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xxxxxLike much of Africa, Genosha does not occupy a particularly large or accurate place in the average Westerner's mind. In the news it has alternately been portrayed as a war-torn hellhold or a surprising African success story. Probably the average non-African person could only pick out Genosha on a map with the same degree of accuracy they could pick out any other Tiny African Nation, and, similarly, their information about Genoshan history and current events is only as detailed and accurate as it is likely to be for any other small African nation as well. Genosha does come up in a fair number of travel guides as an extremely affordable and "surprisingly" lovely vacation destination, with beautiful beaches, extraordinary hiking, and amazing amenities, culture, and nightlife in its luxurious but inexpensive-to-Westerners capital city.
xxxxxAmong mutants, Genosha has a far different reputation -- while they're still no more or less likely to know the actual details of Genoshan History as anyone else, there is a growing awareness among mutants who pay attention to current events that Genoshan mutants are treated as a severely oppressed underclass and Genosha's recent prosperity and comfort is built on the back of a system of mutant enslavement. Beginning in early 2024, a small but steady trickle of Genoshan mutant refugees began escaping the country and fleeing to wherever else would have them, bringing with them horror stories of their experiences back home. Probably most mutants are not signing up for the Genosha vacation package tour, no matter how good the price is.
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xxxxxThere is some dispute about the origins of the earliest human settlement in Genosha, but fossil records date back to approximately the 5th century BCE. Archeological and linguistic research suggests that the island was visited but not continuously inhabited before then, and that its earliest settlers were a mix of Bantu travellers off the Horn of African and more widely seafaring Austronesian peoples. By the Middle Ages, numerous distinct ethnocultural identities had formed, typically with their own systems of self-organization. Through the 16th century, increased contact and trade with other seafarers lead to increased prosperity for some of these groups as well as increased conflict between them.
xxxxxThe heightened trade activity brought the island and its rich natural resources to the notice of Europeans, and beginning in the 1600s both the Dutch and British East India companies landed on the island to set up trading posts. This period marked the beginning of European colonization, including the eradication of several Genoshan indigenous groups. A territorial war between the French and British eventually led to full British colonization of Genosha. The island became a crown colony in the early 20th Century, and in independent state in the 1960s.
xxxxxThe next decades were marked by heightened internal turmoil as the newly independent nation struggled for stability. During this period Genosha developed its reputation in the West as just one of many impoverished and violent African nations. However, beginning in the mid-90s, Genosha's governance stabilized and it began to make a drastic economic turnaround. In large part, this turnaround was due to their heightened subjugation of their mutant population, relying heavily on exploited and underpaid mutant labor to build wealth for their human citizens.
xxxxxBy the 2020s, widescale mutant oppression was an accepted fact of life, but during the 2023 elections for Prime Minister the winning candidate ran on a platform of more fully systematizing and modernizing the mutant labor "resource". Under the new system in 2024, mandatory universal X-Gene testing was rolled out, and all citizens who were found to be mutants were stripped of their rights and put through a process to subjugate their free will.
xxxxxToday, Genosha has a reputation of one of the few post-colonial African nations to achieve not just stability but prosperity, a thriving emblem of the potential for peace and modernity in a region of the world often looked upon by the West with disdain. Though few enough humans pay attention or care about the details, a mutant underground is growing in Genosha, and while at the moment its focus is mostly helping the oppressed escape enslavement, there are some who would rather see the system toppled entirely.
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