VBCW South Africa

[B.E.A.R]

So I have been toying with this idea for some time and I have committed to it as of today. I picked up some packs of Copplestone's inter war British, some Brigade Games German Askari and Lon's WWI British Yeomanry. I have come up with three factions:

First being the BUF friendly Boer and Unionist, South African Union of Fascist. This faction claims Pretoria as its capital.
         A sub faction of SAUF is the New Afrikaner Republic, who see that in supporting King Edward and Mosley as
         the best way to gain independence.

The communist The Red Army for the Liberation and Unification of All Native Peoples. This faction is spread out throughout the nation and is conducting a vicious guerrilla war against SAUF and SAU forces.

The South African Unionist are loyal to King George VI. Their capital is in Cape Town and they control two armored trains that are used to respond to any threat in their areas of control.

If you gentlemen have any ideas for other factions let me know.     

[HerbyF]

What about a resurgent Zulu nation.

[former user]

If You want to do it in a realistic way there would have to be at least one faction for every tribe. I don't think this works other than an early decolonization civil war.....
The very premise of the VBCW thing (at least in my eyes) is the european struggle for power after the fall of the empires in WWI, derived from the real RCW and SCW. In South Africa only one empire could fall, that of the white man......

[Sirius]

South Africa is perfect for playing out a Very (Local) Civil War. Remember that in 1939, opinion amongst the enfranchised in particular, and the country as a whole, was split as to whether to remain neutral in the war, or sign up as a British ally. There was plenty of support for the Nazi's within segments of the population. The government of the day wanted to stay neutral, but the vote in parliament on deciding whether to declare war on Germany went the way of the opposition, resulting in the collapse of the government.

Think Nazi spies smuggled in by U-boat to stoke unrest amongst right-wing Afrikaners, and to train their underground stormtrooper units, communist mineworker militia squaring off against the imperial-aligned Transvaal Scottish volunteers, militant Zulu nationalists, Irish bankrobbing mobster gangs, etc (I am not making this up, its all in the history books). Add a layer of VBCV fluff over this all and you get the idea why the period could provide the basis for some great fictional gaming...

I would suggest that you could generate plenty of smaller, contrasting factions. As much as South Africa was known then as the "Union of South Africa", it was very much fragmented along, regional, economic, racial and political lines.

One comment on your factions: remember that in the interwar years the communist movement in South Africa was very much a "white" movement. I would suggest that the Communists not be some sort of Pan-Africanists, but you could explore having multiple, rival, communist factions based within the various industries and various race groups.

I would agree with other suggestions that Zulu (and Xhosa, Sotho, Pedi, Tswana) nationalists would be an appropriate addition, and dont think they would be out of place in the era - its perfectly logical that the nationalist movements would take advantage of the politics being played out to further their causes, either in conflict or co-operation with factions amongst the fascists or unionists. You could, in addition to the various nationalist movements, add in an embryonic pan-Africanist faction. And dont forget, in the real history, there were plenty of disenfranchised African people who supported the aims of Smuts and Empire, and saw that as the best way of furthering their goals.

Try this sort of stuff: Think of the Edendale Evangalist Brigade, Zulu men whose forefathers fought bravely with Durnford and the NNC Horse against the tyrant (in their eyes) Cetswayo at Isandlwana,  and were there at the final moment of victory in Ulundi, marching to support the goals of the Anglican League.  

What about the Bambatha Boys, residents of Greytown, Msinga and Tugela Ferry, who true to the ideals of Nkosi Bambatha, decide that the moment to strike against the racist government is now and institute a tax boycott that begs a response from the local constabulary and military, and grows into outright armed rebellion...

And as suggested above, what about the The Simmer and Jack Mine Workers Collective, in running street battles with both the Transvaal Scottish Highland Volunteers and the Germiston branch of the Ossewabrandwag, supported by a hard core of trained Stormjaers...

Hope you have a lot of fun, and please post pix of your figures and your games, and give us plenty of AARs!

[carlos marighela]

I'm not sure you need to do too much imagining. Google 'Greyshirts' and you'll find there was a home grown Nazi party, no need to invent one. Keep in mind that SW Africa, current day Namibia was under South African rule and amonsgt the white population there was considerable sympathy for the Nazis in the 1930s and beyond. They had local branches of the Nazi Party and Hitler Youth.

There was an Indian Congress in Natal in the early part of last century.

A good bit of anarchy afoot might prove an excellent opportunity for the oppressed masses to rise and kill the Boer.

[Arlequín]

Another vote here for actually researching the real-world South African factions, they'll give you everything and more for a VBCW setting... particularly as there was almost a civil war there in any case with the Rand Rebellion of 1922.

No offence, but the idea of any hard-line Afrikaner faction having anything to do with the BUF is somewhat ridiculous - they hated the British with a passion that really can't be described in print. The generation of elder-politicians around at this time were veterans of the Boer War, the generation below them had survived the camps the British put them into. Smuts and his ilk were seen as 'Hensoppers' because they surrendered, while the real Afrikaner heroes of the right, were the 'Bittereinders' who didn't. Germany and the Boers had a long association, and as Carlos and Sirius have said, the Nazis had a strong following within the extremists of the Afrikaner community (and still do).

The main factions which existed alone, or in concert, with other parties were; The Unionist or 'Progressive' Party (largely in the Cape and pro-British, with some members amongst the Uitlanders in the Transvaal). This had merged into the South African Party, the most moderate of the Afrikaner based parties, to prevent the Nationalist Party from coming to power. There was also a Labour Party, which despite its numbers, had some influence on national affairs, due to its often being suborned into coalitions with other parties, for which it demanded ministerial posts. I was however very similar to the contemporary British Labour Party, so hardly left-wing at all.    

The Nationalist Party had grown out of the SAP and contained the more hard-line Afrikaners, who were opposed to the SAP going soft on Britain and its dealing with the Rand Rebellion, as well as the SAP's economic and social policies. When the Nationalists and the SAP formed a coalition in 1934, two splinter groups broke off from both; the Dominion Party (which speaks for itself) from the SAP and the 'Purified' Nationalist Party (which I guess also speaks for itself).

So you have a spectrum going from Pro-Dominion to Independent Commonwealth State to Independent Union of States to Independent and separate Republics. Their one uniting facet is that all of them were talking about white majority rule, the black population didn't enter into any of their calculations whatsoever. It was in fact the most moderate party, the SAP, which had introduced the hated 'Pass Laws' in the first place. If one thing was going to unite white South Africa, it was the idea of an armed black militant movement out there somewhere.    

The Communists in South Africa were originally all white and the ANC opted not to co-operate with them, to the point of forcing their then president to resign when he suggested it. Their original slogan was "Workers of the world, unite and fight for a white South Africa!". The Comintern forced them to adopt a policy of Africanisation after the Rand Rebellion failed, to the point that 9 out of 10 of its 2k or so members were blacks by around 1930 and white support had dwindled to a couple of hundred die-hard communists.

For the black population, the possibility of an armed insurrection is very difficult. Unlike the 1960s, there are no friendly powers willing to provide arms and funding and with South Africa surrounded by other colonial-ruled territory, no way to smuggle weapons in, or to allow their members to go elsewhere for training, if there had actually been anywhere to go. The Soviets weren't interested in spreading 'International Revolution' during the 1930s either. There weren't even any black troops in the South African military of the time, who could rebel with their own weapons.

The ANC itself didn't become of any real significance until the 1940s and it was the ICU (a rural-based trade union) which bore the brunt of the struggle of the blacks and was heavily repressed for its pains. Black political thought was based more on the ideals of Marcus Garvey than Karl Marx however and there was a wide-held belief that Black-Americans would mobilise to assist them... which is an option you might explore, even if it didn't happen.

There's a whole host of stuff out there on the Internet and so many levels of stuff to include in a setting. To be honest I opted out of 'doing' South Africa for the old VBCW 'Empire' book, due to the complexity of just 'white' South African politics of the day. When you move into the wider population, there are 9 major tribal/ethnic groups, along with some smaller ones and a bewildering array of sub-divisions within the larger ones, many of whom did not play well with the others.  

On the plus side, there are some interesting options. As far as I know, South Africa was the only Commonwealth nation to buy German aircraft for its air force (Ju-86) and in an alternate setting who knows what else? Sirius has given some excellent starters there though, definitely worth exploring!

[6milPhil]

What about a resurgent Zulu nation.

That would be one of the most fascinating VBCW units we're ever likely to see.

[B.E.A.R]

If You want to do it in a realistic way there would have to be at least one faction for every tribe. I don't think this works other than an early decolonization civil war.....
The very premise of the VBCW thing (at least in my eyes) is the european struggle for power after the fall of the empires in WWI, derived from the real RCW and SCW. In South Africa only one empire could fall, that of the white man......

I had thought of this but the number of tribes was rather extensive so I unified them into an organization much like one would see in Rhodesia in the 1970's.

[B.E.A.R]

See this is why I asked for anyone's input, I am not super familiar with modern African history except for the Bush War. You gentlemen have been helpful.