[Raellus]

To me, this EMP argument is moot. Regardless of whether Africa is or is not affected by EMP, it is still going to be a hot mess once WWIII kicks off. Somalia is the modern epitome of a failed state. There are fairly routine rolling blackouts in Nairobi and Mombassa now, in 2012. Nigeria teeters on the brink of tearing itself apart (again- remember Biafra?) in a fresh wave of sectarian violence. There was a coup in Mali just last week. If all of this has happened during the "Pax Americana", imagine how much crazier it would have been as the Cold War superpowers spiralled towards open warfare.

In the topsy-turvy lead in to a full-blown (read "nuclear") WWIII, Africa is only going to get more chaotic. Without the money and technical expertise of the U.S., Soviet Union, and/or China (depending, to a degree, on what timeline you use), many African nations are going to struggle to keep it together. Cold War patronage did contribute to some of the violence and instability in Africa during the '50s-'80s, but it also, in some cases, kept the violence fairly localized and, in others, prevented wider African wars from breaking out. Without that external influence, the situation in Africa would likely have gotten a whole lot worse. We all saw what happened in Rwanda when the world turned a blind eye.

Yes, some parts of Africa might be able to maintain relative peace and order, but these regions are going to be small, few, and far between. They are going to struggle to beat back the tide of chaos that surrounds them and they are going to have to do so more or less alone. There's not going to be some powerful patron nation there to step in and help with lawyers, guns, and money. Hell, there's not going to be a U.N. even.

Kenya might be one of those countries that doesn't completely collapse, but it will be faced with some staggering challenges, with or without nuclear strikes/EMP.