Is ‘Africa’ a racial slur and should the continent be renamed?

So when white South Africans refer to themselves as South African, are they being racist against themselves.

Woke nonsense.

This reads as parody. No, a place being name after its climate is not a bad thing. No, the Greeks referring to a people in Africa as 'sun-burnt' isn't a bad thing either, unless you associate literally any mention of a dark skin tone as being negative. And I have to say, the author's prose reminds me of how high schoolers or college freshman write. The entire piece is just embarrassing to read.

"If the continent is hot and without cold, that would make it the proverbial hell fire, would it not?" That sounds like a bit of a stretch. "Hot and without cold", when I first read it, actually sounded rather nice to me. I suppose many countries and regions now happily call themselves a name from the point of view of a historical other.

The ancient Chinese referred to people from Mongolia as barbarians, and the list goes on.

Among the sillily inaccurate ideas in this article, the authors show complete ignorance when they attribute the word barbarian to the Chinese.

According to Wikipedia,

The term originates from the Ancient Greek: βάρβαρος (barbaros; pl. βάρβαροι barbaroi). In Ancient Greece, the Greeks used the term not only for those who did not speak Greek and follow classical Greek customs, but also for Greek populations on the fringe of the Greek world with peculiar dialects.

The Japanese word 野蛮人 yabanjin is translated into English as savage, or barbarian, and at one time was another word used for 外人 gaijin. Almost every language has its own word for outsider or uncultured person, including the languages of various indigenous peoples of the African continent.

Nothing useful to do?

If the continent is hot and without cold, that would make it the proverbial hell fire, would it not?

It would not. Next question, please.

The ancient Chinese referred to people from Mongolia as barbarians, and the list goes on.

Response by Roten:

Among the sillily inaccurate ideas in this article, the authors show complete ignorance when they attribute the word barbarian to the Chinese.

I’m not going out on a limb to suggest that no Chinese actually used the word “barbarian”. I’m sure that ancient Chinese was as rich in slurs for foreigners as any other language of that time and since. It’s what humans do.

So instead of using the naming of the colonizer you want to change the name to one derived from the Nigerian language. How do the rest of Africa feel about this proposed naming?

North Africa is not black. Egyptians, Libyans, Moroccans, Tunisians, and Algerians are not black BUT they are African.

Jamaicans, Haitians, and a ton of people from the Carribean are black but not African.

I think the equating of Black = African is the real racist point here. If you think that you can substitute black for African is racist.

This is one of the most ridiculous topics I've ever seen on this site. We're just going to rename whole continents now, huh. Ok.

I hope JT didn't pay for this article, unless it came to the Conversation via The Onion or Babylon Bee.

As others have pointed out, it's either pretty good parody or something written by a 14--year-old trying to sound smart.

Africans are of every color.

"They found the darkest skin in the Nilo-Saharan pastoralist populations of eastern Africa, such as the Mursi and Surma, and the lightest skin in the San of southern Africa, as well as many shades in between, as in the Agaw people of Ethiopia."

Aly ,all black are not Black skinned,my brother is light skinned

"Is ‘Africa’ a racial slur and should the continent be renamed?"

Nonsense and more nonsense everyday but it would be undemocratic regulating others opinions.

Aly ,all black are not Black skinned,my brother is light skinned

of course. My point is African does not equal Black, that's all

How many races are in Africa?

"There are over 3,000 different ethnic groups speaking more than 2,100 different languages in all of Africa. The people there practice a variety of religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and traditional religions specific to their ethnic group."

There are five races in Africa.

The name Africa was given to the continent by European exploiters, slavers and colonists who first arrived as traders and explorers in the 1300s. “Africa” is believed to be taken from the Greek aphrike, meaning without cold; it translates in Latin to aprica, meaning sunny.

There is a lot of this in world history, including English slurs against the Dutch.

And as this is a Japanese site, don't get into the original name Chinese had for Japan.

They were called Wa in Chinese, and the kanji for their name 倭 can be translated as "dwarf" or "submissive". Japanese scribes found fault with its offensive connotation, and officially changed the characters they used

Sometimes reappraisal of our terminology is a healthy thing.

Doesn't "Africa" have to at least predate Scipio Africanus?

From the article:

Any wonder why the defenders of scientific racism in some European universities in the 1700s and 1800s, especially at the University of Göttingen, Germany, decided to categorise the indigenous African peoples with the colour black, the American Indian with red, some Asian peoples with brown, others with yellow, and the European with white?

I'm afraid that you're going to have to go back much further for this view. Israelite religion maintains that the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa were originally peopled by Noah's three sons after the flood: Japheth (Europe), Shem (Asia), and Ham (Africa). It is in connection with this belief that one finds the following statement in the so called "Animal Apocalypse" (2nd century BCE), a biblical history using animal imagery, contained within the extra-canonical Book of 1 Enoch:

8 Then the water flowed down into these, till the earth was uncovered; and the vessel settled down on the earth, and the darkness retired and the light came. 9 But the white bull which had become a man came out of the vessel, and the three bulls with him, and one of those three bulls was white like that bull, and one of them was red as blood, and one black. And the white bull departed from them.

—1 Enoch 88:8–9

Thus the associations are far earlier that this article claims.

This is stupid.... what's next rename the color black in Spanish (negro) because is a slur in English???

Human beings are made in the image and likeness of the divine - declare Scriptures of several traditions. So color is accidental. What lies beneath the color can be interesting for participant observation.

Toxic critical race theory,

The name Africa was given to the continent by European exploiters, slavers and colonists who first arrived as traders and explorers

The crime of the centuries, propelled into 21st CN, 2024 is shaped by constructions of "whiteness".

These "race baiting" extremists, scream out "white" must be held accountable and forced to self flagellate,

Coming soon to a school near you.

According to one study, the term umlungu arose from an incident in which shipwrecked white people were deposited from the sea. The sea’s tendency is to toss anything out that is dirty in order to clean itself. The shipwrecked white people were given the name “abelungu/umlungu”, which means “filth that is rejected by the ocean and deposited on the shore”. Some of those shipwrecked remained and the clan name Abelungu was used to record their children.

—https://theconversation.com/umlungu-the-colourful-history-of-a-word-used-to-describe-white-people-in-south-africa-210416

OMG! How dare they racially slur white people as sea scum!

The word [Oyinbo] is coined from the Yoruba translation of “peeled skin,” "lightened," or “skinless,” which, in Yoruba, translates “yin” – to scratch “bo” – to off/peel/lightened. the "O" starting the word "Oyinbo" is a pronoun. Hence, "Oyinbo" translates literally to "the person with a peeled-off or lightened skin". Other variations of the term in the Yoruba language include Eyinbo, which is shortened to "Eebo".

—https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyinbo

OMG! How dare they racially slur white people as skinless!

We argue that these are various levels of degeneration except for white, which is unspoilt, pure and spotless. In our view, identifying a human being with any colors at all is racist. To identify as white is to discount others as non-whites, which is indirect racism, and to call someone by any other color – like black – is a direct racial subordination.

Yes. It is far more enlightened to identify people sea scum and skinless.

Look at the meaning of aethiops. Here, the people found on the continent named sunny or without cold became people with sun-burnt faces. The inference is that the unforgiving sun burnt the skin of the inhabitants. When something is burnt or charred, we call it black.

The same thought is found in the Jewish Bible:

I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me…

—Song of Solomon 1:5–6

The speaker here, a woman, not Solomon, as is evident from the speaker’s self-referential use of feminine adjectives in the Hebrew, apparently has no problem attributing their own blackness to the burning of the sun.

It must be nice to have a job where you get paid to nit pick through ancient history to find grievances for the modern day.

wallace -

There are 5 races in Africa

Depends on your concept of race. The traditional notion of similar physical traits defining a race is somewhat dated.

Most scientists, social scientists anthropologists etc view the term as purely a social construct.

And all places have to have names. Historically some could have been more sensitively applied taking into account indigenous characteristics. Native American name for Washington DC pre-colonial days was Nacotchtank ( the largest village). Hard time today to rename that.

But Africa as a monolithic entity never truly existed as it's gigantic breadth from north to south to east to west was never understood in ancient / old times.

And if there is name to be used that has no European connections, then why not use Alkebulan meaning the mother of mankind. This ancient word was used by many different North Africans for millenia.

More appropriate imo than a contrived word coming from Nigerian - Anaesia - which represents only a small part of the continent.

How about we take a more literal stance and simply refer to Africa as the poorest, most poverty-stricken continent on earth. Other options could include factual observations such as economic insecurity, poor education, political instability, corruption, weak or nonexistent healthcare systems, civil wars, terrorist insurrections, lack of innovation, poor infrastructure, widespread destitution despite being no. 1 beneficiaries of global handouts, etc.

This would avoid any upsetting references to race or skin colour.

This is stupid.... what's next rename the color black in Spanish (negro) because is a slur in English???

I agree! Can't even believe we are having this discussion, woke gone amok.

Considering language has always evolved and will continue to evolve, people who get all weird about changing words are weird.

If one required an example, the race baiters trigger, to distort historic grievance, to create toxic poisonous division in 2024 within communities, to demand that 21st century, commit to public acts of cultural self harm, to sociality financially accept blame for past atrocities, slavery then look read review........

Any wonder why the defenders of scientific racism in some European universities in the 1700s and 1800s, especially at the University of Göttingen, Germany, decided to categorise the indigenous African peoples with the colour black, the American Indian with red, some Asian peoples with brown, others with yellow, and the European with white?

We argue that these are various levels of degeneration except for white, which is unspoilt, pure and spotless. In our view, identifying a human being with any colors at all is racist. To identify as white is to discount others as non-whites, which is indirect racism, and to call someone by any other color – like black – is a direct racial subordination.

The essence of the project of color categorzation of humanity was to establish racial hierarchy as part of an attempt to defend scientific racism and justify slavery, colonial oppression and exploitation.

You may ask what is in a name?

A means to politically weaponize race colour, to harbour belligerent discontent, to furnish resentment, bitterness, acrimony leading to violence.

If Europeans named that continent 'Africa' in the 14th century, who was Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Carthage in the Second Punic War, who lived about a millennium and a half before that? Ignorant, half-baked ramblings.

It’s weird how some people get all freaky because someone wants to change a sound.

Nice idea, and everyone loves a fresh start, but what would the government of Africa decide?

Sounds like this imitates that movement to change the name of India, another convenient country name going back to 5th century BC antiquity.

More woke nonsense.