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Africa 101 |
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Africa 101 |
Ethiopia in History.
Anthropologists believe that East Africa's Great
Rift Valley is the site of humankind's
origins. (The valley traverses Ethiopia from southwest
to northeast.)
Linguists postulate that the original home of the
Afro-Asiatic cluster of languages was somewhere in northeastern
Africa, possibly in the area between the Nile River and the Red
Sea in modern Sudan.
The first language to separate seems to have been
Omotic, at a date sometime after 13,000 BC Omotic speakers moved
southward into the central and southwestern highlands of Ethiopia,
followed at some subsequent time by Cushitic speakers, who settled
in territories in the northern Horn of Africa, including the northern
highlands of Ethiopia. The last language to separate was Semitic,
which split from Berber and ancient Egyptian, two other Afro-Asiatic
languages, and migrated eastward into far southwestern Asia.
ref.: http://rs6.loc.gov:80/frd/cs/et_01_01.html
Egypt is a part of Africa.
Much as some would try to extricate Egypt from Africa
and make it part of the Middle East, Egypt is very much situated
inside the African continent.
Also, the Nile River flows through half of Africa before entering the Mediterranean at its Delta at Alexandria.
Colonial Africa.
At the peak of European colonization, the sun never
set on the British Empire.
Africa was carved up by England, Portugal, France, Belgian, Italy, and others.
The modern day map was drawn by Europeans. One by
one the European powers left African government, but maintained
strong economic ties to African resources.
Anecdotal History
"Egyptian Pharaohs were left undisturbed for thousand
of years. Then they were moved to the British Museum."
"In Swaziland the British spent 100 years and built
one road and nothing much else." A Swazi commenting on the scary
Road from Manzini to Mbabane that has a death count sign.
"Africa was a pawn in the games between the Superpowers,
the USA, the Soviet Union, and China."
"The sea route around Cape Town, elevated in importance
with the 1967 closure of the Suez Canal, was used as an excuse why the West should turn a blind
eye on Apartheid."
"Africa was one of the training grounds for military
weapons, especially landmines."
"AT&T had an ape in its depiction of a long distance
phone link to Africa, while humans were depicted handling the
links to the other continents."
Email:Oliver Lawrence
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