Africa
Africa is a webcomic that follows the life of a female leopard named after her home continent. After losing her territory to another leopard, Africa and her cubs Binti and Mosi must journey to find a new home, braving the dangers of the African savannah, as in the background something devastating is coming.
It is created by Arven
, and you can read it here or here.
Provides Examples of:
- Age Cut: Several at first. The first scene shows Giza with a newborn Africa, then cuts to Africa being a cub under her mother's watchful eye. Another cut to Africa nearly being an adult, and then finally to the main story.
- Big "NO!": Africa on page 190, upon discovering Binti's body.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Sabra the serval, who Africa attacks while she's pregnant early in the story, comes back several chapters later having fallen in with Faida's clan. Due to Africa's attack, nearly all of her litter but one were stillborn, and she rats Africa's cubs out to the lions to show her what it feels like after Africa ran her out of her territory, then lost it to Chui.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Averted. Chui cheated to win his challenge with Africa by going to a buffalo skeleton and stealing the horn off of it, then lying by showing "proof" of a living buffalo with a missing horn.
- Darker and Edgier: A realistic story on the struggles of wildlife. Openly discusses and shows death of various characters.
- Death of a Child: Binti, due to a lion attack.
- Defiant to the End: We find out that Binti did this.
- Double-Meaning Title: Africa, the protagonist, and Africa, the location the comic takes place in.
- The End of the World as We Know It: Or something like it to the animals of the caldera. Faida's seen it coming, and though we have no clue of what it is, birds are already fleeing from it.
- Fantastic Racism: Various bits of predator and prey racism are shown among the various groups of animals; a lion pride even attacks Africa on sight because they mistake her for Chui, and continue to have it out for her despite Africa being female, with two cubs.
- Grey-and-Grey Morality: The wilds of Africa are merciless, and there is no "good" or "bad", just animals trying to survive. The only animal in the cast who is outright evil is Chui.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: As they often are. Chui is very much ostracized by the other animals of the caldera because he was captured by humans when he was young and has a tracking collar on him.
- Heroic Sacrifice: We find out that Binti did this so that Mosi could escape, overcoming her fear and leaping at Baba Bess to give him time to run.
- Interspecies Friendship:
- Averted between Nadira (a Thomson's gazelle) and Africa (a leopard). Nadira tries to reach out to a young Africa, but Giza's influence wins out.
- After realizing this, Nadira and her son Paa form a friendship with a zebra herd.
- The concept is brought back to Africa when Faida the hyena is introduced, and after some time Africa seems to warm up to the idea, in allowing the cheetah Safari to continue calling her dada (sister).
- Interspecies Adoption: After Binti dies and she is unable to find Mosi, Africa adopts Sabra's cub Mondo to try and have some form of repentance for how she was responsible for the stillbirth of all of Sabra's other cubs.
- Manipulative Bastard: Chui, who is very good at persuading animals to do what he wants by playing on situations or their pride, such as manipulating a zebra into getting his herd leader killed, forcing Africa into a challenge to keep him from killing Mosi, and persuading a pride of lions to attack Faiba's hyena clan.
- Missing Child: Africa's worries for her cubs. She later finds Binti mauled to death, and her son Mosi missing.
- Shown Their Work: The various animals depicted in the comic behave realistically, ranging from how antelope take shelter among a herd of zebra for protection from Africa, and how African Wild Dogs are some of the continent's best predators, with an 80% kill rate and high levels of communication during hunts. The caldera itself is also a real place in Tanzania, as are the various locations inside it.
- Theme Naming: Except for Chui, nearly all of the leopards in the comic (mainly Africa and her family) are named after various locations, such as her mother, Giza.
- Would Hurt a Child: Africa's cub, Binti is killed in the later chapters of the webcomic by Baba Bes's lion pride because of Sabra. Africa's son Mosi manages to survive, but is currently missing.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Chui takes Africa's territory. She returns to try and reclaim it, only to get beaten. She returns to the new place in defeat
