Pan-Africa (comics)

Infobox comics location
name = Pan-Africa


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type = City-state
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country=African
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subcat = Judge Dredd
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sortkey = PAGENAMEIn 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. Renamed Pan-Africa, the continent tried to rebuild in the face of severe damage - much of the south is nuclear desert and the nation of South Africa was completely destroyed.

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.

Law

The Judges of Pan-Africa have to maintain order in not just the Megacities, but also between the various different states. 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 Judge uniforms are green and gold, with shoulder armour designed to resemble a rhino and a lion, and with a white cape. The most famous of the Pan-African Judges is Kwame Assengai, leader of the Judge team.

Mega-Cities

The known Megacities of Pan-Africa are:

*Umar (in former Libya)
*Simba City (Cameroon)
*Luxor (Egypt)
*New Jerusalem (north-east Ethiopia)

Luxor has its own Judge system with uniforms based around ancient Egyptian symbolism, and after the Atom Wars reverted back to ancient Egyptian polytheism (as seen in "Book Of The Dead").

Criticisms

In an article in "Judge Dredd Megazine", Siku referred to Paul Cornell's first script as being well researched but the plot was too close to how Britain sees Africa - "imperialism, jungle safaris". Siku also designed the Judge uniforms in response to a Brendan McCarthy African Judge sketch, as he felt they were too stereotyped. Cornell himself referred to his work as 'a trudge', feeling it had too many competing ideas in one story; 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.

The Egyptian Judges in "Book Of The Dead" have been criticised for being too stereotypical, as they conform to the beliefs and systems of Ancient Egypt instead of modern Egypt; as Egypt is predominantly Muslim, it does not make sense to have the population revert to worshipping Horus et al.

Publication

*"Pan-African Judges":
** "Pan-African Judges" (by Paul Cornell and Siku, in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #2.44-49, 1993-1994)
** "Fever of the Gods" ( art by Siku, story by Akin Siku), in "Judge Dredd Megazine" #3.6-3.13, 1995-1996)

* "Judge Dredd": "Book of the Dead" (by Grant Morrison/Mark Millar and Dermot Power, in "2000 AD" #859-866, 1993, reprinted 1996, ISBN 0-7493-9692-X )

ee also

*Judge (2000 AD)

External links

* [http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=PANAF Pan-African Judges profile]
* [http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=reprint&page=gnprofiles&choice=bookdead Book of the Dead reprint information]