I'm fascinated by Africa, and I'm considering running a game set in Sierra Leone. But I haven't seem all that much about Africa in Shadowrun.
It may well be I haven't seen a lot of the right books, but I have a sinking feeling there might not be much info out there for the Dark Continent. It's not an uncommon oversight though, since African cultures lack the pop kewl factor Asian, Native American and ancient European cultures have in the gaming/fantasy community. There's a great deal of political, ethnic and religious diversity in Africa that is sadly overlooked -- people tend to look at Africa as a single culture with subtle variations, which just isn't accurate. (I've talked to people that think Africa is a country, for Pete's sake... so I suppose that would make Nairobi, Ghana and South Africa all states or provinces to them, assuming they even heard of these places.) I noticed in Magic in the Shadows, for example, out of numerous Eastern, European, Native American and made-up trads there's just one African tradition. And Voodoo is about as authentic to Ifa (the African faith from which it evolved) as Protestantism is to Judaism, being as heavily influenced by Catholicism and Hollywood as it is. (And the actual term is "Voudon," BTW.) The Voodoo trad is fairly well-written, and I'm not bashing it. But it's disappointing this is the only Africa-influenced trad in the entire book. The faiths and practices of Yorubans, the Masai and the Basarwa (Bushmen) could have been explored, or at least mentioned. Similarly, we get tidbits about Africa, a metahuman variant here and mentions of corporate presence there. Oh, and a nation of ghouls.
Sorry, that was a semi-rant. I'll stop now.
It appears the Caribbean League includes some of Africa, which would only realistically be part of the West Coast. But what of the southern, eastern and interior regions of the continent? What's the political situation like? How many nations remained sovereign, collapsed, split or merged? How much influence do the corps have, and which ones hold sway where?
I suppose a lack of information would be a good thing in a way, as that gives me to more room to play and I won't have to worry about contradicting canon overmuch. However, any structure previously established would be a handy framework upon which to build. Unless of course the SR writers decided "We don't know jack about Africa and can't be bothered to develop it, so... um, it's mostly a rural irradiated diseased manaquake-blasted wasteland with outposts of blessed Western civilization here and there." If this is the case, I'll probably just take what good ideas I manage to mine from the books and build from the ground up. If any of you guys could fill me in on what you know about the Dark Continent, or point me at some books, I'd appreciate it.
And besides canon, have any of you developed much about Africa or set games there? Have any ideas you wanna share?