A minor
lesson about the name AfricA!
Africa is not named after a Roman general! If so, it is because I have
pledged to repeat it again and again with the hope that it will someday sink
in.
Africa is not named after Roman general Scipio Africanus. Nor is it
named after Leo Africanus--a man who comes much later. These are myths. I
repeat, these are myths!
Scipio Africanus is the Roman general who engineered the defeat of the
African nation called Carthage--centred in what is now Tunisia.
Carthage was a colony of Phoenicia. It was established in 814 BCE. The
Nile Valley was still thriving at this time and the civilisation called
Nok--based in what is now Nigeria--was rising up.
The Phoenicians themselves had an African mixture and with the passage
of time Carthage itself became increasingly African.
Carthage means "the new town" and the most famous Carthaginian
was General Hannibal Barca. The Romans called this entire area Africa.
And so with the defeat of the Carthaginians, Scipio is given the name
"conqueror of Africa." So Scipio Africanus does not give his name to
Africa.
He gets his name from Africa! Get it? Make sense to you?
Now the man named Leo Africanus was himself an African. Indeed, his name
means Leo the African!! He got his name from Africa. He did not give his name
to Africa.
Now before you tie yourself up in knots and begin to ask "what was
the original name for the continent of Africa" please ask yourself,
"What makes you think that ancient people thought of themselves as living
on continents?"
The notion of continents is a European notion and it is a relatively
recent one at that. The word Ethiopian is Greek. It means land of the burnt
faced people. And Alkebulan does not even appear to be an African word.
So why not start looking at things from an African perspective. Why not
use our own frame of reference?
We need to spend more time educating each other. I try and do it each
day.
Runoko Rashidi! (Eddie the Don)
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