African Superpower

How do we make an african superpower exiting today?
POD no earlier than BC 500.
Perferalbly in southern Africa, eg. Congo. That would be interesting.
 
It's going to be hard. Depending on what you mean by 'superpower' - I think a major regional power with military power projection capacity through the continent and the near seas is possible if we change colonisation and decolonisation a bit. A USSR-analogue probably not. To make Africa one of the poles of human civilisation the way the ends of Eurasia are, you'd need very strong de-Jaredisation measures. Give Africa a crop package that outperforms Eurasia's and the Americas'. Ideally, also more disease resistance and a nasty disease package for export.
 
Maghreb (From Carthage to Islamic Kingdoms), Egypt are all possible. Also we have Ethiopia, Kongo... And cliche South Africa/Draka.
North African powers tend to go north. Not withstanding what resources can be extracted from the Sahara Desert, the Mediterranean Basin has even more.

As for the others:

Kongo, as far as I know there were no cities in it. That it is jungle is not important. The Maya did not do too badly and at one point there were cities in the Amazon Basin.

South Africa, no farming until both Europeans colonised it; the Bantu crops were unsuitable for the climate.

Ethiopia, good question and I leave some one else to answer it.
 
Maybe to have some ancient colonisation take place? You know where the Phoenicians all went, so maybe a little storm after Gibraltar.. a little colony somewhere along the shore..
 
Maybe to have some ancient colonisation take place? You know where the Phoenicians all went, so maybe a little storm after Gibraltar.. a little colony somewhere along the shore..
Phoenicians have not really got anything that the African can not invent themselves or import the idea of from North Africa.
 
When Rome sacks Carthage, instead of being enslaved the Punic population flees through the desert. Many die, yet enough reach the rich plains of the Niger and settle down and form a new Punic kingdom.

Due to the better technology, the Punics quickly take over most of Sub-Saharan West Africa, and help influence other African nations who experience quick renaissances of their own.

Punicia becomes a major power by 1300 and when the first Portugese ships are sighted, the Punician armadas sink what the Punic citizenry believe to be 'Romans' or the 'evil ones'

Of course this has flow on affects forcing the Portugese West sooner and haveing some Portugese dude find the Americas instead of some Genovese dude working for some Spainish dudes.
 
How about if there was massive European settlement in Africa, and with the educated Europeans, they build up the infrastructure and educational systems.
 
How about if there was massive European settlement in Africa, and with the educated Europeans, they build up the infrastructure and educational systems.

That didn't exactly go well the last time it was tried.

The problem, I think, is that to qualify for real superpower status, Africa needs a serious edge on the competition early on. The natural resources are rich enough, but the GGS problem remains - poor crop packages, high disease prevalence, limited number of domesticated animals, poor transport infrastructure. If you take a late POD with Europeans or Asians settling in Subsaharan Africa and turning it into a modern power, you can't credibly get to superpower status without doing nasty things to the rest of the world first (an 'On the Beach' scenario with Australia/NZ facing the African Union as the world's sole functioning power blocs after a global nuclear war). Major power is feasible, but beyond that I can't see it. So an early POD that shifts some of the problems would be required. I think a good starting point would be coastal navigation moving Eurasian crops and livestock along the continent. They don't do terribly well in the equatorial coastal regions, but once they reach the more suited parts (the Central Highlands and South Africa), local civilisation can base itself on a more solid foundation than OTL. If we could somehow add American crops, too... maize and squashes do very, very well there.
 
he problem, I think, is that to qualify for real superpower status, Africa needs a serious edge on the competition early on. The natural resources are rich enough, but the GGS problem remains - poor crop packages, high disease prevalence, limited number of domesticated animals, poor transport infrastructure. If you take a late POD with Europeans or Asians settling in Subsaharan Africa and turning it into a modern power, you can't credibly get to superpower status without doing nasty things to the rest of the world first (an 'On the Beach' scenario with Australia/NZ facing the African Union as the world's sole functioning power blocs after a global nuclear war). Major power is feasible, but beyond that I can't see it. So an early POD that shifts some of the problems would be required. I think a good starting point would be coastal navigation moving Eurasian crops and livestock along the continent. They don't do terribly well in the equatorial coastal regions, but once they reach the more suited parts (the Central Highlands and South Africa), local civilisation can base itself on a more solid foundation than OTL. If we could somehow add American crops, too... maize and squashes do very, very well there.
The American plants aren't essential nor would the Euroasian plants if the Africans had their own. What it comes down to is the element of chance and the odds favoured the Euroasians because they had more to chose from. Still, there was a finite possibility that a native plant, a superwheat if you like, could have evolved in southern Africa. If so then Khoi could start to farm it as early as the Euroasians were growing wheat/millet/barley. They are still going to need other crops and a local draft animal would be of great assistance (how about a variant of the common eland?). By the time they come into contact with Euroasians they could be more technologically advanced than the Atzecs, Maya, Inca in the early sixteenth century as well as having picke dout all these nasty diseases via the Bantus.
 
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