NOTE : This web page and any related information on the pages connected to it do not represent anything resembling the real (and much nastier, with an even higher death toll, and policies by the Nigerian government which amounted to genocide) history of Biafra. It is instead part of a work of fiction which uses my (admittedly limited) understanding of real history as its basis, but which diverges from it in many major ways. It is not intended to deliberately offend anyone, or to trivialise the events on which it is based, nor should it be taken as any form of commentary on the real events from which it is derived; if anyone has read this page as such, then I apologise unreservedly. There are a number of web sites which contain information on the real events on which this page is based, and I encourage you to look at them to get the real picture; click here and here to go two of them.
This page is divided up into a number of sections covering different aspects of the nation of Neoteris. These include the history of the country, a description of its economics and politics, and some information on its society and infrastructure. Lastly, there is the Neoterian flag. Click on the section headings to return to the top of the page.
The nation which is now Neoteris was originally colonised by the British in the 1860's. In 1900 the protectorates of North and South Nigeria (as the area was then known) were established. In 1914 they were amalgamated as the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. In 1919, following the ending of WWII and the division of the German colonies among the other colonial powers, the borders of the country were extended east and west as parts of the German colonies of Cameroon and Togo were added to Nigeria. In 1954 Nigeria became a federation and in 1961 gained its independence from Britain. At this point Dr Biafra, Joshua Ogala, immediately left the laboratory bench and returned to Nigeria to play his part in the building of the new nation. In 1963 it became a federal republic. In 1966 there was a failed coup against the central government which led to draconian measures by the central government to keep control. As time passed it became obvious to him that Nigeria was going downhill, with rising tensions between its various tribal groups. In 1967 the tensions became open civil warfare when eastern Nigeria, Biafra, rebelled. Joshua felt that their cause was just and joined them, contributing greatly to their cause. After a few months he met Silence, the other superhuman working for the Biafran rebels, for the first time. Although she was ill-educated Silence was not stupid and was very passionate about helping people, where Joshua saw it as a duty. Despite their very different outlooks and personalities they were attracted to each other almost from the start, an attraction which grew into love as time went by.
Thanks in part to the efforts of Joshua and Silence, and many other heros of the revolution and war, and despite a near-total blockade which derived Biafra of many of the things it needed, both to wage war and simply to survive, by 1970 the civil war was won and Nigeria became Biafra with Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, who instigated the revolution, in charge. Only the efforts of Joshua and Silence prevented him instigating a bloodbath among his enemies once the civil war was won, but even so more then a million people have died in the civil war. With the ending of the civil war there was still fighting to be done to eject invading Central African Republic forces, but once this was done Joshua and Silence finally fulfilled a promise they had made to each other years before, and were married.
As time went by it became obvious to both Joshua and Silence that Colonel Ojukwu was unfit to rule. He was ignorant, biased and arbitrary, seeing enemies everywhere, even among his trusted advisers. Their efforts to moderate the Colonels rule, while they made them popular with the people and the military, made Colonel Ojukwu more and more hostile to them. Finally things reached a head. The Colonel was obviously planning something, so in 1972 Silence and Joshua acted first, at Silence's instigation. They killed the Colonel and in an almost bloodless coup took control of Biafra, renaming it Neoteris (at Joshua's suggestion) to show that the nation was all of what had been Nigeria, not just the part of it forming Biafra. When it became obvious to everyone that they were not swayed by loyalty to any one ethnic group, and did actually have the countries best interests in mind, their popularity became almost universal.
After taking control Joshua instigated the conversion of the nation into an ideal Marxist state. They moved the capital from Lagos to the central town of Lokoja, which soon grew into a sizeable city. He and Silence also began to apply many of the techniques used in Minerva to give a sane and stable population. Although the Marxist state was achieved, and did do some good, after a few years Silence pointed out that it was not actually helping the people, and public unrest was growing, despite the initial success of their social programmes. Although loathe to abandon his Marxist principles, eventually Joshua was persuaded, and converted the country to a more free-market economy, although the social programmes were continued and expanded.
Soon after taking control of Neoteris it became obvious, even through Joshua's Marxist ideology, that the country would need some kind of speciality only it could provide if it wanted to prosper in the modern world. Initially there were only the oil and mineral revenues (Neoteris has extensive reserves of oil, natural gas, tin, lead, zinc, tantalum, niobium, coal and iron ore). These were soon supplemented by patent revenues from several of Joshua's inventions. Then Silence pointed out that many folk remedies did actually seem to work, and despite Joshua's initial resistance to this 'superstition' she pressed him until he acquiesced. To his surprise he found many useful and marketable substances, and after a while had isolated several useful drugs, whose licences brought in much-needed foreign currency. Since then Dr Biafra has investigated, and continues to investigate, a large variety of folk remedies from around the world, discovering many useful compounds in the process. When he started examining traditional cures and jungle plant for medicinal substances he was pooh-poohed by the scientific community and the pharmaceutical companies. Because of this he was able to secure exclusive agreements with many third world governments on the rights to useful plants/substances in return for royalties to them. This has paid off in the long run, and many scientists and companies now scour the third world for useful substances. Another result of this research has been the development of a number of novel chemical weapon systems, mostly of an incapacitiating nature.
He has developed a variety of useful new agricultural techniques which bring in some income, as well as a number of cheap, fairly low-tech solar power, irrigation and water purification systems which sell well in less-developed nations, and are also widely used in Neoteris itself (although Neoteris also has several fusion power stations). Neoteris' factories produce cheap, durable basic consumer goods which are sold across the world. Neoteris also makes money from the sale of weapons, which Dr. Biafra will sell to any cause he considers worthy (though outsiders often wonder about the exact criteria he uses). Although only at the forefront of technology in the area of chemical weapons, Neoterian weapons are reliable and have a good reputation. Another earner of foreign currency for Neoteris is tourism, both from the national parks which show off the country's native wildlife, and from several very large botanical gardens which display a vast array of plants and animals from around the world as stock houses for future pharmacological research. However, despite the advances made many Neoterians are still employed in agriculture, though this has been superseded by industry and construction as the largest employer.
Arcologies, especially new ones built near the capital Lokoja mean that all the Neoterian population have at least adequate housing. Population control is practised via education and contraceptive implants backed up by propaganda showing the effects of high populations elsewhere.
Nearly twenty years after Dr Biafra and Silence took control of what became Neoteris, the country is one of the most stable and prosperous in Africa. The country is self-sufficient in food and power, and in fact exports food and other goods to the rest of the world. The lot of the people has been massively improved by both social changes and foreign income, so that there is now universal literacy, medical care and education. Housing programs (with a high level of input from the people involved themselves) mean that everyone in the country has electricity, clean water and sewage facilities. Neoteris is one of the few African nations to have made real steps towards establishing equal rights for all citizens, regardless of sex or origin. The country is run as a benevolent dictatorship on Minervan lines, and although it has not yet reached the level of Minerva there is no reason why it shouldn't, given time and barring unforeseen problems. Like Minerva, Neoteris takes in a large number of refugees, mostly from the rest of Africa, and in general these people integrate smoothly with the rest of the population. This integration is helped by the already diverse native cultures - over 250 distinct tribal groups exist in the country, the largest being the Hausa and Fulani (in the north), the Yoruba (in the south) and the Ibo (in the east).
The official language of Neoteris is English. This partly due to the nations colonial past, but also to prevent claims of bias if one local language out of the many spoken in the country were used. Neoteris is officially an atheist state, but Islam and Christianity, as well as various tribal religions, are widespread and while not encouraged are not acted against either.
The Neoterian infrastructure has been greatly expanded under Dr Biafra and Silence, and Neoteris is the only African nation to have a functioning maglev railway system. This consists of 5 main lines and covers most of the country. The lines are :
All Neoterian citizens have free communications and access to central database. All the ethnic groups of what was Nigeria have been given a place in the Neoterian government so none can say they are discriminated against.
Neoteris is one of two African nations (the other being Azania) with its own space program. They have a number of satellites in orbit and also have a variety of industrial/research facilities rented on the Starholmes. Neoteris has two commercial spaceports which are also used by many of the neighbouring nations. These are near the cities of Oshogbo in the south and Jos on the Jos Plateau.
Neoteris has many white ex-patriates from elsewhere in Africa, and also quite a lot of non-African educators from the west in the various universities.
The Neoterian unit of currency is the Naira (N), which is divided into 100 kobo.
Total population in 1993 is over 150 million.
This is the current Neoterian flag; the original Biafran flag is shown below.
As obtained from the Igbo Web Site, which also contains the Biafran National Anthem and many other pages on the real Biafra.
Back to the Overman 1994 Nations Index.
Yes, this web page was originally entitled 'Biafra' and didn't have the disclaimer at the top. I changed the page after offence was registered from some members of the Igbo listserv (igbo--net@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu) after someone on it came to this page blind and with no context. Bah.