History Main / Bulungi

* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': Creator/{{Christopher Priest|Comics}}'s run has the league crashing in this kind of country, running afoul of a an evil ComicBook/BlackPanther counterpart in the process.

* Zangaro from Creator/FrederickForsyth's ''Literature/TheDogsOfWar''. Based on Equatorial Guinea.

* A country called Equatorial Kalingaland featured heavily in one issue of ''[[Franchise/GIJoe G.I. Joe Special Missions]]''. The location was not narrowed down any more than that, but if it really is equatorial, it has to be either in Africa, South America or on an island. The predominance of black population, the existence of a royal family, and the lack of sea nearby suggest Africa.
* In one arc of ''ComicBook/{{Hitman}}'', Tommy Monaghan and his friends try to escape a bad situation in Gotham City by hiring themselves as mercenaries to the government of an African country called Tynanda. However, when they realize that the president is a murderous dictator backed by an EvilColonialist as TheManBehindTheMan, they change sides and join the rebels.
* Creator/ChristopherPriest's ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' run has the league crashing in this kind of country, running afoul of a an evil ComicBook/BlackPanther counterpart in the process.

* ComicBook/{{Storm|MarvelComics}}'s uncle was the dictator of such a country. Wakanda, the home of the ComicBook/BlackPanther, however, isn't such a country, but is instead a HiddenElfVillage that does everything in its power to prevent being controlled by outside forces or forsake their native culture (made easier by the fact that they are the world's only natural source of [[{{Unobtainium}} Type I vibranium]], which gives them enough political clout (and technological prowess) to keep themselves relatively free of unwelcome outside influence). Wakanda is surrounded by Bulungis, though (like Azania and Niganda), so that Black Panther stories about regional politics can avoid mentioning real nations.

* ''ComicBook/DeKiekeboes'': The African state "Boeloe Boeloe", ruled by an UsefulNotes/IdiAmin parody, is featured in a few albums.

* Bangalla, homeland of ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'', somewhere on the east coast of Africa. It was an English colony when the series started in the 1930s, and transitioned to self-rule in the 1960s. Bangalla handled the transition to the post-Colonial age better than most, and the capital of Mawitaan (formerly Morristown) is a modern city, but there are still deep jungles and parched savannas a-plenty. [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness In the first stories]], Bangalla was in the Indian subcontinent, its name reminds Bangladesh.

* In ''Manga/{{Cyborg 009}}'', Pyunma (or [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Puma]]), also known as 008, comes from the Republic of Muanba. There is a short story arc where the cyborg team travels there in the midst of a revolution. Muanba's economy is in ruins due to this conflict, as it had soon grown into an arms race manipulated by Black Ghost, a weapons company that sells each side ever more effective weapons.

* The Chinese film ''Film/WolfWarriorII'' is set in an unnamed African country where signs and suchlike suggest that the official language is French, but people speak English.

Bulungis are often populated by a mix of white and black residents, the former of whom usually speak with vaguely British and/or Afrikaner accents, and the latter will probably speak Pidgin English[[note]]A creole dialect of English mixed with local African languages, which was written for the first time in 2017 when BBC launched [[https://www.bbc.com/pidgin a Nigerian Pidgin]] version of their site, though fictional examples will usually just amount to [[YouNoTakeCandle broken English]] with African-like words in between[[/note]]. The country's name is usually [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign composed of simple syllables]] that are stereotypically "African"-sounding.

* Christopher Priest's ''ComicBook/JusticeLeague'' run has the league crashing in this kind of country, running afoul of a an evil ComicBook/BlackPanther counterpart in the process.

* ComicBook/{{Storm|MarvelComics}}'s uncle was the dictator of such a country. Wakanda, the home of the Comicbook/BlackPanther, however, isn't such a country, but is instead a HiddenElfVillage that does everything in its power to prevent being controlled by outside forces or forsake their native culture (made easier by the fact that they are the world's only natural source of [[{{Unobtainium}} Type I vibranium]], which gives them enough political clout (and technological prowess) to keep themselves relatively free of unwelcome outside influence). Wakanda is surrounded by Bulungis, though (like Azania and Niganda), so that Black Panther stories about regional politics can avoid mentioning real nations.

* Bangalla, homeland of ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'', somewhere on the east coast of Africa. It was an English colony when the series started in the 1930s, and transitioned to self-rule in the 1960s. Bangalla handled the transition to the post-Colonial age better than most, and the capital of Mawitaan (formerly Morristown) is a modern city, but there are still deep jungles and parched savannas a-plenty. In the first stories, Bangalla was in the Indian subcontinent, its name reminds Bangladesh.

* ''Film/TheInterpreter'' has [[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fic(int.html Matobo]], a southern African country liberated by a Dr. Zuwanie who now is a corrupt dictator that kills his opponents. Matobo is similar to Zimbabwe (previously Rhodesia), making Dr. Zuwanie a fictional counterpart to Robert Mugabe (ironically, the film was cleared by censors for release in that country, though government officials denounced it). The protagonist of the movie, Silvia, is a white citizen of that country. The country seems to be somewhere near South Africa, because when the FBI is looking for Silvia they check all flights to Johannesburg. The screenwriters of the movie seemed to have gone to great lengths to make Matobo relatively realistic - notably, they hired a professional linguist to [[ConLang create Matobo's fictional official language]], [[http://web.archive.org/web/20050425234251/http://www.cityboxoffice.co.uk/africanlanguagecentre/call/interpreter.htm Ku]] (derived from various existing southern Bantu languages and dialects).

* ''Literature/MaleRising'' is a story on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom whose PointOfDivergence involves the Malê revolt of Muslim slaves in Brazil being slightly more successful, leading to the freed and exiled slaves founding a nation in our world's Nigeria rooted in liberal Enlightenment values informed by the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution American]], [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution French]], and UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}an Revolutions. The ideology they develop spreads first across West Africa and then into the broader Muslim world, leading the European empires to take a lighter hand during the Scramble for Africa when they encounter stronger, better-developed states that can't be crushed so easily, and West Africa being a front in the Great War leads the region to industrialize on both sides. By 2015, there are parts of Africa, such as Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, South Africa, and the Copperbelt, where the living standards are close to European standards, and even many poorer countries like Ethiopia, Angola, and Egypt resemble Eastern Europe more than anything. That said, some parts of Africa still conform to the stereotype; the United Congolese Republic gets run into the ground by a tinpot dictator, East Africa is devastated by a brutal civil war in the 1940s, and Natal becomes a white supremacist minority-rule state.

* The TropeNamer comes from ''Website/TheOnion'', which had an article about [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-ambassador-to-bulungi-suspected-of-making-count,790/ Bulungi]], a West African country whose existence was only attested to by its American ambassador (a stoner who got his job while taking to then-President Clinton in the UsefulNotes/McDonalds where he worked). Besides Bulungi, they've also briefly shown the fictitious country of "Mumbambu" (which, according to the U.S. State Department, encompasses most of East and Central Africa) in one of their news videos.

* The TropeNamer comes from ''Website/TheOnion'', which had an article about [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/us-ambassador-to-bulungi-suspected-of-making-count,790/ Bulungi]], a West African country whose existence was only attested to by its American ambassador (a stoner who got his job while taking to Clinton in the UsefulNotes/McDonalds where he worked). Besides Bulungi, they've also briefly shown the fictitious country of "Mumbambu" (which, according to the U.S. State Department, encompasses most of East and Central Africa) in one of their news videos.

-->'''Flight Attendant:''' Attention, passengers. Please prepare for our landing in Tanzania. (''handed paper'') I'm sorry. It is now called New Zanzibar. (''handed another paper'') Excuse me. It is now called [[ProductPlacement Pepsi Presents]] New Zanzibar.

* In 2017 UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump praised the health care system of a country called "Nambia" during a speech to African leaders at the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations. [[https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/21/africa/trump-nambia-un-africa-trnd/index.html The White House later revealed]] that he meant to refer to UsefulNotes/{{Namibia}} (with earlier speculation also suggesting UsefulNotes/{{Zambia}} and UsefulNotes/TheGambia), but not before [[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41345577 a spate of jokes]] on Website/{{Twitter}} depicted Nambia as an example of this trope.

** Galzburg in ''VideoGame/MetalGear1'', "[[AlternateContinuity retconned]]" in ''VideoGame/MetalGearGhostBabel'' into Gindra. Unlike most of these examples, Gindra had exhaustively well-detailed description including things like rainfall, ethnic makeup, and a certain amount of fairly realistic history, which could be accessed through calling a certain character.

** N'Mani's unnamed country in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance''. Our only hint is that the signs on the buildings are in English, which leaves about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territories_where_English_is_an_official_language 20]] contenders.

* Kijuju from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', which is in West Africa and uses the Nigerian Naira as it's currency, but is inhabited by people who speak the East African language Swahili.

* ''Film/TheInterpreter'' has [[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fic(int.html Matobo]], a southern African country liberated by a Dr. Zuwanie who now is a corrupt dictator that kills his opponents. Matobo is similar to Zimbabwe (previously Rhodesia), making Dr. Zuwanie a fictional counterpart to Robert Mugabe (ironically, the film was cleared by censors for release in that country, though government officials denounced it). The protagonist of the movie, Silvia, is a white citizen of that country. The country seems to be somewhere near South Africa, because when the FBI is looking for Silvia they check all flights to Johannesburg. The screenwriters of the movie seemed to have [[DoingItForTheArt gone to great lengths to make Matobo relatively realistic]] - notably, they hired a professional linguist to [[ConLang create Matobo's fictional official language]], [[http://web.archive.org/web/20050425234251/http://www.cityboxoffice.co.uk/africanlanguagecentre/call/interpreter.htm Ku]] (derived from various existing southern Bantu languages and dialects).

* In 2017 UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump praised the health care system of a country called "Nambia" during a speech to African leaders at the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations. [[https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/21/africa/trump-nambia-un-africa-trnd/index.html The White House later revealed]] that he meant to refer to UsefulNotes/{{Namibia}} (with earlier speculation also suggesting UsefulNotes/{{Zambia}} and UsefulNotes/{{TheGambia}}), but not before [[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41345577 a spate of jokes]] on Website/{{Twitter}} depicted Nambia as an example of this trope.

** N'Mani's unnamed country in ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance''.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/EmpireEarthII'', where the Maasai campaign explicitly takes place in Kenya and the tech level is relatively modern (though there is a military strongman with backing from a MegaCorp).

* Bangalla, homeland of ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'', somewhere on the east coast of Africa. It was an English colony when the series started in the 1930s, and transitioned to self-rule in the 1960s. Bangalla handled the transition to the post-Colonial age better than most, and the capital of Mawitaan (formerly Morristown) is a modern city, but there are still deep jungles and parched savannas a-plenty.

* ''Film/TheInterpreter'' has [[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fic(int.html Matobo]], a southern African country liberated by a Dr. Zuwanie who now is a corrupt dictator that kills his opponents. Matobo is similar to Zimbabwe (previously Rhodesia), making Dr. Zuwanie a fictional counterpart to Robert Mugabe (especially funny since he actually banned the film, decrying it as CIA propaganda). The protagonist of the movie, Silvia, is a white citizen of that country. The country seems to be somewhere near South Africa, because when the FBI is looking for Silvia they check all flights to Johannesburg. The screenwriters of the movie seemed to have [[DoingItForTheArt gone to great lengths to make Matobo relatively realistic]] - notably, they hired a professional linguist to [[ConLang create Matobo's fictional official language]], [[http://web.archive.org/web/20050425234251/http://www.cityboxoffice.co.uk/africanlanguagecentre/call/interpreter.htm Ku]] (derived from various existing southern Bantu languages and dialects).

Compare and contrast with {{Ruritania}}, {{Qurac}}, {{Wutai}}, BananaRepublic, TropicalIslandAdventure and DarkestAfrica. {{Afrofuturis|m}}t works like to explore and subvert this trope.