At the beginning of the article, I want to test everyone first. Which of the two pictures released below was taken in Africa?
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
published answer: are all!
Although these two pictures look very different, they are indeed taken in Africa. Picture 1 is in Zimbabwe and Picture 2 is in Algeria. At this time, some friends may suddenly wake up: Yes, Algeria is also from Africa.
Yes, when you mention Africa, people subconsciously think of Africa like Figure 1, but Figure 2 here is always associated with the Middle East, West Asia, and Arab countries.
Algeria, the remains of Jamila
When people see a map of the African continent, they usually assume that this is a complete continent. People with better geography can tell There are 54 countries on this continent, and there is no boundary between North Africa and the rest of the African continent.
However, when people talk about Africa, they always subconsciously remove the five countries of North Africa. ( The unity of North Africa mentioned in this article refers to five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt ) instead of being part of Africa.
Why is this happening? The editor sorted out some common remarks about North Africa, and summed them up as the following statements:
1. Different races, North Africans are white.
2. North Africa is an Arab, speaks Arabic and believes in Islam.
3. North Africa has no connection with sub-Saharan Africa.
Okay, let me take you to look at these in turn. The races are different. North Africans are not blacks. Before talking about this, please take a look at a picture:
This is a distribution map of the world’s three major races. Except for Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, South America, and Oceania are actually made up of two or more races.
People would not say that India is not Asian because Indians and East Asians have different skin colors, nor would they say that the Eskimos in northern Canada are not Americans. Therefore, the view that North Africa is not regarded as Africa is simply untenable because of different races.
North Africa are all Arabs who speak Arabic and believe in Islam.
Baidu Encyclopedia, Berber people
Most of the residents of North Africa have white skin, obvious facial features, big eyes, big nose, and black hair, which can easily be roughly classified as Arab people. This understanding is so wrong! As the most populous and most widely distributed race in the world, whites still have detailed distinctions within them. Although whites in North Africa look a bit like Arabs, they are mainly based on 柏柏尔人 .
Scientists infer through DNA technology testing that the vast majority of the current residents in North Africa are Berbers, while the descendants of Arabs are less than 4%. Therefore, it is quite wrong to say that North Africans are Arabs.
We are not the same
Although they are not Arabs, there is nothing wrong with speaking Arabic. Indeed, the official languages of the five North African countries are all Arabic.
The Arabs invaded North Africa in the 7th century, colonized part of the African continent, assimilated the local language with Arabic, and brought Islam.
However, it is ridiculous to exclude North Africa from the African continent based on only one language and one religious belief.
Distribution map of main African languages
In fact, most of the official languages of African countries do not belong to the native African language system. For example, Cameroon’s official language is French, and no one will mistake Cameroon for a part of France; Angola speaks Portuguese, and no one will confuse Angola with Portugal.
Take Arabic as an example. In Africa, the countries that speak Arabic are not only the five countries in North Africa, but also Sudan, Mauritania, and Somalia. Why should the five North African countries be regarded as Arab countries?
Proportion of major religions in Africa, blue Christianity, green Islam
The same reason, it is unreasonable to take religion as an example.
In the 7th century AD, Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula swept across North Africa and converted the people there to Islam. Today, most Africans in North and West Africa are Muslims and share a culture based on the Islamic faith. Every town has at least one mosque where devotees pray.
Currently, 47% of people in Africa believe in Islam, which is basically the same as Christianity. Senegal and Niger are also Muslim countries. Even in Tanzania and eastern Ethiopia, there are a large number of Muslims, but people always accept them as African countries. So how can we exclude North Africa for the same reason?
Morocco, Hassan II Mosque
North Africa has no connection with sub-Saharan Africa. Looking through the modern history of the world carefully, it is not difficult to see that this view is also wrong.
In the historical process of the 20th century, the fate of North Africa and other African countries are closely linked. These African countries first fought side by side during the Second World War to fight against fascism. Many Tanzanian and Kenyan soldiers were sent to the North African battlefield to fight against the German and Italian armies, helping Britain and France defeat the Axis Alliance, leaving a chapter of friendship for the collective memory of these countries. After that, the African brothers came together in the anti-colonial war of independence, and they defeated the colonists of their own country one after another around 1960 and gained independence.
North African battlefield during World War II
On May 22~26, 1963, 31 independent African countries held a summit in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The meeting passed the Charter of the Organization of African Unity on May 25 and decided to establish the Organization of African Unity. Among the 31 African countries present, there are five North African countries. It can be said that these five countries have shown that they are and will always be a part of Africa with practical actions.
In July 2002, the Organization of African Unity was reorganized in South Africa and officially became the "African Union". North Africa has always been a core member of the African Union. On March 21, 2018, 44 African countries met in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and signed an agreement to establish an African Continental Free Trade Area, including the five North African countries.
Perhaps, in the past, the Sahara Desert on the African continent temporarily blocked the exchanges between North Africa and other African countries, but from the perspective of modern history, North African countries have been Play an active role in African affairs. Therefore, it is not true to say that North Africa has no connection with sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2015, the famous Moroccan female writer Laila Lalami issued a Twitter statement when she was nominated for the Booker Prize for Literature: " I am African. This is why I am often exposed to the outside world. I refuse the status, but I will always insist on "."
This message speaks the voice of many people in North Africa.
Laila Lalami
Africa is an inclusive continent, nurturing 1.2 billion people, 54 countries and regions, and thousands of languages in circulation. Among them, everyone will definitely have differences, and it is these differences that make the sentence "This is Africa." more colorful. It is not only wrong to simply classify the five North African countries with complex cultures and long histories as "Arab countries," or to classify people based solely on skin color. This approach is not only wrong, but also damages the North African people's feelings and sense of identity.
Regardless of skin tone, language, or religion, the five countries of North Africa will always be part of the African continent.
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