Samatar Jama Barre: the African continent never quite got out of the state it was in the late 1990s- a huge, diverse land with pockets of extreme destitution all the way to enclaves of extreme wealth, and a lot of living conditions in between, trending down. As natural disasters from climate change intensified, communities, then societies, then entire countries fell apart. The wealthy escaped into icebox cold shelters in gleaming cities protected by armed drones and militarized security, leaving teeming masses to their fate. From the Sixth Congo War to the Azanian Revolution, Africa was also battered by regional struggle. The rise of powerful private military contractors enriched by these wars dumped more fuel to the fire. Morgan Public Safety, Empire Management, ComStar National Security - what hyper-survivalists were to North America and cults of new religion or nationalism were to East Asia, these mercenary companies were to Africa. The remaining attempts at continental government were unable to stop PMC proliferation. Many member states not only hired mercenaries to fight wars with each other, but to guard against wars waged by their neighbors. As disasters and conflicts battered supply chains, local famines increased when food went undelivered, followed by numbers of local epidemics spiking as medical relief workers were barred from entering battle zones. PMCs soon expanded their services to logistics, providing courier services to governments and even the U.N. itself.
One man who saw this and bitterly opposed it was Samatar Jama Barre, former peacekeeper of the moribund African Union. After serving in the bloody campaigns of the Sahara Burst Wars and seeing firsthand the disruption that soldiers of fortune brought to the battlefield, he became a local figure in his native Somaliland, calling for a ban on PMCs. Barre was a minor war hero, known for his bravery in the face of danger in the northern sands fighting against jihadists, Christian fundamentalists, hostile governments, and mercenaries alike. But despite his eloquence and passion, his nation like so many others had augmented its military and traditional clan fighters with PMCs. As a young cabinet minister, Barre found himself distastefully working with the villains who had escalated the wars he had served in, directed by his government to negotiate with Morgan Public Safety agents for more favorable deals. This unsavory experience proved formative in creating his vision of the future of Africa.
Barre first rallied the troops he had served with, forming the No PMC! movement. This cause denounced mercenaries not only as a destabilizing disease, but as a foreign competitor that threatened the livelihoods of soldiers everywhere. His cadre of A.U. ex-peacekeeper veterans imported its ideals into their home countries, lighting a cleansing fire that spread all over Africa. Rising in renown, Barre climbed higher in influence, becoming a power broker who dealt with foreign corpo representatives and NGOs alike, entreated with national leaders and warlords. As he became a continental figure, it seemed as if his movement would finally sweep out the invaders.
And yet, the matter unexpectedly solved itself. Despite the U.N. stepping in with new restrictions on PMCs after a private entity seized Namibia's entire diamond industry after mercenaries defeated their government, these companies fell out of fashion not solely because of Barre's movement, but because of their own success. Many of them wiped each other out, the remaining companies merged with one another, focusing more on the logistics of food and medication delivery. A new, greater threat emerged. Even as wars started to burn out from mercenaries leaving Africa or ceasing to fight each other after they all started reporting to the same managers, a second wave of foreign nations arrived to African ports. This improving stability has ushered in Golden Dynasty China and the United States, eager to recapture the resources of the continent. Through bread and not guns, they sought markets slightly less chaotic than their own.
Barre saw all this with alarm and converted No PMC! into a broader message of Pan-Africanism. He campaigned in villages and coastal metropolises, invoking the need to unite the continent against this new threat. It was a process that did not come easily, but he retained his contacts through the network and his old fellow soldiers, many of whom also gained political office. Through canny deals, underhanded schemes, and even the occasional false flag terrorist attack, the People's Africa movement pushed against neocolonialism for decades. The movement took reconstruction aid from the new imperialists, resettled refugees from the starving Maghreb and flooded coastal nations. But they always eyed a time when the African people stood independent and united.
Invaders came and went. Golden was replaced by Crimson. The American government by U.S.-based multinationals. But Barre saw little progress towards a true unified continent. As with so many other places in the world, Africa never could quite manage to come together. Whenever hyenas fled, the lions fought amongst each other for the scraps. Proposals for a common market were bogged down by competing interests. Continuous refugee movement prevented nations' agendas from harmonizing. Crisis management of new plagues often slowed in the face of regional rivalries. And so Barre ended up as merely the Vice President of Greater Somalia, trying in vain to get the Kenyans and Ethiopians on board to create a new East African federation. Older and greyer, he had resigned himself to the fact that his generation would not be the one to create a People's Africa. He focused on simply teaching the youth his ideals and picking capable veterans from his No PMC! days as successors to key positions. If he could not be the father to the plan, Barre reasoned, he would at least be its uncle. Despite his unrealized ambitions, Barre's organizational talents and military experience were noticed by the Unity project, and he was selected to be a symbolic representative of a future undivided Africa.
Barre was appointed Colonial Governor with a rank of Administrator on Unity. Though he was to become one of the initial base leaders on Chiron, on the ship he served as a section leader, responsible for an eighth of the passengers. Using the skills he had amassed in his long career, he laid down his simple rules with an avuncular but strong command, firmly quashing any difficulties among the disparate population. His multilingual and multicultural understanding was in full force during the voyage, ensuring teamwork and collaboration was high among the new-crew passengers, and working with Public Affairs Officer Hutama to ensure that relations between colonists and crew were frictionless. Prior to cryosleep, they succeeded.
During Planetfall, Barre fought tooth and nail to keep the colonists under his command safe and calm. Indeed his were among the most disciplined, suffering low casualties as they made their way to the escape pod. In that scramble, CEO Nwabudike Morgan chanced upon Barre leading his section, inquiring him how People's Africa was faring. Remembering the injuries and insults that Morgan's operations had inflicted upon his land, Barre nearly struck the corpo and threw him over the railing. But tempered by decades of diplomacy and strengthened will, Barre simply smiled a humorless smile and asked him what people was Morgan plotting to betray now. The Unity? The U.N.? Humanity itself? Or perhaps it would not be betrayal, as homo sapiens was not his true race. At this jab, Morgan's expression soured for just an instant, to Barre's satisfaction. The administrator laughed jollily, and told the industrialist that he had better slither along now, and leave innocents uncorrupted. Smiling mirthlessly in return, Morgan bid his fellow African good day and withdrew, not bothering to offer him a deal.
Deciding that Comissioner Pravin Lal retained the most legitimacy and clear-minded vision of community, Barre joined the Peacekeeping Forces and did indeed become a governor of one of the earliest bases. U.N. Spirit of Umoja is a well-run, peaceful settlement with a high standard of living and unity, its number of drones low and number of talents high even for the faction. Populated by many who came from African nations, the community has adopted Barre's pan-African identity and even expanded it to become a pan-Humanist message, stressing the need for mutual cooperation and respect in order to survive Planet. Not to mention, a strong sense of anti-imperialism against dictators. Lal finds Barre to be one of his ablest governors, having personally promoted him to the upper echelons of Peacekeeper government as U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and sees the man as a possible successor once democratic elections for commissioner are held once more- whenever that is.
