Pan-Africa (comics)

In the Judge Dredd comic book series, Pan-Africa is what remains of Africa following the Atom Wars, and is the home of several Megacities. A strip, Pan-African Judges by Paul Cornell and Siku, fleshed out most of its detail.

Description

In the 21st Century, the nations of Africa teamed up to rebel against the crippling interest on loans received from Western banks and Megacities. The Credit Wars was the result, up until the Atom Wars occurred and devastated much of the planet. Africa took severe damage - everything from South Africa up to the Zambian border (the dead Southern Radiation Zone), half of Madagascar, and a stretch of coastline from Egypt down to the Ethiopian border are radioactive zones; Lake Victoria has turned into the large "Kenyetta Sea" that goes further into Tanzania; and the vast Great African Dustbowl in the north-west spreads from central Guinea to part of Algeria and the Nigerian border, swallowing up Mali and most of Mauritania on the way. However, less of the continent is radioactive desert than North America.

While most of the future Earth ended up ruled by single governments ruling a single Megacity, Pan-Africa is divided up into multiple governments with different governmental styles: Communism, fundamentalist Islamic theocracies, criminal areas, free trading states, dictatorships, Megacities and capitalist states. The Pan-African Compromise allows free travel and trade between many of these areas,^[1] though a number of polities are not part of the Compromise. In the Development Areas, created as a compromise post-Credit Wars, anyone with money could buy some land to establish their own state.^[2]

The Pan-African Committee is located in the city-state of Siwa.

The continent was devastated by the brief return of the Yoruba gods in 2117.^[3]

Judge force

Under the Compromise, a Pan-African Judge force was created to maintain order across the continent (and in Simba City^[4]). This is made difficult by the refusal of many of the states to recognise the Judge's authority, and as a result the Judges are given the power to enforce the law by any means necessary. The Judges go around in squads, with callsigns Justice Patrol [number], for better effectiveness. The Judge uniforms are green and gold, with shoulder armour designed to resemble a rhino and a lion, and with a white cape. The protagonists in the Pan-African Judges stories were Justice Patrol 8, led by Judge Kwame Assengai, who sacrificed himself to stop the Yoruba gods (but returned to life as a clone).

Luxor, Simba City, and Casablanca possess their own Judge forces - in Casablanca's case, this comes after a period of being under no formal law. Luxor's Judge uniforms and legal system is modeled on Ancient Egypt,^[5] whereas Casablanca's law is based on Sufi principles.^[6] Simba City's look exactly the same as the Pan-African Judges, when shown in "Judge Dredd: Fetish".

Mega-Cities and polities

Two African megacities and two smaller city-states were listed in a world map in Anderson: Shamballa,^[7] with more detail listed in the African map in Judge Dredd Megazine.^[8]

The known Megacities of Pan-Africa are:

• Simba City: in prog 701 map, placed roughly in Cameroon; in Megazine map, placed in Gabon, incorporating Libreville and spreading into Equatorial Guinea. Stated in map to be outside Pan-African Judge jurisdiction and governing its own affairs, though Simba armed units assisted Pan African forces against the Yoruba gods; Simba City's territory incorporates the former Republic of the Congo. Had hostile relations with Mega-City One after it placed sanctions on Simba City in 2098.^[9] Part of the Global Partnership Treaty in the 22nd century, giving it some say over Luna-1, until the treaty was annulled in 2126.^[10] Has the Yondo Black Memorial Hoverport. Judges shown in the Dredd: Darkside story wore light blue uniforms with animal-skin shoulder pads and holster.
• Luxor (Egypt): the city and Judges pattern themselves after Ancient Egyptian iconography and religious practices. The Judges are highly draconian: apple thieves can lose their arms (a sentence considered merciful), people can be flogged for giving a Judge the wrong kind of look, and prisoners are executed after their sentence.^[11] Stated in the Africa map to not be part of the Pan African Compromise, and to be also known as "Mega-City Six". Had a cultural exchange with Mega-City One in 2115.
• New Jerusalem (north-east Ethiopia): megacity stated in Pan-Africa map to be the capital of Ethiope (see below), and the new Jewish homeland after the loss of Israel in the Atomic Wars. Briefly entered into a trade agreement with Mega-City One in 2111.^[12] Has Christian paramilitaries, who in 2117 had backing from InterDep.^[13]
• Casablanca: city-state, stated in Pan-Africa map to have moved east into Algeria to escape the Great African Dustbowl (the Shamballa map had located the city in Algeria by mistake); as large as a megacity, highly disorganised with no formal law beyond an Algerian military commander in 2116. In the earlier "Judge Dredd: Judgement Day", badly attacked by zombies. By 2118 ("Judge Dredd: Darkside"), a Judge force existed that seemed to operate on sufi principles.^[14] Was part of the Global Partnership Treaty for Luna-1. Outside of Pan-African Compromise.
• Zambia Metropolitan: mentioned in "Return of the Taxidermist", Megazine 2.37-46
• Dar es Salaam: first shown on the world map, said in Pan Africa map to have become a megacity-sized squatter camp on the coast.
• Siwa: symbol of the compromise. Somewhere on the Egyptian coast. Destroyed in 2117.
• Umur: name mentioned on 701 map, said in some sources^[15] to be a mega-city in Libya. (See below)
• Timbuk2: future Timbuktu; in 2121, it was the newest mega-city in the world but still policed by Pan-African Judges. A Sirian entity was found underneath the city.^[16]
• Kaduna City: minor city-state north of River Niger. All 80,000 inhabitants were slaughtered in 2117 during the Yoruba crisis.^[17]
• New Nairobi: mentioned in Judge Dredd: The Final Cut, set in 2126.

Countries listed in the Pan Africa map are:

• Algeria
• Libya: said to be a "secular Islamic state"
• Guinea Confederacy: everything on the north-west coast from Guinea up to Morocco, hemmed in by the Dustbowl.
• Sierra Leone
• Liberia
• Volta: Ivory Coast and Ghana, possibly also Togo.
• Greater Nigeria: Nigeria and Niger, possibly Benin. Devastated in 2117
• Chad: devastated in 2117
• Cameroon: devastated in 2117
• Central African Republic
• Ethiope: former Ethiopia, includes the "disputed territories" of Somalia
• Kenya - mentioned in "Return of the Taxidermist", set in 2115.^[18]
• Malagasy Republic: former Madagascar; isolationist after the Credit Wars, half-destroyed by accidental nuclear assault and fighting to save the rainforests.

The Development Areas are:

• Katanga Development Area: a large section of the south-east, from the Southern Radiation Zone/Zambia to central Uganda and as far west as half the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dar es Salaam is on its coast. Devastated in 2117.

• Guinea Development Area: south-west. The rest of the Democratic Republic and Angola. Contains the Communist State of Freedonia, capital Castrovia; and the Free Trades of Cred City. Devastated in 2117.

• Congo Development Area: everything remaining, from central Uganda up to Egypt, that isn't already listed. The Apelino crime family (actual apes) moved there from Mega-City One in 2116.^[19] Devastated in 2117.

Design and criticism of Pan African Judges

The concept of a Pan-African Judge first turned up in a poster for the 1988 Judge Dredd Mega-Special drawn by Brendan McCarthy: the text said they had the hardest job of any Judge, "policing a society that mixes centuries' old tribal law and customs with high 22nd century technology. Applicants chosen for linguistic and diplomatic skills." The design would make a brief cameo at an international summit in the Judgement Day storyline but after that it would be replaced by a Siku design, starting with 1993's first Pan African Judges. In an article in Judge Dredd Megazine #238, Siku said he got the job after criticising the McCarthy design as too stereotyped: "I asked, why do people think all Africans run around in animal prints? [Editor] Dave Bishop challenged me to come up with something better."

In the same article, Siku referred to Paul Cornell's first Pan African script as being well researched but flawed in its approach - "imperialism, jungle safaris, that's the way Westerners see Africa". (The second Pan African strip was written by Siku alone and had Yoruba gods attacking the continent.) He did enjoy having a "token white guy" Judge. Cornell himself referred to his work as "a trudge", feeling it had too many competing ideas in one story and that his dialogue was "overblown"; he was happy, however, with his decision to deliberately show Islam and a Muslim Judge, as he felt the Judge Dredd universe was "a little too disconnected from the real world" by turning all the world's religions into the worship of Grud.

Publication

• Pan-African Judges:
  • "Pan-African Judges" (by Paul Cornell and Siku, in Judge Dredd Megazine #2.44-49, 1993-1994)
  • "Fever of the Gods" ( art by Siku, story by Akin Siku), in Judge Dredd Megazine #3.6-3.13, 1995-1996)

• Judge Dredd: "Book of the Dead" (by Grant Morrison/Mark Millar and Dermot Power, in 2000 AD #859-866, 1993, reprinted 1996, ISBN 0-7493-9692-X )

See also

• Judge (2000 AD)

References

External links

• Book of the Dead reprint information