An article on the origins of the names of African countries was recently published in Quartz. It includes a map of the continent in 1885, at the time of the Berlin Conference. Portuguese and Arabic traders and explorers are the origins of some names, European mispronunciation of tribal names are the origins of others. For example, Cameroon owes its name to a Portuguese traveler that came across a river full of shrimp, which he named Rio dos Camaroes, which means “river of shrimp.” Kenya has its origin in the British mispronunciation of the Kikuyu word for what would become known as Mount Kenya, “Kirinyaga,” which means “where God dwells.” Lagos, one of the largest cities in the world, means “lakes” in Portuguese, a reference to the islands in lagoon upon which it is built. And Nigeria was named by Flora Shaw—a Times of London journalist and later the wife of Nigeria's colonial Governor-General Lord Frederick Lugard—for the river Niger.

How African countries received their names is intrinsically interesting, but that Europeans named so many is also a salutary reminder of the origins of these countries. The boundaries of current African states usually have their origins in the Scramble for Africa, when the major European powers divided up the continent among themselves. Precolonial Africa was not organized into the nation-states we see today, with fixed boundaries and a nominal national identity. Rather there were kingdoms and empires with rulers and subjects, and numerous smaller political entities.

These defined blocks of territory, many of which emerged from the Berlin Conference, became the independent nation-states of Africa today. But, for some African thinkers, the nation-state is not a political entity that fits African realities. Hence, some of them prefer to identify with their ethnic or religious groups or as pan-Africans, rather than the nationals of a particular state of European creation.

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Boy
I can say
A lot of things
And I will say them all….

Today I heard
Trans women are mad at
Aretha Franklin’s song
You make me feel like a
Natural woman…

First of all
Why does it offend
Y’all? Why?
Y’all can make your
Own song, right?
One of y’all has a lyricist
In your group and y’all can
Make a song
About
Y’all….
Come up with somethin clever
Instead of

Y’all whinin about that song….

Like for real
You mad at Aretha Franklin
But she passed away
A few years ago
And that song was
Back in the 60s
Trans community didn’t exist
In the public eye…

And this is what happened
When lgtqb activists had to fight
Against the dms by sayin
Homosexuality is not a mental disorder…
Cos

Things like this happened
And I know I’m totally aware
Of that you’re human…
No I’m not transphobic….

This is what I observed
Don’t think about
I got hate speech…
I think y’all are takin a little too far…

And the fact
Y’all are envy at women
Just cos

You feel like you’re in the wrong body
Of an opposite sex,
Doesn’t mean you have to go
And fight against the real women
Who can have babies
And periods….
It’s why homosexuality is a mental illness…

And no I’m speakin facts

Trans women doesn’t like to be called
Biological men….even trans men doesn’t
Like to be called biological women…

Everyday people have to call them
Him her
Now you got trans women goin to
Women public bathrooms women’s sports
Women’s prison

There are too many issues…

Though
We live in a society
Where we can’t talk common sense
Cos it will hurt their feelings…

I’m goin to say this
Everybody is a human
Correct?
Livin in a ass backwards world

And I found this Aretha Franklin song natural woman
Situation is annoyin….

I think homosexuality should go back to diagnosis
Of mental disorder, cos
Look how people behave…
Switchin themselves to opposite sex…

💯✊🏿©️ Kai C. 1-23-23

I totally agree, there's no such thing as a Natural Woman because there is no such thing as an "unnatural woman." tf you saying...