Pamwe ticha ita kukosha - A Central African Federation TL

Peace Dream​

Since the end of the Great African War, South Africa had been struggling against a rising tide of unrest among the blacks who were becoming increasingly resentful of the system of apartheid. South Africa began to reform its political system under the guidance of the Prime Minister, P.W. Botha, who introduced a new constitution in 1984 that invested the President with full executive powers (more along the lines of the president of the USA), a post which he then assumed. The political system was also changed significantly with the creation of two new houses of Parliament, one for the coloureds and one for the Indians (on top of the pre-existing white only house). Although many greeted Botha’s reforms with approval as they hoped it was the start of something more, many criticised him for not having gone far enough and he therefore continued by repealing many of the petty apartheid laws. When PM Msika of Zambesia introduced the September 1984 Anti-Discrimination Act to boost his flagging popularity, a law which formally prohibited segregation or discrimination in employment, public education, or a variety of other services. Calls were made in the Federation for equal treatment for blacks and whites in their civil liberties and end of the power sharing system, but Msika (well aware that his position was completely reliant on the goodwill of the UFP, who would oppose such a move) was hesitant to take such a radical step. South Africa and the Federation, each in their own way, were being forced to deal with the inequalities in their countries whether the establishment wanted to or not.

In the Federation, Msika decided to take the plunge. With the support of the left-wing of his party he called a general election in early November 1984 and began to campaign on the promise that should he be re-elected with enough support, he would begin a review of the power sharing agreement and would consider radical change. This ticket, along with his popularity boost from the Anti-Discrimination Act, made him one of the strongest contenders in the election and left the Burundian disaster of his early prime ministership all but forgotten among the majority of the populace. The UFP, although initially opposed to any change to the agreement, quickly saw the writing on the wall and changed tack, beginning to support the suggested talks and campaigning among the whites as “our representative”. In the end, only the White Rhodesia League remained utterly opposed to any such talks, a positions which made them relatively popular among the more hard-line whites. The more radical parties (UNIP and UZP) denounced Msika’s promises as empty, criticising him for not promising to simply do away with the power sharing agreement. On top of this, UNIP and the UZP decided to merge their parties into the United National Workers’ Party (UNWP) to create an alliance that would hopefully be able to carry them to victory and force through their desired reforms.

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The results shook up the political landscape of the Federation, the far-right in the form of the WRL winning a third of the white seats, a level of influence the reactionaries had not been able to achieve since the failure of Ian Smith’s attempted coup. The CCA was reduced to one white seat as they rallied around the UFP and WRL to protect their interests. The centre-right took a beating, losing numerous seats as its parties were viewed as too weak on the issue of reforming the system by the majority of the black electorate. Msika did well, winning a further two seats for CAPU, but in the end it was not enough. Led by Nalumino Mundia, UNWP was swept to power with an increase of six seats, which although it left them short of a majority allowed them to come to power at the head of a coalition with only CAPU and a total of 34 seats, the only two party coalition seen since the start of the power sharing agreement. The following ‘Salisbury Talks’ were at once convened, with every party invited to send representatives as well as a number of other figures from among both the white and black communities attending. Their purpose was to bring the system created in 1963 by PM Roy Welensky under scrutiny and decide which steps to take to allow the Federation to continue moving forward and its people to prosper. Its failure would not only mean the collapse of peace, but would also bring reform in South Africa to a halt, as its people looked north with bated breath to see the fate of the whole experiment.

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PM Nalumino Mundia
 
Had a bit of spare time today and decided to make up a list of all the songs I've referenced in the titles. Going through them, I'm sure there's a couple I put it but haven't referenced here because I can't remember which song the particular line came from :eek: :D Anyway, if you guys decide to have a listen I hope you enjoy some of them! BTW, the songs referenced aren't necessarily my favourite songs. My favourite Rhodesian song is actually probably Salisbury Town, although George and Blue Job are awesome too. Enjoy!

Our Land = Rhodesians Never Die Clem Tholet

Are You Experienced? = Are you experienced? (Jimi Hendrix)

'R' is for the Regiments who Fight the Winning Fight = Last Word in Rhodesian (John Edmond)

What a time it was = What a time it was (Clem Tholet)

Watching over you and I = George (John Edmond)

The Troopie, the Pride of the Land = The Troopie (John Edmond)

I'll be a brown job until I die = Blue Job (John Edmond)

Side by Side and Hand to Hand = We Stand Alone (John Edmond)

C'est nous les Africains = Le Chant des Africains (Sgt. Mjr. Bendifallah & M. Marizot)

Peace Dream = Peace Dream (Clem Tholet)
 
Talking for Change

At the start of the Salisbury Talks, the White Rhodesia League did all they could to derail discussion of reform, staging walkouts, filibustering, refusing to compromise on any matters, and generally causing a nuisance of themselves. However, when Mundia threatened to expel them from the proceedings and go ahead with the reforms without them, they resigned themselves to grumbling about every proposed change. With the WRL a little more under control, the talks began to move forward and soon several reforms of the system had been agreed upon. The first was the reduction of the number of white seats to a total of six, three in Southern Rhodesia, two in Northern Rhodesia and one shared between Nyasaland and Zambezia. The reduction of the white seats was also of great importance because of the way the boundaries of the white constituencies were draw, that is to reduce the electoral power of the far-right and the supporters of the WRL (most likely also the reason that the Nyasaland and Zambezia seat was created, despite its electorate numbering only a little over 30,000). The black seats in the federal parliament were also changed to be more in line with the then current population, Southern Rhodesia receiving an extra four seats and Zambezia being reduced by a single seat (it should have been reduced by about five to line up with population more, but the United National Workers’ Party had a significant portion of its support base there and could not reduce it further without much reducing their own power).

Aside from the electoral debate, land reform was also a contentious issue at the talks as the whites owned a disproportionate amount of the Federation’s farmland (in Southern Rhodesia as much as 65% of the most fertile land was owned by whites). The majority of the white farms were managed as mechanised estates, with the white owners employing hundreds of black workers who did not own any land of their own. An exception to this template was the Pied Noir community, who since arrival in the Federation had been responsible for the creation of many villages and small towns in the countryside (as well as giving several major cities a French quarter), many of which were named after prior settlements in Algeria (such as Philippeville, Mostaganem, and Bab el Oued) whilst pre-existing towns which they took over were usually had their name changed to a French adaption of the original (the town of Kazembe, called Mwansabombwe in the local language or ‘Kazembe’s Village’ when they spoke in English, became known as Kazembiville). In the rural Pied Noir communities, the settlers often kept to themselves and worked to created homes for themselves that often ended up looking more akin to Algerian towns than other towns and villages in the Federation. The major by-product of this was that among the Pied Noir towns their farms were often run more as smallholdings rather than the great estates of their British and Belgian descended counterparts. But despite this exception, the white ownership of so much of the best land was a sore issue for the blacks who wanted the chance to (as they saw it) take back ownership of their land. The WRL of course threw a fit over the whole issue, but this time they were joined by several of the more conservative parties in opposing any truly radical reform and protecting the property rights of the white citizens of the Federation.

Sir Garfield Todd, leader of the United Federal Party, had a series of private meetings with the leaders of the Christian Conservative Alliance, the Democratic Federal Party, the Malawi Congress Party, and even the White Rhodesia League, to create a united front against any attempts made by PM Mundia to forcefully confiscate white owned land. In the end they all agreed that concessions on the point of the electoral system (perhaps even further reduction of the number of white seats) may perhaps be necessary to ensure that property rights were respected. Fortunately for them, Mundia was well aware of the power of the establishment and the reaction that would be caused among the white community if a radical agenda was pushed forward, so he only negotiated for the implementation of a ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ scheme. Under the new scheme, whites who were willing would have their land purchased by the government and redistributed among the black population. As the scheme was aimed at the large estates of the white population, the land was given out for free to the landless rural population after it was purchased by the government who were given the right to first purchase of excess land under the new laws. A significant portion of the cost of the scheme was taken on by Britain, who contributed millions of pounds to help the Federation with the financial burden and help ensure the success of the project. Over the next ten years the government was able to acquire nearly 90% of the land it had hoped to gain and distribute it to blacks through the land redistribution programme, with hundreds of thousands of families being resettled on what was, for the first time, their land.

The new political and land reforms were codified in the new March 1985 constitution which was adopted after a referendum in which voting was controlled along the old divide (whites controlling around 23% of the vote). Following the referendum and the implementation of the new systems, Mundia immediately called for a new election. If he won, further reforms would of course be implemented.

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Black citizens work their own land for the first time
 
Óró sé do bheatha abhaile

Come early 1985 the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland found themselves on the back foot. Police and military crackdowns on their activities had made it exceedingly difficult to import further arms into the region and had robbed them of many of their best members, either killed in action or now languishing in prison. Attempts at creating no-go areas to protect the Catholic neighbourhoods in Derry and Belfast had failed as the British military had quickly clamped down on any such activity, a costly failure. However, major changes in IRA strategy were soon to be underway as Chief of Staff Kevin McKenna was captured in late 1985 by the British and in accordance with the rules of the Green Book (the IRA’s training and induction manual) he lost his position. Patrick Kelly was elected to replace McKenna as Chief of Staff, having gained attention as the commander of the East Tyrone Brigade which had been under his leadership since earlier that year and had since become one of the most successful IRA units in North Ireland, both in its conducting of successful strikes against British bases and in its ability to evade the crackdown. Unlike the IRA faction led by Gerry Adams (President of Sinn Féin, the IRA’s political wing) which called for de-escalation and eventual peace agreement, Kelly was viewed as an appropriate ‘war-time leader’ for the trial that lay ahead as he supported hard-line military action as well as the continuation of the abstention policy.

From 1985 to 1987, Libyan arms was smuggled into the country by the IRA who now began to focus more on a guerrilla war rather than the bombing campaign that had previously been the backbone strategy. As well as the Libyan arms shipments which provided the majority of assault rifles and explosives, the dramatic escalation of the conflict also led to a renewal of the American connection with major shipments intercepted in 1985 and 1987, before one finally came through in late 1987. Kelly was principally supported in this by Pádraig McKearney, who replaced him as commander of the East Tyrone Brigade and was a proponent of Maoist guerrilla strategy. With the great increase in the IRA’s stockpile of heavy weapons they were able to begin seriously threatening the position of the British security forces, heavy machine guns such as the DShK and M2 Browning posing a real threat to British helicopters and succeeding in shooting down a number of them in the late 1908s, whilst sniper rifles such as the Barret M82 played merry hell with the British troops on the ground. However, the implementation of full guerrilla warfare as IRA strategy cost them dearly as helicopters began travelling in groups and would engage with missiles and heavy machineguns if they received fire, and the SAS staged a series of successful ambushes against IRA units as they sought to attack British police and military bases. As casualties mounted, even those higher up in the IRA began to suffer, for instance Pádraig McKearney was killed in 1987 in a bloody clash with British forces in Loughgall that left 14 IRA men, three constables and two British soldiers dead after the IRA’s attack on the RUC base was intercepted by an army patrol that was in the area. As fighting grew more fierce, the IRA leadership began to use their explosives stockpile against more military targets in what was effectively an act of desperation, many RUC bases suffering the consequences of being badly damaged by bombs planted in the night and swiftly detonated. Barracks bombings, sniper attacks (usually consisting of only one shot being fired), raids, and trench digging (an old IRA tactic used in the Irish War of Independence in which a trench would be dug across a road to hamper British transportation and communications) became the staples of the Provisional IRA’s tactics.

Of course, during this time the Provisional IRA was not the only organisation fighting the British which suffered under the effects of the crackdown. The Irish People’s Liberation Army was perhaps the next strongest group that was still militarily active, although it had been in decline since the early 1980s. By 1985 the IPLA was in complete disarray with the majority of its prominent members in prison or dead, to the extent that a rival organisation called the Irish People’s Liberation Organisation, made up of disaffected and expelled members of the IPLA, attempted to displace them as the primary radical left-wing paramilitary in Northern Ireland. A brutal feud subsequently took place as the former comrades in arms battled against one another on the streets of Belfast, the fighting doing their cause more harm than good as it mostly only succeeded in stripping them of local support and bringing them to the attention of the British security forces who were able to further devastate both organisations with a series of arrests in 1987. After this, what remained of the IPLA and the IPLO agreed to end their feud, but both found that they had been left marginalised by the infighting.

Patrick Kelly was killed by British security forces in late 1988, after an SAS team surrounded a house he had been hiding in in County Fermanagh. According to the official British report, as the SAS team was approaching the house a man (later identified as Gerard O’Callaghan) stepped outside and was able to sound the alarm before he was shot down as he attempted to draw a gun, allowing the other occupants to arm themselves and attempt to shoot their way out. The IRA maintain that as the SAS team approached, an unarmed O’Callaghan went outside and was immediately shot down precipitating the storming of the house and the subsequent deaths of all the IRA men inside before they were given the chance to surrender. Whatever the case, the four IRA men Patrick Kelly, Gerard O’Callaghan, Séamus McElwaine and Sean Lynch were all killed and the IRA was stripped of its Chief of Staff, the first to die in combat. Kelly and McElwaine had been meeting to discuss the recently implemented flying columns which had become the standard form for IRA units in Northern Ireland to take since 1986 in an attempt to successfully wage a guerrilla war. Despite their deaths, the use of flying columns continued until the end of the decade under the leadership of the hard-line militarist Daniel McCann, who opposed emphasis on politics and was set on the continuation of the military campaign. His election as Chief of Staff came as a bitter blow to the IRA faction who favoured political rapprochement and was likely only made possible by the grievous losses suffered as numerous senior IRA figures had been killed or arrested after the crackdowns following Thatcher’s assassination in 1985, much of the IRA having subsequently become committed to a more hard-line stance and leaving McCann and the militarists in the majority.

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A British Army Gazelle shot down in 1988
 
Well here's an update that's been a long time coming :eek: I plan on finishing this ATL eventually, but I've been a bit distracted lately. You may be a bit disappointed that this focuses on Ireland, but I wanted to tie up that up before returning to the other focuses of the TL. I have a long list of things I'm going to be putting into the next few updates (part of the reason I stopped for a while, it was getting all a bit much work). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the return of Pamwe ticha ita kukosha :) Thanks for reading!

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Tiocfaidh ár lá

In the 1987 British general election PM Heseltine was defeated by Neil Kinnock and the Labour Party thanks to high unemployment and rising discontent at the escalation of the Troubles in Northern Ireland (the successful arrests of 1987 and 1988 were only just beginning and Patrick Kelly was still at large). Kinnock promised peace talks with the nationalist paramilitaries, a path that the Ulster Unionists found particularly disturbing and led to the early 1988 Bishop Street shootings in Derry, during which Unionist paramilitaries attacked Catholic area and left fourteen dead. 1988 saw the IRA and the Unionists engage in tit-for-tat attacks on civilians and attacks of a more military nature, safe houses were bombed and members gunned down.

At the same time the IRA was hit harder than ever by the British security forces crackdown, the Kinnock government benefitting greatly from the groundwork laid down by Heseltine in this area and allowing for the killing of Kelly later in the year as part of the Labour government’s attempts to force the IRA to negotiate by hitting them hard and at the same time offering generous terms for a ceasefire and further discussions. By the time 1989 came around the IRA were worn out, their support having dipped in the face of the repeated shooting and bombing of civilians by both them and the Unionists, whilst the British had forced most of the number to go to ground, either retreating across the border into the Republic of Ireland or going into hiding. Only in a few areas of South Armagh had the guerrilla strategy proved even remotely successful, as the heavier weapons brought into the country had allowed the IRA to cut off British security forces’ bases in the area after downing several helicopters and ambushing a few armoured convoys that attempted to make the through. The IRA’s ambushes were never too successful, with the exception of the Battle of Cookstown in which the IRA’s East Tyrone Brigade infiltrated the town on a tipoff and ambushed a British convoy as it passed through whilst simultaneously attacking the two armed checkpoints in the town. The convoy was badly hit in the initial exchange, with two vehicles being destroyed by RPG fire and several troops killed, prompting them to take cover in nearby housing where they remained pinned. One of the checkpoints was taken by the IRA when it was stormed by IRA men wielding submachineguns and making liberal use of grenades. The second checkpoint was able to continue to hold out, although only one of the soldiers, L/Cpl Ian Harvey, remained uninjured throughout the fighting as one by one his comrades were all killed or wounded. For his actions in tending the wounded and defending them against the sustained IRA attack (during which he threw back several grenades that were tossed into their position), he was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal. The Battle of Cookstown was the largest of the Troubles although not the bloodiest, with three IRA men and twelve British soldiers killed and the IRA’s force totally 36 men who fought in the town before retreating and going into hiding before British reinforcements arrived. After the initial attack had ended, a roadside bomb killed two more British soldiers when it exploded next to their truck as they accompanied the relief column moving towards the town.

Despite such spectacular events, it was clear that the IRA was fighting a losing battle. In late 1989, Gerry Adams led a split in PIRA, resigning along with a number of other IRA leaders and leading about a third of the organisation to form a new IRA called the ‘Real IRA’. The first thing they did was declare a ceasefire and open negotiations with the British government. By 1990 the remains of PIRA were being increasingly marginalised thanks to their refusal to participate in the peace process, the general public viewing them in a worse light as time wore on. In the end, RIRA led the peace process and organised the decommissioning of arms stockpiles in the 1990s, but PIRA stubbornly refused to negotiate, although they did declare the suspension of military operations in 1991 (in practice they continued in Belfast irregularly) in the face of members increasingly leaving and joining RIRA. Later the same year members of PIRA formed a new organisation, the Continuity IRA, to continue the military campaign (although they largely abandoned the guerrilla war strategy and returned to low level bombing).

In the second half of the 90s, RIRA reached the height of its popularity and became the largest of the three main organisations claiming legitimacy as the IRA, the 1995 Good Friday Agreement bringing an end to the Troubles. RIRA’s political wing was simply called ‘Sinn Féin’ as the party had followed RIRA in breaking ties with PIRA, who in turn had been forced to recreate their own party which became known as Provisional Sinn Féin. Gerry Adams, at the head of his party, went on to achieve considerable success in the 1992 general election, winning three seats in Northern Ireland whilst neither Provisional Sinn Féin nor Republican Sinn Féin (CIRA’s political party) won any seats in Westminster. In the election, Kinnock was returned to power with a majority of 63, the largest Labour majority since Harold Wilson’s victory in the 1966 elections, thanks to the public fear that a Conservative government would damage the peace negotiations that had yet to lead to the Good Friday Agreement and would possibly even restart the conflict. Although the conflict had come to an end, observers noted that PIRA continued to hold huge stockpiles of arms on both sides of the border and continued to maintain a state of readiness in the event of conflict returning to Northern Ireland. Of course, this raised tensions and increased Unionist support among the Protestant population, who loudly condemned the PIRA threat hanging over them. By the time the new millennium came around, PIRA had virtually ceased to function and only a few dedicated members remained, diligently maintaining the organisation’s weapon stockpiles (many of which would find their way into CIRA hands), although the Belfast Brigade remained relatively active and would often be seen marching at nationalist events or defending Catholic areas of the city when rioting occurred.

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Here's a fairly small update on TV's big developments in the CAF roughly up to the point I've reached in the other updates.

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Pretty Colours

Television in the CAF was first introduced in 1961, its audience at first limited primarily to whites. When the Federation changed its name to the Federation of Zambesia, the FBCRN (Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland) was meant to change along with it to the ZBC (Zambesia Broadcasting Corporation) but the white dominated organisation vehemently resisted the name change. A four month strike followed in which virtually the entirety of the ZBC’s white staff refused to work, leaving the organisation paralysed from a lack of technical specialists who were able to operate the equipment as well as the absence of the announcers themselves. At the same time a variety of organisations and individuals lobbied the federal government on the strikers’ behalf, until eventually the federal government dissolved the short-lived ZBC which had lasted barely six months and gave the go ahead for the creation of separate corporations for each of the constituent states of the CAF (all under the auspices of the Ministry of Information). With that, the SRBC, NRBC and NBC all came into being, the ZBC being added to their number in 1976 after Zambezia had been admitted to the CAF following a referendum the previous year. During this period regular television in the CAF was still in black and white, but gradually colour began to take over as the four broadcasting corporations began to compete against one another to introduce new technology.

The first colour broadcasts were made in the late 1970s, but due to lack of funding regular colour programming continued to elude all four contenders until in 1978 the NRBC succeeded in making its broadcasts all colour. The SRBC followed the next year, but with the start of the Great African War at virtually the same time, government funding for television was cut and colour service was rapidly abandoned for the duration of the war. Only the SRBC, the best funded of the four broadcasting corporations, was able to continue some intermittent colour services which were often utilised at the behest of both the federal and state governments for broadcasting of important news events and announcements during the war. These colour broadcasts etched in the memory of those who saw them, the characteristic title card of these announcements featured the CAF’s coat of arms (with the national anthem played at the same time) and became for many in the CAF a defining feature of the war on the home front. In 1980 these broadcasts were extended to the NRBC and finally in 1981 all four corporations announced the armistice in a special colour segment, followed by addresses from both the Federation’s PM and the Governor General. Colour television had finally become a permanent feature of broadcasting in the CAF.

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Announcers Norman Bisby and Terence Kennedy on SRBC Evening News (Late 1970s)​
 
What is the non-news programming like at this point - is it mainly reruns of British or American shows, or is there local content? What are Zambesian soap operas or sitcoms like? Have black actors and producers broken in by the early 1980s, or is television still a mostly white field?
 
What is the non-news programming like at this point - is it mainly reruns of British or American shows, or is there local content? What are Zambesian soap operas or sitcoms like? Have black actors and producers broken in by the early 1980s, or is television still a mostly white field?

There were a number of popular local shows in the late seventies, but the war ended a lot of them (some actors even joined the armed forces). Reruns continue (mainly in Southern Rhodesia where they remain most popular) but they are being replaced by a new wave of shows produced in the eighties and generally in colour. The old shows and films tended to focus on the old empire days (think Shangani Patrol) and the traditional white Rhodesia, but the new wave is more open and looks more readily at the recent past. I might add in a paragraph at some point.

Television is still mostly white, but blacks have certainly made inroads and will continue to do so, I'll be going over it more in following updates but I didn't want to get ahead of the main focus of the ATL :)
 
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