Origins of the word Africa

A composite satellite image of Africa (centre) with North America (left) and Asia (right) to scale

Question: What is the original name for Africa? Answer: alkebulan.

In my search for an answer concerning the true origins of the name or word Africa the following is what I came up with.

The historical origins of the name Africa are in dispute. At least seven origins have been suggested: (1) it is a Roman name for what the Greeks called "Libya," itself perhaps a Latinization of the name of the Berber tribe Aourigha (perhaps pronounced "Afarika"); (2) it is derived from two Phoenician terms either referring to corn or fruit (pharika), meaning land of corn or fruit; (3) it comes from a Phoenician root faraqa, meaning separation or diaspora; a similar root is apparently found in some African languages such as Bambara; (4) it is drawn from the Latin adjective aprica (sunny) or the Greek aprikē (free from cold); (5) it might even stem from Sanskrit and Hindi in which the root Apara or Africa denotes that which, in geographical terms, comes "after"—to the west—in which case Africa is the western continent; (6) it is the name of a Yemenite chief named Africus who invaded North Africa in the second millennium B.C.E. and founded a town called Afrikyah; or (7) it springs from "Afer" who was a grandson of Abraham and a companion of Hercules (Ki-Zerbo; Spivak).

Clearly, there is little agreement on the sources and original meanings of the word Africa. The foreignness of the name once prompted Wole Soyinka to demand that it be dropped, and as an act of self-definition he proposed the adoption of terms for Africa and African rooted in an indigenous language, preferably Abibirim and Abibiman from Akan. It appears the term Africa was used widely from Roman times to refer initially to North Africa, originally called by the Greek or Egyptian word Libya, before it was extended to the whole continent from the end of the first century of the common era. The Arabic term Ifriqiya most probably represents a transliteration of the word Africa. In this sense, then, Africa was a European construct—as much as Europe itself was a construct inflicted by the idea of Africa (and Asia)—whose cartographic application was both gradual and contradictory in that as the name embraced the rest of the continent it increasingly came to be divorced from its original North African coding and became increasingly confined to the regions referred to in Eurocentric and sometimes Afrocentric conceptual mapping as "sub-Saharan Africa," seen as the pristine locus of the "real" Africa or what the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) called "Africa proper."

The divorce of North Africa may have started with the Arab invasions of the region in the seventh century, but got its epistemic and ideological imprimatur with the emergence of Eurocentricism following the rise of modern Europe, which for Africa entailed, initially and destructively, the Atlantic slave trade, out of which came the forced migration—the largest in human history—of millions of Africans and the formation of African diasporas in the Americas, diasporas that appropriated and popularized the name Africa and through whom Africa became increasingly racialized. For example, the adoption of "black" as the preferred name of African-Americans from the 1960s, in place of "Negro," simply reinforced the relabeling of Africa as "black," a tag that simultaneously rejected and reinscribed the old pejorative appellation of the "dark continent." For the French, Afrique noire served to distinguish the west and central African colonies from the fictive overseas provinces of metropolitan France in North Africa, especially Algeria.

Far less clear is when the appropriation of Africa, as a self-defining identity, occurred in the various regions and among the innumerable societies that make up this vast continent, the second largest in the world. Such an archaeological project has not been undertaken, partly because it is a daunting task to untangle the interpellations and intersections of political and cultural identities for Africa's peoples—ethnic, national, continental, and global—and partly because African intellectuals, whether nationalist or postcolonial, have been preoccupied with denouncing or deconstructing Eurocentrism.

Idea of Africa - Origins Of The Name Africa

The name "Africa" was invented and used by the Romans, but they had no idea how big the continent was. They used the name to to refer to their small area around Carthage.

In Africa itself, there are well over 1000 spoken languages, who would all have used their own names for places known to them. Africa is a very big place and no language encompasses the whole continent. It is very unlikely that any of the many empires, kingdoms and tribes had a concept of Africa as one clearly bounded continent with one name. They probably referred to their local region, and some far off regions known to them.

So the answer is that Africa has never had one original name. The Roman name spread out to encompass the whole continent.

Where did the word "Africa" come from?

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"What is the origin of the world “Africa?”

"I would like to thank you all at The African Bulletin for your foresight and the extremely powerful service you have been rendering the black community since your inception.

Meanwhile, I have some important questions which I would like you to help me find out the answers for my sake and that of my children. I have done several researches without coming up with any concrete answer on this subject. Kindly assist in finding out answers either through books or references. Here are some of them:

Where does the name Africa come from? What does it mean? What language is the word Africa? Did Africans name it Africa?

I understand you are all very busy and so please take your time in coming up with possible answers.

Nana Kwabena Buruwaa
Wageningen

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Editors’ Note:

We hope the information below answers your questions. Maybe some readers out there are also able to give you some useful references as well:

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization - better known as UNESCO - during the time of the Roman empire, the term became accepted as a replacement for the word "Libya" which meant the land of the Lebu or Lubins in Genesis.

Geographically, Libya meant only the north coast of the continent and at first, so did Africa. By the end of the first century A.D., Africa came to mean the entire continent. The etymology, the origin of the term Africa is not so precisely agreed upon and, according to UNESCO, its origin is credited to one of seven theories:

The Afarak, also known as the Aourigha, were a Berber people who lived south of Carthage. The terms Afarik or Africa were used to denote the land of the Afarak.

Some believe that the word comes from the Latin adjective aprica which means sunny or the Greek aprike, which means free from cold.

The Phoenician root faraqua, which suggests a separation or in other words, diaspora. The same root is found in some African languages, like Bambara.

In Sanskrit and Hindu, the root Apara or Africa denotes that which, in geographical terms comes "after," or in other words the west. From the geographical position of India, the Asian country from which the Hindus originated, Africa is the western continent.

Another school of thought states that the word Africa comes from two Phoenician terms, one of which means an ear of corn, which was a symbol of fertility in that region, and the other Pharikia, which means land of the fruit.

A historical tradition states that a Yeminiter chief named Africus invaded north Africa in the second millennium before our era and founded a town called Afrikyah. Some say it is more likely that the Arabic term Ifriqiya is the Arabic translation of the word "Africa."

Another theory states that Afer was a grandson of Abraham and a companion of Hercules."

Permission received to post this article here: "You have our full permission to use the said information using us as a point of reference but quoting the appropriate source as indicated in the said piece. We thank you for your in The African Bulletin. Best regards." The African Bulletin, http://www.mediablackberry.com/2003/03/letters.html

Etymology

Afri was the name of several peoples who dwelt in North Africa near Carthage. Their name is usually connected with Phoenician afar, "dust", but a 1981 theory^[6] has asserted that it stems from a Berber word ifri or Ifran meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers^[7]. Africa or Ifri or Afer^[8] is name of Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania (Berber Tribe of Yafran) ^[9].

In Roman times, Carthage became the capital of Africa Province, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Roman suffix "-ca" denotes "country or land".^[10] The later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name.

Other etymologies that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":

• the 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for Epher, grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
• the Latin word aprica, meaning "sunny", mentioned by Isidore of Seville (sixth century) in Etymologiae XIV.5.2
• the Greek word aphrike, meaning "without cold." This was proposed by historian Leo Africanus (1488–1554), who suggested the Greek word phrike (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the privative prefix "a-", thus indicating a land free of cold and horror.
• Massey, in 1881, derived an etymology from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace."^[11]

The Irish female name Aifric is sometimes Anglicised as Africa, but the personal name is unrelated to the geonym.

Notes

1. ^ "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision" United Nations (Department of Economic and Social Affairs, population division)
2. ^ ^{a b} Sayre, April Pulley. (1999) Africa, Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN 0-7613-1367-2.
3. ^ "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision" United Nations (Department of Economic and Social Affairs, population division)
4. ^ "Homo sapiens: University of Utah News Release: Feb. 16, 2005".
5. ^ Visual Geography. "Africa. General info". Retrieved on 2007-11-24.
6. ^ Names of countries, Decret & Fantar, 1981
7. ^ The Berbers, by Geo. Babington Michell,p 161, 1903, Journal of Royal African people book on ligne
8. ^ The Berbers, by Geo. Babington Michell,p 161, 1903, Journal of Royal African people book on ligne
9. ^ Itineraria Phoenicia, Edward Lipinski, Peeters Publishers,p200, 2004,ISBN 9042913444 Book on ligne
10. ^ "Consultos.com etymology".
11. ^ 'Nile Genesis: the opus of Gerald Massey'

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