WHAT IS AFRICA?

The term Africa is used very loosely. Africa is a continent and not a nation state. The cultures and languages within the continent are very numerous and varied. So much so that high level recommendations have surfaced re dividing the continent (possibly for the purpose of congealing component parts into unified nations) into the section north of the Sahara (which is largely Arab) and the section south of it (which is largely Christian). But all of that suggests that the definition is up for grabs; it is mutable, not fixed. Some have thought that the definition and well being of “Black Africa” will determine how Black Americans see themselves and how they are regarded in the US.