By Graham Bell –
AMONG several theories, the name “Africa” is said to have originated from the Phoenician word “afer”, meaning dust. Not a very auspicious nominal beginning (circa 1000 BC) for the planet’s second-largest continent.
More recently, in the 19th century, explorers such as Henry Morton Stanley referred to Africa as the “Dark Continent” because of its mysteriousness to Europeans.
Joseph Conrad immortalised the European concept of Africa’s impenetrability in The Heart of Darkness.
Another famous explorer, David Livingstone, “discovered” the Victoria Falls and other landmarks in central Africa in the 1850s, with little credit given to Arab traders and travellers who had arrived centuries before, to say nothing of local residents who dated back to the beginning of human time. Even now people casually talk of “visiting Africa”, overlooking that this huge mass of land is home to more than 50 countries of vast diversity, spanning both sides of the equator.
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