East African Corporate Republic

The **East African Corporate Republic** was a nation located in the East Africa as a successor to the earlier East African Federation. After the destruction caused by the 4th World War, the East African Federation fell under the influence of extremely influential and seemingly benevolent megacorporations, who argued that democracy would lead to unstable and foolish decisions, and that therefore a benevolent guiding force is needed to prevent the excesses of the people from destroying the country.

As these megacorporations were the ones who rebuilt a broken Eastern Africa, they ended up seizing power with or without the people by the year 2070, gaining influential positions in government, and becoming the de-facto controlling force behind the democratically elected government. In 2076, they fully dissolved the old government, declaring themselves to be benevolent, while wishing to completely monopolize the country and drain it of its wealth. Though by the 2090's, in an ironic twist, they drank their own kool-aid, deciding that they really were all knowing and benevolent, and began earnestly (though unsuccessfully) trying to improve the standards of living. By the 22nd century, the size of the East African population, as well as the large corporate concentrations of wealth made the EACR one of the economic centers of the world. The EACR was ultimately destroyed in the Roasian invasions, when the entire corporate leadership was destroyed in an attack on Arusha.

## History

The East African Corporate Republic first emerged out of the famine that gripped the nation following the collapse of the People’s Republic, internal instability, and the crises of both the Long Winter and Great Floods. During this calamity, a coalition of benevolent corporations took power, sometimes just known as the Coalition government. Expanding on social theories of corporate governance developed by the Houston and California schools, they saw themselves as arbiters of human progress, and that socially conscious corporations could lead the country into prosperity. Using a theory developed by social workers and human resource managers, they formulated a new social contract which would fundamentally rewrite a citizen, or now employee’s relationship to their workplace, their community and government. Simply put, the workplace is your lifeplace, your coworkers are you friends and partners, and your corporation is your family. Initially used as a kind of employee control, the leaders of the movement eventually became convinced by their own propaganda and began believing it themselves.

The Coalition Corporations began taking control of more and more of the East African Corporate Republic, until eventually nationalizing/corporatizing the entire nation under the legal ownership of the Coalition. All things were owned by the Coalition, and things could only be rented by the employees for a nominal fee. The family structure was broken down, and various medications were used to sedate and pacify the population, in the hopes of creating an egalitarian community where everyone was your family. The family needed you to work hard, your family depends on you, you need to work harder… You wouldn’t want to disappoint your family, would you? Most infamously, the EACR practices state enforced polygamy, with everyone encouraged to procreate with everyone else, though thankfully with late 21st century technology, most STD are easily treatable and curable. Employment is guaranteed, and the EACR boasts a whooping 0% employment rate, and society has been turned into a constant fight to climb up the social ladder. Antisocial behavior, which includes individualism, not engaging with your family, owning private property, or privacy are seriously discouraged and is controlled with social pressure. Why would you want something for yourself, isn’t that selfish? You should be more considerate to the people around you.

For all the discomfort the stories of the EACR generates outside its borders, it seems to be surprisingly effective, and the EACR has become one of the leading dominant powers of Africa, with Nigeria using them as a reliable ally, even if they are pretty uncomfortable and reluctant with the whole thing. Some economists warn of building inefficiency in the EACR, and that the companies of the coalition may become noncompetitive without the constant pressure of competition. Some classify the EACR to be post capitalist, as in its economic system is nominally economically right wing, but most libertarians and anarchic-postcapitalists insist that it is left wing, saying that the EACR represents some kind of “corporate communism”, as the corporation, which acts as a de-facto state has enormous control over both the economy and the everyday lives of its people. Others say that "corporate communism" is a self-evident absurdity, and anyone who believes in such a thing should check the definition of left-wing, and see what actual left wingers believe. Some say this is just the inevitable outcome of capitalism, as corporations accumulate more and more power in a society, it eventually wraps around when said corporations take total control of a society.