What's your favourite African nation?

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I've always liked Egypt, for the pharoahs and pyramids; and watching Roger Milla play football made me quite like Cameroon as well.

I also prefer the old names for African countries, such as Rhodesia instead of Zimbabwe.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 11:17 (nineteen years ago)

why oh why did they ever have to go and change their name eh? ingrates.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 11:21 (nineteen years ago)

search: Botswana - functioning democratic government, not led by obvious cockfarmers.

― The Real Dirty Vicar (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:17 (nineteen years ago)

Mozambique, for the last year or so. Can't remember why though.

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:42 (nineteen years ago)

Kenya - my uncle used to live there and I spent about a month there when I was five = vivid childhood memories.

― Anna (Anna), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:53 (nineteen years ago)

i like the ones with "the" in their names

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:54 (nineteen years ago)

the morocco and whatnot?

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:56 (nineteen years ago)

South The Africa.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:56 (nineteen years ago)

morocco 420 everyday

― SAVE IT FOR THE CAKE LIST YOU CRAZY BROAD (patog27), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

I like the ones that are doctors.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

Burkina Faso (the country formerly known as Upper Volta) and only because I learned in my first year of High School that its capital city delights in the wonderful name of Ouagadougou...

― Stone Monkey (Stone Monkey), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

Namibia, because their cricket team once had four people with the surname Burger in it.

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:03 (nineteen years ago)

Djibouti on name alone.

― database update failed (sanskrit), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:35 (nineteen years ago)

good flag too.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:44 (nineteen years ago)

my favorite african country is that cute one, you know, the one with the funny sounding name, i can't tell most of them apart, but this one is real cute

ARRRGH SRSLY something is wrong with this thread

― dar1a g (daria g), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

Hey, you should be happy if you've even got Americans (I know you're not all) correctly NAMING African countries. Don't be asking too much, now.

― i'll mitya halfway (mitya), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

http://bilder.filmstarts.de/thumbs/film/filme/m/madagascar/Madagascar-Poster9.jpg

Madagascar was also a good place to be during a game of Risk.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:52 (nineteen years ago)

Libya for having a completely green flag.

― New Mark H (New MarkH), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

Sorry, that pic was supposed to be

http://www.cineclub.de/images/2005/07/madagascar-p.jpg

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, bollocks. I give up.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

Nigeria dood, cause, like, Fela. He's the African Bob Marley or something

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:06 (nineteen years ago)

ARRRGH SRSLY something is wrong with this thread

yeah i know!

on a non-patronising note i've always been fascinated by madagascar - the ecosystem seems so very weirdly unique because of its isolation. also dally randriantefy was one of my favourite tennis players before she retired - i was always impressed that she had any success at all coming from madagascar. and even more when, even after she was forced to quit the game for two years because she ran out of money, she still came back after that and made the top 50 in the world (more than any british woman has done within my memory!)

― lex pretend (lex pretend), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

It wasn't my intention to be patronising.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:19 (nineteen years ago)

Fave US state etc.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:23 (nineteen years ago)

west virginia

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

disappointed nobody said "why, the Zulu Nation of course"

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

The lovely Emma B is going with her dad to ZANZIBAR this weekend!

I have never been to Africa.

On the basis of what people I have spoken to have said, I would not want to spend much time these days in the Ivory Coast or Equatorial Guinea.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:28 (nineteen years ago)

Didier Drogba was about five when he left iirc.

― New Mark H (New MarkH), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:29 (nineteen years ago)

Senegal is meant to be nice. Isn't it?

― The Real Dirty Vicar (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:39 (nineteen years ago)

Morocco, because of Paul Bowles.

― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

doctrah becky loved zanzibar -- it is very laid back

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

Burundi. Just cos it's a funny name.

― Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

Hey, you should be happy if you've even got Americans (I know you're not all) correctly NAMING African countries.
funny, i thought it was mostly britishes on this thread..?

i really do want to visit senegal, algeria, morocco, mali..

― dar1a g (daria g), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:34 (nineteen years ago)

zanzibar used to be vrai hip:

http://www.hi-beam.net/fw/fw19/0626.html

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:36 (nineteen years ago)

in addition to those above, i want to visit botswana

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

It's actually part of Tanzania, I think.

xpost: search: Botswana - functioning democratic government, not led by obvious cockfarmers.

-- The Real Dirty Vicar (dirtyvica...), Today. (dirtyvicar)

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

a relative just went to Senegal and loved it and i had a friend from Senegal in HS. Senegal. CJ, preferring a name fashioned after Cecil Rhodes is not patronizing it's just EVIL.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:45 (nineteen years ago)

i was referring to daria's post

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

the govt is a bonus, but the kalahari is the draw

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

CJ, wasn't your brother born in Egypt?

My vote: Morocco.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

Benin

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

Tracer Hand, Botswana is not part of Tanzania. They are entirely separate countries. They do not even border each other.

― The Real Dirty Vicar (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

I feel sorry for Chad, coz it's landlocked.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:07 (nineteen years ago)

Ethiopia, for having all these echoes in their culture of the late-classical mediterranean. I was obsessed for about five minutes with coptic and pre-catholic christianity, and the ethiopian orthodox church is just wild. they've got their own liturgical language, GE'EZ! queen of sheba, etc!! crazy stuff

― geoff (gcannon), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

I thought that Tracerhand was refering to Zanzibar which I believe is a part of Tanzania. Anyway, Tanzania is my answer. I work as part of a collarboration between a Uni in America and one in Dar es Salaam and Tanzanians are incredibly warm and inspiring. Well, at least most of the one's I've met have been.

― ENBB (expatrica), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

I also prefer the old names for African countries

― horseshoe (horseshoe), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:27 (nineteen years ago)

Before I heard it spoken I thought Tanzania was pronounced tan-zane-ee-ur. I still think it should be.

― Johnney B English (stigoftdump), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:29 (nineteen years ago)

it was nicer when the sun never set on the British empire, etc.

― horseshoe (horseshoe), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:29 (nineteen years ago)

Egypt, 'cuz it's the only African Nation I have fond memories of. It was hot. And sandy. Circa noon all the cabdrivers slept in their cabs in circles around the public fountains.

In a bazaar, I saw a firebreather who smelled like kerosene. He was thin, dark and oily, as if made of copper. Perfectly round beads of sweat stood out on his skin like in a sports drink ad. He was both fascinating and profoundly terrifying.

Later, I wandered between the tables for a while. Old women sold carpets in the street while their men remained indoors, playing backgammon and eating pistachio nuts, barely visible through the smoke. I hesitated at one particular doorway and looked in. A leathery old man smiled and laughed at me, sucking at a hookah. I couldn't understand a word he said.

Hesitating at the threshhold, I noticed that the doorway was not even and regular like those in Europe. It bowed out a little on either side, somewhat like parentheses. { } My hand was resting on the bowed-out part, and I realized that the door had once been even, but that centuries of passing, hesitating hands had worn a little divot into each side. The world seemed impossible, and again I ran away.

― Adam Beales (Pye Poudre), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

My brother was indeed born in Egypt, Michael - Ismailia, actually.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

I also prefer the old names for African countries

Just to be a little bit benefit-of-the-doubt about this ... well, I dunno about "prefer," but I guess I can imagine how people in the west might find the old colonial names kinda quaint, given that our main exposure to them comes from quaint 1950s pop culture like adventure stories and Looney Tunes and the theme song from the Patty Duke Show. Morally/politically, of course, not so much. (Plus technically the current names are the old names, or at least some re-negotiation of what people called the land before people like Rhodes came along and said "I can't pronounce that, and besides, this is MY country!")

Obviously I'd have to say Ethiopia. But if I got a free trip to any non-Ethiopian African nation, I'd probably be thinking about Senegal, Ghana, Madagascar, Uganda, Kenya, or Mali.

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 21:56 (nineteen years ago)

I've only ever been to Morocco, so that has to win by default. My little brother highly recommends the scenery in South Africa around the Cape Town/Cape of Good Hope, and I hope to go and see for myself some day.

(also, seriously, someone who believes it to be so, why is this thread patronising?)

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

From a completely simplified Epcot point-of-view:

KENYA - for the animals.
EGYPT - for the pyramids.
MOROCCO - for the fezzes.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 22:53 (nineteen years ago)

As to African country names, present day Ghana isn't anywhere near the center of the Ghanian empire and Mali doesn't correspond super well to the homelands of the Malian empire - just saying.

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 23:00 (nineteen years ago)

I took "old names" to mean colonial names, since the example cited was Rhodesia.

― horseshoe (horseshoe), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, that made me cringe a little, too.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 9 January 2007 23:11 (nineteen years ago)

I like Dasani - because it's good that I buy my water from there.

― aimurchie (aimurchie), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 00:41 (nineteen years ago)

only been to Ghana so it gets my vote. hi-life, friendliest people and a street food delicacy they call killy-willy made from spiced bananas.

― boyant (Boyant), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 01:44 (nineteen years ago)

nigeria gets a bad rap b/c of the 419 scam -- and the perception of lawlessness and corruption -- but every nigerian that i have ever known has always been extremely kind, friendly, and totally upright in every sense of the word. so i guess i'd vote for nigeria, on that basis.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 01:54 (nineteen years ago)

Central African Republic, because of its crap name.

Or Nigeria because the Nigerian dude I work with is nice.

― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 02:02 (nineteen years ago)

What about Central African Republic?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 02:03 (nineteen years ago)

What about Central African Republic?

emperor bokassa!

http://www.dictatorofthemonth.com/Bokassa/bokassa_tr.jpeg

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 02:09 (nineteen years ago)

well that would be the ethiopia now for me

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 02:12 (nineteen years ago)

ihttp://www.sujaro.com/i_030bronzes/mywin.htm

― boyant (Boyant), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 02:15 (nineteen years ago)

I'll shoot for South Africa now that Tokyo Sexwale is on the scene:

http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n02_09012007.htm

― scrimhaw1837 (son_of_scrimshaw), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 02:41 (nineteen years ago)

I'm biased but even if I wasn't I'd still say Ethiopia cause they have the most beautiful women I've ever seen. Proof 1: Mom :)

I've been to Ivory Coast and Ghana a few times and I've always had a great time there.

― Lovelace (Lovelace), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 13:01 (nineteen years ago)

Plus technically the current names are the old names

When the Belgian Congo became independent, it replaced an African word (Congo) with a Portuguese one (Zaire). Which was a bit mental, though not the least mental thing about that unfortunate country. Since then it has gone back to the African name.

It would be great if ALL African countries changed their name to Congo.

― The Real Dirty Vicar (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 13:15 (nineteen years ago)

the current names = real names is a red herring but nonetheless, hard to prefer colonial names.

nabisco's

I can imagine how people in the west might find the old colonial names kinda quaint, given that our main exposure to them comes from quaint 1950s pop culture like adventure stories and Looney Tunes and the theme song from the Patty Duke Show

is probably a bit US-centric!

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 13:19 (nineteen years ago)

It would be great if ALL African countries changed their name to Congo.

That would indeed be natty.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 13:25 (nineteen years ago)

US-centric and fairly age-specific, too, Enrique -- only for those of an age to pick up stray old bits of pop culture where those colonial names would sound almost like imaginary places.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/ralimage/map30iaf.jpg

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:17 (nineteen years ago)

Congo has always seemed the most evocative name due to countless pop cult refs. I like Zaire as a word at least.

― reverto levidensis (blueski), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:18 (nineteen years ago)

my dad calls it 'keenya', and he was brought up (born?) there, so is he right?

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

"Anglo-Egyptian Sudan" is particularly repulsive in its mixture of condescension and manipulativeness.

Did the U.S. ever act as a guarantor of Liberia's independance?

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

My parents used to call it "keenya" too. The pronunciation was changed to "kenya" on its independence, after Jomo Kenyatta.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 16:24 (nineteen years ago)

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