Is ‘Africa’ a racial slur and should the continent be renamed?

European explorers named the continent, not Africans.& Ipsumpix/Corbis Historical/Getty Images by Jonathan O. Chimakonam, University of Pretoria Should African people be called black – or is the categorising of people by skin colour a racist practice? How about Africa? Is the name of the continent a racial slur because it was chosen by European exploiters and based on the weather rather than the people – and should it be renamed? These are questions that African philosophy scholar Jonathan Okeke Chimakonam considers in a research paper. We asked him what he and his co-author concluded. Who named Africa and what does the name mean? The name Africa was given to the continent by European exploiters, slavers and colonists who first arrived as traders and explorers in the 1300s. “Africa” is believed to be taken from the Greek aphrike, meaning without cold; it translates in Latin to aprica, meaning sunny. You know how it is. Humans habitually give names to strangers or new places they encounter. This is usually to enable them to identify such people or places. But history also shows that such names are often not pleasant because of the unhealthy spirit of competition that naturally characterises such new encounters....