The Rise of the African Confederacy

[Mara Lithaen]

(OOC: Per EM's approval, I will be RPing in Botswana, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe as the Confederacy of West Africa. Please wait to post until after I've posted the public DoE with the flag and declaration in it. This first post is merely backstory.)

Gaborone was a wasteland, a shell of what it had been a hundred and sixty years before. Few people bothered trying to live in the city anymore, as the gangs which haunted the place made scratching out a living as a scavenger or salvager almost unbearably difficult.

It was into this environment that a quartet of slightly-oversize Stryker APCs rolled, into the outskirts of the ruined city, passing burnt-out husks of cars and buildings on their way inward. Every so often, a gang would get the bright idea of rattling off a burst of gunfire at the APCs – which promptly blew them away with autocannon and machinegun fire. The gangers quickly learned that to travel into the range of the convoy of black-and-red vehicles was to die a horrible death at the hands of the gun crews, if one was stupid enough to fire on them.

The quartet eventually arrived at the former Botswanan capitol building, debarking from their transports in a clunk of semi-powered armor, a particularly large specimen of a man exiting the personnel hatch with his visor up, a lit cigar perched between his lips and a GPMG held in one hand. “Well hell.” He muttered, a distinctly American Southern accent issued with the words. “This place ain’t anythin’ but a ghost town.”

“Yes, but it’s our ghost town, now.” Said a particularly black woman wearing a less massive version of the same armor, helmet exchanged for a dark navy beret. Her accent was something more Australian, revolver GLM cradled in her arms. She quirked a slim, dark eyebrow at the huge man. “Don’t tell me you actually expected people to stay in this hellhole, Dante.”

The man grunted. “I guess not. I reckon this place fell to anarchy right quickly. Still, you’d think some damn fool would’ve at least tried to claim the place. All this steel could make a guy very, very rich. Start his own empire-rich.”

“Which is exactly why we’re here, isn’t it? Recon Three reported the Treasury vault was still sealed and probably still full of gold and diamond.” The woman said, grinning slightly nastily. “With that kind of finance in hand we can rule the place. The outer communities we’ve run through want to be part of a country – so let’s give them one.”

“And we all get filthily rich in the process, of course, Margaret.” The man drawled, an eager look carved into his scarred visage.

“Of course.” She said, smirking. “But none of that will happen until we get inside and find those diamonds.”

“Then what the hell are we waiting for?”

~~~

Meanwhile, in the former capitols of Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe, similar infiltrations were underway, teams setting up explosive charges in the countries’ sealed treasury vaults, blowing the doors open with the power of advanced plastic explosives. The recovery teams strode directly past the now-worthless paper monies and directed themselves towards the precious metals which made up the true value of the nations’ currencies. There were other vaults to be blown – private as well as governmental – but the treasure trove of diamond and precious metals were already amounting to a truly monumental fortune in today’s currency, even without having begun to salvage the old, still-useful steel that made up the cities themselves.

Dante stood in front of a smallish steel crate packed fit to bursting with gold and silver, running the ancient coins through his fingers, testing the smelted bars in another crate with a hammer and screwdriver. “This crap is pure, Margaret.” He said, inspecting the gold. “My God, there has to be several billions’ worth of gold in here.”

“That’s exactly what we’re going to need if we’re going to get this new country up and running, Dante. “ she said, popping open a small box of gold, half-dazed.

“Just why in the hell aren’t we taking this and runnin’?” he groused, stubbing his cigar out on the lid of the steel grate and lighting another. “With this we could all retire and live like kings and queens.”

“Because, if we build up our own country when we own the industries, we’ll make more than this will ever be worth. And we’ll have [i]power.[/i] Power we can actually wield, power greater than just having money will grant us.” She explained, looking up from her box briefly to catch his eye when she began to speak of power. His face shifted – he liked the sound of actual power. “Just think about it, Dante. A whole nation’s military at your disposal, with all the firepower and toys you could ever ask for.” She said, dropping her voice and pushing his buttons, stoking his love of all things that go boom.

“All right, damnit… I’ll be along for the duration, if that kind of reward’s on the table.” He said, taking a long drag on his cigar. “But I’ll be bookin’ it if this all goes south.”

“Don’t worry, Dante. I’ve got this all figured out.” she said, shutting her box's lid.

~~~

Many of the various tribes had fallen back to their internal power struggles, the struggles which the nations of old had attempted to end. They fought and warred amongst eachother, killing indiscriminately and destabilizing the region as a whole. The Confederate movement was slow to catch on - very slow - but once it had, it exploded, spreading like a wildfire throughout the savannas and deserts, the plains and hills and mountains. The original, small group of five hundred troops swelled, growing to seven thousand within a week of the movement's explosion, and thirty thousand within a month. For the first time in far too long, roads were actually patrolled, and the violence of the tribes and gangs slowed, finally nearly coming to a stop. Margaret started a company, the West African Mining and Salvage Corporation, and put the region's destitute inhabitants to work, tearing down the old cities. Her partner Mgombe Naganda built new buildings practically the instant she had torn down the old ones and salvaged what was useful.

Under Margaret's direction, Dante started ArmaCorp., buying aluminum and steel from her and turning them into vehicles and weapons for the small army that was growing in the still-unorganized region. But he also built tools; his company made shovels, axes, plows, tractors, irrigators - all of these they provided to the farmers of the three regions, and the effects of the revitalization were felt when farmers tilled previously infertile fields and harvested their first crops from them, selling to the newly-monied citizenry of the regions, trading in gold and silver for job lots of food.

The rebuilding would take a long time to finish, but it had finally begun.

~~~

As the regions became more dependent on one another, became more affluent, as they grew to know and trust one another, the first murmurs of incorporation spread. They grew and grew until they became a roar of demand - the people of West Africa wanted to unite. Representatives from all over the regions gathered in Gaborone, and set about studying several examples of a constitution - The ones of the old countries, and even of the United States, so far away. Inspired by the other constitutions, they set about hammering out the details of just what they expected to have in the constitution - protections from tribal and racial discrimination, economic rights, the whole nine yards. And then they began to write.

The finished document was turned over to the various representatives at the convention, and they in turn distributed it to the peoples and places they hailed from for a vote, a vote on the creation of a Confederacy of West Africa (which, despite the name, had far more in common with a cross between an oligarchy and a federal system than a confederacy, being comprised of a small High Council (made up of the leaders of the Confederate movement, i.e., Margaret Stratton, Dante Willamette and Mgombo Naganda, whose progeny and family collectively eventually became known as the Old Families) headed by a President followed by the popularly-elected House of Representatives. The House had the power to propose and vote on laws, and held the power of the purse; the High Council lacked the power of the purse but held the power to declare war. The President was the Commander of the armed forces, and had the power of veto over any law that crossed her desk.

The result of the vote was 82% in favor, 16% against, and 2% undecided/did not vote.

And thus was the Confederacy of West Africa born.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Mara Lithaen

[jeff744]

nvm.

Edited October 7, 2012 by jeff744

[Mara Lithaen]

[center][img]http://imageshack.us/a/img705/5715/cwa2.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][i]"[/i][b][i]We the people of West Africa, do hereby ordain and create the Confederacy of West Africa to establish justice, and insure domestic tranquility; to promote general prosperity and provide for our common defense; to establish and secure freedom for ourselves and those who follow us."[/i][/b][/center]

The preamble to the Constitution was simple, straight and to the point. The first elections would be held shortly, but the Council, being the only current active legislative body, reached out to the AUP.

[quote]To: The African Unity Pact
From: The Council of the Confederacy of West Africa

Subject: Membership in the AUP

To the esteemed leaders of the AUP,

My name is Margaret Stratton, and I represent the Confederate Council of West Africa. We have recently come into existence, and as such have much rebuilding and economic growth to undertake before we are anything close to competitive on the world stage. We would like to join the AUP, as the overall supranational governing body of Africa, in order to obtain access to our neighbors' markets as well as to obtain access to allies.

We await your response eagerly.

Margaret Stratton,
Counselwoman of the Confederacy[/quote]

[jeff744]

The Western Union recognizes [s]a state of war with[/s] this new nation.

OOC: Assuming IC that the elections would have never happened had she not gotten approval.

Edited October 7, 2012 by jeff744

[Evangeline Anovilis]

"The Free Republic of Ontario holds back any recognition, untl the time that a formal document is out, showing the AUP recognising this regime. Despite this, we wish every regime well, that cares for the people living under it and should this be such a regime, which we hope it to be, then we would see no problem in recognising it."

-[i]Ephraim Halliwell[/i]
[b]Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Free Republic of Ontario[/b]

[Executive Minister]

"The African Union Protectorate Authority (AUPA), in conjunction with its military arm, the African Union Security Forces (AUSF), has long operated with some militant factions present within its protectorates, against other more unsavory factions. We are glad to see such a faction has managed to garner such support so as to realize its own self-determination.

The African Unity Pact, and later African Union was originally established to stem the growing tide of foreign influence upon the African continent. We stand for both mutual development and protection of all AU member states, as well as unaffiliated peoples and city-states currently under the protection of the AUSF, a status your own people enjoyed only until recently prior to Confederation's formation. We welcome any and all attempts by protectorate regions to self-govern, and will fight to protect that right to do so. So long as the Confederacy strives towards these goals, becoming a responsible member of the African community, so long as the AU prospers, so shall you."

OOC: Talked it over with the rest and things seem cool. For now.

[Lestari]

"On behalf of the nation and the people of Pará, I would like to extend formal and diplomatic recognition of the Confederacy. May your people find prosperity and happiness in their newfound sovereignty, and may your nation flourish in peace and progress."

- Premier Isabel Vieira

[TheShammySocialist]

"The Republic of Greater Colombia congratulates this Confederacy on its new-found independence, may your country bring sovereign rule for long years in a place that has seen little of such in a long time."

[b]Presidente[/b][i] Ignacio de Ardanza[/i]

[Axolotlia]

"The People's Republic of Africa extends diplomatic recognition and greetings. We are happy to see the people of another African territory springing up to their national independence. We look forward to getting to know our African brethren better through increased communications and trade."

[Dinoz94]

The Democratic Republic of Yoitsu hereby extends recognition towards the African Confederacy and congratulate their people for rising up and forging a new nation free of capitalist influence.

[Lavo]

The Republic of Papua recognizes the African Confederacy and greets it to the everchanging world stage.