In fact, in Ernst's previous life, Africa had an organization called the Southeast African Common Market, whose full name was the Eastern and Southern African Common Market, with its secretariat located in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.
The reason the regional organization led by East Africa still bore the name Southeast African Common Market was closely tied to the current political map of the African continent.
East Africa was simply too unique a country. It occupied nearly half of Africa's landmass and covered vast stretches of eastern and southern Africa.
Therefore, using Southeast Africa to encompass the countries surrounding East Africa was the most appropriate choice.
Neither the East African Common Market nor the South African Common Market could achieve that effect.
Take the East African Common Market, for instance. Not to mention that East Africa itself was the Rhine Empire's traditional name in international society, making it insufficiently international and liable to create ambiguity.
Moreover, judging from Africa's present geography, East Africa in the narrow sense lay basically within East African territory. Only a few colonial islands in the Indian Ocean, the eastern part of the South African colony, and eastern North Africa had even the slightest connection to East Africa.
Egypt, for example, could be described as "Northeast Africa," located at the northeastern corner of the African continent. Thus, classifying Egypt as part of East Africa was rather far-fetched.
Furthermore, in terms of culture, history, and religion, the world preferred to classify Egypt under the broader geographical concept of North Africa. Of course, North Africa here referred to the part of Africa north of the Sahara Desert, corresponding to the broader concept of Sub-Saharan Africa. North Africa could also be viewed as the region influenced by the desert or Arab religion culture.
Therefore, if East Africa's neighboring countries