The Confederacy of Suid Eylandt—A Eulogy

The Confederacy of Suid Eylandt was my entry in the online game NationStates, designed by the rather talented and inveterate, and possibly invertebrate Melburnian, Max Barry. The object of the game was to create a fictional state and rise to greater power in a hypothetical world community made up of other nation states. In order to do this you first had to create a nation.

What, I thought to myself, would Australia have been like if it had been settled by the Afrikaners instead of the British. Well, it wouldn't be called 'Australia', I thought, so I had to give the country another name. One other of the rules for NationStates was that economic and politial conditions were indicated by what happened to a particular native animal that you invented a name for. So, I once again thought, what would the Afrikaners setling Australia call a kangaroo? They ceratainly wouldn't have used the native Aboriginal name for them. They would probably take the generic 'bok' because the kangaroo is as close to an antelope as the marsupials ever got, and they'd need some way to describe its pouch. One of the Afrikaans words for 'pocket' is 'sakkie'—hence the animal called the sakkiebok. The currency was called the 'rhode' after Cecil John Rhodes.

Well, earlier this year I had a fair bit of time off the computer due to lack of seeing, and my nation lapsed. I couldn't be bothered starting it up again and building it up to its former glory, so it shall be remembered here, not so much for what it was as a nation, but for the lovely flag which Marina made for me.

I never did create a hitory for the nation, but now that I think of it, it does seem like a good idea.  If I do think of anything, here is where it will be once I've done more than think about it.  For one thing, it needs an anthem.  Since it's a Confederacy it is certainly mae up of member states, almost certainly eight of them as shown by the stars on the flag.

This page last edited Sunday June 07, 2009 07:10:24 PM