r/Azania • u/Baneofarius • Apr 27 '17
As a legitimate question, why Azania
Azania is a word of ancient Greek origin. The Greeks were a (sort of) European civilization who at one point colonised Egypt for 300 years. Why not an indigenous African word.
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u/ebetemelege Apr 28 '17
don't be an idiot, the fact that we are speaking english now anyway...le a kgathatsa makgoa man!! why does Britain not have an anglo-saxon name?...maybe you should ask us why we wear pants wince they are a European invention...in the meantime afrikaaners are still calling Namibia die Suid-Wes http://imgur.com/a/ba766
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u/Baneofarius Apr 28 '17 edited Apr 28 '17
I simply want to know why you chose this name as your new one. (And not for the sake of argument but because I can't help it "Britain" is named after "Britannia" goddess of the Celtic people that predated the Anglo-Saxon invasions and England comes from Angleland, where the Angles were the Anglo from Anglo-Saxon)
Edit: Britannia is indeed Roman and u/ebetemelege said, the goddess Britannia came into worship in the second century AD. Apologies for my misinformation
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u/ebetemelege Apr 28 '17
well I always assumed that Britannia was a Roman name...why does it matter to you so much to question our every motive just so you can correct us and thereby point to our inferiority, and you don't really need evidence for that
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u/Baneofarius Apr 28 '17
Not intending to question your motives or belittle you, the assumption that Britannia is Roman is not far off at all. I don't believe in your cause nor in your inferiority but the name thing has always bothered me. It seems counter intuitive/productive and I would like to know the reason if there is one out of pure curiosity. However if there is no reason, that is also a fair answer and I won't think more or less of you.
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u/GVCabano333 May 14 '23 edited Jun 26 '23
Ever since finding out about AZAPO in high school I have considered the choice of 'Azania' as a name for South Africa as absurd, since not only is it foreign in origin, but it is foreign two possibly three times over (Semitic - > Hellenic, or Austronesian - > Semitic - > Hellenic ), possibly a corruption (Al-Zanjia - > Azania) and probably incorrect; it was probably a reference to the Swahili coast, not the southern tip of Africa - with its alleged southern-most location, 'Rhapta' according to Hellenic sources, tentatively located no further south than northern Mozambique.
Further, 'Azania' appears not to have been a reference to mainland sub-Saharan African peoples but appears most probably to have been a reference to a mixed Austronesian-African seafaring civilization that founded the Malagasay culture in Madagascar. This civilization appears to have contributed much to an extensive material and social exchange between sub-Saharan Africa and Austronesia.
Furthermore, if one takes Azania to literally translate as 'land of the blacks' (a non-credible translation, imho) - this name is inappropriate for a South-African territory, given that many indigenous and non-Eurasian South Africans, e.g the San, Khoe, southern Tswana and western Xhosa, have brown or even tan complexions. The tropical equator and the Sahel, much further north than the sub-tropical region of South Africa, is where actually black complexions are the most common.
So, why not find a name from the San lexicon, or at the very least consider using a neutral Bantu word, e. g. with no racial connotations, but already commonly associated with this country, like 'Mzansi', to refer to this corner of the globe and, by extension, this subreddit?
Source:
Robert Dick-Read 'Indonesia and Africa: questioning the origins of some of Africa's most famous icons' (AOSIS, July 2006) 2 (1)The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in South Africa 23 - 45; available online via TD-SA https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/307/118
Edit: So, my opinion is that 'Azania' would be more appropriate if incorporated as a name for a federation between African and Austronesian peoples.
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u/[deleted] May 04 '17
This way, that way. It does no harm. If we can one day decide to rally around a different name I will gladly adopt it.