If the sections of Baum's Land of Oz are reflective of portions of America (Munchkin land is the populous East, Winkie Country is the West, Quadling Country is the swampy and isolated South, and the Emerald City is Chicago), is the much less well-known Island of Yew a fantasy Africa? The entirety of the island is abundant with sorcerors, although not as many as the Yewsians would have potential enemies believe. The north is a land of feuding, bloody baronies, much like the Barbary states of the Mediterranean and bandits reminiscent of the Senussi slave routes from the Niger to Cyrene. The west is characterized by a flim-flam sorceror, similar to the European perception of voudoun, along with the attendant suckers, and a magical land of twins, much like the twin statues of the Gulf of Africa. The east is a land of cattle raiders, which matches the cattle-raiding culture of Bantu tribes of East Africa. The center is unknown and as mysterious to the travelers as the Mountains of the Moon, full of monsters. The south. of course, is dominated by a ruby-themed good sorceress who maintains civilization (God save the Queen!). Fairies are needed to guide places and people that are not civilized; once a place is civilized, the fairies do not need to intervene and any remnants of the pre-civilized edge will be out of place.
On the other hand, much of this directional theme could be overlaid on Europe in certain periods.
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