Is Africa The Dark Continent

5 Pages 1236 Words

Originally using “Africa” as a key word to search on the net, and individual will come across over 800 different websites. Mostly the websites will deal with weather, safari’s, and politics. If one digs deeper they will eventually come across the knowledge that there are some websites explaining the “Truth”. These websites mostly come in forums and then in the definitions of the words use. One such forum is www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com. More information dispelling another myth of the name is www.theglobists.com.
Most people frequently use the word Africa, not only for the continent, but as a common denominator for 50 countries, 720 million people and 1000 languages. A huge number of religions, tribes and groups of people each with a very different history. We also use terms like "African culture", "African music" or "African religion" even though there is no single culture, music or religion in common for all of the countries/regions.
"Africa" is not an African word. The origin of the word is still a little uncertain, but it is credible to see a connection from Latin (Africa = sunny) and Greek (Aphrike = not cold). The Romans were the first to use the name. For them it covered Tunisia and the most northern parts of Algeria and Libya. Egypt was already known territory, but further South was unknown land. Around 2,000 years ago "Aethiopia" seems to have been used to describe the land found south of Sahara, but Europeans later used "Africa" to describe the entire continent. This is why we began to see Africa one land with only one kind of people. Strangely enough it changed from the land of sunshine and warmth to "the dark continent".
It has always been comfortable and easy for Westerners to see Africa as a whole. Africa used to be somewhere far away with dark skinned people, having customs so different from our own. A land of fairytales or sometimes horror. Today we are a bit wiser, but it still seems like an impossi...