This picture is from a presentation I gave at the Christmas Party of the Mountain Club of Maryland. The audience had little knowledge of Africa, but were totally engaged, and excited to learn about this unique continent. Here I am showing them how young modern-day Africa is with a map of the dates of independence from European colonialism/imperialism. The notable exception of course is Ethiopia that was never colonized, having defeated the Italian army on the battle field at Adwa on March 1, 1896. It is more than ironic that the continent from which Homo Sapiens-Sapiens migrated to the rest of the planet approximately 100,000 years ago, has the youngest nations. My courses on African history investigate this paradox.
Confused and confusing! Africa became the name of newly parceled countries in the recent two centuries. Prior to that, according to the Bible as an historic evidence, Jeremiah authored a claim that all colored people are Ethiopians, 2700 years ago. So it’s simply what European colonial power started.
There are reports of a Nubian culture existing thousands of years earlier on the African continent.
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