Name: Thobelani

Surname: Khumalo

Student no:11906472

Discuss the controversy of the term Africa

The discussion seek to find who named the continent Africa also touch on what
influenced the naming of the continent and conclusively the connotation of the
term Africa.
Giving a name to the continent Africa has been a hotly debated topic that often
had divided opinion, amongst those opinions was the reasonableness of accepting
the geographical meaning of Africa. Multitude countries seek to give Africa a
name based on their historical experience in Africa however, for the purpose of
reacting to who gave Africa a name it is well thought out to target these two
countries, Greek and Roman. In accordance to “encyclopaedia
Britannica”(1974:117) argued that, apparently Greeks have called the continent
Libya while Romans called it Africa, otherwise stated the roman’s experiences of
the continent’s climate brought forth the creation of the name Africa. It is
reasonable to assume that the continent Africa was named by Romans therefore,
the continent Africa was named by Romans through it historical experience of the
continent.
Another factor to be considered is what influenced the naming of the continent.
Historical experience of the continent are one of the factors that influenced the
naming of Africa, it can be inferred that these countries had experiences when
visited Africa not only that but also the conquest of Africa through the unjust wars
of colonisation. Greek and Romans are outsiders; Greek and Roman entered in
Africa and had an experience therefore it is safe to assume that Greeks and
Romans Experience in a continent influenced the naming of the continent.
Despite the fact that the term Africa speaks more of the western experience
which corroborate that indeed the name Africa was not given by continent’s
indigenous however it is exciting to see the continent Africa being publicize to
other parts of the world meaning that it is now possible to speak of Africa to
other countries. Decisively, it should be argued that Africa is comprised to only
one ethnic group at any rate it is safe to say to say that it is a diverse continent.