Characters / Polandball African Nations

Main Character Index | African Nations | Asian Nations | European Nations | Nations of Oceania | North American Nations | South American Nations | Others

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Tropes that apply to all of them

• Darkest Africa: Played With. Though some, more culture-centric comics avert this, there are just as many comics that talk about the terrible state many African countries are still stuck in.
• Dysfunction Junction: Like you would not believe. Between territorial disputes, surprisingly big cultural differences that sometimes end up being incredibly difficult to concile, precarious living conditions, having to deal with the consequences of colonialism, and (sometimes despotic) governments that come and go, they are undeniably the biggest Butt Monkeys in all of Polandball. Nonetheless, they try to stick together whenever possible.
• Ascended Extra: African nations appear with surprising regularity, likely because the situations of many African countries slots into Polandball's style of humour like a key in a lock.

Nations of Central Africa

Chad

Not Romania.

• Arch-Enemy: Needless to say, he and Libya do not have positive opinions of each other. The biggest reason is over the ownership of the Aozou Strip - which was claimed to be rich in uranium but ultimately turned out to be just a huge strip of sand and nothing else.
• Berserk Button: Being mistaken for Romania.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Gets put in US' travel ban list just because he ran out of passport papers.
• Identical Stranger: Often confused with Romania, as both of their flags are exactly the same with only a slight difference in shades of blue.
• Nonstandard Character Design: His eyes are often drawn as 8-cueballs, which is of course, to differentiate him from Romania.
• Perpetual Poverty: Is still struggling with this problem.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Your local doctor.

• An Arm and a Leg: Where did you think Belgium gets his hands from?
• Antagonistic Offspring: He has a pretty low opinion about his father Belgium. Considering what Belgium did to him back in his colonial days, it isn't very surprising.
• Ax-Crazy: JESUS!◊
• Comically Inept Healing: When other nations need medical help, they consult him. This often never ends well.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He has witnessed colonialism, the Congo Crisis, an authoritarian dictatorship, and two large-scale wars.
• One-Steve Limit: Sometimes gets in name disputes with the other Congo.
• Punny Name: He is often portrayed as a doctor because of his abbreviated name, DR Congo.
• Trauma Conga Line: He was relatively peaceful before Belgium came along. Since then, nothing in his life went particularly right.

Republic of The Congo

• Arch-Enemy: Although they are steadily improving their relations these days, he doesn't really view Angola in a positive way.
• Berserk Button: Does not like being confused with his brother.
• One-Steve Limit: Need to take a guess why?
• Out of Focus: In contrast to his more well-known brother, he does not get that much focus.
• Sibling Rivalry: Downplayed. Although they sometimes argue with each other (mostly due to name disputes), Congo and DR Congo mostly get along with each other. And due to being separated for so long, they seldom interact.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Although he is not without his own problems, he is just about everything that DR Congo is not— he is much more stable, developed and wealthy in comparison to his brother.
• We Used to Be Friends: Averted. While he stopped being communist a long time ago, he still gets along relatively well with Russia and Cuba to this day.

Nations of The Horn of Africa

Djibouti

• Only Sane Man: With Eritrea being insane even by Polandball standards, Ethiopia's Perpetual Poverty, and Somalia's problems with pirates, he can count as one in the Horn of Africa region.
• Punny Name: Shake shake shake.
• Spear Carrier: Appears exclusively for name puns and when the entire African family comes together.

Eritrea

"I kill everyone who talk about me. I kill everyone who look at me funny."

Not pictured: sanity.

• Ax-Crazy: This countryball is played less sympathetically than Serbia.
  • Even North Korea, who is nearly as bad as him in this regard, is scared of him and knows that he is more insane.
• Creepy Monotone: Hard to gauge in a comic, but his unchanging expression and lack of emoting in this comic◊ seem to imply it.
• Cute But Psycho: Fits the most basic qualifications of cute, being small and round with big eyes. Is an unrepentant genocidal maniac.
• The Fundamentalist: An interesting case, in that Eritrea accepts more than one religion. If you're the wrong kind of Christian, wrong kind of Muslim, or something else all together, you're dead.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Eritrea has this philosophy on life, as seen here.◊
  India: Oh hello little Eritrea, we did not see yuo. Please, do tell, how did yuo into freedom and indepe-
  Eritrea: I kill everyone. They said Eritrea is not free, not country, not autonomy. So I made killings of them. I made so many killings.

Ethiopia

• Arch-Enemy: He considers all of his neighbors in Horn of Africa this, with the exception of Djibouti. Though, Eritrea is unsurprisingly the biggest one.
  • He also has this dynamic with Italy, going to his limits to defy Italy's claims of colonizing him.
• Cultural Posturing: He is very proud of being the home of mankind's first civilization on Earth, and claims to be the beginning of everything. He sometimes expects being given food and aid because of it.
• I'm a Humanitarian: May resort to being this when he's way too desperate for something to eat.
• Nothing but Skin and Bones: Is portrayed this way during a famine. Even his ribcage is showing!
• Perpetual Poverty: He is steadily recovering from it as of late, though.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With Eritrea. They couldn't be more different with each other, to the point where Ethiopia calls him a 'psycho'.

Somalia

• Arch-Enemy: Ethiopia, although he is not alone in this and shares it with Eritrea.
• Ax-Crazy: 'Natch.
• Crapsack World: Suffered from Perpetual Poverty, separatist movements as well as a lot of chaos in the past, although he is gradually recovering from it.
• Eyepatch of Power
• Perpetual Poverty
• Pirate: Is well-known for his pirates, and he is often portrayed as one.
• Retired Badass: Somalia was once an important center of trade between Africa and the Ancient World. Wealthy empires and city-states populated the Somali coast during ancient times (including the current capital, Mogadishu).
• Talk Like a Pirate: Sometimes throws in some pirate slang in with his traditional African-Engrish.

Nations of East Africa

Mauritius

• Berserk Button: Just don't bother, especially with the flag stealing.
• Uncle Pennybags: Has the highest HDI in Africa.

Rwanda

• Antagonistic Offspring: Rwanda has some resentment towards his father Belgium from triggering the hate between the hutu's and tutsi's, even worse ever since he was adopted from Germany.
• Arch-Enemy: The DRC has been in some bad blood with Rwanda since the genocide, and it only gotten worse after the Congo Wars.
• The Atoner: Trying to move on and improve after the genocide.
• Berserk Button: Denying the Genocide
• Dark and Troubled Past: Not just the events of 1994, but also colonialism and the revolution.

Seychelles

• Pokémon Speak: Seychelles says chelles.
• Rainbow Lite: Their appearance is often likened to that of a rainbow.

Uganda

Do you know da wae?

• Ax-Crazy: Not to the same notoriety of Eritrea, but it's still there.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Hates all gays and will not hesitate to execute them.
• Hypocrite: Blames gays for the spread of AIDs in his country, yet does nothing to control the rampant sex of his citizens.
• Odd Friendship: With Russia. They seem to have bonded over their hatred of all gays.

Nations of Northern Africa

Algeria

• Antagonistic Offspring: Averted. In spite of what France has done to him during his colonial days, Algeria holds little to no resentment towards him with the reasoning that the past is the past. This doesn't stop their relationship from being very complicated, though.
• Arch-Enemy: Israel, although he is not alone in this.
• Friendly Enemy: With Morocco. Algeria supports Western Sahara, much to Morocco's dismay, but they still have friendly relations to this day.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Tunisia.
• Odd Friendship: With USA, even though he supports most of Algeria's enemies.
• Only Sane Man: He is one of the more normal African nations. Despite his press freedom and human rights problem, he has a pretty good living standards of living and one of the highest HDIs in the continent, and he is not embroiled in any political unrests.
• Take a Third Option: He maintains pretty cool relationships with both the west and communists alike.

Egypt

• Berserk Button: ISIS and the way he acts has left him pretty bitter, due to Egypt coming up with the name "Isis" millenia ago to name one of the goddesses in his mythology.
  • Also, France and UK invading his canal (also stealing his artifacts for the latter).
• Commonality Connection: Has one with Japan, as they are both cat lovers.
• Egypt Is Still Ancient: To stand out from other Muslim countries, he sometimes adopts this aesthetic as his trope page indicates.
• Glory Days: Views Ancient Egypt as this.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He has a deep love for cats. This love sometimes borders obsession.
• Odd Friendship: Along with Jordan, Egypt is the only Arabian country who is cool towards Israel and signed a peace treaty with him, and is even somewhat thankful towards him for removing Gaza, although the friendship is acknowledged begrudgingly and is pretty much on-paper-only.
• Retired Badass: Used to be a mighty empire, and once built the pyramids, but no longer holds too much political clout.
• Split Personality: Sometimes reverts from a happy-go-lucky guy to a depressed remnant of his former self.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: UK and France may have bothered Egypt a lot, but he still considers them friends.

Libya

• Arch-Enemy: Chad, largely over the ownership of the Aozou Strip.
• Ax-Crazy: As Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
• Boring, but Practical: The jokes about his old flag usually involves this. Expect the line 'green is not a creative color' to float around when this gets brought up.
• Crapsack World: He hasn't been doing a good job on governing himself since the fall of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, finding himself on the verge of becoming a failed state and getting caught in a lot of civil conflicts. Until 2021, that is, when the two rivaling governments merged to form a new unitary parliament.
• The Quiet One: Doesn't talk that much.
• Retired Monster: He used to be pretty Ax-Crazy, but has recently become harmless.
• Unknown Rival: Tunisia hates him due to their strained relationship from time to time, but he does not seem to reciprocate his hostility.
• War Refugee: Along with Syria, he is usually the poster-boy of this in-universe. Of course, whether Europe likes it or not varies greatly time to time.

Mauritania

Does this look like the face of mercy?

• A Day in the Limelight: He has his own series of comics, Mauritania: Time Traveler.
• Ax-Crazy: Yes. Almost always appearing with a very jubilant smile even though his mood says otherwise? Check. Has rampant human rights problems in his country? Check.
• Berserk Button: He doesn't take other countryballs mocking his perpetually-smiling face that kindly. Same goes for people who compare him with Joker.
• Catchphrase: "Why so serious?" in reference to his constantly-smiling face.
• Friendly Rival: With Morocco. They are mostly friends, but their dispute over Western Sahara crops time to time.
• Freudian Excuse: The background of it depends on the writer, but in general, his Ax-Crazy attitude as well as his never-ending smile are described to be born from France forcibly carving the smile to his face.
• Perpetual Smiler: The crescent gives the appearance of a very jubilant smile. Expect this to be contrasted against Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
  • Stepford Smiler: Read Mauritania's mood by his eyes and it is evident that he is suffering at the mockery of other nations (and internally from the rampant enslavement in his country). Also see Freudian Excuse above.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Shows no mercy◊ to his slaves.
• Unknown Rival: He is one of the countries who antagonized Qatar as his diplomatic tensions rise, but Qatar himself does not know who he is.

Morocco

Not pictured: Western Sahara.

• Archenemy: Always trying to anschluss Western Sahara.
  • Spain is also one, as he refuses to gib Ceuta and Melilla to him.
• Bazaar of the Bizarre: Though you're more likely to find ripoffs of existing products. And be scammed◊.
• Big Red Devil: Because of his colouring and the pentagram on his flag, some artists use him to represent Satan, usually wearing fake horns.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Other countries tend to be afraid of him, thinking that he looks satanic, even though he's a pretty average guy.
• Friendly Rival: Is competing with Mauritania over the ownership of Western Sahara. They are mostly friends otherwise, though.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Colonial!America.
• Nosy Neighbor: To Western Sahara, obviously.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Left the African Union after Western Sahara was recognized as an independent state, and was once quite vehement about staying out, though he has recently rejoined.

South Sudan

• Antagonistic Offspring: Doesn't like his "father" Sudan.
• Ax-Crazy: Thanks to his bloody civil war, he's often portrayed as violent and genocidal.
• Perpetual Poverty: Usually portrayed as very poor and desperate, to the point of rejoicing when he finds a rat to eat in one comic.

Sudan

• Arch-Enemy: Unsurprisingly, with South Sudan. It's not always the case though (see Enemy Mine below).
• Body Horror: The birth of South Sudan is rarely portrayed prettily.
• Enemy Mine: He and his brother might hate each other to bits, but they both agree on hating the US and siding more with Russia and China.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Downplayed— while he is doing much better than his brother, their conditions and personalities weren't really that different.

Tunisia

• Arch-Enemy: Has a rather deep-seated resentment for his neighbor Libya. Not that Libya himself actually reciprocate it.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He might be a Nice Guy who is one of the Only Sane Men in the whole of the Africa, but if you somehow ended up becoming his enemy, you're screwed.
  • He once called ISIS dinner. Consider that if you will.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes, he has shades of this.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Algeria.
• Identical Stranger: He looks pretty similar to Turkey.
• Odd Friendship: With Serbia, because he did not recognize Kosovo as a country.
• Nice Guy: Is generally friendly and jovial. Except if you are his enemy.
• Only Sane Man: Is currently fairly stable for his neighborhood. No civil wars, no trying to anschluss neighbors, no authoritarian regime.

Western Sahara

• Designated Victim: She's hardly ever given any characterization outside of being kicked around by Morocco and occasionally Mauritania.
• Satellite Character: She's only ever seen in comics about Morocco. Sometimes she's actually drawn as physically chained to Morocco.

Nations of Southern Africa

Botswana, aka. BOTswana

Beep boop. Boop beep?

"System has boot. Botswana is online."

• Determinator: Constantly strives to improve his situation.
• Identical Stranger: To Estonia and Argentina, who looks relatively similar to him.
• Killer Robot: As BOTswana
• Nice Guy: Is very polite and well-spoken to his fellow nations.
• Only Sane Man: One of the more normal African balls. Apart from his AIDS problem, he's doing rather well for himself.
• Robo Speak: When he portrayed as BOTswana he speaks in a Polandball-Engrish version of this.
• We Used to Be Friends: He used to have a good relationship with North Korea in the past, but has cut diplomatic ties recently and designated him an enemy.

Mozambique

• Ax-Crazy: Sometimes can get very violent.
• Trigger-Happy: Often seen wielding, and firing, the AK-47 displayed on his flag.

South Africa

• Boomerang Bigot: Due to having racist beliefs left over from the Apartheid Era.
• I Hate Past Me: How he feels regarding Union Of South Africa.
• Loud of War: Sometimes uses vuvuzelas to annoy others into submission.
• Nonstandard Character Design: May be portrayed as a doughnut(?!) or as having a hollow centre because of the Lesotho exclave.
• Split Personality: Either because of his three separate capitals for his three branches of government, or because of his history of racial tension.

Zimbabwe

• Meaningful Rename: He transitioned from Rhodesia, a name derived from an infamous British imperialist, to Zimbabwe, the name of a medieval stone city built by southern Africans.
• Ridiculous Future Inflation: Lives this out in the present.

Nations of Western Africa

Cameroon

• Arch-Enemy: Boko Haram.
• Antagonistic Offspring: To say that he doesn't like France that much is... An understatement, to say at least, and he considers Germany as his true father.
• Enemy Mine: With Nigeria. They annoy each other time to time and constantly fight over Bakassi, but they agree on standing against Boko Haram.
• The Rival: With South Africa and Nigeria. He fiercely competes with the former for the ownership of 'Waka Waka' and the latter for Bakassi, although the latter sometimes crosses into Friendly Rival when it comes into trade and commerce.

Cape Verde

• Aunt Pennybags: She's got an excellent economy and a decent HDI in Africa, while remaining very friendly and approachable.
• Dame Swears-a-Lot: When frustrated◊.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": She prefers to be known by her Portuguese name, Cabo Verde.
• Nice Girl: She's known for being very gentle and hospitable.

Ghana

• Friendly Rival: With Nigeria. Both share a bond over being one of the only few English-speaking countries in West Africa with a history of British rule. However, they get into disputes over football and jollof rice.
• Meaningful Rename: During British colonialism, Ghana was known as the Gold Coast. However, he named himself after the Ghana Empire which existed in West Africa during the 2nd-12th centuries, despite the fact he is actually related to the Ashanti Empire, which had no historical or ethnic ties to the Ghana Empire.

Ivory Coast

• Identical Stranger: In coloration, he is an inverted Republic of Ireland.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": He prefers to be called Côte d'Ivoire.

Liberia

• Determinator: He currently struggles with his poor economy and ebola, but it isn't likely for him to give up.
• Happily Adopted: Is very accepting of USA's adoption of him.
• Perpetual Poverty: As if this long-standing problem of his isn't bad enough, he's got ebola coming for him...
• The Unfavorite: He feels this way compared to Philippines.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He loves and idolizes his father US, and struggles to be like him. Unfortunately, reality hits hard when he realizes that he still has a long way to go.

Niger

• Berserk Button: Mispronouncing his name as the almost identically-written racial slur.
• Book Dumb: Often portrayed as not very bright.
• Identical Stranger: Needless to say, he and India are only inches-wide different, which becomes a running gag in comics that feature him.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: He is not the smartest guy around, but he is usually very friendly and polite to other nations.
• Perpetual Poverty

Nigeria

• 419 Scam: His staple method in scamming other nations. Sometimes, he actually is a prince. He still wants monies, though.
• Arch-Enemy: Boko Haram, although he isn't the only one who views the group as such.
• Con Man: Tries to trick the other nations out of their money through badly-written emails or letters. Sometimes even successfully!
• The Rival: Has a long-standing argument with Cameroon about Bakassi.
  • Friendly Rival: However, they still rely on each other with trade and commerce, and agree on standing against Boko Haram. Ghana also counts as one; although they usually argue over who has the best national football team and jollof rice, they have also bonded over their similar pasts and economical agreements.
• Uncle Pennybags: Is one of the richest countries in both Africa and the world. His method to gain his riches, though, is another different matter...
• Trademark Favorite Food: Loves jollof rice and Indonesia's Indomie. He sometimes tries to claim that Indomie is his product.