Malê Rising
- Thread starter Jonathan Edelstein
- Start date
Remember that scene during the Great War when the Male and British use Ekun-3 motorwagons to break the French siege of Bornu? Well, I suppose it is rather late to draw attention to that particular scene, but I felt in the mood to draw what I thought the Ekun-3 might look like. Of course, being that I have no drawing skills the result was pretty terrible, but I thought I might post what I created anyway. It's probably really crappy, but I'm curious to see how close I got to what Jonathan imagined himself.
(Unfortunately I couldn't get the filesize small enough to upload to the forum, so I have to link you to where I uploaded it to Deviantart instead.)
I wasn't sure whether to include a machine gun or not. The Battle of Bornu update doesn't explicitly mention the Ekun-3 having a forwards-mounted machine gun, both that and the "Machines of war" bit in the year 3 summary mention forward-firing machine guns as a standard tactic with older motor-wagons. plus, the French horses that dodge the 1st wagons "come within the next ones’ field of fire – and between the guns of the men on both sides." -emphasis mine. this suggests a machine gun along with the infantry square on the back. I initially wanted the machine gun mounted next to the driver, possibly attached directly to the Chassis, but since later updates mention the Ekun being put to civilian use I gave it a full truck cab with the machine gun on the roof. I wasn't sure whether the windows would be made of glass or be empty. I don't know if bulletproof glass existed then and the Ekun-3 supposedly had little armor, but having them completely empty would seem like TOO MUCH of a hazard.
That top-down view was my idea of how the infantry might be arranged on the bed, but I probably bungled the scale badly.
That big blueprint-like thing was my attempt to show some details of the technical workings, but it's probably pretty crap since I know very little about truck design. The main chassis is two parallel main beams, above which a metal sheet makes the floor of the bed. Railing and siding is entirely wooden, keeping with the story post and the light construction in general. Leaf spring suspension since that's pretty basic, and rear-wheel-drive only to save weight. since this is supposedly little use in the rainy season, it probably was bad at rough terrain anyway. Fuel tank in the middle, under the chassis.
I went with brown bodywork since that might provide slight camouflage, and the body might be made of wood to reduce weight. Not sure about that though. I tried to draw the Ilorin flag on the top drawing, but it was too small to properly detail. Hope it its recognizable.
(Unfortunately I couldn't get the filesize small enough to upload to the forum, so I have to link you to where I uploaded it to Deviantart instead.)
I wasn't sure whether to include a machine gun or not. The Battle of Bornu update doesn't explicitly mention the Ekun-3 having a forwards-mounted machine gun, both that and the "Machines of war" bit in the year 3 summary mention forward-firing machine guns as a standard tactic with older motor-wagons. plus, the French horses that dodge the 1st wagons "come within the next ones’ field of fire – and between the guns of the men on both sides." -emphasis mine. this suggests a machine gun along with the infantry square on the back. I initially wanted the machine gun mounted next to the driver, possibly attached directly to the Chassis, but since later updates mention the Ekun being put to civilian use I gave it a full truck cab with the machine gun on the roof. I wasn't sure whether the windows would be made of glass or be empty. I don't know if bulletproof glass existed then and the Ekun-3 supposedly had little armor, but having them completely empty would seem like TOO MUCH of a hazard.
That top-down view was my idea of how the infantry might be arranged on the bed, but I probably bungled the scale badly.
That big blueprint-like thing was my attempt to show some details of the technical workings, but it's probably pretty crap since I know very little about truck design. The main chassis is two parallel main beams, above which a metal sheet makes the floor of the bed. Railing and siding is entirely wooden, keeping with the story post and the light construction in general. Leaf spring suspension since that's pretty basic, and rear-wheel-drive only to save weight. since this is supposedly little use in the rainy season, it probably was bad at rough terrain anyway. Fuel tank in the middle, under the chassis.
I went with brown bodywork since that might provide slight camouflage, and the body might be made of wood to reduce weight. Not sure about that though. I tried to draw the Ilorin flag on the top drawing, but it was too small to properly detail. Hope it its recognizable.
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Pretty close, actually. I did imagine the Ekun-3s having a full cab (to protect from weather and provide at least minimal armor) with a top-mounted machine gun, and a flatbed in back with a railing to support the infantrymen. I figured there would be some kind of spring suspension to make the shooting platform as stable as possible, though use on rough off-road terrain would make the soldiers' accuracy erratic at the best of times. The design would be fairly similar to OTL trucks of the 1900-10 era, albeit with a lot more horses under the hood due to military crash programs.
Fuel tank under the chassis seems about right - that position would provide the most protection against enemy fire, though it would be vulnerable to mines.
Given that they're designed for off-road use, I do think that they'd be able to switch between rear-wheel and four-wheel drive, even if it's something that mechanics would have to do on the morning of the battle. Four-wheel drive vehicles with 60 HP engines did exist as early as 1903 IOTL, and military research might produce a model that was light enough to be practical. Of course, I'm always willing to be proven wrong.
(And if y'all are in a drawing mood, I'd still love to see someone's conception of Paulo the Elder.)
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I'm pleased to announce that the annoying "FONT" tags have now been removed from all updates except for guest post 5038 which I can't edit. There are a few comments by people other than me that have the tags in them, but you should now be able to read the story posts without any problem.
And for anyone who may have missed it, there's a new story on the previous page at post 6978.
And for anyone who may have missed it, there's a new story on the previous page at post 6978.
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For fans of the Malêverse (and others) who may be interested, I've posted the first two scenes of a work in progress entitled Oba Oyinbo (White King), which is a sequel to last year's Nwanyi Enwe Eze and is set in Lagos seven years after the end of that story. Comments, criticism and advice are, as always, appreciated.
I have just this year started reading your terrific timeline...never having I accessed Google so much for background on people and regions. I love it! I also searched for each of the authors of the third year summary and found a wiki page for each. Has anyone else noticed this? Sorry I should note I am currently on page 109.
Apologies for commenting on a somewhat sleepy thread (I won't say dormant) but how could I not write in!
I started reading this more long ago than I care to admit, quickly realized I would never catch up to participate in the amazing discussion, and so decided I might as well savor it as a limited resource. Just finished today and I can't believe it's over! It's hard for me to express how inspiring I found this work. Fascinating, educational, entertaining, moving...I even feel like contemplating some of the philosophical concepts explored herein have made some of my interpersonal relationships smoother and more positive. Thanks so much, Jonathan!
With a whole TL's-worth of observations saved up I realize I should just let most of them go, but one I keep coming back to is the assertion by Jonathan and other readers that the US would be perceived as highly "un-post-Westphalian." While I can see their point when it comes to the US's dismissal or only grudging participation in various modern institutions, historically-speaking wouldn't federalism itself be seen as a moderate step in the march away from Westphalianism? Federalism is a set of powers granted to the states that seems hard for a lot of OTL Westphalian nations to grasp, and those powers would be very much similar ITTL, right?
In conclusion, thanks again for writing this, it is easily one of the best things I've ever read on the board; it might even beat Lands of Red And Gold, which is its only real competition as far as I'm concerned. I've often thought about writing something set ITTL, maybe a history of my city (Washington). Is this TL open for submissions or is the lid in place?
Last time, thanks again!
I started reading this more long ago than I care to admit, quickly realized I would never catch up to participate in the amazing discussion, and so decided I might as well savor it as a limited resource. Just finished today and I can't believe it's over! It's hard for me to express how inspiring I found this work. Fascinating, educational, entertaining, moving...I even feel like contemplating some of the philosophical concepts explored herein have made some of my interpersonal relationships smoother and more positive. Thanks so much, Jonathan!
With a whole TL's-worth of observations saved up I realize I should just let most of them go, but one I keep coming back to is the assertion by Jonathan and other readers that the US would be perceived as highly "un-post-Westphalian." While I can see their point when it comes to the US's dismissal or only grudging participation in various modern institutions, historically-speaking wouldn't federalism itself be seen as a moderate step in the march away from Westphalianism? Federalism is a set of powers granted to the states that seems hard for a lot of OTL Westphalian nations to grasp, and those powers would be very much similar ITTL, right?
In conclusion, thanks again for writing this, it is easily one of the best things I've ever read on the board; it might even beat Lands of Red And Gold, which is its only real competition as far as I'm concerned. I've often thought about writing something set ITTL, maybe a history of my city (Washington). Is this TL open for submissions or is the lid in place?
Last time, thanks again!
Once again, the Wikia page for this story contains a handy index of all canon posts. I just looked it up (not so easy; I've changed browsers and lost all my old bookmarks) and verified that the links still work.
Now that it is finished Jonathan might find time to transfer it over to Finished TLs. While fans of his can assist with the Wiki page, I think only he can do a Finished TLs page. And someone who reads his non-canon posts in this thread can learn, he is a busy man in RL doing very important work too. Go figure that he was, while this thread ran, a reliable poster of very well written work even while helping to create a major step forward in US common law.
I've rarely ever wanted to read "story only" threads since the interaction of author with audience has a tendency to shape the story somewhat. You are missing out if you skip the comments.
However, using the Wikia page you can read just the canon posts straight through. Enjoy!
xsampa
Banned
@Jonathan Edelstein
After reading Malê Rising, I thought about creating a TL which is so dark that it makes OTL look like Malê Rising. Would you find such a project interesting, or just run-of-the-mill, given that the most noted TLs on the site are already dystopic (For All Time, DoD etc.) ?
After reading Malê Rising, I thought about creating a TL which is so dark that it makes OTL look like Malê Rising. Would you find such a project interesting, or just run-of-the-mill, given that the most noted TLs on the site are already dystopic (For All Time, DoD etc.) ?
The main difference between otl and male rising is male rising is far more multi polar with much less inequality, a larger range of globally influencial cultures, and a much greater spread of wealth.
So I suppose a timeline that made otl look like male rising would be one which is even more mono polar, has less spread of wealth and fewer thriving cultural movements.
So a timeline where you had one very rich, powerful part of the world and everyone else in global poverty.
If we look at otl having essentially three bands of high Human Development Index countries (western europe, north america and the far east and australasia) while male rising also has numerous high hdi countries in africa, middle east and latin america. Then the obvious counterpoint would be a timeline which only has one high hdi band (a rich east asia with a poor western europe and north america or vice versa).
If you're actually going full nega-male rising, the most interesting way would be for nigeria to be the world's sole superpower and everyone else to be otl's nigeria at best. With the would appallingly unequal in that all the wealth is gathered in *nigeria and the only culture spread world wide is in *nigeria and *nigeria outspends all over countries in terms of military spending.
It'd be incredibly tricky to pull off and it wouldn't have a great deal in common with male rising but it'd be something I read, I think. You could even keep the tone light and triumphant by focusing purely on your succesful *nigeria and backgrounding the crapsack world it lives in.
I'm sure there's plenty of triumphant history books about the growth of the united states or the united kingdom which don't really dwell on stuff like the rwandan genocide and poverty in niger.
I had a weird thought a while back about a dystopian cross between Malê Rising and Decades of Darkness that, if you don't mind, I'd like to flesh out here. The POD of Malê Rising still happens -- fighters in a Brazilian Islamic slave rebellion win their freedom and go into exile in Africa. But instead of going to *Nigeria, they instead head to *Liberia, which in the DoD 'verse is located in the area of OTL's Namibia. Importing their revolutionary mindset to the African colonization project, they wind up becoming an imperial power themselves, expanding into OTL's Angola (Luanda and Cabinda become Portugal's last enclaves on the coast), Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia at the expense of both other colonial powers and native kingdoms that reject Liberian rule. New England eagerly supports Liberia's expansion, the nation enjoying preferential trade deals that help fuel both Yankee industry and the development of Liberia's natural resources. The Cape Colony also prospers on trade with Liberia, leading the British to take a similar position in seeing a friendly Liberia as an auxiliary for building a Cape-to-Cairo railway and shoring up British power in southern Africa, while the Boer republics look on nervously at the growing Black Power and, fearing that it will inspire native rebellions, start seeking aid from Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal (bitter over losing Angola), and the *US to build up their industry, infrastructure, and military. This has the side-effect of butterflying the Second Boer War; the prospect of stiff Boer resistance leads the British to take a softer hand, and the Boer republics remain independent.
The *US victory in the North American War sees Liberia take in a whole slew of refugees from the conquered Caribbean territories, fueling a second round of expansion into the Congo. They, and their Yankee and British backers, justify it to the world as a humanitarian intervention to put down the abuses of the Congo Free State, but within Liberia, nationalists are looking on eagerly. *American ideas of Manifest Destiny have cross-pollinated with pan-Africanism to produce a movement to unite the continent and forge it into a great power -- with Liberia at the helm, of course. Katanga is incorporated into the growing Liberian state, while the rest of the Congo becomes a nominally independent republic that, in practice, is a Liberian puppet that is thoroughly dominated by Liberian, British, and Yankee business interests.
Liberian nationalism starts to flower in the early 20th century as anti-colonial movements emerge in the African colonies. Liberia is looked to by many Africans as a symbol of independent African power and success, together with Ethiopia (retaining its independence as per OTL) and Madagascar (butterflies related to contact with Liberian and Yankee traders have allowed reformists to come to power and pull a Meiji). After the British and French empires are destroyed by the Germans in the wake of the Great War, Liberia takes advantage of the collapse of colonial administration throughout so much of the continent to fill the vacuum. Across west and central Africa, Liberian money and guns arrive in support of "independence" movements that inevitably produce more Congos -- states that are independent only on paper, and are in practice subservient to Liberia. The Germans grumble, but with their hands full in Europe, there's little they can do.
As the world enters the Silent War in the '40s, Liberia is, on the surface, one of the leaders of the "free world". It's a democratic, constitutional republic modeled after New England, it leads a propaganda offensive against the *US, and it counts the Restored Empire as a close ally and New England as its oldest friend (because, under the terms of the Treaty of Washington, New England couldn't continue its alliance). The standard of living is high and the middle class is large, with a robust economy and pop culture fueled by consumerism and the media, and suburban homes, white picket fences, and land-yacht sedans and off-roaders dotting the landscape from Walvis Bay to Lake Tanganyika. Look under the surface, however, and you'll find some other, more disquieting similarities to OTL's Cold War-era USA. Its "independent" allies are all puppet juntas that ruthlessly crush dissent -- and that's before you get into places like Lagos and Biafra that are being prepped for outright annexation. The national Liberian culture, a mix of African-American, Brazilian/Portuguese, and Caribbean creole, is promoted above all others -- native languages are suppressed in favor of English and Portuguese, native religions in favor of Christianity and Sunni Islam. The President can be described as a black nationalist version of George W. Bush at best and Donald Trump at worst. Liberia's pan-African dream has turned into a nightmare for many non-Liberians, and by 1960, its power on the continent is not without its rivals. Ethiopia has become an eager proxy for Russian power and investment, looking to maintain its independence against the Liberian titan and having long enjoyed cultural and religious links with Russia, while Madagascar, which had already snatched up formerly British Kenya in the wake of the Great War, has turned to Germany as an ally. North and West Africa are hotspots in the Silent War between Germany, Russia, and Liberia. Even among the Liberian upper and middle classes, a counterculture is lashing out against the stultifying restrictions placed on free expression by both government censors and society as a whole, persisting and growing despite all efforts to stamp it out, and that's to say nothing of the growing unrest among those natives who still seek to maintain traditional ways of life. Even the rogue, friendless *Americans, from their remote base in Whydah, are keen to cause chaos among their perceived lessers everywhere.
The *US victory in the North American War sees Liberia take in a whole slew of refugees from the conquered Caribbean territories, fueling a second round of expansion into the Congo. They, and their Yankee and British backers, justify it to the world as a humanitarian intervention to put down the abuses of the Congo Free State, but within Liberia, nationalists are looking on eagerly. *American ideas of Manifest Destiny have cross-pollinated with pan-Africanism to produce a movement to unite the continent and forge it into a great power -- with Liberia at the helm, of course. Katanga is incorporated into the growing Liberian state, while the rest of the Congo becomes a nominally independent republic that, in practice, is a Liberian puppet that is thoroughly dominated by Liberian, British, and Yankee business interests.
Liberian nationalism starts to flower in the early 20th century as anti-colonial movements emerge in the African colonies. Liberia is looked to by many Africans as a symbol of independent African power and success, together with Ethiopia (retaining its independence as per OTL) and Madagascar (butterflies related to contact with Liberian and Yankee traders have allowed reformists to come to power and pull a Meiji). After the British and French empires are destroyed by the Germans in the wake of the Great War, Liberia takes advantage of the collapse of colonial administration throughout so much of the continent to fill the vacuum. Across west and central Africa, Liberian money and guns arrive in support of "independence" movements that inevitably produce more Congos -- states that are independent only on paper, and are in practice subservient to Liberia. The Germans grumble, but with their hands full in Europe, there's little they can do.
As the world enters the Silent War in the '40s, Liberia is, on the surface, one of the leaders of the "free world". It's a democratic, constitutional republic modeled after New England, it leads a propaganda offensive against the *US, and it counts the Restored Empire as a close ally and New England as its oldest friend (because, under the terms of the Treaty of Washington, New England couldn't continue its alliance). The standard of living is high and the middle class is large, with a robust economy and pop culture fueled by consumerism and the media, and suburban homes, white picket fences, and land-yacht sedans and off-roaders dotting the landscape from Walvis Bay to Lake Tanganyika. Look under the surface, however, and you'll find some other, more disquieting similarities to OTL's Cold War-era USA. Its "independent" allies are all puppet juntas that ruthlessly crush dissent -- and that's before you get into places like Lagos and Biafra that are being prepped for outright annexation. The national Liberian culture, a mix of African-American, Brazilian/Portuguese, and Caribbean creole, is promoted above all others -- native languages are suppressed in favor of English and Portuguese, native religions in favor of Christianity and Sunni Islam. The President can be described as a black nationalist version of George W. Bush at best and Donald Trump at worst. Liberia's pan-African dream has turned into a nightmare for many non-Liberians, and by 1960, its power on the continent is not without its rivals. Ethiopia has become an eager proxy for Russian power and investment, looking to maintain its independence against the Liberian titan and having long enjoyed cultural and religious links with Russia, while Madagascar, which had already snatched up formerly British Kenya in the wake of the Great War, has turned to Germany as an ally. North and West Africa are hotspots in the Silent War between Germany, Russia, and Liberia. Even among the Liberian upper and middle classes, a counterculture is lashing out against the stultifying restrictions placed on free expression by both government censors and society as a whole, persisting and growing despite all efforts to stamp it out, and that's to say nothing of the growing unrest among those natives who still seek to maintain traditional ways of life. Even the rogue, friendless *Americans, from their remote base in Whydah, are keen to cause chaos among their perceived lessers everywhere.
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I'd always thought that one of the key breaks the abacarism philosophy got in the male rising timeline was that it was rarely the philospher of the conquerer.
It's heavily hinted that had Abacar's rule of the Sokoto republic continued, he would have being overthrown as a tyrant. But instead he died as a martyr and the successor kingdoms don't really expand after that, on the contrary they get conquered by the british very quickly.
So it never becomes the ideology of the ruling class, of the warlord. Male soldiers aren't burning towns from the mossi and the nupe, instead they're fighting in british battalions.
It's what allows the ideology to remain radical and not become the stalinism to abacar's marx. And also to remain respected and not be too contaminated with the brush of neo-colonialism.
It's heavily hinted that had Abacar's rule of the Sokoto republic continued, he would have being overthrown as a tyrant. But instead he died as a martyr and the successor kingdoms don't really expand after that, on the contrary they get conquered by the british very quickly.
So it never becomes the ideology of the ruling class, of the warlord. Male soldiers aren't burning towns from the mossi and the nupe, instead they're fighting in british battalions.
It's what allows the ideology to remain radical and not become the stalinism to abacar's marx. And also to remain respected and not be too contaminated with the brush of neo-colonialism.
Sorry for taking so long to get to the recent comments, and I'm happy to see that people are still discovering and enjoying the Malêverse.
Thanks! I'm not sure 45 is a milestone, but it's a good age.
Ask ten people, get eleven answers. The Consistory uses the figures in the chart at the bottom of this post, but as Sulemain said, reasonable minds can disagree on what a "country" is - for instance, whether the regional republics that have grown up within the Russian federation count as states or autonomous provinces.
By this time, the figure that's most important to international relations people isn't the number of countries but the number of Consistory members with power to engage in at least some form of treaty-making, which is about 11,000.
Thanks for reading! I think the wiki pages are for people who happen to have the same names - with a very few exceptions, I just made up names for the authors of the "academic" books and articles cited in the updates.
You make a good point about American federalism as a precursor, and some of TTL's historians might say so. An opposing view is that American federalism tended to become more centralized over time rather than less, so that the United States moved in the opposite direction from the rest of the world, although that view might be somewhat discredited by the late 20th century due to Native American tribes' representation in the Consistory and the relatively strong localist movements found in some parts of the country.
Thanks for reading, and yes, I've opened the Malêverse to all, so I'd love to see your take on TTL's Washington. Just run your ideas by me and let me see a draft before posting.
A well-done dystopia can certainly be interesting, but I think that, as Youngmarshall said, an anti-Malêverse would be opposite in its ideology and geopolitics rather than its result - a world which is monopolar, highly centralized, culturally conformist and hierarchical. Societism in @Thande's LTTW timeline actually seems like it could make a good bizarro Malêverse - it does appear rather dystopic, but it also doesn't necessarily have to be.
I'd be interested in seeing some of these ideas fleshed out, although since they'd amount to a separate timeline, they should probably be developed in another thread.
I'd love to see this fleshed out - the only thing is that in Namibia, they wouldn't have a pre-existing reformist Islamic substrate to build on. The key to the Malê foundation ITTL is that, due to the recent jihad of Usman dan Fodio and the creation of a corps of itinerant women teachers by his daughter Nana Asma'u, Sokoto was already primed to accept a message like Abacar's. In your Namibia, they'd have to start from scratch converting the indigenous people to their form of Islam. This would be difficult given that the Malê and the indigenous ethnic groups are nearly from opposite ends of the Niger-Congo cultural sphere, and that some of the people in northern Namibia may already have been Catholic by this time due to interaction with the Kongo empire and Portuguese missionaries. And at the same time, the Malê would have to adapt to a physical environment very different from the one they know, and one which has less access to iron and coal than northern Nigeria (both are present in Namibia but hadn't been exploited yet in the 19th century and wouldn't be very easy to find).
I'm not saying this would be impossible - the Malê ideology might take root if they persevere, and I'm confident that you could figure out a plausible way for them to do this. But their early interaction with the people they conquer would have to be very different, and that in turn would change everything else.
Or at least it is delayed in doing so - during the early 20th century, the Abacarists became an entrenched ruling party in Ilorin, leading to the Muhammadu Abacar dictatorship and ultimately to revolution in the early 1920s. But as you say, the historical circumstances in which the Malê republics rose meant that this didn't happen during the formative years of the 19th century, and there was also a great deal of peaceful expansion to the Yoruba and neighboring ethnic groups via the jaji teachers, so (with a few exceptions) it managed to avoid being perceived as a colonial ideology. This would be another obstacle that a Malê state in *Namibia would have to contend with - its dynamics with the indigenous people may look a lot more like Liberia IOTL than like Sokoto ITTL, and it would have to fix that before its ideology could gain widespread appeal.
Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts. For those who haven't found it already and who may be interested, I've posted The Emperor's Gift, an AH story involving international brigades in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, to the Writer's Forum; a revised version of it has been sold and will appear in January.
Thanks! I'm not sure 45 is a milestone, but it's a good age.
Ask ten people, get eleven answers. The Consistory uses the figures in the chart at the bottom of this post, but as Sulemain said, reasonable minds can disagree on what a "country" is - for instance, whether the regional republics that have grown up within the Russian federation count as states or autonomous provinces.
By this time, the figure that's most important to international relations people isn't the number of countries but the number of Consistory members with power to engage in at least some form of treaty-making, which is about 11,000.
Thanks for reading! I think the wiki pages are for people who happen to have the same names - with a very few exceptions, I just made up names for the authors of the "academic" books and articles cited in the updates.
You make a good point about American federalism as a precursor, and some of TTL's historians might say so. An opposing view is that American federalism tended to become more centralized over time rather than less, so that the United States moved in the opposite direction from the rest of the world, although that view might be somewhat discredited by the late 20th century due to Native American tribes' representation in the Consistory and the relatively strong localist movements found in some parts of the country.
Thanks for reading, and yes, I've opened the Malêverse to all, so I'd love to see your take on TTL's Washington. Just run your ideas by me and let me see a draft before posting.
A well-done dystopia can certainly be interesting, but I think that, as Youngmarshall said, an anti-Malêverse would be opposite in its ideology and geopolitics rather than its result - a world which is monopolar, highly centralized, culturally conformist and hierarchical. Societism in @Thande's LTTW timeline actually seems like it could make a good bizarro Malêverse - it does appear rather dystopic, but it also doesn't necessarily have to be.
I'd be interested in seeing some of these ideas fleshed out, although since they'd amount to a separate timeline, they should probably be developed in another thread.
I'd love to see this fleshed out - the only thing is that in Namibia, they wouldn't have a pre-existing reformist Islamic substrate to build on. The key to the Malê foundation ITTL is that, due to the recent jihad of Usman dan Fodio and the creation of a corps of itinerant women teachers by his daughter Nana Asma'u, Sokoto was already primed to accept a message like Abacar's. In your Namibia, they'd have to start from scratch converting the indigenous people to their form of Islam. This would be difficult given that the Malê and the indigenous ethnic groups are nearly from opposite ends of the Niger-Congo cultural sphere, and that some of the people in northern Namibia may already have been Catholic by this time due to interaction with the Kongo empire and Portuguese missionaries. And at the same time, the Malê would have to adapt to a physical environment very different from the one they know, and one which has less access to iron and coal than northern Nigeria (both are present in Namibia but hadn't been exploited yet in the 19th century and wouldn't be very easy to find).
I'm not saying this would be impossible - the Malê ideology might take root if they persevere, and I'm confident that you could figure out a plausible way for them to do this. But their early interaction with the people they conquer would have to be very different, and that in turn would change everything else.
Or at least it is delayed in doing so - during the early 20th century, the Abacarists became an entrenched ruling party in Ilorin, leading to the Muhammadu Abacar dictatorship and ultimately to revolution in the early 1920s. But as you say, the historical circumstances in which the Malê republics rose meant that this didn't happen during the formative years of the 19th century, and there was also a great deal of peaceful expansion to the Yoruba and neighboring ethnic groups via the jaji teachers, so (with a few exceptions) it managed to avoid being perceived as a colonial ideology. This would be another obstacle that a Malê state in *Namibia would have to contend with - its dynamics with the indigenous people may look a lot more like Liberia IOTL than like Sokoto ITTL, and it would have to fix that before its ideology could gain widespread appeal.
Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts. For those who haven't found it already and who may be interested, I've posted The Emperor's Gift, an AH story involving international brigades in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, to the Writer's Forum; a revised version of it has been sold and will appear in January.