World Showcase outpost

[gerald72]

Why is the outpost at World Showcase?
Has it always been there? Was it part of the original plan? Did the imagineers decide: Hey, let's put an outpost between China and Germany? Why isn't it an actual African country instead?
Is it a placeholder for a new country?
What was in the place of Norway and Morocco before they were put there?

[seanyred]

I don't know if I'm exactly right but how I understand it there is space there for one or two country's the problem is if a country wants to be in EPCOT they have to help with the financial side of having it built and maintained. I think an outpost was put there because it was just dead space before....also I wonder if it was placed there for the Millennium celebration.

Also there is other open spots around world showcase for more country's...if you look on Google maps you can see all the open spaces

[nicster]

I wondered about that too.

[Imagineer1981]

I think it was added during the Millenium Celebration and has been there since. Since they have Africa at AK, I wouldn't see them expanding Epcot to represent that, and they have Morocco as well

[Mufasa]

The space occupied as the World Showcase Outpost opened first as the Village Traders back in November 1993.

When Epcot was in development, there were plans for an Equatorial Africa pavilion.

A lot of people still ask what ever happened to those plans since at the time of Epcot's opening there was a special aired on CBS with Danny Kaye talking about the new park and at one point he meets with Alex Haley (author of Roots) as they talk and tease about the pavilion and promise to meet up again in a year when it opened.

At the heart of the pavilion would have been a large tree where guests could go up and reach a wildlife observation platform and look out and see an effect of what appears to be animals gathering at a watering hole just after dusk.

There also would have been a theater show called "Heartbeat of Africa" which would trace the history of the drum and different musical styles and rhythms of Africa.

But the project which Alex Haley had spent about 2 years researching and working with DIsney on was where he would host a film called "Africa Rediscovered" in order to dispel the myths of Africa being primitive and step through scenes of history up to modern day.

As for why it wasn't built- could be any number of factors. Sponsorship issues and just the costs already incurred in building Epcot would delay adding an additional pavilion especially when it did not feature a particular ride but focused more on shows (much like Disneyland Paris and their first major expansion which focused on adding Space Mountain as a draw for guests)