Africa before colonialism : Did Africa have a name ?

AFRICA BEFORE COLONIALISM – DID AFRICA HAVE A NAME?

The Continent With No One Name, But Many Kingdoms*

Look at this map again.

Songhay, Ghana, Mellestine, Carthage, Numidia, Egypt, Nubia, Kanem, Abyssinia, Ethiopia, Congo, Monomotapa, Zimbabwe, Kilwa, Sofala, Benin, Yoruba, Hausa, Mossi kemmet and others….

This is the ancient map of Africa. And it tells us one important truth:

In ancient times, there was no single name for the whole continent.

Our ancestors did not call the continent “Africa.”

They called their land by their kingdoms, their cities, their empires.

A man would say “I am from Mali,” “I am from Songhay,” “I am from Great Zimbabwe,” “I am from Kilwa.” He would not say “I am African” — because the continent was too vast, too diverse, too full of different ethnic groups, languages and empires to have one name.

So where did the name “Africa” come from?

History shows us this:

1. The Greeks called it Libya.*

For the Greeks, everything south of the Mediterranean and west of the Nile was Libya — named after the Libu tribe.

2. The name Ethiopia was also used.*
In Greek, Ethiopia means “land of burnt faces.” It was first used for lands south of Egypt, for Kush/Nubia, and later adopted by the Kingdom of Axum.

3. The Romans created “Africa”.*

After Rome defeated Carthage in 146 BCE, they created a province in present-day Tunisia called Africa Proconsularis. The name came from the _Afri_ — a Berber people who lived around Carthage. In the Berber language, _ifri_ means “cave” — so Africa may have originally meant “Land of the cave dwellers.”

At that time, “Africa” was ONLY for northern Tunisia — not the whole continent. It was only later, during the Middle Ages, that European mapmakers started using “Africa” for the entire continent.

4. The Arabs called it Bilad al-Sudan*
Land of the Black People — for lands south of the Sahara.

What about Alkebulan?

Many people today say Alkebulan was the original ancient name meaning “Mother of Mankind.” This is a popular claim, but historians have found no ancient inscription or primary source that shows all Africans used Alkebulan for the whole continent in antiquity. It appears more in later literature. The truth is even more powerful than that claim.

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The real truth is: AFRICA DID NOT NEED ONE NAME.

Other ancient names that were popularly used in different parts were KEMET(for Egypt — meaning “Black Land”), Libya, Ethiopia, And Cush/kush.

Why was there no single name?

Because Africa is a vast continent with over 3,000 ethnic groups, over 2,000 languages, vast kingdoms and vast natural resources. No one empire could name it all. So each empire bore its own glorious name.

And that is exactly what your map shows. The names on this map ARE the names of Africa.

THE BIG LESSON:

Europeans came and gave us one name — Africa — from a small Berber tribe in Tunisia. But before that name, we already had a thousand names, a thousand kingdoms, and a thousand glories.

Africa was not a country with one name. Africa was a continent of kingdoms.

#HistoryOfTheBlackRace #AfricaBeforeColonialism #AncientAfricanKingdoms #AfricanHistory
History of the black race