The Forty-Fifth HoS List Challenge

[Walpurgisnacht]

[trendy youth rabbi voice] Cornershop may have had a brimful of Asha on the 45, but personally we're hoping for a brimful of lists!

The rules are simple; I give a prompt, and you have until 9:00pm on the last day of the month (or whenever I remember to post the announcement on that day) to post a list related to the prompt. As for what constitutes a list? If you'd personally post it in Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State rather than another thread, I think that's a good enough criterion. Writeups are preferred, please don't post a blank list, and I'd also appreciate it if you titled your list for polling purposes. Once the deadline hits, we will open up a multiple choice poll, cocurrent with the new challenge going up, and whoever receives the most votes after a week gets the entirely immaterial prize.

Ahh, October. The nights are drawing in, the cold is starting to bite, and we all start to think of that great celebration awaiting us. That's right, Rosh Hashanah starts tomorrow. Later on I believe there is a holiday honouring the pumpkin, as some kind of American substitute for Bonfire Night. Another thing we do slightly differently to the US is timing our Black History months--over here, thanks to the different academics who introduced it, it is also October. As such, this challenge is themed around, you guessed it, Black History. There's a decent amount of it, and it can go quite a few different ways.

Good luck!

 

[NotDavidSoslan]

I was just writing a TL where Madagascar modernized during the 19th century and preparing to post it to SLP

The African Tiger | List of Presidents of Zaire

1. Mobutu Sese Seko (1965–1997)
2. Nzanga Mobutu (1997–2011)
3. Jean-Pierre Bemba (2011)
4. Étienne Tshisekedi (2011–2017)
5. Félix Tshisekedi (2017–2019)
6. Martin Fayulu (2019–)

In 1970, the Popular Movement for the Revolution adopted a policy of "societal transformation" and "developmentalism", seeking to transform Congo-Leopoldville (renamed to Zaire a year later) into an industrial corporatist economy, rejecting both free market capitalism and communism. The main goal was to develop an indigenous business class.

President for life Mobutu Sese Seko used revenue from natural resource exports to industrialize Zaire, developing heavy industry such as mineral processing and steel production plants, and seeking to curb the abuses committed by foreign corporations. While the Central African rainforest suffered a lot of environmental damage, and Mobutu and his regime were highly corrupt, Zaire was one of the fastest-growing economies of the 1970s and 1980s, especially after the developed world deindustrialized. The economic boom allowed Zaire to pay an important regional role, intervening in Angola between 1982 and 1990 (resulting in an UNITA victory and Savimbi as President) and Rwanda in 1994 (stopping the Rwandan genocide and installing a pro-Zaire government in Kigali).

In 1991, Mobutu began democratic reforms, which continued after his death in 1997. Nzanga Mobutu was elected President in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010, in elections that were not free and fair, but he privatized state-owned companies and was way more tolerant of opposition than his father. In 2004, Zaire intervened in the Central African Republic in support of François Bozizé, but got bogged down and eventually withdrew in 2010.

After Nzanga won a fourth term that year, mass protests took place that led him to resign on 14 February 2011, leaving Jean-Pierre Bemba as acting president until Étienne Tshisekedi was elected. Tshisekedi implemented major economic and political reforms, but his advanced age proved to be a handicap, and his son Félix did not run for a full term in 2019.

As of 2024, Zaire is one of the strongest economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a GDP of $600 billion, although much of the population struggles with poverty and crime (including rebellions), and the HDI is 0.618.

 

[Alberto Knox]

Warning: Occasional use of outdated racial terms.





A Home on the Range

“I have taken my people out to the roads and in dark places and looked to the stars of heaven and prayed for the Southern Man to turn his heart.”

- Benjamin Singleton, an honorary “Founding Father” of the Republic of Africa-in-America

"The white people have no time to make excuses for the shortcomings of the negro…"

- Napoleon B. Broward, 7th President of the CSA


Presidents of the Confederate States of America

1861-1862: Jefferson Davis (Nonpartisan)
Feb.1861 (w/ Alexander Stephens) elected provisionally by Congress
1862-1868: Jefferson Davis (Nonpartisan)
Nov.1861 (w/ Alexander Stephens) elected unopposed
1868-1874: Albert Sidney Johnston (Pro-Davis Independent, later Confederate)
1867 (w/ John Reagan) def. Joseph E. Johnston (Anti-Davis Independent)
1874-1880: Robert M.T. Hunter (Whig)
1873 (w/ Henry Foote) def. John C. Breckinridge (Confederate)
1880-1889: Wade Hampton III (Confederate) [1]
1879 (w/ Lucius Lamar) def. James Longstreet (Whig)
1885 (w/ Lucius Lamar) def. William Mahone (Whig), Henry Grady (Populist)
1889-1892: Jubal A. Early (Military) [2]
1892-1904: Benjamin Tillman (Populist) [3]
1891 (w/ Thomas E. Watson) def. Jubal A. Early (Military)
1897 (w/ Napoleon B. Broward) elected unopposed
1904-1910: Napoleon B. Broward (Populist)
1903 (w/ Roger Q. Mills) elected unopposed
1910-1916: Benjamin Tillman (Populist)
1909 (w/ James K. Vardaman) def. Napoleon B. Broward (Independent)
1916-0000: Woodrow Wilson (Populist)
1915 (w/ Thomas Dixon Jr.) elected unopposed
1921 (w/ Thomas Dixon Jr.) elected unopposed

[1] Abolished single term limit by constitutional amendment.
[2] Assumed office by coup d'état.
[3] Restored “civilian government”.

Presidents of the Republic of Africa-in-America

1892-1895: J.E.B Stuart (Provisional Confederate Military Authority)

1895-1901: Henry McNeal Turner (Independent, later National)
1894 (w/ Pinckney B. Stewart), def. Bass Reeves (Independent)
1901-1903: Francis L. Cardozo (National) [1]
1900 (w/ Edward P. McCabe) def. Richard R. Wright (Liberty)
1903-1913: Edward P. McCabe (National)
1906 (w/ Pierre C. Landry) def. Butler R. Wilson (Liberty)
1913-0000: Henry O. Flipper (Liberty)
1912 (w/ Oscar De Priest) def. Edward P. McCabe (National)
1918 (w/ Oscar De Priest) def. John Roy Lynch (National)

[1] Died in office



Having played and won the game of paramilitary violence and intimidation that Confederate politics had become, the newly inaugurated President Tillman threw himself into reshaping the CSA from a backwards military-planter oligarchy into his own vision of radical populist authoritarianism. Throughout this process, Tillman was outspoken on remaining true to the nation’s founding principle of white superiority. It may then seem strange that one of his first major actions was to hand over a large chunk of Confederate territory to a group of free blacks.

As the long occupation of Cuba had dragged on, and casualties from disease and insurgency rose, a desperate President Hampton had sought to replenish rapidly diminishing manpower by offering emancipation and citizenship to any slave prepared to undertake military service. This radical turnabout from the arch-planter president would be the first in a series of events culminating in General Early’s “March on Richmond” and the seizure of government by the army in 1889. However, though Hampton’s tentative plans for gradual emancipation (drawn up in the hopes of garnering international favour) were swiftly quashed, the Early Administration would quietly maintain the black regiments in Cuba and even recruited further hoping to overwhelm the insurgency by sheer force of numbers.

Now Tillman, preparing to withdraw from Cuba entirely, was faced with the problem of over ten thousand black soldiers (many who had been in active service for close to a decade) who were expecting certain promises fulfilled and already teetering on the brink of mutiny.

The “Republic of Africa-in-America” was Tillman’s bold solution. Texas west of the 100th meridian was to be partitioned off as a new independent republic (under Confederate protection) and reserved for settlement exclusively by free blacks. The veterans of Cuba would have their citizenship, but not in the Confederacy. Indeed, they would largely secure their new home for themselves, redeployed from Cuba to support the relocation of white settlers, the clearing of remnant Indians and to prepare homesteads for their families who would follow.

At one stroke, Tillman had created (in his mind at least) a solution to the immediate issue of the black veterans and the long term issue of black citizenhood. As Tillman began to revisit Hampton’s ideas on emancipation, he had ensured a future where no white man need fear the prospect of a black as his political equal. A “free” black could choose to remain a subject of the CSA with few rights, or head west and take up the full privileges of citizenship in a black republic. Additionally, the new republic provided a buffer on the Confederacy's western border, which might prove advantageous in the event of war with the Union.

What had not been anticipated by either Tillman’s government or the initial settlers was a rapid second wave of immigration from the Union itself.

The significantly reduced black population of the United States, while benefiting from some improvement in civil rights following the War of Secession, had become conscious that their smaller numbers would make any calls for true equality much easier to ignore.To a significant subset, increasingly convinced of the absolute need for black self-determination and nationhood, Africa-in-America (though a Confederate creation) appeared too good an opportunity to let pass.

Prominent black figures such as Benjamin Singleton and Henry McNeal Turner, who in the postbellum era promoted black settlement in the Union West or abroad in Africa, now worked to finance and organise wagon trains crossing the border (via Kansas and Union Indian Territory) into the new black republic. Though the elderly Singleton would pass away before he could complete the journey himself, his contributions were considered great enough that the provisional capital at Big Spring was renamed in his honour.

Africa-in-America grew slowly but steadily, a nation largely of farmers and ranchers making the best of the arid West Texas plains, with some limited industry developing in the larger towns. A trickle of settlers would continue from the north, as well as larger numbers from the CSA, following the formal end of Confederate slavery in 1900 with the “Jubilee Decree”. Tillman’s administration would further encourage black emigration through the “Work for Freedom” program, covering the expense in exchange for a term of unpaid labour on one of the Confederacy’s many public works projects.

The members of the Union Exodus, by dint of having had greater business and education opportunities in the north, would have a disproportionate socio-economic influence in the republic’s first decade and would dominate its politics through the National Party. Focused on internal development and stability, the National presidents consistently adopted a quietly deferential relationship to the Confederacy in matters of diplomacy. The veterans of Cuba would make their opposition heard through the Liberty Party, advocating for a more independent stance and an end to “the dictates of our former masters”. Despite representing the founding settlers of the nation, they would fail to secure office in its early years.

A turn in relations would come with Tillman’s retirement in 1904 and the ascension of his anointed successor, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. Taking Tillman’s doctrine of citizenship to its logical extreme, Broward had concluded it to be unacceptable for white and black to live alongside each other in any capacity. His 1907 Deportation Act called for the immediate expulsion of all black subjects from Confederate territory, with the majority marked for deportation to Africa-in-America. President McCabe, believing there to be no other choice, acquiesced to the arrival of a new population that his country’s still limited agricultural base was incapable of supporting in the short-term. The Second Trail of Tears would throw Africa-in-America into a state of demographic crisis, where famine and epidemic disease would become rampant for years after.

Broward’s objective of expelling all of the Confederacy’s approximately 25 million black residents remained unachieved before the 1909 election and Benjamin Tillman’s dramatic return to the Presidency. However, before it ended, the Confederacy’s black population had been reduced by approximately 15%. While quickly repealing the Deportation Act and regretting the disruption caused within his own borders; the returning Tillman would make no efforts to reverse the deportations or to provide relief to Africa-in-America, even during the Great Famine of 1910. Whether from the families of Cuban veterans, northern ‘Exodusters’ or the recently displaced; all stripes of African-Americans (as they increasingly referred to themselves) were now united in one cause, they would never submit to such indignities again.

McCabe was thrown out at the next election in favour of the Liberty candidate, retired general Henry Ossian Flipper. A decorated veteran of Cuba and hero of the initial settlement, Flipper would work tirelessly to help his country recover. Seeing a need for allies in this work, Flipper made efforts to strengthen ties with the Union, finding a keen and active partner in the newly elected President Roosevelt on matters such as trade and famine relief. This soured poor relations with the Confederacy even further.

Matters came to a head in early 1920, when oil was struck to the west of Singleton. As the extent of the Permian Basin was realised, Flipper announced the establishment of the government-backed “African-American Oil Company” to develop this lucrative new resource. This was met with a pointed response from Confederate president Woodrow Wilson, demanding that the new oil field was to be granted to “Confederate Oil of Texas”, justifying it as compensation for the debt that the “ungrateful negro republic” still owed for the expense of its creation.

Heated diplomatic exchanges followed. Flipper refused such a concession point-blank. Wilson made clear that the oil field would be secured by force if necessary. Roosevelt, nearing the end of his second term, warned that any direct action against Africa-in-America’s sovereignty would be met with a Union military response in kind.

While both Roosevelt and Flipper had hoped that the Confederacy would back down at this threat, Wilson instead concluded that a moment of destiny had arrived.

On June 19th 1920, Confederate troops crossed the border onto African-American soil. The Great American War had begun.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Still not sure if this is in good taste or not, but it's not as if this contest can spare any lists.

To Break The Rod and Rend The Gyve​

Governor-Generals of Freetown Colony
1776-1778: General Sir Guy Carleton
1778-1785: Colonel Thomas Carleton
1785-1792: Lieutenant John Clarkson
1792-1799: Colonel Titus "Tye" Murray

Governors of the Crown Colony of Jubilee
1793-1799: Thomas Peters (Independent (as Mayor of Freetown))
1796: Second Maroon War ends; surrendered Maroons offered settlement in Jubilee
1799-1800: Gowan Pamphlet ("Methodist" faction (as Mayor of Freetown))
1800-1805: Zachary Macaulay ("Company" faction)
1800: Rum Affair; Ishmael York imprisoned for trading spirits without a governing license, Gowan Pamphlet removed from office for attempting to pardon him
1804: Macaulay vetoes rival candidates for Governor; Commissary Officer Olaudah Equiano resigns in protest, runs as anti-Company candidate
1805-1807: Olaudah Equiano ("Nationalist" faction)
1805: Petition to dissolve Sierra Leone Company's executive power over Jubilee submitted to Parliament
1807: Parliamentary petition succeeds; Equiano steps down in favour of deputy and returns to London
1807-1816: Isaac Anderson (Sons of Africa)
1808: Franchise extended to property-holders among native population willing to swear loyalty oath
1809: Jubilee passes resolution of recognition of Haitian independence; General Biassou establishes an embassy
1812: German Coast slave uprising occurs; survivors escape to Jubilee via Haiti
1816-1819: Harry Hosier (Methodist People's)
1817: New Nantucket and New Baltimore founded as settlements for repatriation of New Englander, Marylander, freedmen with Sierra Leone Company assistance
1819-1825: William Easmon (Sons of Africa)
1825-1829: Lott Cary (Sons of Africa)
1828: Hut War; tribal bloc voting under auspice enacted in exchange for renewal of "hut tax" per dwelling
1829-1831: Lott Cary ("Exterior" Sons of Africa)
1831-1837: Denmark Vesey (Methodist People's)
1832: Virginian Slave Rebellion occurs; survivors, including leader Nathaniel Turner, escape to Jubilee via Haiti
1837-1840: Lott Cary ("Exterior" Sons of Africa)
1840-1843: Richard Preston (Methodist People's)
1840: Signs of the Trees Affair; Reverend Nathaniel Turner chastised for blasphemy, Methodist congregation splits between Turnerites and Conventionists
1843-1849: Sengbe Pieh ("Interior" Sons of Africa)
1844: Third Seminole War ends in stalemate between Seminole forces and Republic of Georgia; Black Seminoles offered land in Jubilee
1849-1855: John B. Russwurm ("Exterior" Sons of Africa)
1855-1861: George William Nicol ("Exterior" Sons of Africa)
1861-0000: Martin Delany (Ethiopian People's)
1862: Ripley Affair: Captain Robert Smalls hijacks the CCS Ripley on a "trade mission" to Whydah and sails to Jubilee, seeking sanctuary
1863: Jubilee declares state of hostilities with Confederation of the Carolinas without British consent; marked as the start of Jubileean independence by some authors

TITUSOPOLIS RATIONALIST SOCIETY: FIND THE INCONSISTENCIES CHALLENGE
This week, the source inconsistent with reality is a speech given on the eve of the First Caroline War.

Today, I believe, gentlemen, as we embark upon a sacred and righteous cause, is a good time to look to the past.

Once, we were sojourners in a far land, exiled an ocean away from our homes, eking out an existence at gun-barrel point. It was not on our strength that we survived, but on our wits, and on our faith. Every day, we plowed fields that weren't ours to grow crops others ate [Inconsistency Theme: Falsehood. Most slaves were growing cotton, which is not eaten. 5 Points], and dragged our feet home to think of ways to obtain deliverance, and pray for it when those ways could not be found. And one day, by the power of continual prayer, deliverance arrived. [Inconsistency Theme: Religious explanation for world events. 5 Points]

The old world, carrying itself over to address an imbalance in the new [Inconsistency Theme: Centering of self (enslaved peoples) in historical narrative. 10 points.] laid down the iron rod upon those who held us in bondage, and encouraged us to unshackle ourselves, to fight for freedom [Inconsistency theme: Overidealistic gloss, Dunmore merely wished to obtain a temporary distraction against the Patriots. 5 points.]. We had with us the wits we had earned and guarded with us, and we used them well, outwitting and outmaneuvering the enemy through the dismal swamps and piney woods, freeing our brothers as we went. It was we who fought the first guerilla battles, before the Spanish named it such [Inconsistency theme: Falsehood. Guerilla warfare dates back to Fabius. 5 points.], and we who held the first breechloaders in our hands, before all but Ferguson saw their value. Yet, at the same time, it was not our victory, not yet.

Once again, we were carried off in bondage, but this time, under the banner of a return from exile. The Sierra Leone Company promised the loyal fighters of the American war a new home, but they were not expected to keep it [Inconsistency Theme: Overpessimistic gloss. The main expectation was that the newly freed blacks would continue to be far away--winning or losing didn't come into it. 5 points], merely to hold onto the area for a naval station. The skills of survival we learnt in the fields were turned on the wilderness of the Pepper Coast, and we did not back down from the challenge [Inconsistency Theme: Overoptimistic gloss. Jubileean presence inland was severely limited, and effective control over the interior has arguably not yet been gained. 10 points.]. By the beginning of this century, Freetown had grown into a settlement worthy of its name, surveilling over hundreds of acres of rice paddies and millet fields, patrolled by Black Brigaders wielding Ferguson breechloaders. The pretense that we were unworthy of governing ourselves could no longer be made.

The Company clung onto us with force and fraud, denigrating our faith and trampling on our freedoms with trumped-up charges [Inconsistency theme: Falsehood. It's generally agreed York was selling rum illegally. 5 Points]. It took a living martyr to their self-professed abolitionist cause--the same one we fight for today in sincerity [Inconsistency theme: Hypocrisy. Jubileean authorities condoned slavery among interior chiefs until well into the 1880s. 10 points.]--to force them to see us as thinking beings, not mere passive children. United with our true brothers from across the seas [Inconsistency theme: Centering of self (Jubilee) in historical narrative. Haiti and Jubilee were ultimately very different societies, and only became diplomatically intertwined after independence. 5 points.] we began to prosper, not just as a British lapdog [Inconsistency theme: Falsehood. Jubilee remained a British anti-slaving and trading station until around a decade after this speech. 5 points.] but as a nation in our own right, one that married the best traditions of two worlds, and served as a refuge for those caught between them.

Seeking to free our enslaved brothers [Inconsistency theme: Overidealistic gloss. The establishment of the Slave Roads was useful as a way to obtain greater numbers of civilised citizenry for interior colonisation. 5 points.] we extended, again and again, safe passage to our shores for the enslaved. From the first settlements established by Cuffey [Inconsistency theme: Overidealistic gloss. Cuffey was engaged in similar practices to the Sierra Leone Company, exporting freed black populations from the Americas. 10 points.], these arrivals have enriched our soil, bringing with them talent, wisdom, and a great and sincere faith [Inconsistency theme: Falsehood. Turnerite Methodism's effects on Jubliee have been, while major, mixed. 5 points.], one that shows clearly our own ordination by divine providence [Inconsistency theme: Religious explanation for world events, Centering of self (enslaved peoples) in historical narrative. 15 points.] as a second Mosaic army, one with one holy mission. One which you shall set out on today.

Today, we draw the sword of righteousness. [Inconsistency theme: Inaccuracy. No actual swords were used during the First Caroline War. 5 points.] Today, we wipe away the tear from the eye of the slave. [Inconsistency theme: Overoptimistic gloss. Living standards for Carolinans did not significantly improve until several years after the war was over. 5 points.] Today, we begin a final victory over the barbarous and inhuman practice of slavery. [Inconsistency theme: Overoptimistic gloss. Subsequent Caroline, Georgian, and Virginia Wars continued for the next few decades. 5 points.] The struggle will be hard, arduous, beyond any foe you have fought before, but it must be a struggle. As Turner put it, such is our luck, such we are called to see, and let it come rough or smooth, we must surely bare it.

Now, go! To bring Jubilee to Georgia! [Inconsistency theme: None. They did.]

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Four more days to enter!

 

[Venocara]

To Break The Rod and Rend The Gyve

I've been looking forward to this since you first outlined it in your test thread last year, so I'm very happy to finally see it in its full form. A great idea and a great list.

1776

How did Freetown get founded so early?

Crown Colony of Jubilee

Where does the name Jubilee come from?

Jubileean presence inland was severely limited, and effective control over the interior has arguably not yet been gained

Now, go! To bring Jubilee to Georgia! [Inconsistency theme: None. They did.]

Does this mean that Jubilee conquers Georgia, and then the Carolinas and Virginia before the rest of OTL Sierra Leone?

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

I've been looking forward to this since you first outlined it in your test thread last year, so I'm very happy to finally see it in its full form. A great idea and a great list.

Thank you!

Anyway, in order, a much larger number of Black Loyalists means that Nova Scotia isn't seen as a viable place to settle them but the "town" is essentially a fort with some fields nearby for the first decade; Jubilee comes from the Biblical Jubilee festival of freeing slaves, a metaphor that was often used by anti-slavery activists; and no, Jubilee does de jure control most of OTL Sierra Leone and Liberia via working through a semi-unchanged clan chief structure, but still have limited ability to alter the interior for quite a while.

 

[Mumby]

Black Sam Bellamy and the Empire of Liberty

The 'Pirate's Republic' at Nassau would have been an ephemeral dream if not for the Jacobite Revolution and the tearing apart of the various British colonies between varying loyalties. And key to the eventual liberation of the Caribbean were two unwitting and very different figures - Lord Archibald Hamilton, the Jacobite Governor of Jamaica, and Samuel Bellamy, the Robin Hood of the Sea.

Between the two of them, they rendered stable British governance of it's colonies in the Caribbean untenable and delivered the looted riches of the Urca de Lima into the hands of the nascent Pirate Republic - or rather into the hands of Bellamy who had his own fish to fry harassing the ships trading to and from New England. This trade amassed for Bellamy a small flotilla of ships, with the wealth and loyalty needed to really make his presence felt in the now isolated British colonies. His flotilla became the grit around which formed the pearl of revolution as the promise of liberation as a crewman, the opportunity to elect their own leaders, rippled across the improverished sailors and enslaved workers of the Caribbean.

Hamilton's ambition to loot the Urca's wealth for his own came to nothing, and merely led to losing both Westminster's patronage and his own private fleet and as his privateers never received their promised riches. Which is how when rumours - now believed false - of the Whydah Galley being seen near Kingston led to the Jamaican Revolution.

The enslaved population outnumbered the white planters by over five to one. In another world, where Hamilton had the Royal Navy at his back, or could even rely upon hired mercenaries, he may have been able to crush the rebellion. But he was quite isolated and alone. The Jamaican slaves overthrew the masters - in the expectation that help would be forthcoming soon. Bellamy and the Whydah Galley would eventually make berth in Kingston, but by the time they did, the slaves had already established their own Republic.

The new Republic was diverse, taking in enslaved Africans, Amerindian natives, the mountainous Maroons, and shipwrecked Malagassies, as well as the pirates. It was organised in an unusual way, centred on 'Towns', which were governed either communally or by a kind of headman, which were then organised into divisions which elected their own leaders and then to a national leader, which by tradition established by the pirates, was simply referred to as Captain. In many ways the republic was organised in a fashion similar to the Ashanti Empire from which many of the slaves originated.

The Jamaican Revolution soon inspired similar revolts across the British Caribbean - and as far afield as New York Colony. Copycat revolts on Saint-Domingue alarmed the unstable Jacobite Kingdom's patrons in Paris and Cadiz. Especially as Bellamy placed the wealth of the Urca de Lima in the new Republic's coffers and used it to fund the liberation of slaves including direct raids on the slave trade on the African coast.

An incipient alliance to crush the Jamaican Revolution was pulled apart by events in Europe - the overthrow of the House of Hanover had rippled effects as Louis XIV saw an opportunity to reignite the War of Spanish Succession and assert an adjustment in his son's claim to the Spanish throne which would preclude the personal union with France. It was in this atmosphere that the Republic of Jamaica was able to fully assert it's independence and achieve recognition - albeit from an unusual direction. Recognition from the Spanish and French was not possible - on the one hand there was the wealth of the Spanish treasure fleet now sitting in the rechristened Captain's Town, and on the other was the rebellions in the French West Indies. Instead, recognition came from the exiled House of Hanover and their patron Charles XII. A general pardon and a promise of liberty was extended in return for Jamaica's assistance in restoring George I to the throne.

The war ultimately ended in Jamaican liberty - under a newly restored House of Hanover in Westminster. The term 'Republic' was exchanged for 'Principality' as Bellamy had always declared himself a 'prince', but otherwise the internal governance of Jamaica remained undisturbed. Plantation agriculture in the British colonies was forever transformed, and in time, slavery and the slave trade itself were formally abolished as a recognition of mere economic and moral reality. The Caribbean would never be the same again - something that would be proved in the 1750s as the Black Ensign waved over Charleston and Richmond as Jamaican soldiers helped bring the wayward American planter colonies to heel in the name of King George III...


Captains of the Republic of Jamaica

1716-1718: Sam Bellamy [formerly Captain of the Whydah Galley, Captain of Captain's Town]
1718-1721: Cudjoe [formerly Captain of the Leeward Maroons]
1721-1723: Queen Nanny [formerly Captain of the Windward Maroons]

Princes of the Principality of Jamaica

1723-1729: Queen Nanny [formerly Captain of the Windward Maroons]
1729-1745: Quao [formerly Captain of the Windward Maroons]
1745-1756: Kwame Perkins [formerly Captain of Captain's Town]

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Last day to enter!

 

[swamps]

Chairpersons of the International Pan-African Association (1919-1981)

The Tribune, 21st February 1981, Manchester, Democratic Union of the Isles

By John Allison

In Paris in 1919 the first Pan-African Congress met. In that era of tumult, as the German revolution swept to power those that met in the Grand Hotel, having been snubbed by the powers of Versailles declared their own international organisation. One that would exist between conferences which would be held every two years, that could permanently advocate for the interests of African people throughout the world. On the eve of the 30th Pan-African Congress, the third to be held in Manchester (following 1949 and 1971), we outline a brief summary of the careers of the men and women who have led this mighty organisation.

Blaise Diagne (1919-1923) – The inaugural chair of the Pan-African Association is definitely the outlier in our list. He was the first black man elected to the French Chamber of Deputies and would be an outspoken advocate of equal suffrage. However, he was loyal to a fault to the Republican regime in Paris and during the Great War had organised military recruitment in Senegal. His loyalty would not be returned. Following the seizure of power by the French military in 1925, Diagne would be arrested tortured and executed by the new government.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1923-1935) – Already at 1923 the delegates to the PAC were frustrated with the conservatism of Diagne’s office. Du Bois was elected on a radical platform of vocal opposition to racism and segregation and closer co-operation with the United Socialist International. Du Bois was a famed historian sociologist. During his tenure he would transform IPAA into a fighting organisation. The IPAA would begin to actively collaborate with revolutionary movements in Africa and the West Indies. It would become a membership organisation in 1927 and by the end of Du Bois tenure it would boast 100,000 members across the world. The building that hosts the permanent office of the IPAA was renamed in his honour in 1961.

Malcolm Nurse (1935-1943) – Nurse was born in Trinidad in 1903, nut moved to the United States in 1924 to study medicine. While there he would become a member of the United Socialist Party of America. He would quickly rise through the ranks of the organisation, and in 1929 he was invited to give a report to the USI congress on the experience of black workers in the northern US. He so impressed the congress that he was appointed as a permanent delegate for the USPA to the USI. Following this appointment, Nurse would stay in Berlin and begin to work closely with Du Bois and the IPAA, joining Du Bois team as an undersecretary. When Du Bois stepped down in 1935 Nurse would take over. His close links with the USI allowed him to effectively continue the policies of his predecessor and when war broke out the IPAA was instrumental in organising international support and rebellions in African and West Indian colonies. Nurse’s actions as head of the IPAA are seen as central in ensuring that the USA maintained its position of armed neutrality during the conflict. Nurse was assassinated by a British agent on the 1st January 1943.

Len Johnson (1943-1955) – Len Johnson was a Manchester native and a middleweight boxer, who following the coup by the Directorate in Britain became an underground resistance fighter. During the period of the Directorate Johnson would become a significant leader in the underground resistance whose face would become known to most of the Isles as it was plastered on wanted posters in every major city. Following Nurse’s assassination, Johnson was appointed in absentia. After the war he would take up his post and steer the IPAA through the early post war and the difficulties of the early détente with the UFN. The IPAA under Johnson would function as a 20th century underground railroad, shepherding revolutionaries and civilians alike in and out of Africa and the West Indies. Johnson would step down in 1955 following a health scare. He would die in Oldham in 1974.

Claudia Jones (1955-1964) – Jones was an exile from Trinidad and the renowned editor of the West Indian Gazette, paper of the illegal United Socialist Party of the West Indies. This paper had been published for years in exile and smuggled into the islands. Jones’ stature would see her appointed the first woman leader of the IPAA. She would see the organisation through the first elections in the West Africa Federation and the beginning of the anti-colonial wars in Southern and Central Africa. On Christmas Eve 1964 she would write her final article heralding the beginning of the “Island Hopping” campaign by the armed wing of the USPWI. She would die of a heart attack the next day. The position would remain open out of mourning for the next 3 months.

Sekou Toure (1965-1967) – Having won the first elections in the West African federation in 1960, Toure was appointed to the position of Chair as a caretaker. He was the first head of state and second French speaker to hold the role. His era is largely seen as an interregnum. For more on Toure’s recent escapades see page 22 of the current edition.

C. L. R. James (1967-1973) – James was the 3rd Trinidadian to hold the position of Chair and had been a presence in the IPAA for two decades when he was appointed. A dissident Marxist and advisor to the President of the West Indies, Eric Williams, James was also a former classmate of Malcolm Nurse. He would seek to transform the IPAA from an international revolutionary organisation to a cultural and intellectual body. James would step down at the 1973 PAC when it became clear that appetite for revolutionary politics was higher than he could countenance. His replacement was more in line with the needs of the times.

Steve Biko (1973-Present) – Steve Biko was born in Tarkastad South Africa. He is a member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Socialist Organisation in Southern Africa. He is the first Southern African to head the IPAA and has overseen its revitalisation over the past 8 years. Today the IPAA boasts 20 million members in over 50 countries. Since the beginning of his term, he has organised International Solidarity Brigades of troops and medical personnel to support the struggle for freedom in South Africa. The IPAA has become an instrumental part of the struggle for African freedom. Its leader keeps the torch of liberty burning bright.

Same world as my previous entry.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

What the kids call "the dawn of the final day".

 

[The Red]

Jumping into the Makabusi


Prime Ministers of Southern Rhodesia

1958-1962: Sir Edgar Whitehead (United Federal Party)
1962-1964: Winston Field (Rhodesian Front)
1964-1965: Ian Smith (Rhodesian Front)
1965-1966: Position suspended pending negotiations, direct rule from Governor Sir Humphrey Gibbs
1966-1966: Joshua Nkomo (ZAPU)


Prime Ministers of the People’s Democratic Republic of Zimbabwe

1966-????: Joshua Nkomo (ZAPU)




The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) has been the ruling political party of the People’s Democratic Republic of Zimbabwe ever since independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 and the transition from the white minority rule of Southern Rhodesia.

Although ZAPU traces its heritage back to the ancient kingdom of Great Zimbabwe it developed in the context of capitalism and settler colonialism which began with the first incursions of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) into the lands of the Ndebele and Shona tribes in 1890.

Shortly after, the territories south of the Zambezi river came to be known as ‘Rhodesia’ by the British, named after the BSAC founder, Cecil Rhodes. By 1923 local white settlers elected for self-government rather than union with South Africa, leading to the crown colony of Southern Rhodesia.

The government of the newly established Crown Colony soon set to work in reorganising the territory to suit the needs of its white minority, most notably in the 1930 Land Apportionment Act which reserved the best quality arable land for white settlers with the black population being restricted to lands which were arid, swamp infested and often residential areas.

Though reformed several times the basic inequity of land apportionment remained in place. The racist colonia logic which had drafted it continued to underpin attempts at reform, leading to underdevelopment and waste in white exclusive areas, with economic and population crisis in those areas restricted to the black majority. By 1966 some 58% of the lands of Southern Rhodesia were exclusive to the 6% of the population composed by the white minority, administered by around 6000 white farmers.

The administration of Southern Rhodesia paid little attention to the political input of their black population, preferring to keep in place a dialogue with tribal chiefs whose political power was largely advisory and whose status was undermined by the land apportionment. The vast majority of the black population were relegated to landless peasants working seasonally on white owned land, often unable to maintain a fixed residence and liable to be ordered to leave when work was no longer required of them.

In their earlier incursions the BSAC had first made alliances with the less numerous Ndebele against the larger Shona, playing off existing rivalries between the two tribes as was standard colonial practice. Ndebele peoples tended to be used in administrative roles and and also began to form the majority of the small black proletariat in the industrial and infrastructural centre of Bulawayo.

Strict segregation limited opportunities for fraternisation between the black and white proletariat of Bulawayo and similarly the small number of black compradors who came to live in the suburbs of Bulawayo and the Southern Rhodesian capital of Salisbury had little in common with their white peers. Despite limited access to education a Zimbabwean intelligentsia began to emerge from a small number of public schools and Christian ministries. By the end of the Second World War these groupings had began discussing ideas of African nationalism, African socialism, and Marxism-Leninism.

The earliest political link to ZAPU would come in the early fifties with the emergence of the Southern Rhodesian wing of the African National Congress in Bulawayo and the African Youth League in Salisbury. It was within the ANC that figures such as Joshua Nkomo and James Chikerema first got their start, organising protests and boycotts on behalf of black workers in Bulawayo. By the end of the fifties the South Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC) had become its own organisation and would soon rebrand itself as the National Democratic Party (NDP); pan-African and socialist it would soon find itself restricted from organising before being banned outright.

With many of his comrades imprisoned Nkomo would rebrand the movement once more as the Zimbabwe African People’s Union almost immediately and whilst ZAPU too would soon be proscribed, party activity continued to develop underground and abroad. For most Zimbabweans the change from SRANC to NDP to ZAPU appeared purely aesthetic and to a certain extent this was true, it continued to maintain the same broad principles of anti-imperialism, socialism, and land reform however internally ZAPU began to develop along increasingly Marxist-Leninist lines.

Nkomo would continue attempting to keep a direct influence on the Southern Rhodesian administration and London by setting up another front in the form of the People’s Caretaker Committee (PCC) and being open to negotiations with the white minority leadership. The PCC would also end up being banned however and Nkomo would briefly flee Southern Rhodesia before returning for a brief period of detention, his dalliance with courting the colonial administration was finished but would continue to cause problems.

By 1963 ZAPU faced several internal divisions; organisational, personal and strategic. Physical geography exacerbated these fissures with the party being split between sections in Southern Rhodesia as well as Tanzania and Zambia. Critics of Nkomo, based around Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole in Tanzania, accused Nkomo of cowardice and becoming a demagogue; from their positions on the ZAPU central committee they attempted to have him removed. Nkomo in turn expelled Sithole and his associates, causing the party to split.

Sithole’s group would go on to form their own party, the ZImbabwe African National Union (ZANU.) With Nkomo considered to be the leader of the Zimbabwean revolution throughout much of the Moscow-aligned socialist world, ZANU instead sought support from China and shortly after began to embrace a Maoist revolutionary strategy with a belief in the Zimbabwean peasantry being the class with the most revolutionary potential. ZANU would also be banned by Southern Rhodesian authorities with Sithole and much of its leadership being arrested after returning from abroad to build the party domestically.

Nkomo remained out of prison and ZAPU continued to build towards an insurrection on Marxist-Leninist principles. ZAPU would concentrate on the African proletariat with the party providing leadership and political education in preparation for an opportune moment to stage an insurrection.

The black political leadership would not be alone in internecine conflicts however. By the late fifties the increasingly liberal policies of the dominant United Federal Party (UFP) had begun to cause disquiet amongst many within the largely conservative white establishment of Southern Rhodesia.

Various breakaway parties would eventually emerge and coalesce around the banner of the Rhodesian Front (RF) with the aim of maintaining white dominance over Southern Rhodesia and keeping the black majority suppressed. Whilst the RF would successfully take power in the white dominated assembly, the surprise victory over the UFP would destabilise the loose coalition the Front was based around. The party ranged from those who saw the current settlement as optimal to those who wished for greater segregation, or outright independence on an apartheid model. Those within the new party who saw its leader, Winston Field, as far too comfortably British, would remove him following his failure to push for independence from London.

His successor, Ian Smith, was far more willing to push for an independent, white supremacist, state however negotiations with London would continue to falter. By 1965 the UK once more had a Labour government which was far more comfortable in overseeing decolonisation. The sticking point came down to the issue of majority rule, London would not grant independence for Southern Rhodesia until the entirety of the population had universal suffrage; one man, one vote nor would it accept the status quo.

Smith began to prepare to declare independence unilaterally, a move which disquieted many within the South Rhodesian establishment. Many white Rhodesians remained patriotically British and maintained a loyalty to the Crown if not Whitehall. Foremost among these was the Governor, Sir Humphrey Gibbs, who acted as the South Rhodesian head of state in the Queen’s absence. It also included many senior military figures who were willing to follow Gibbs’ orders as long as it was made clear he was acting on behalf of the crown.

London was making preparations of their own. The Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, would gain the personal agreement of Queen Elisabeth that should Smith launch a coup, she would personally intervene. Wilson hoped that political pressure could prevent UDI but it made it clear Rhodesia would face severe economic and international isolation should it do so. Discussions were held on the feasibility of military intervention as a last resort. In reaction to this Smith began slowly purging dissenting elements of the Rhodesian Security Forces.

Smith was not unaware of this opposition to his plans but was aware that any agreement to discussions which might some day end with majority rule would see him deposed much as his predecessor had been. He had the confidence that the majority of the white population would support maintaining their privileged system regardless of sentiment for the mother country and that they could bear the worst of any British response until London accepted reality, or at least his version of reality.

Smith finally announced Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence on the 11th of November, 1965. Responding to orders from Buckingham Palace, Gibbs issued a warrant for Smith’s arrest as a traitor. Despite Smith’s attempted purge the senior military leadership was happy to follow these orders and Smith was under arrest by the end of the day. Ironically, following fears about the loyalty of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, the British South African Police with its majority African composition and largely British born officer class conducted the arrest. Gibbs took to the radio to announce that he would be taking direct control following Smith’s arrest and promised that soon fresh elections would be held to return the colony to a responsible government.

Nonetheless the situation remained fluid. The fears over the Rhodesian Light Infantry were not unfounded and despite attempts at confining troops to barracks the news of Smith’s arrest led to mutiny. A force under Captain Victor Lee Walker soon marched into Salisbury demanding Smith’s release. An armed stand-off soon broke out into sporadic clashes. After a year of building tension Salisbury, to the horror of its residents, had become an urban battlefield.

ZAPU did not react passively to these events. By the end of 1965 the party had established a significant presence amongst the urban workers of Bulawayo. Although it had not quite adopted the leadership role Nkomo had intended before launching an insurrection the moment had nonetheless come and with Salisbury having gone silent since Gibbs’ announcement of Smith’s arrest, ZAPU could assert its authority. On the 13th of November ZAPU called for a general strike.

Strikes soon spread throughout Bulawayo and factory occupations and building of barricades quickly followed. The Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), ZAPU’s armed wing, had accumulated a small amount of arms and whilst insufficient for an armed standoff with the Rhodesian state it was enough to keep order within the city. Rhodesian security forces within Bulawayo had been anticipating a Communist insurrection for some time. When it came they followed the plan they had been given; concentrate the white population in the suburban area and hold out until help arrived from elsewhere.

Whilst this operation was carried out successfully it did also effectively leave the rest of Bulawayo under ZAPU control. Like Smith, Nkomo chose to gamble with a declaration of independence. On the 14th of November the People’s Democratic Republic of Zimbabwe was declared outside of Bulawayo City Hall. Nkomo and his allies were aware of the risks of their uprising. They represented a threat which might unite their enemies and having embarked on this course of action a climbdown would carry almost as much risk as going down fighting.

ZANU criticised Nkomo’s opportunism, although with their leadership in jail and the remaining cadres only beginning to embed themselves amongst the peasantry it’s unlikely they could have contributed much more to the uprising than the isolated acts of violence that were carried out by their armed wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA.)

Whether through foresight or luck Nkomo would find himself redeemed. ZAPU taking control of Bulawayo helped lead to a truce between the forces loyal to Gibbs and Smith in Salisbury, however the two factions were not able to reconcile before the arrival of the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment arrived at Salisbury Airport to return the mutineers to barracks.

In less than a week the threat of an independent white supremacist Rhodesia had been quelled by the direct intervention of London. A dejected Smith would announce his resignation before disappearing into obscurity, the Rhodesian Front would collapse not long after. Gibbs, now ruling directly amidst the ongoing emergency, invited Nkomo to Salisbury for talks. Nkomo arrived in Salisbury as the clear leader of the African populace, after almost a century of denial the Europeans were willing to negotiate a future in common with the majority of the populace.

Although Gibbs now had a mandate to transfer Southern Rhodesia into independence with majority rule, negotiations on what form the new state would take were thorny. Despite answering to London, Gibbs’ interim regime was interested in conceding as little as possible, hoping to maintain a privileged position in the newly independent state. This was a concern not only for ZAPU but also for their international allies.

Amidst a brief pause in talks the Ghanaian President, Kwame Nkurmah, would successfully arrange for both Nkomo and the recently released Sithole to meet in Accra. Once there both men were urged to bury the hatchet in order to provide a united front. The ZANU leadership had missed their moment during the November uprising and were keen to carve out an influential role for themselves, even if that meant recognising the fact that Nkomo was unquestionably seen as the leader of Zimbabwe in the eyes of its people. Nkomo for his part was wary of ethnic tensions being exploited by the British to divide the African populace and agreed to give ZANU a place at the table in the name of African unity.

Thus ZANU would join the PCC and would stand alongside ZAPU in the first universal suffrage election in 1966. The results were unsurprising with a large majority for the PCC, large enough to amend the constitution recently hammered out with the British. Not long after, the People’s Democratic Republic of Zimbabwe would finally gain control of the entire country.


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[Walpurgisnacht]

Entries are closed! Poll and next month's challenge should be up tomorrow.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Poll is up! Vote early, vote often.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Last day to vote!

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

Poll closed! With all votes counted without the application of "literacy tests", the winner is @Alberto Knox with their list A Home On The Range! Congratulations to them, and comiserations to our losers, who will...actually, I think I'll end this attempt at doing a gimmick right here for once.

Next challenge is already up! Go and enter!

 

[The Red]

Well done @Alberto Knox! Really liked the cliffhanger.

 

[Alberto Knox]

Well done @Alberto Knox! Really liked the cliffhanger.

Thank you @The Red , I was worried the cliffhanger was a little bit of a cop-out but once I realised I had parked the Confederate pseudo-Bantustan over a massive oil desposit, I realised two further things: 1. A war was inevitable, 2. Said war would be well beyond the scope of this list to describe.

Really enjoyed your entry as well. Lot of good entries on this challenge.

 

[Warthog]

Whether through foresight or luck Nkomo would find himself redeemed. ZAPU taking control of Bulawayo helped lead to a truce between the forces loyal to Gibbs and Smith in Salisbury, however the two factions were not able to reconcile before the arrival of the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment arrived at Salisbury Airport to return the mutineers to barracks.

Through the midst of chaos... a more plausible solution to ending UDI than many