Must have been an entirely different variety of speculation going on near you. I know several people who have been pretty much set on South Africa since they said that S2 would (probably) feature the Congo, but not as the first destination.
As for it being grim and dull, with little in the way of interesting associations… well I can’t think of any off the top of my head either, but I’ll see what the devs have come up with and probably will learn something along the way. We’ve already got some top bees dredging up interesting possibilities based on that trailer. Top bees!