Over_the_Edge_Players'_Survival_Guide

CHAPTER 1
Over the Edge
a Baptist who became the center of a new church
after he healed the sick and raised the dead in
1921. (The Control Freaks of the world must have
learned not to string up messiah-types because,
instead of killing this one, they just threw him in
jail for the rest of his life). Kimbanguists lead and
preach a puritan lifestyle: no violence, drinking,
smoking, dancing, magic, or polygamy. Perhaps
this character has come to Al Amarja to spread
the word, or to hunt down an enemy magician.
Languages: French, Lingala.
A marabout from Libya. The marabouts are descended
from a group of holy men who claimed
relation to Mohammed, and they are pledged to
a holy lifestyle. The character may be devoted to
this lifestyle, or may be escaping it by going to Al
Amarja. Perhaps the character was one of the notorious
assassins who were after President Reagan
and has had to leave Libya for failing to perform
that mission. Languages: Arabic, French.
A practitioner of buda (a form of witchcraft) from
Ethiopia. Buda involves demons and evil spirits that
are a large part of the beliefs of both the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church (Christian) and Ethiopian Muslims.
The character has come to pagan Al Amarja
because the Ethiopians are too adept at calling
on various saints for protection; the Al Amarjans
promise to be easy marks. The evil spirits that the
character manipulates can cause illness or even
death. Alternately, the character may be able to
“channel” or embody these spirits (serving as a
willing subject of possession). Languages: Amharic,
Arabic, other regional languages.
A member of a secret society from Lagos, Nigeria.
Secret societies are part of traditional culture on the
Guinea Coast, and they have served as enforcers of
law and order in times of weak rulers. The secret
society to which the character belongs, of course,
may be a front for a more sinister organization.
The character may have been sent to Al Amarja
on some mission for the society, or this may be
essentially an exile, if the character broke the laws
of the society and is now fleeing its unkind justice.
The character may be a member of the dominant
Christian population, the northern Muslims, or one
of the home-grown religions. Languages: Hausa,
Yoruba, and/or Igbo. (Hausa has become a lingua
franca in the west, though it is not as widespread
as Swahili in the east).
African Timeline
Just a few events that you may wish to keep in
mind. Most of African history that has survived to
the present was written by conquerors (Arabs and
Europeans) or by their ideological descendents, so few
unbiased accounts of pre-conquest Africa survive.
ca. 50,000 BCE: Homo sapiens appears.
3,000 BCE: Upper and Lower Egypt united, forming
an empire that lasts almost 3,000 years.
2nd century: Roman Empire conquers North Africa.
5th to 11th century: Ghana, the first African empire of
which records survive, controls trans-Saharan
trade.
11th century: Arab Bedouin invasions bring Islam to
North Africa.
16th century: Slave trade to the New World begins.
19th century: Slave trade to the Americas ends, after
taking a total of 30 to 100 million slaves.
1822 Liberia founded, providing an African home
for freed US blacks.
1912 African National Congress founded.
1914 Nigeria annexed as a British colony. Liberia and
Ethiopia (called Abyssinia) are the only African
nations not colonized by European powers.
1948 South Africa: National Party, whose central
policy is apartheid, wins elections.
1950s & ’60s: Decline of European influence accelerates,
leading to independence for more and more
former colonies.
1964 Nelson Mandela imprisoned.
1972 Zaire passes the Nationality Law, which forces
all natives to take Zairian names. (Zaire, in the
center of black Africa, used to have cities with
names like “Leopoldville.”)
1974 Ethiopia: Emperor Haile Selassie deposed.
1977 Djibouti, the last remaining colony, granted
independence.
1980-1985: Rapid economic decline for virtually every
African nation.
1981 Egypt: Muslim fundamentalists assassinate
President Sadat.
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