Over 200 million years ago there existed a “Super Continent” or land mass known as GONDWANA, which split into what is now Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica and India. Africa is currently the second largest continent in land mass and population size after Asia.
Archeological finds and anthropological studies confirm that earliest mankind existed in south (South Africa), north (Morocco) and east Africa (Tanzania, Kenya & Ethiopia) over 300 000 years (1) ago, however Scientists estimate that humans have existed in Africa for more than 800 000 years.(2).
The ‘recent African origin’ model proposes that all modern non-African populations are substantially descended from populations of Homo Sapiens that left Africa presumably 800 000 years ago (3).
The leading hypothesis for the evolution of human skin colour proposes that from about 1.2 million years ago to less than 100,000 years ago, archaic humans, including archaic Homo sapiens, were dark-skinned(4).
The oldest indigenous name for Africa according to Kemetic (ancient Egyptian) history is Alkebulan (a)
There are different versions of this name:
Alke-bulan meaning ‘mother of mankind’or ‘garden of eden’ and Alkebu-lan which is supposed to be of Arabic origin and means ‘The ones before’ or literally ‘The indigenous people.’
Unfortunately, there are no credible sources, so much as we would love to have an original indigenous name, there is no evidence linking this apparently ancient and indigenous name to the current continent of ‘Africa’. You may want to check ‘The Real Name of Africa – The Alkebulan Theory’ by Philosophy of a noble Heretic (You Tube) for more information.
The northern region of Africa was known by different names over various periods of time; examples include Libya (b) (after the Libu or Lebu people now known as Berbers) and AEthiopia (c) (meaning ‘burnt face’ and referring to dark skinned people and now the Ethiopian people).
The arrival of the Greeks and Romans brought about various name changes resulting in a confusing history before the current name of Africa was established. Once established, it gradually became the name used for the whole of Africa, not the northern region only.
The spelling of Africa may have originated from the Greek word phrike (d), combined with the negating prefix a-, Aphrike meaning ‘land free of cold or horror.’ However, the most consistent information corroborated by ancient historical writing is that the name came from the Roman Empire who annexed Northern Africa i.e. the area covering Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. They identified the area as Africa terra (feminine form of Africus terra) meaning the land of the North African tribe Afri (e). Afer (singular). Another theory is that the name Africa originated from the Latin adjective ‘Afer’ which means Black or Dark.
All this is may be quite confusing, but the name has now stood the test of time. Regardless of who named what or why, if the name is associated with ‘good things’ then it will not matter how it evolved.
a. Africa Global Radio : Alkebulan
b. Libya: Etymology
c. Aethiopia
d. Phrike
e. Afri
From the beginning of time, African civilizations have had various levels of influence over the world’s development. If Africa has previously been a catalyst for
