African Union summits rarely escape a Muammar Gaddafi lecture on his pet project: the United States of Africa. The Libyan leader’s harping on the need for common government is derided by some as a plot for hegemony. The idea of continental unity, though, is not new and neither is the cynicism.

In a sense, Gaddafi is unwittingly summoning us to our etymological roots. The original meaning of the word “Africa” may be unclear, but, in ancient times, it referred only to the north coast of the continent, replacing the Greek word "Libya," to refer to the land of the Berbers.

It only encompassed the whole continent from the end of the first century BC. As it did so, it was slowly divorced from North Africa and soon confined to the region that, in less politically correct times, was also called Black Africa. According to Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the conflation of Africa with sub-Saharan Africa “ultimately offer[ed]a racialised view of Africa as the ‘black’ continent... from which North Africa and especially Egypt [was] excised and attached to Europe.”

“Africa” no longer described a geographical… ( Read on! )

Tom Browne and Tonni Smith make it do something in 1980’s Funkin’ For Jamaica.

For those of you so inclined, catch the real thing here

A very interesting piece by Mike Johnston of the Online Photographer comparing Time Magazine circa 1968 with Time Magazine today.

He hits the nail on the head on the reasons I stopped reading Time/Newsweek and started (sorta) reading The Economist (albeit online).

He also posted another piece that is definitely worth the price of admission, Never meet your heroes, a take on why people important to you never turn out just the way your expected.

AOB:

+ Snow White and Prince Charming four years on.

+ The Onion seems almost prescient in their work: they post this piece on The Supreme… ( Read on! )

Have come up across some gems recently that I need to share (and yes I should get back to blogging myself, I know, I know).

- Mo’dernity Mo’problems

- Solo Kinshasa

- This is Africa