Zege

President Zege in 1984

Zege, also known as Mr. Zege, was the flamboyant and charasmatic warlord turned dictator of Yanuban from 1979 until he was assassinated in 1997.

Etymology

Zege is the Swahili word for concrete and was the nom de guerre from when he was first initiated into a low level leadership in an anti-communist militia in the eastern reaches of the Samadh Sultanate. It was given to him by his men who saw him as a "pillbox against the fetid communist proles."

Early life

Little is known about the real early life of Zege. He grew up in a large,poor, urban family whose ethnic origin was somewhere in the northern island of Audonia. This was scrubbed from his official biography that claimed he was a Yanubi Arab through and through.

Transcripts found in the early 2000s incicated that he never finished highschool but he claimed to have a bachelors degree in Being Bad and Starting Something. He further claimed to have a Master of Science degree in He he a unique form of singing generally found among Berbers in the Aab-e-Farus basin.

Samadhi Civil War

Zege grew up in the context of the Samadhi Civil War which was a period of massive turmoil in Yanuban. His family saw the rapid introduction of westernization, Burgundification specifically. From the introduction of western consumer goods, a dramatic change in the Yanubi diet, and the sudden welcoming of Burgundie's military aid and the culture into the previously fairly anti-modernist, anti-western views of the middle and lower classes of the Samadh Sultanate.

Zege's family is likely to have seen tension along generational lines. Psychologists have posthumously cited Zege's behavior as textbook daddy issues and posited that Zege and his siblings likely had a stressful relationship with both parents, particularly their father. This would have been common for most urban families at the time. The youth more likely to embracing the new foreign influence and their parents being more cautious and traditionalist.

Martial career

Zege was first noted as joining an urbanist paramilitary faction in 1969 and self reported his age as 18 years old. Most political historians think he was likely 15-16 at the time. He quickly distinguished himself in local skirmishes in the ongoing tension between the urban and rural/nomadic groups.

At the outset of Operation Kipling Yanuban became a massive hub for Burgundie's military operations across Alshar and Audonia. The new money was largely put back into the revitalization of the countryside with massive public works projects the also rendered unemployment almost null. This led to a resentment amongst urban populations who wanted to invest in their own improvements.

Zege's paramilitary group grew in the early 70s and was officially designated as a gendermerie of the National Guard in 1974. Zege himself was commissioned as a Captain-Constable and given the formal command of a demi-battalion.

To be continued...