NationStates Jolt Archive

(OOC) First of all, welcome to the United African Republics. Now, this thread is really of significance only to the A Modern World portion of the NationStates multiverse, since the region of which I am a part (Sub Saharan Africa, formerly Southern Africa) has always been closely linked to many of the founding members of AMW and as such fell naturally in to that fold when it was created. However, I don't have any problem with other people reading this thread, or commenting on it out-of-character, though their non-AMW nations can't directly interact with Lusaka. (/OOC)

History

The United African Republics covered a substantial part of the African continent. Lands incorporated in this federation included those annexed in antiquity by the seafaring Al Khalis, and others conquered from the early C16th onwards by the Roycelandians and incorporated into their vast territory of Roycelandian East Africa.

The War of Independence and the Creation of Lusaka

The history of Lusaka begin only in the 1970s at the earliest, unless one wishes to consider the birth of the Republics' eventual father, in 1957, as the true origin. It was in that year, near Lake Rukawa in then-REA, that Derek Igomo entered the world, the first son of a family of subsistence farmers. After little formal education and an unlikely spell as a semi-professional wrestler in neighbouring Rhodesia & Nyasaland, a teenage Igomo, along with an older and more radically politicised friend named Olongwe, became active in local politics centred in the traditional farming communities from which he came.

In December of 1976, Colin Olongwe was arrested by Roycelandian authorities and detained for several months. He was charged with public order offences after delivering in Lusaka City a vitriolic -and, importantly, well received- public speech against the Empire. By the time of his release in February of 1977, Olongwe found that his young friend had established the Social Progress Party (popularly called the Igomo Social Progress Party), an institution that rejected the authority of the Roycelandian emperor and would spend the coming years at odds with the colonial authority.

During 1977, fighting in Rhodesia & Nyasaland became sufficiently intense to draw international attention as government forces cracked down on rebel movements with brutality that would become infamous. Having no luck in R&N, anti-colonial rebels from there began to associate with the increasingly popular and confident SPP in REA. By late in the year, Roycelandia's Cold War rival, the USSR, had taken an interest in the empire's burgeoning independence movement, and Social Progress Party workers and supporters, already learning from rebels experienced in bush fighting to the south, started to receive limited military aid from Moscow. This left the Roycelandians understandably upset, and in early 1978 an arrest warrant based on trumped-up and years old assault charges was issued for Derek Igomo.

Tracking Igomo down at a rural rally lead by his friend -himself a convicted criminal- the authorities swooped. However, they were met angrily by dozens of villagers who stood up to the police in an unprecedented manner, allowing Igomo and close supporters to escape into the bush. Several of those with him called themselves Mozambican, others Zimbabwean!

This was an important time as Derek and his multi-national vagabonds lay low and lived off the charity of poor farmers in REA, tales of their adventures serving to increase the popularity of the Igomo Social Progress Party. Meeting Soviet agents and arming themselves as a result, this band of wanted criminals established the Lusakan Revolutionary Alliance Corps. It was comprised of rebels from REA (such as Igomo himself), Mozambicans who had recently won independence from Portugal, and frustrated veterans of the recent revolts against the Salisbury regime (those calling themselves Zimbabwean).

March of 1978 saw Igomo arrested in Lusaka City. He allowed himself to be taken to the local police station, famously remarking that, "A prayer is as good as a bayonet on a day like this" to suggest his moral superiority over the arresting forces. However, the LRAC was waiting, and distributed arms amongst the enraged population of the city, and the police station was attacked by SPP supporters brandishing machetes and old Soviet rifles, all coming to aid the noble young man who sacrificed himself without raising a fist. The station was over-run, notable characters of the colonial authority firing into the angry crowds in a futile attempt to defend it, and Igomo freed in what became a famous event around which to rally the masses across the land.

Roycelandian forces moved to the south, aiming to crush the perceived heart of the rebellion at Lusaka City, after all, that was where the prison was stormed, and that was the place for which the rebel army -the LRAC- was named. Actually, these things were designed by Igomo and his associates to create such a false impression, and the real fight came as a nationwide bush war through most of 1978. Just enough was done to keep the Roycelandians interested in urban unrest, and meanwhile the rural areas fell increasingly under LRAC protection and lines of supply were attacked frequently. Colin Olongwe lead the most proficient LRAC unit, which became known as the Vultures, apparently for the lack of respect it received from the colonial authority and for their unnerving ability to smell blood from afar.

By late 1978, frustrated by the failure of their mechanised and airborne forces to subdue the Revolutionary Alliance Corps or to cut its support in the countryside, USSR, Mozambique, and the Rhodesian bush, the Roycelandians began to withdraw government personnel and military units from the embattled territories. In December, Derek Igomo declared the independent Allied States of Lusaka with every hope of uniting REA with Mozambique and Rhodesia & Nyasaland. In 1979 Roycelandia ceased large-scale military involvement in its wayward colony and the LRAC organised a hasty referendum that brought the SPP to power, with Igomo as President of the Allied States. 1980 brought Roycelandian recognition of Lusakan independence just three years after the foundation of the Igomo Social Progress Party.

The Union

Igomo's Allied States did not come to be all he hoped, and he would blame self-serving politicians and special interest groups in Mozambique, as in Zimbabwe and Strathdonia which grew-up from Rhodesia and Nyasaland after they split and underwent revolutionary changes of their own. Following Lusakan independence, Igomo organised a new Army of Lusaka and made the LRAC its elite core, the Vultures being reborn in the 17th Division, and he directed it to attack surrounding post-colonial regimes in West Zambia and Nyasaland.

The Lusakans, along with volunteers from Mozambique and the former R&N, over-ran most of Nyasaland and briefly threatened Southern Rhodesia before Salisbury's forces, more adept at bush warfare than had been the Roycelandians, managed to force a reversal and drive the Lusakans back into former REA borders. Igomo had more luck in West Zambia, and the people there received Lusakan troops with enthusiasm while the authorities were not able to resist- a new government came to power in something of a compromise, and was not exactly what Igomo desired, though it was sufficient to keep the British uninvolved and allow friendly relations between the Lusakans and West Zambia.

After its various successes and failures, the Allied States was dissolved and replaced by the United African Republics of Lusaka, which no longer pretended to incorporate West Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe, but did maintain the official and stated intention of seeing these nations eventually replaced by joining in the United African Republic and being liberated from neo-imperialist manipulation.

For the past quarter century, the UARL has supported African liberation movements across the continent, training West African freedom fighters and giving early recognition to controversial states such as the (since defunct) West African Union and to the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. New Lusaka City -an entirely new town raised as the capital of the Republic- has even dared to stand directly in opposition to Roycelandia yet again, along with other developed-world powers, notably United Elias. That nation's invasion of Gabon was opposed jointly by the Lusakans and the African Commonwealth, which brought those long disparate societies together as never before. The defence was at best a partial success, but the very act of trying remains significant to modern African politics.

Early in this century the Republic faced-down another enemy with the Al Khali invasion that hoped to bring Zanzibar back out of African control, but victory came with another underestimation of the fighting will and ability of the African people, and the former Tanzanian Emirate underwent absorption into the United African Republics.

During the war with Al Khals, Derek Igomo -having suffered a stroke- traveled to London, to meet with the favourable British Industrial Democratic government in hopes of acquiring military aid. His absence and ill-health were sufficient cause for an ambitious young army general, Theo Tendyala, to launch a coup against the Social Progress Party. His successes against the apparently better-armed Al Khalis gave the General significant short-term influence, and he attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the ranks of the army, formerly Africa's largest, in hopes of maintaining a loyal core. Tendyala's military party was known as LUAN, the Lusakan African Nationalist Party, and, through its unpopular policies, ultimately served to drive white and Arab minorities closer to Igomo's banner.

The Tendyala Junta engaged in land reform, ostensibly along racial lines in a similar tactic to ZANU-PF's programmes in Zimbabwe, and started to open Lusaka to multinational enterprise. Lusaka went almost over-night from being Africa's largest agricultural exporter to its largest importer, and the prospect of famine after next year became quite apparent. Al Khals was defeated, but partly due to internal pressures, and the disbanding of many army units and engagement with the free market created widespread unemployment. Tendyala's nepotism and downsizing turned the army against him, and without that he had nothing. An abortive invasion of West Zambia, feared as a friend to the SPP and correctly accused of harbouring pro-Igomo resistance, ended with an LRAC counter-attack into Lusaka, supported by WZ militias and coinciding with the deployment of Hindustani Paras and Indian Soviet Marines against the junta.

Tendyala fled to Zimbabwe, but was detained by authorities wishing to avoid angering the Lusakans and the Indian powers. Ultimately, this was insufficient. A restored President Igomo, rumoured to be suffering mentally after his stroke and the hurt of a coup against him, ordered strikes against Zimbabwe to destroy surplus military equipment sold by Tendyala during army down-sizing, and followed with a highly unexpected invasion of his southern neighbour. This triggered intervention by the British (under a new, less favourable Tory government) through Strathdonia, and posed the possibility of Euro-African war until the election of a new Whig government in Britain.

Igomo became engaged with the African Commonwealth in the African National Pact. This was the conduit through which the Igomo Social Progress Party intended to pursue the old aims of the Allied States. Igomo incorporated West Zambia and Zimbabwe into the United African Republics, dividing them internally into three parts, the African Unity Republics of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

With these states established, conflict brewing in Mozambique, and the Lusakans recognising rightful African Commonwealth authority over Angola and Middle Congo, it seemed almost as if Igomo's thirty year old dreams were, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, in serious danger of coming to fruition.

Then it all broke down.

Today

Igomo, serving as President of the UARL with three Prime Ministers under him, quickly became little more than a figurehead. Less sharp than he had been prior to his stroke, Derek was undermined by Robert Mugabe especially, and as Zimbabwe reasserted its autonomy Zambia and Tanzania hastened to follow suite.

The Union is no more, though Igomo and some of his fellows retain citizenship in two or more of the former Union states. Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe exist as independent nations with significant ties through politics and even infrastructure.

(Updating, please hold!)

Politics

The politics of the United African Republics are dominated by the personal experience of its founding father, Derek Igomo, a famously jolly figure known fondly to his countryfolk and around the world as Mr.Derek.

The immediate aims of the Social Progress Party on its founding at the start of 1977 were apparently centred in the pursuit of independence from Roycelandia. In retrospect, many forget that this is not the full story. The SPP wanted independence not for what we now know as Lusaka, but independence from old and neo imperialism for all of Roycelandian East Africa, and for surrounding states such as North and South Rhodesia, Nyasaland, and Mozambique, and the party's membership in the late 1970s and the early 1980s included residents in those other nations.

It is important, then, to realise why Lusaka was the Allied States and is the United African Republics, and that it is due to the conscious and deliberate lack of Lusakan national identity. So far as Igomo, the Republic, and the Social Progress Party are concerned, Lusakan borders represent only the front lines in an on-going struggle for African liberation and restoration.

Restoration is an important term in reference to Lusakan politics. Igomo has been portrayed as relatively apolitical, going where the wind takes him in pursuit of his general counter-imperialist aims. To a certain extent this is true in that he has often tried to accommodate the aims of greater powers where they did not conflict fundamentally with his own.

However, the truth is to be found deeply rooted in Igomo's past.

The son of subsistence farmers, who was supported for months by rural communities while on the run with his fledgling LRAC, Igomo is a president committed to Ujamaa- familyhood. The Igomo Social Progress Party can be fairly described as African socialist, and the majority of the Lusakan population is organised through a form of collectivisaiton based on the traditional extended family unit dominant through so much of pre-colonial Africa.

Igomo is one who believes that the status quo in most of the world is impressed by imperialism, and is in most environments far from natural, and that the states risen in Africa after independence are equally unreal, that they are neo-imperialist relics existing only in legacy to old colonialism, and finally that Africa can achieve socialism simply by returning to pre-colonial norms.

According to President Igomo, individuals who adopted the modern political structures of the former imperialists had, in order to win power for themselves, subverted the popular will, and had begun to operate artificial countries to serve the west in a neo-colonial capacity with the illusion of independence. He continues to maintain that his brand of Pan Africanism is the proper way to operate Africa after the defeat of imperialism, and that modern states such as Mozambique are the artificial legacy of Euro-Roycelandian imperialism, unnatural, and un-African.

Leaders and Republics

Derek Igomo today has no conventional title, his last act of President of Lusaka being that nation's dissolution and the creation of the modern United African Republics. He is known as Papa Africa (and of course, informally, as Mr.Derek), and sits in New Lusaka City on the Tanzania-Zambia border essentially as chief of state over the entire United African Republics.

His old friend Colin Olongwe has become Marshal of the Armed Forces, making him Igomo's likely successor (though Olongwe is slightly older than Igomo, he is widely agreed to be in clearly superior health and quite likely to far outlive the half-crippled Mr.Derek) in the high-profile but unconstitutional position now occupied by Papa Africa.

The much-loved Livingstone Miyanda has been appointed President of Tanzania, his administration seated at Dodoma and covered in praise by its citizenry.

Robert Mugabe remains elected President of Zimbabwe, based in Harare, his flagging popularity rescued by economic migration schemes and the arrival of cheap Tanzanian staple foods and Commonwealth fruits.

Colonel George Tanko has been appointed President of Zambia and seated in Old Lusaka, and has been well received after making many friends while stationed in West Zambia with the LRAC fighting Tendyala's junta.

Saved for international relations info.

THE ARMIES OF LUSAKA

These are the defence forces of the United African Republics, including several branches.

The African Army is an amalgamation of the Tanzanian, Zambian, and Zimbabwean African Republican Armies. These are reasonably effective bush soldiers with a moderate offensive capability when given time to deploy. Generally a little better trained than the warlord militias with which they have often clashed, and certainly a little better supported, the AA regulars have not really the capacity to go toe to toe for long with well funded 1st world militaries on anything but their own ground.

The African People's Volunteer Army is a vast militia drawn from all three African Republics, Tanzania necessarily providing the most fighters, while Zimbabwe's so-called war veterans mobs have transformed into APVA units.

The Lusakan Revolutionary Alliance Corps comprises the 1st and 17th Divisions of the African Army. It draws the best soldiers from each republic, and also accepts recruits from Mozambique, and, in theory, from other African nations. The LRAC operates a fairly challenging system in recruitment of new personnel, and its training too is more intensive than that of the regulars. Discipline is a little above the level seen in the regular ranks or in many other 3rd world armies, though the typical LRAC recruit is still a fairly laid-back soldier. The smaller organisation enjoys a degree of mechanisation a little closer to that seen in armies of the developed world, and its formations can expect at least some airborne, artillery, and armour support for most major operations. The 17th Division represents Lusaka’s best. Only one Lusakan in thirty-five thousand finds his way into the famous ranks of the Vultures, so it is little wonder that these warriors are to be found wherever the UAR absolutely must win the day or secure a vital objective. Part impi, part guerrilla army, part mechanised infantry division, the 17th is by now wrapped in legends and medal ribbons. It has won victories against Roycelandia, Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Al Khals, the Tendyala junta, and other threats.

The Air Defence Organisation operates the UAR's four Soviet CS-400 Red Sky long-range surface-to-air missile batteries, with one in each African Republic plus one on Zanzibar Island. It also has autonomous commands in each African Republic fielding AFRISAM and older Russo-Soviet SAMs.

The United Air Force Command replaces the Lusakan Air Wing, with local air defence squadrons and facilities in each African Republic and centralised strike forces under UAFC command.

The Lusakan Navy, since all of its oceanic forces are in Tanzanian ports, remains more or less untouched by recent political and military changes, but maintains flotillas on Lake Victoria and Lake Nyasa (switched from Lake Tanganyika).

Manpower and Equipment

African Army

46,000x regular personnel

Model 70A 9x19mm semi-automatic pistol
Uzi 9x19mm submachine-gun with wooden butt
M66A1L 7.62x39mm semi-automatic rifle
Mosin-Nagant M77L 7.62x54mm scoped sniper's rifle
Degtyarev DPM 7.62x54mm light machinegun
PKM/PKMS 7.62x54mm GPMG, latter being tripod-mounted
82mm infantry mortar
RPG-7 anti-tank weapon
Maljutka-2 anti-tank SACLOS guided missile

158x Olifant L-2
42x Olifant Mk1B
780x T-56(L)
778x T-62

128x BMP-1 IFV
45x BMP-2 IFV
154x OT-62B APC
273x BTR-152 APC

323x TG-5 100mm towed anti-tank guns
267x M46 130mm Towed Artillery Guns.

94x ZSU-23-4 Shilka
64x SA-9 Gaskin (9M31M)

190x AT-T heavy artillery tractor (also used in economic activity)
10x BTM-3L trench-digging machine (based on AT-T chassis)

Zil-131 trucks
Ural-375 trucks
UAZ vehicles

4x Hwasong-6 launchers (Scud-C)
14x FROG-7B launchers

African People's Volunteer Army

Size and equipment varies. Usually several thousand strong, the APVA can quickly raise better than quarter of a million fighters armed with machettes, petrol bombs, slings, spears, hand-grenades, rocket-propelled grenades, Mosin-Nagant and Enflied rifles, non-standard mortars, Maxim, Vickers, Lewis, and Bren machineguns, and any number of other weapons of a largely straight-leg infantry force.

Lusakan Revolutionary Alliance Corps

4,000x regular personnel and the pick of the AA's best equipment. LRAC fighters are permitted to use non-standard weapons on the approval of their unit's commanding officer, and often acquire more modern automatic rifles from African Commonwealth, Yugoslav, Soviet, or Indian sources.

Air Defence Organisation

6,000x regular personnel
4x CS-400 Red Sky batteries (24 launchers; 12xB and 96xA missiles launch-ready)
20x SA-4a/b Ganef (9M8M1/9M8M2) batteries (60 mobile launchers; 2 missiles each; 100m-27,000m altitude; 8-55km range; 2 missiles may be guided at each target)
30x LS-8 AFRISAM batteries (120 mobile launchers; 3 missiles each; 14,500m altitude; 28km range; can engage 4 targets with 8 missiles)
80x ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery guns (4 accompany an SA-4 or LS-8 battery on the move)
Associated command/control and reserve missile trucks et cetera.

United Air Force Command

18,000x regular personnel

16x NT-6-II Golkonda interceptors (1xGSh-23L twin 23mm cannon, five hardpoints, U/A-Darter ASRAAM, R-Darter AMRAAM, 57mm and 80mm unguided rockets, napalm tanks, 250kg and cluster free-fall bombs, LVB-250 laser-guided bombs, ECM pods, drop tanks)

18x J-22 Orao attack fighters (2xGSh-23L twin 23mm cannon, five hardpoints incl. eight AAM pylons plus two wingtip stations, U/A-Darter ASRAAM, Grom-A ASM, Grom-B ASM, 57mm and 80mm unguided rockets, LVB-250 laser-guided bomb, 250kg and cluster free-fall bombs, napalm tanks, ECM pods, drop tanks)

16x G-4 Super Galeb trainer and light attack fighter (GSh-23L twin 23mm cannon, four hardpoints, U/A-Darter ASRAAM, 57mm and 80mm unguided rockets, 4.5kg practice bombs, 250kg and cluster free-fall bombs, napalm tanks, ECM pods, drop tanks)

6x IJ-22 Orao reconnaissance planes

12x UTVA Lasta-2 basic trainer and light attack aircraft (2xhardpoints for up to 120kg each)

2x EMB-145 SA Erieye surveillance and airborne early warning and control aircraft

23x Preston utility transports
3x Marathon heavy transports

10x Dhruv light multi-role helicopters
8x AfCom ADV dedicated attack helicopters

Lusakan Navy

4x Ka-32BG-L Super Helix ASW Helicopters (57mm and 80mm unguided rockets, 250kg free-fall bombs, depth bombs, Type 3B MkII 305mm torpedoes, U-Darter SRAAM, Qian Wei ASMs)

3x Preston ASWAP Aircraft (57mm and 80mm unguided rockets, 250kg free-fall bombs, depth bombs, Type 3B MkII 305mm torpedoes, U-Darter SRAAM, sonar buoys)

3x Mamba (crocodile) Class (Hound) D/E Patrol/Attack Submarines

1x Zanzibar Class Monitor (2x15" guns)

2x Revolution Class (Gujarat) Multi-Role Corvettes
12x Mbu (mosquito) Class (Mogi) Missile Boats (40knots, 2xDSJ-1 SSM, 1x14.5mm twin-barrel DP MG)

2x Kiboko (hippo) Class (Inch'on) LCU (10knots, 2x14.5mm twin-barrel DP MG, 2xAVs or 150 troops)
3x Dai (vulture) Class (Cholima) Hovercraft Assault Vehicles (50knots, 40 troops)

4x Twiga (giraffe) Class Mine Countermeasures Vessels (Rapier w/dual-14.5mm MG)

a very late tag

A bump because I finally have started to update this thread, yay!

Three cheers for Lusaka!

*Waves the Zambian flag*

Aww :) Any particular reason for Zambia's flag? They've got our eagle/vulture, I suppose.
And, any horrid mistakes? I think that, with over 61million people in Tanz, Zimb, and Zam, there's perhaps 80-odd thousand regular military personnel (marginally more people than in France, and a few hundred percent less troops), and with a full-scale APVA recruitment drive such as the current one, that climbs to over 300 thousand, but that's really our equivalent to a wartime draft, which in Europe might yield a couple of million recruits. Hopefully that more than covers internal strife, incapacity due to AIDS/HIV, and our national poverty?

Very nice indeed m8.


It looks that in the air and at sea Strathdonina might be able to hold its own for while and in terms of groudn force personnel we are some what matched (although it should be pointed out that about 60-70% of "regular" SDF forces are actually terratorials) but in terms of tanks and guns we are very buggered...

Well, you do have all those Centurion/75s...and if the Israelis could make due with regular Centurions against T-55s and T-62s, I'm sure the SDF could account for itself with examples armed with what might just be the most potent anti-tank gun in the world.

(OOC: War in Africa certainly will be different to war in Asia or Europe, hey? A totally different balance of the significance of resources and distances, since the UAR can't be assured of air support/cover/mobility for its armies, but so long as it can access fuel and almost see its objectives, it may not matter, given the scale of the armoured punch. I kinda want to see Enfield-weilding impis surprising mechanised HL forces like Inca warriors out-manoeuvring Spanish horses, heh.
As with the likes of Yugoslavia and the Strainists, the Commonwealth tends to consider the UAR and maybe the whole ANP as non-aligned leaning-our-way, for what that matters in international relations, explaining our preparedness to dispatch marines to restore Igomo and to provide vital SAM coverage of population centres (after what happened in Bonstock-era SEA, and in Lavrageria), but not to actually prop-up the Armies of Lusaka. We don't really want them swarming over Strathdonia, because that'd create a rift between Raipur and Mumbai, and distract the British who we'd rather have occupying HL attention in distant Europe.)

The Indian Soviet Commonwealth is quite excited by the increasing realisation of African socialism and its administration of ever growing resources. Commonwealthers are well aware that the citizens of the United African Republics are more than capable of meeting their own food needs, with lakes containing enough fish to sustain a continent and so much of the population engaged in collective farming emphasising volume over market value, but it is also recognised that these very standards limit industrial growth and diversity, which the Soviet economy certainly does not. In contrast, the heavily populated Commonwealth's consumption of its own natural resources leaves little room for expansion in time of need, African raw materials are sought at stable prices that will allow the UAR to increase its investment in mining and enable the acquisition of Soviet heavy manufactures.

With Soviet influence expanding in Asia, the UAR growing, the HL increasingly economically introspective, and the rise of Latin American anarchism, the Commonwealth feels that controlling the stability of prices for many natural resources is now fairly possible. (Not to mention favourable, since it may help to restrict the pace of Chinese growth!)

News Free-Africa

Trade relations grow, restructuring underway in Zimbabwe, west Zambia, southeast Tanzania

War, factionalisation, and the spread of social economics in South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia appears to be doing much for the economic regeneration of the United African Republics under the careful administration of Presidents Miyanda, Mugabe, and Tanko, and the care of Papa Africa.

Estimates by foreigners suggesting, 'marginal or unsustainable GDP growth' and, 'low per-capita GDP' should be dismissed as irrelevant standards, for Africa's works are geared to African needs, and the value to one rich Chinaman of a pound of corn does not alter its value to an African miner.

The presence of British and Australasian warships in the Atlantic and the strength of unity for security in Asia does much for exports of tea, coffee, cashew nuts, pyrethrum, and tobacco, which are worth several million dollars to the economies of the republics. Minerals, lead by copper and gold, are what will enable the African Republics to support the restructuring of the newly associated territories and ensure the long-term investment in defence that is required for Africa.

African Constitution appears

...asserting that Africa can achieve socialism by simply liberating its people from imperial and neo-imperial influence and reverting to pre-colonial systems, the document stresses ujamaa -familyhood- as the proper way of living, criticising states outside the United African Republics as un-African, and calling cities the tools of colonialism and colonialism by stealth.

At one point it details examples of proper Ujamaa communities, with collective agriculture engaging most of the extended family group while X sons and daughters from a community of Y size go to work in industry and Z go to defend Africa in the armies.

The constitution, delivered by Papa Africa, Derek Igomo, states that any Africans -even from non-UAR nations- who work with the powers of empire or neo-colonialism are guilty of treason against the motherland, and recommends that they be handled as such.

Education, equality, and obligation feature alongside liberation as key themes in the document, due to be brought into force this year.

New armour reported at Harare parade

For some years the Lusakan movement has been a leading light in independent Africa, standing-up to extra-continental powers such as Roycelandia and United Elias and exerting significant influence over neighbour states. The on-going recovery of post-apartheid South Africa, however, appears to challenge City's power as another native authority comes increasingly to the fore.

Wealthier than the United African Republics and not so much smaller as are neighbours like Strathdonia, Mozambique, Namibia, and Botswana, the new Federation is less likely to be impressed or intimidated by the African Army's almost eighteen hundred strong tank force, which includes a large component of increasingly archaic T-62 and modestly upgraded T-55 (known as T-56(L)).

So, this week, a military parade in Harare, vaunted as a symbol of the sort of development and strength brought to Zimbabwe since its accession to the Union, has attracted significant attention as a lone Olifant L-2 battle tank was followed by a column of previously unknown models.

Close scrutiny by foreign defence experts revealed that the tanks were in fact based upon the T-62 and were probably rebuilt from baseline hulls already in service. Two distinct modifications were viewed, one apparently a more advanced upgrade than the other.

It appears that both types enjoy a new powerpack, and both appeared to mount some armour and fire-control enhancements. The first type, wearing full armoured track skirts and a 14.5mm anti-aircraft gun, appeared to enjoy the addition of a laser range-finder over the standard 115mm main gun, which has a thermal sleeve added, and had applique armour over the turret front and glacis. Extra fuel tanks were fitted to the rear deck.

Experts have since identified the modified tanks as matching the description of the Ch'onma-Ho series spoken-of in Drapoel propaganda.

The more advanced Ch'onma-Ho II has all the improvements of the previously described tank, but adds a great deal further. It represents a radical rebuild with a widened hull, extra anti-mine armour, rubber track pads, and other minor detail changes, plus a full NBC system (Ch'onma-Ho I has only basic radiation shielding). Much more impressively, Ch'onma-Ho II mounts a 125mm auto-loading main gun, believed to be developed from Drapoel experience with the Indian BGMKIII gun aboard MT-3 Hotan/Peripatus, which has an ATGM capability and dual-axis stabilisation. The advanced machine has limited ERA coverage where it does not conflict with applique against kinetic threats; and clearly displayed Lozod, the Lusakan Drozod-derived active protection system. Notable was the lack of an infra-red searchlight, owing to the incorporation of world-class EFCS-3 integrated FCS from Yugoslavia.

Ch'onma-Ho II appears to be capable of accurate on-the-move firing at night, of engagement to ranges possibly as great as five kilometres, of operation in NBC-contaminated environment, and of improved survivability against kinetic and chemical energy attack, though it is believed that the powerpack, much improved over the T-62's 580hp unit, is still a somewhat limiting 730hp diesel, rendering performance enhancement that is off-set by the extra weight of armour and systems.

While the more complete upgrade would, along with Olifant L-2, make for a serious threat on the modern battlefield even when facing 1st world powers, it is generally agreed that the UAR is far more likely to carry-out the modest Ch'onma-Ho I level upgrade to most of its T-62s, which, with limited propulsion, armour, and Drapoel-origin FCS enhancement, will only do enough to keep them just ahead of obsolescence. The appearance of Ch'onma-Ho II is suspected to be as a technology demonstrator and a gesture of international co-operation across three continents, bringing together the state firms of the UAR, CPRD, and SFRY to make retro-USSR weapons viable on the modern battlefield.

The UAR will probably not be prepared to sacrifice quantity for quality since the expansion of its borders and in light of the number of directions from which danger may arise.

Union diplomats in the company of Derek Igomo himself, or of his close associates Colin Olongwe and Livingstone Miyanda, are quick to express Parliament's satisfaction at the United African Republics' efforts towards defense modernization. With South Africa's supposed designs on Namibia and Botswana causing Mumbai some concern, and with Roycelandia as close to the hated League as ever, a strong military for the Republics serves as a comfortable barrier to unwanted designs in southern Africa.

The Unioners, by now satisfied with the state of affairs in Zimbabwe and eager to repair a somewhat damaged relationship as a result, discuss with their hosts the availability of INU-origin systems at relatively low cost, if overall modernization and expansion of the African Armies is indeed their goal. Most needs do appear to be filled by Yugoslav systems, but the diplomats to make it known that the AT.18 antitank missile, a relatively light system portable by two infantrymen and likely able to put most MBTs out of action with a hit over the frontal arc, is available for export at minimal cost, along with a wide variety of improved antitank rounds for the SPG-9 recoilless rifle and RPG-7. The 75/105mm antitank gun, a fearsome weapon that can dispatch nearly any existing armored vehicle at range, continues to be withheld, in consideration of its Strathdonian origin, but approval on Lilongwe's part would make export to the UARs completely possible. It is also proposed that the sixth Kaveri-class LSL, sitting unfinished at Diu on account of its not being needed by the IN, be completed to UAR specifications and transferred to the Lusakan Navy.

Mumbai's representatives of course praise the UAR and its solidarity with ECOWAS, and make much of the Indo-African army presently on its way to do battle with the French imperialists in West Africa. They again raise discussion over the joint rapid-reaction force proposed some time ago, as a method of stamping-out unfavorable presences on the African continent more quickly than has been the case in the past, but whether anything will come of this is anyone's guess.

An update on the state of, 'Lusaka'

Of course the last two years have seen the sad collapse of the United African Republic. Two years ago Derek Igomo was made President of a restructured union giving more power to each of three states: Zimbabwe and the new entities of Zambia and Tanzania. Prime Ministers in each state -Robert Mugabe, George Tanko, and Livingstone Miyanda respectively- ruled day-to-day, Igomo's position becoming increasingly ceremonial and symbolic of a unity that was less and less practical every day.

Within months this arrangement ceased to be viable as each constituent state went its own way. The central government at New Lusaka City evaporated, most of its stars relocating to Tanzania, largest of the UAR's three successor states.

Indian Soviet and Union aid has helped most in Tanzania, which benefits from long standing basing agreements with the Soviet military and is the hub of a Quinntonian media operation in Africa.

The raising with Union resources of New Lusaka City has helped Zambia by giving it a second vibrant metropolis with relatively modern infrastructure, but the nation remains in the grip of an AIDS disaster spreading from the far western provinces.

Zimbabwe appears to be going backwards as Mugabe reasserts control with extra vigour after briefly losing much to Igomo's Pan-Africanism, and the human rights situation here is in question where as Zambia's parliament is dominated by still-idealistic young revolutionaries and freedom fighters and Tanzania retains the guiding voice of Mr.Derek and the laid-back administration of easy-going PM Miyanda.

Deep concerns over the African Commonwealth's concurrent decline and the spread of Igovian radicalism in South West Africa coupled with Roycelandian militarisation and the ruin of ECOWAS project an uncertain and likely unhappy future for the former Lusaka and Africa as a whole. Divided, the states of the union are militarily puny by contemporary standards and no one state has the capital at its disposal to carry-through major civilian development plans alone.