AFRICAN TERMS
Afar
Afar is the name that people of the Northeast use themselves. In the Amhara language they are called Adal; Arabs call them Danakil (Dankali); Oromo refer to them as Adali and neighboring Somali groups use the term Odali. In Tigrayan they are the Teltal. Afar is a more or less homogenous ethnic group. They are Muslims and have always 'enjoyed' a wild reputation, through stories by Arab and European imperialist, travelers and traders. There are many Afar groups, but all consider themselves Afars. All groups speak the Afar language known as Afar-Af, except for the Irob group of the North, who speak Saho. Other groups are the Ankala, the Adhali and the Able (near Rarahita), the Uluhto, Ayrolasso, and Asabbakari, the Modhito (near Awsa), the Dammohoyta, and the Seka noblemen.
Africa
Indigenous ancient Africa was a "multi-ethnic" land (these multi-ethnic indigenous peoples are now called "Black", english word, by modern Europeans). But now has many admixtures or hybridizations of Asian and Indo-European descent (some parts of modern Africa). There are still many indigenous African prototypes living throughout the continent and outside of the continent.
African
The worlds oldest inhabitants. Creators of the world's first civilizations. The word "indigenous" means "the original" or "the first". It describe "the original" peoples who live in Africa, the old inhabitants (called "Black", english word, by modern Europeans), (not newcomers, or invaders). Also including the prototypical peoples of the African ancient and modern diaspora (African ancestry or descent). Originally inhabiting areas of tropical rain forestation, also desert dwellings.
African Languages
Consisting of four language families: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan, and Niger-Congo. A language family is defined as a group of related languages that derive from a common origin, and subdivided into branches composed of more closely related languages
Africanist
Admirer and specialist in African affairs, cultures, or languages.
Barbarian
The word barbarian comes from the Greek word "bar-bar," for someone who stutters, is unintelligible, or does not speak Greek. The Greeks, like most ancient peoples, did not attribute much meaning to physical appearance. In ancient Greece, language was the difference that mattered, because it indicated who was not Greek. Some historians believe that the first to be labeled barbarian were the Scythians of circa 500 B.C., who lived northeast of the Black Sea and were very fair skinned. Ideas of so-called race did not exist during antiquity.
Middle East
The term Middle East (a British imperialist created term) is not and cannot be used in regards to science or ancient African history. The people today in the corner of northeast Africa and western Asia are the most admixed in the world.
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga, (name changed from Eastern Transvaal in 24 August 1995), is a province in South Africa. The name means "the place where the sun rises". Mpumalanga lies in the east of South Africa, north of KwaZulu-Natal and bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It occupies 6.5% of the country's land. In the north it borders with Limpopo and in the east is Free State and Gauteng provinces. The capital is Nelspruit.
The Sahara
The world�s largest desert, located in northern Africa from the Arabic name Al-Sahra meaning �the desert� covers a landmass larger than the United States. Thousands of years ago it was a fertile and inhabitable region until drought forced migration.
The Sahel
The region of poor and intermittent rains south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. 2. A strong dust-bearing desert wind in Morocco.

Home to half of the continent's animal species, Africa's vast rainforests are falling silent. Deforestation, road construction and slash-and-burn farming have already wiped out roughly 90 percent of the West Africa's rainforests. Now, the rainforests of Central Africa's Congo Basin, the second largest in the world after the Amazon, have come under the axe, too.

For centuries, only scattered groups of native hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking subsistence farmers disturbed the forest realm. Then, in the 19th century, European loggers and plantation owners moved in. One of the worst cases of rainforest exploitation took place in the Belgian colony of Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) where thousands of forced laborers died in the scramble to harvest wild rubber.

Today, the governments of rainforest countries are now torn between the need to protect their endangered rainforests and the need for the money, roads and jobs that foreign logging companies bring in. Growing populations, swollen by war refugees, are razing rainforest to make way for farm land; poachers are picking off chimpanzees and gorillas to sell to the profitable bushmeat trade. Will the Congo Basin follow the fate of West Africa? Maybe not. In 1999, the six countries of the Congo Basin -- Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea -- pledged to harmonize forestry laws and form a joint watchdog system to track the effects of logging and poaching. One year later, they took the first step toward putting that pledge into action: the creation of the tri-national Sangha Park, a reserve that will cover more than one million hectares of rainforest in Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo.

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