The Politics of Numia:
A Post-Colonial Roleplay Game

By Lou Frederick

To the Teacher:

This roleplay gives students a sense of the give and take of the political process by asking students to play the role of political parties (each with its own constituency, resources and objectives) trying to form a coalition government in the fictional African nation of Numia. The roleplay may also help students better understand the problems and tensions in post-colonial countries. Explain the game to students, then divide them into seven roughly equal groups.

Instructions for Students

Goal: Your goal in this roleplay activity is to be part of the governing coalition and to achieve as many of your group's objectives as possible.

You are all politicians in the country of Numia, a newly independent Central African country in the mid 1960's. After years of fighting and protest, the Belgian government that colonized Numia in the 1800's has been expelled. The U.N. has supervised elections, and each of seven political groups got a share of the vote. Now, under the country's proportional representation electoral system, these seven groups will try to form a government.

Your task is to form a parliamentary coalition government to guide Numia on its new path. In order to form a government, you must form a coalition that has over 50% of the vote. If a majority coalition is not formed by the time allotted by the U.N., the government collapses, civil war ensues, and a military coup is likely.

Everyone loses the game and no one gets any points if a government is not formed.

You are facing many pressing issues. Who will own Numia's newly found oilfields and its diamond and gold mines? What will you do about the Congolese rebels based in Numia, who are fighting an anti-colonial battle against the French in the neighboring country of French Congo? How will you handle Numia's many language and religious differences? What will you do about poverty, low wages, and the unequal distribution of land? How will you attract investment and tourism?

In order to have a chance to win the game you must be in the ruling coalition which must have more than 50% of the vote. Each group within the winning coalition gets points for each of their assigned objectives that they are able to get the coalition government to agree to. The single group that gets the most points wins and names the Prime Minister.

You cannot join the coalition government if you do not get any of your objectives met by the government in the final agreement. You must obtain at least one objective. Your constituents will lose faith in you if you join a ruling government and have nothing to bring home to them but your shiny new title.

If you are among the remaining political parties who do not form the coalition government, you cannot receive any points--even if the government does agree to some of your objectives. Your constituents will lose faith in you because you have no government posts and they will give credit to other parties in the government for reaching your objectives.

Each group will be in a different area of the room. Each group will designate two negotiators. Negotiators are the only who can walk around the room. Everyone else must stay seated. The negotiators' task is to find out what other groups objectives are and make deals to try and form a coalition government with over 50% of the vote.

When the U.N. observer (played by the teacher) decides time is up, a coalition government will either be formed or not. If not, everyone loses. If so, each group must sign off, literally, on an agreed upon set of objectives for the new government of Numia.

Numia Political Parties

(To be distributed to all teams)

Committee for Cultural Unity: 15% of the vote
Mostly African members from various tribes who believe they have a way to unify the country through religion and language.

African Republican Militia (ARM): 20% of the vote
Led the protests and armed rebel insurgency against Belgian rule. Made up of various African tribal members.

Belgian Independent Party: 10% of the vote
Belgian Europeans who supported the old colonial system, mostly landowners and business people.

Reform Party: 10% of the vote
Mostly professional Europeans of various nationalities who worked to end the colonial system.

Unite: 15% of the vote
Mostly members of the Boglon tribe from the hills and mountains in the north who have joined the various trade unions, mostly miners, factory workers, truck drivers, etc

Ashoka Freedom Party: 15% of the vote
Ashoka means "the land" in Akan. Most of the people in this party are from the Akan tribe, and live in the rural farming areas in the west. Their members practice the tribal religion, which is a complex mix of animism and ancestor worship.

Democratic League: 15% of the vote
Mostly members of the Wolof tribe from the cities in the south who functioned as police, clerks and teachers under the old colonial system.

Note to the teacher: Give each of the seven teams a piece of paper that includes the information below for their party only. Don't give the teams the written objectives for the other parties.

Committee for Cultural Unity: 15% of the vote

Mostly African members from various tribes who believe they have a way to unify the country through religion and language.

Objectives:

• Adopt Belgian Catholicism as the state religion.
• Adopt Dutch as the official national language.
• Spend more money on schools.

• Support the Congolese rebels who have bases in the rainforests of eastern Numia, who are fighting against French rule across the border in the French Congo.
• Do not adopt any state religion (ARM is Marxist).
• Do not adopt Dutch as the official language.
• Enact land reform, redistributing land from the Europeans to the Africans.
  

Belgian Independent Party: 10% of the vote

Belgian Europeans who supported the old colonial system, mostly landowners and business people.

Objectives:

• Adopt Belgian Catholicism as the state religion.
• Adopt Dutch as the official national language.
• Open the newly found oil fields to development by private foreign corporations - do not nationalize them..
• Crush the Congolese rebels who have bases in the rainforests of eastern Numia and are fighting against French rule across the border in the French Congo
• Do not enact land reform, do not redistribute land from the Europeans to the Africans.
  
  

Reform Party: 10% of the vote

Mostly professional Europeans of various nationalities who worked to end the colonial system.

Objectives:

• Teach and use both Dutch and African languages.
• Promote tourism to bring in foreign money.
• Open the newly found oil fields to development by private foreign corporations-do not nationalize them.
• Do not nationalize the gold and diamond mines.

Unite!: 15% of the vote

Mostly members of the Boglon tribe from the mountains in the north, joined with trade union miners and factory workers.

Objectives:

• Pass laws to strength unions and raise wages.
• Nationalize the diamond and gold mines.
• Nationalize the new oilfields and create a state-run petroleum company.
  
  
  

Ashoka Freedom Party: 15% of the vote

Ashoka means "the land" in Akan. Most of the people in this party are from the Akan tribe, and live in the rural farming areas in the west. Their members practice the tribal religion, which is a complex mix of animism and ancestor worship.

Objectives:

• Enact land reform, redistributing land from the Europeans to the Africans.
• Make traditional Numian African religions the state religion.
• Teach all Numian African tribal languages (Akan, Wolof, Boglon) in schools and ensure that these languages are recognized and used in state offices.

Democratic League: 15% of the vote

Mostly members of the Wolof tribe from the cities in the south who functioned as police, clerks and teachers under the old colonial system.

Objectives:

• Spend more money on schools.
• Promote tourism to bring in foreign money.
• Open the newly found oil fields to development by private foreign corporations-do not nationalize them.

In order to form a coalition government, all the parties must agree (by at least a majority vote within each party) to the following.

NUMIA COALITION GOVERNMENT AGREEMENT

Objectives

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Parties that are part of the governing coalition must complete and sign the following.

Numia Governing Coalition

This lesson was created by high school English teacher Lou Frederick and used with permission by TeachableMoment.Org, a project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. We welcome your comments. Please email us at: info@morningsidecenter.org.

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