday life.

Of course, the process of getting to this stage was likely not smooth. Some references in our game have suggested that during the TW South Africa protected its borders and resources through proactive and ruthless policies. Yet this period also created the cultural core of Azanian identity, with heroes like general Thabo Mbeki still remembered.

 

[rfmcdpei]

As I view Azania itself, it is a federation that has learned to solve things through endless democratic deliberation. Every tribe, network, stakeholder group or whatever gets dragged into a federal apparatus that is fair and based on endless compromising. This is of course very inefficient for actually doing something but it ensures that extremists never get a chance. Azania is less of a nanny state than many other major nations, partially because actually deciding on implementing it would be so troublesome. This has the paradoxical effect that it is more libertarian than many other major nations: the slow political system actually doesn't get involved in too much everyday life.

Speaking as a non-European, in many ways this federation looks a lot like the modern European Union. Extending it beyond Sol system, never mind to Kimanjano and Joi but to Tirane, wouldn't exactly increase response time.

Of course, the process of getting to this stage was likely not smooth. Some references in our game have suggested that during the TW South Africa protected its borders and resources through proactive and ruthless policies. Yet this period also created the cultural core of Azanian identity, with heroes like general Thabo Mbeki still remembered.

That period might just have created the hard core around which the nucleus of the Azanian federation formed.

 

[Anders]

Speaking as a non-European, in many ways this federation looks a lot like the modern European Union. Extending it beyond Sol system, never mind to Kimanjano and Joi but to Tirane, wouldn't exactly increase response time.

A long response time is not necessarily a bad thing if you don't need your government to hold your hand and make decisions for you. Political decisions do not have to run all aspects of life - but it is very possible that in the Core this is what happens. They may get implemented rather subtly (for some really creepy and good ideas, check out The Recursion by Tony Ballantyne; the Core could have a low-tech version of Social Care). In many societies this means that the colonies are kept at very tight reigns - which requires political cohesion at home. If that is lacking the colonies will tend to go their own way, or flounder.

 

[Peter Schutze]

slightly off topic but I've always wondered how Africa would have faired if the map was redrawn based on ethnic boundaries rather than maintaining the colonialist imposed borders.

Thats basically what happened to israel in 2300 and what I picture happened within the Azania area as it reformed. Rather than existing boundaries, the internal boundaries are based on 'ethnic' areas with major resources excised to be federation controlled (ie not under an ethnic domination) to ensure the benefits are better shared

 

[rfmcdpei]

Thats basically what happened to israel in 2300 and what I picture happened within the Azania area as it reformed. Rather than existing boundaries, the internal boundaries are based on 'ethnic' areas with major resources excised to be federation controlled (ie not under an ethnic domination) to ensure the benefits are better shared

One reason that some South African Afrikaner conservatives refused to accept the legitimacy of the ANC as a negotiating partner was that they didn't it could possibly be an organization with mass support. Each of the nine (or eleven?) recognized nations in South Africa had to go through its own national renaissance, just as the Afrikaners went through their own. If a timelien where the ANC or somesuch leads something like a revolutionary war against the old regime, that is going to go quickly.

The internal cultural borders of Azania are probably quite mixed up, what with three centuries of internal migration and immigration on top of what were fairly weak tribal boundaries to start with. Cultural differences might well be more in Azania on a rural:urban basis, not in a straightforward comparison of (state/province/cantondepartment).

 

[Anders]

I think what created Azania was the realization that by banding together the different forces of South Africa actually had a chance: separate, and they would turn into something like Europe. So Azania emerged after some heavy politicking, maybe a coup or two (by now nicely whitewashed in school textbook files) and a long period of messy instability. It would probably not have succeeded without some outside help (I can imagine Brits, Australians and other Commonwealth nations networking with them) and the tantalum in the end guaranteed prosperity and stability.

In modern Azania old cultures are probably not crucial. People certainly like to occasionally bring up their Venda or Ndebele background, but it is likely in the same way US people occasionally refer to "the old country". Or how Swedes joke about whether we should return Scania to Denmark - 300 years ago it mattered, now it is history. Azanian cooking shows sometimes have revivals of "authentic Xhosa cooking" (i.e., how to program your kitchenbot to do it).

I would also expect Azania to have plenty of new tribal cultures, or rather, what we otherwise would regard as subcultures. Some are just styles, others have political sides (like the francophile movement) and some are bizarre combinations like Zulu-Belter-Socialists.