Pan-Africa (comics)

Pan-Africa
Type City-state

In the Judge Dredd comic book series, Pan-Africa is what remains of Africa following the Atom Wars, and is the home of several Megacities. A strip, Pan-African Judges by Paul Cornell and Siku, fleshed out most of its detail.

Description

In the 21st Century, the nations of Africa teamed up to rebel against the crippling interest on loans received from Western banks and Megacities. The Credit Wars was the result, up until the Atom Wars occurred and devastated much of the planet. Africa took severe damage - everything from South Africa up to the Zambian border (the dead Southern Radiation Zone), half of Madagascar, and a stretch of coastline from Egypt down to the Ethiopian border are radioactive zones; Lake Victoria has turned into the large "Kenyetta Sea" that goes further into Tanzania; and the vast Great African Dustbowl in the north-west spreads from central Guinea to part of Algeria and the Nigerian border, swallowing up Mali and most of Mauritania on the way. However, less of the continent is radioactive desert than North America.

While most of the future Earth ended up ruled by single governments ruling a single Megacity, Pan-Africa is divided up into multiple governments with different governmental styles: Communism, fundamentalist Islamic theocracies, criminal areas, free trading states, dictatorships, Megacities and capitalist states. The Pan-African Compromise allows free travel and trade between many of these areas,[1] though a number of polities are not part of the Compromise. In the Development Areas, created as a compromise post-Credit Wars, anyone with money could buy some land to establish their own state.[2]

The Pan-African Committee is located in the city-state of Siwa.

The continent was devastated by the brief return of the Yoruba gods in 2117.[3]

Judge force

Under the Compromise, a Pan-African Judge force was created to maintain order across the continent (and in Simba City[4]). This is made difficult by the refusal of many of the states to recognise the Judge's authority, and as a result the Judges are given the power to enforce the law by any means necessary. The Judges go around in squads, with callsigns Justice Patrol [number], for better effectiveness. The Judge uniforms are green and gold, with shoulder armour designed to resemble a rhino and a lion, and with a white cape. The protagonists in the Pan-African Judges stories were Justice Patrol 8, led by Judge Kwame Assengai, who sacrificed himself to stop the Yoruba gods (but returned to life as a clone).

Luxor, Simba City, and Casablanca possess their own Judge forces - in Casablanca's case, this comes after a period of being under no formal law. Luxor's Judge uniforms and legal system is modeled on Ancient Egypt,[5] whereas Casablanca's law is based on Sufi principles.[6] Simba City's look exactly the same as the Pan-African Judges, when shown in "Judge Dredd: Fetish".

Mega-Cities and polities

Two African megacities and two smaller city-states were listed in a world map in Anderson: Shamballa,[7] with more detail listed in the African map in Judge Dredd Megazine.[8]

The known Megacities of Pan-Africa are:

Countries listed in the Pan Africa map are:

The Development Areas are:

Design and criticism of Pan African Judges

The concept of a Pan-African Judge first turned up in a poster for the 1988 Judge Dredd Mega-Special drawn by Brendan McCarthy: the text said they had the hardest job of any Judge, "policing a society that mixes centuries' old tribal law and customs with high 22nd century technology. Applicants chosen for linguistic and diplomatic skills." The design would make a brief cameo at an international summit in the Judgement Day storyline but after that it would be replaced by a Siku design, starting with 1993's first Pan African Judges. In an article in Judge Dredd Megazine #238, Siku said he got the job after criticising the McCarthy design as too stereotyped: "I asked, why do people think all Africans run around in animal prints? [Editor] Dave Bishop challenged me to come up with something better."

In the same article, Siku referred to Paul Cornell's first Pan African script as being well researched but flawed in its approach - "imperialism, jungle safaris, that's the way Westerners see Africa". (The second Pan African strip was written by Siku alone and had Yoruba gods attacking the continent.) He did enjoy having a "token white guy" Judge. Cornell himself referred to his work as "a trudge", feeling it had too many competing ideas in one story and that his dialogue was "overblown"; he was happy, however, with his decision to deliberately show Islam and a Muslim Judge, as he felt the Judge Dredd universe was "a little too disconnected from the real world" by turning all the world's religions into the worship of Grud.

Publication

See also

References

  1. ↑ The A-Z Of Judge Dredd, Hamlyn 1995
  2. ↑ Megazine Pan-Africa map, reprinted at
  3. ↑ Megazine 3.06-13: "Pan-African Judges: Fever of the Gods"
  4. ↑ Megazine 3.26 to 3.30: "Judge Dredd: Fetish"
  5. ↑ Progs 859-866: "Judge Dredd: Book of the Dead"
  6. ↑ prog 1017: "Judge Dredd: Darkside" Part 1
  7. ↑ Prog 701. Archived at 2000 AD Database
  8. ↑ Megazine Pan-Africa map, reprinted at
  9. ↑ Fetish, Megazine 3.26-30
  10. ↑ Judge Dredd: Eclipse by James Swallow
  11. ↑ Progs 859 to 866: "Judge Dredd: Book of the Dead"
  12. ↑ Judge Dredd: The Hundredfold Problem by John Grant
  13. ↑ Judge Dredd: Wetworks
  14. ↑ Prog 1017
  15. ↑ Eclipse Glossary section
  16. ↑ Devlin Waugh: Plague of Frogs Progs 1158 to 1167
  17. ↑ Megazine 3.06-13: "Pan-African Judges: Fever of the Gods"
  18. ↑ Megazine 2.37-46
  19. ↑ Judge Dredd: Silencer

External links

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