Darkest Africa/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: An African country (or Expy thereof) is portrayed as an uncivilized Crapsack World.

  • Played Straight: Tropeland is full of jungles, natives, and torn apart by civil war.
  • Downplayed: Tropeland may be less civilized than the other regions, but still a pretty decent place for the natives to live.
  • Exaggerated: Tropeland is a Wretched Hive, full of fights over natural resources, rape, war, extreme poverty, disease, and just general lawlessness.
  • Justified: Third-World country still governed by tribalism.
  • Inverted: Tropeland is a wonderful, peaceful place full of natural beauty, and has a rich culture.
  • Subverted: The people of Tropeland live a stable life.
  • Double Subverted: Until a disagreement erupts, resulting in war and everything bad that goes with it.
  • Deconstructed: May lead to Unfortunate Implications; not everywhere in Africa is completely miserable like this.
  • Reconstructed: The writers have Shown Their Work, and Tropeland is portrayed realistically.
  • Parodied: The sunlight never reaches Tropeland.
  • Lampshaded: "Finish your Spinach Surprise! There are starving children in Bulungi who would be grateful to have even one bite of it!"
  • Averted: Tropeland is poor but peaceful; it is neither Hell nor Paradise.
  • Enforced:
    • "We need to portray Africa in a way familiar to Westerners."
    • The writer is discussing a place in Africa that really has suffered.
  • Invoked: War erupts in a rural area of Tropeland, and authorities are powerless to stop it because it happens in such a remote area.
  • Defied:
    • Tropeland has a good government, and is very proud of its rich culture and history.
    • Or, Alice and Bob tries to make Tropeland a better place to live and make peace.
  • Played For Laughs: The natives are portrayed as backwards idiots.
  • Played For Drama: Almost always is.

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