Another of those layout ideas I’m never likely to build, a freelance layout based in a ficticious African nation.

The above picture of a Rift Valley Railways passenger train in Nairobi, Kenya with its American diesel and vaguely European looking coaching stock is the sort of scene it might try to evoke. The RVR is metre-gauge (and most other lines in sub-Saharan Africa are 3’6″ Cape Gauge), but a model like the recently introduced Arnold U25C and Brawa DR “Reko” coaches could represent something similar.  Some Kato Japanese-outline freight stock would not out of place either.

As for other motive power, there was an export model of the Brush 4 that ran in Zimbabwe, and might make an interesting conversion project from a Graham Farish 47. Kitbashing anything to represent the stylish English Electric export model 1-Co-Co-1s which also run in Kenya might be more of a challenge.

Some of the world’s greatest cities during the Middle Ages were on the eastern coast of Africa. Their ornate stone domes and soaring walls, made with ocean corals and painted a brilliant white, were wonders to the traders that visited them from Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. They were the superpowers of the Swahili Coast, and they’ve long been misunderstood by archaeologists. It’s only recently that researchers outside Africa are beginning to appreciate their importance.

It’s easy to overlook the fact that in medieval times northern Europe was a backwater, and the real civilisations of the world were going on elsewhere. So any would-be game designer creating yet another Generic Fantasy setting based solely on medieval Europe is missing out.

The whole thing is worth reading, especially the way Songo Mnara had been wrongly assumed to have been a Arab outpost rather than an indiginous African civilisation. It’s true that it was Islamic, but it practiced an African version of Islam with far greater equality between the sexes.

At a time when game designers are being encouraged to be more inclusive, we should remember that medieval Africa wasn’t all primitive tribes, but contained sophisticated civilisations equal to those of Europe.