How Did Each African Country Get Its Name 

*Did I make any mistakes in any country names meanings or origins?*

African coast: *exists* Portugal: It's free real estate

As a South African, I'm anticipating a very short section of this video.

Africa is so often overlooked, it's a continent rich in culture & history. Enjoyed your video.

The name difference between Niger and Nigeria is a linguistic one. Niger was a French colony and has a French name. Nigeria was English and has an English name. Both are in reference to the Niger river. This is similar to Arkansas and Kansas in the United States. A Native American tribe called the Kansa lived in the area. The French area was called Arkansas as a reference to the Kansa tribe. The same goes for Kansas as it also references the Kansa tribe but this time in an English literation.

Glad to know why South Africa is called South Africa, very helpful.

We keep ponting fingers at the French and the British, but damn the Portuguese had their little fun too. From Cabo Verde aaaall the way to Japan.

For Sierra Leone, I can explain why it’s named “Lion mountain” my parents are both from Sierra Leone and my mom told me that they were taught that when the Portuguese were sailing to Sierra Leone, it was storming and the storms were so loud that it sounded like a lion, and the country itself is almost like a mountain, and that’s how they got “Lion mountain” not sure if this is actually true or not but that’s what my Sierra Leonean mom told me lol

Japan: land of the rising sun Morocco: land of the setting sun

You definitively should do this type of videos with flags of every country

I love this! I'm from Kenya and while you're right about the origin of the name, I should point out that in Gîkûyû, the language spoken by the Agîkûyû, 'nyaga' or 'manyaga' also refers to blotches/patches. So that would explain why the mountain and the ostrich share a name... They're both primarily black with white blotches. The mountain with blotches(snow) and the bird with blotches(white parts of an ostrich).

Rwanda comes from a local language verb: "Kwanda". This verb literally means: "To expand". I'd try to explain Rwanda as meaning the expanding country and this was long given to the territory by the Ancestors who wanted to mean that the country was geographically expanding as they were fighting.

FYI, Egypt's native Arabic name is 'Misr', which is the country's name in the Quran, but Egyptians often use 'Masr' for no real reason. Misr in Arabic has 3 meanings: The first is literally just that Misr means "country", the second is that Misr means "fortress", the third is that Misr means "protected", the last 2 refer to Egypt's natural protective borders. As such the full name can be "Misr Al Mahrosa" (Egypt the Protected). Edit: I also discovered that there could be a 4th reason, Misr can also come from Mizraim, who was a descendant of Ham, the son of Noah. Mizraim is also Egypt's Hebrew name.

Actually, it is not surprising that a lot of names come from Portuguese language, Portuguese people were the first to make maps of Africa written in the language, to be dominant towards the other European powers.

Monrovia: Land of the Monroes

For Kenya, it was actually "Kirinyaga" but the explorers heard "Kenya".

Slightly disappointed that Chad isn’t “Land of alpha males.”

19:53 Rwanda means a land that enlarges. It comes from the word “kwanda” which means “to enlarge” in Kinyarwanda. This is likely because the Kings of Rwanda expanded the kingdom greatly some centuries back

Your Video is very well done! Good job on that and also to esconder tão bem seu sotaque 🙌🏾

For Guinea there is another version, the name comes from the Berbers of the Sahara, who used the expression Akal-n-Iguinaouen ("the country of the Blacks") to refer to sub-Saharan Africa. Also a tradition says that the word comes from Sousou, one of the languages of the country. To Portuguese sailors who asked them the name of the place where they landed, some coastal women, understanding the question wrongly, answered that they were women (djine).

Uganda is the Swahili word for Buganda which is the kingdom after which the country was named. The word comes from “abantu ab’oluganda” meaning people in a brotherhood. (Oluganda is a brotherhood).

Hey, General Knowledge, I'm pretty sure you're portuguese. It's good to see high quality content on youtube, from a compatriot.

Very interesting video ! Thank you !

Very informative. Thank you.

Zimbabwe refers to Great Zimbabwe an ancient ruined city in the country not the fact that the locals live in houses of stone. Colonial rulers (headed by Cecil Rhodes) would not believe that Africans could build such structures but they did!

My 8th grade classmates : "So how do you divide Africa?" Classmates : "The North is Egypt, so all of the rest must be South Africa."

Well done with the research🔥

Greeting from CHICAGO, IL, USA! Thank you for your very informative and enlightening content! ANKH-ASE!

Fun fact: jaguars don't live in Africa.

Fun fact: There are more Tswana people living in South Africa, than there are in Botswana. Same goes with the Sotho people.

this is well expounded.I enjoyed the lesson.👏

I've learned quite alot,,thank you sir.

"ⴰⵣⵓⵍ ⵙⴰⴳ ⵜⴰⵎⵓⵔⵜ ⵏ ⴰⵎⵓⵔⵢⴰⴽⵓⵛ"🇲🇦✌ Greetings from the kingdom of the west /sunset 🇲🇦 the kingdom of al-maghreb/Amuryakoch (Morocco) 🇲🇦😎💪

Somalia 🇸🇴 is named after its ethnic SOMALI people who speak Somali language. "Soo-maal" literally meaning go and milk. Also the ancestor of many Somali tribes is called Samaale, which can also be a possible origin. This part of "Arabs giving the name" is completely WRONG and very OFFENSIVE !!!. We were called ethnic Somalis for 6000 years.

I love every single video you produce man ! No bias, completely honest, relatable commentary, and so on, keep up the great work and thank you for educating me… at times when I see facts about history it always seems you are speaking complete truth with in depth research, thanks again

Very good video and informative. @16:40 about Eritrea, you skipped an important point. Eritrea used to be called Midri Bahri, the land of the sea before the Italians came and changed its name. Midri Bahri is a kingdom governed by elected people called Bahri Negassi, meaning King of the Sea. It would serve well if you add this information. Thank you.

Gr8 work!👏👏👏

When I lived in Sierra Leone they told us that the Lion part came from the roar of thunder which the Portuguese said sounded like Lions. Which isn’t surprising as half the year the country experiences thunder and rain storms frequently.

Shoutout from South Africa ❤

Thank you!

why is he allergic to the word COLONIZATION cause exploration isn't it

we say the " Amazigh People " not berber when we speak about the local and the native people of north africa

So basically, almost all the name came from either Arabic, indigenous languages or European colonist. Most referring to the geographical feature.

Ugandan here! The name comes from the Buganda Kingdom as mentioned. And the word "Buganda" translates to "Bundles", which was christened by the first King, Kintu. He urged his people to stick together like "bundles", and hence gave rise to the Kingdom's name and later upon independence from the British, the country's name, Uganda.

Love the background Music. I Heard some J F Sousa, and USAF hymm, USMC hymm, and others. Good video!

For Sierra Leone 🇸🇱, it was called Lion Mountain because when the Portuguese arrived it was during the rainy season and the thunder rumbling up the mountains sounded like a lion roaring. Also worth knowing that there were/are no lions in Sierra Leone. Great video all the same.

I hope one day to see Africa free from all sort of European colonisation and properly flourish as it deserves too 🙌🏼

Nice one !

Nailed it. Nice

Many thanks for all your hard work making this video.

Wow, I had forgotten how many of the old names were still in use when I was in high school-Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Upper Volta, etc.

Great video! Morrocco is more accurately described with sunset than west, bc the word west literally/grammatically means place of sunset in Arabic. So morrocco being called Maghreb means the same thing. Also the pronunciation of Sahara was transliterated incorrectly but that’s a common mistake.

Good work Bro.

Great job as usual !

very good interesting video. Somalia as you said Samaale unchanged since record it refers every Somali even if they lived unknown location kk. Eritrea is old name as well not changed at all. Thanks.

WOW learned a lot thanks

Great vid

Africa: *exists* Arabs: *I have a name for you*

Rwanda comes from the Rwandan word "Kwanda" which means expention. Rwanda existed before colonization and was founded as Gasabo. As Gasabo expended its territory through conquest, it became uRwanda rwa Gasabo (Gasabo's expention). Later Gasabo was dropped and the country was just called Rwanda. A fun fact, Rwandans to this day refer to Rwanda as Urwa Gasabo (Gasabo's own).

Fantastic!

Good job

Before this I never realized that the oldest and newest countries share a border.

The origin of the word(name) ”Ethiopia” and it’s meaning The word “Ethiopia” is derived from the ancient Sabaean language “Enkopazion” and over time when the Geez language became widely spoken in Ethiopia, it became known as ‘’Etyopgion’’, et-means ‘’Gift’’ ,yop-means ‘’Yellow Gold, Dimond’’, Gion -means ‘’River’’ together it gives a meaning Gion’s gift of gold. . The name of Ethiopia was different during different ruling periods of the ancient emperors. So ethiopia was first called Cush, named after the grandson of Noah cush(the son of Ham). Next, Ethiopian was called Abyssinia named after Nimrod’s son Abis (Cush’s grandson). Then, in the time of Sabanoba, it was also called “Nubia”, the term sabanoba is used because there are two kings named Saba in Noah’s lineage, the first of whom was Noah’s grandson Cush (son of Ham) which is called saba the 1st or saba noba. The second saba is called saba Sheba, which is the son of Joktan, who is the son of Ham’s brother Shem, and they call him Sheba the second, or “Sabashaba.” Then she was named Ethiopia after king Ethiopis the 1st who was one of the Agazian tribe of the shem people that came to Ethiopia. Once again, when the Habesa tribe (those who came to northern Ethiopia from western Yemen) came to Ethiopia. The Sabaean alphabet’’sa’’ in the Arabic alphabet is ‘’sha’’ and the people were called ‘’habesha’’ However, the word Habesha became popular in Ethiopia later in the Axumite period. The first written form of the word Habesha in the horn of Africa was found in the 4th century during the reign of King Izana. Punt, Nubia, Habesha, Abyssinia, Cush are all mentioned in various books by different historians reffering to Ethiopians and the Ethiopian Empire. What is the origin of Ethiopia’s first name? Despite the fact that Ethiopia is called by different writers by different pronunciations and names, most prominently Ethiopia is being called “Cush” in the Torah. After this, when 70 scholars jointly translated the old testament from Hebrew into Syriac (Greek) in 282 BC., “Cush” was translated to (“Aito Pia” or “Aithio - Pia”), as the name of a tribe which is used to refer to the whole country south of Egypt. When they translated this into Geez, they wrote the word just as it was translated “Ethiopia” and again when it was translated from Geez to Amharic, they only took the previous word without knowing the definition and called the country “Ethiopia” and the people “Ethiopians.”

Vvery informative ❤

Greetings from Yemen to our neighbors in east africa 👋🏽

1:47 it can also be derived from the zirid dynasty that ruled north Africa and founded the city of Alger , the Berbers used to add the latter d to the names of the rulers soo zirid became dzirid and by time it became dziri which how the people of surrounding countries call the Algerians(dziri'a) its the Ottoman turks that called it dzaier then the Europeans called it Alger then it became the name of the whole country

So much research was done to make this video. SALUD! 🇿🇼

This history documentation and great lesson makes a lot of sense and most Afrikaan children are not taught of this exact hidtory and it's sad but thanks for awakening history man. Peace!✌🏾👏🏿

The name Buganda (literally, "land/kingdom of the Baganda/Ganda people") can possibly be traced to the Luganda word for "relatives": "ab'oluganda". It possibly developed as a reference to the brotherhood amongst the clans, sub-clans and the people of Buganda from which the Kiswahili name Uganda was derived.

funny things Morocco's name before the Islamic conquest was Mauritania which means the land of the moors. And surprisingly the french give that name to what is now the republic of Mauritania instead of keeping its original name changuitti

Are you Portuguese? Because your pronunciation in Portuguese names were very good!

Great video. I went all the way to the end. A slight correction on Tanzania.. yes it comes from the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.. however the word “Tanganyika” comes from the Babembe tribe of Congo..in the 1400s the Babembe people baptised the Local lake “Etanga ya ni’ah” which means “a deep pool of water” in the Bembe language. later this was fashioned to “Tanganyika” referring to lake Tanganyika. The surrounding region was then called Tanganyika which then formed a union with the Island of Zanzibar to become Tanzania.

Eu gostaria de dizer ao dono do canal que eu estou amando seu canal. Os assuntos são ótimos. Resolvi escrever em Português, pois é nossa língua materna. Saudações lusófonas!

Can't wait for you to cover Australia and the Oceania continent.

love the portuguese jumping out of you when saying "cabo verde"

The country Djibouti 🇩🇯 which is written in Somali, jabuuti comes from a Somali mythology of an evil power monster named buuti. Buuti was killed in modern day Djibouti so people called it then Jab(the lost) of Buti. The city was called jabuuti and when colonizers came they named the whole area that

Actually Ifriqiyya derives from the word Africa, which was the Roman name for its province which consisted of Tunisia and eastern Algeria. As for "al-Jaza'ir" (Algeria), Jazeera (the singular) also means peninsula in Arabic, so the 'islands' may have been (or still be) peninsulas.

While it's true that "west" and "evening" share a common root in Arabic, they are still separate words- the word for "evening" lacks the "ma" at the beginning.

Burkina Faso means "Land of the Upright People", meaning an unbroken people, people no longer on their knees

In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡeɪə, ˈɡaɪə/; from Ancient Greek Γαῖα, a poetical form of Γῆ Gē, "land" or "earth"), also spelled Gaea /ˈdʒiːə/, is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. So we add IA as a prefix to most countries to mean Land.

I love that you pronounce Cabo Verde the way it should be❤️❤️❤️❤️

You gave some colonial names so to add to those, Malawi was called Nyasaland by the British after Lake Nyasa. Nyasa is the Yao word for lake so yet another "lake lake". Botswana was Bechuanaland. Bechuana is an older variant of Twsana so the same name almost. Also what became Malawai, Zambia and Zimbabwe were briefly the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

I never realized that Tanzania is a portmanteau. That's pretty cool.

BURUNDI : For the origine of the name BURUNDI; You can’t talk about BURUNDI without talking about RWANDA (both countries are like brothers or sisters as they are similar or almost like identical twins). So BURUNDI comes from Kinyarwanda word ”URUNDI” which means “an other” but referring to ”an other Rwanda”. If you say « an other Rwanda» in Kinyarwanda it will be «Urundi Rwanda». Remember, during colonial period both countries Rwanda and Burundi were one country and its name was “Rwanda-Urundi”. After independence Urundi became Burundi and Rwanda remained Rwanda.

Bro your Portuguese pronounciation is so in point. Its so refreshing to hear this. Brigado mano. Btw are u portuguese or just really good in imitating the sounds?

Regards Guinea-Bissau name origins .... the are no Jaguars in Africa, but the Portuguese colonised both areas

In regards to Comoros name: Moon's Arabic pronounce is (Qamar). The country name pronounced (Qumur) likely refers to a type of bird that lands on the island in its migration route. "Yaqut al-Hamawi - in his book: Encyclopedia of Lands "

Hello from South Africa! Our country has a very boring name, but the history behind it is very complex. It developed eastward from the Cape of Good Hope (discovered 1488), and the name stuck, sort of. The Dutch settled in 1652 at the Cape of Good Hope, so the colony was referred to ad the Colony of the Cape of Good hope, although it was stretching as far eastward as 1000km. The British took over in 1806, shortening the name to Cape Colony. In 1836 the Great Trek started, where the disgruntled Cape Dutch moved into the hinterland to escape British rule, and establish their own independent republics. One such was Natalia - the land of Christmas - , named so by Vasco da Gama on this day in 1495. The established other republics as well, with all kinds of names pertaining to their expedition. Lydenburg, Potchefstroom, Utrecht and Winburg all united in 1857 to form a single state - the South African Republic (1852-1902). Orange Free State remained independent. Britain annexed Natalia in 1843, having now two permanent colonies in the region. Kaffraria was a short lived colony wedged between Cape Colony and Natal, but was incorporated into the former. Orange Free State was annexed in 1848 but later granted independence in 1854. The South African Republics was annexed but won their independence in a short war in 1881. Basutoland - now Lesotho was annexed in 1866. Griqualand West was proclaimed and then annexed after diamonds were found here in 1871, and Bechuanaland - now Botswana - was incorporated in 1885. Later Cecil John Rhodes established Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe, under the Charter of the British South Africa Company. In all this time, Britain attempted to assert her dominance in the region, and for practical purposes referred to the entire region as British South Africa, as it now fully was by the end of the 19th century., after the Boer War saw the two Boer Republics fall as well. in 1910 the four self governing colonies - Cape, Natal Orange River and Transvaal (the former South African Republic) join to form the Union of South Africa. The crown colonies (a different political style of government) remained British: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and Swaziland. Rhodesia was still Charter territory. In 1961 the Union of South Africa became independent under the name of the Republic of South Africa.

Nice

I recognise the effort and thanks for the video. Although I would've liked to see something about Azania (South Africa).

2:00 Thanks to tectonic plates my friend!

A quick comment. Some countries like Ghana, Benin etc that took the name of old empires did so because they traced their lineage back to those empires. For example, the descendants/survivors of that old Ghana empire( made up mostly of the Denkyira warrior people and other ruling tribes) escaped the bloodshed that ensued because of the fall of that empire and settled in the middle of the present day Ghana. They make up the majority of the population and at the time of independence, when Gold Coast was looking for a name to recapture its lost heritage and shed the stigma of its colonial masters, they decided to retake the name of the former empire. Benin also has a similar history. That is why even though it seems to have no geographical relation, they opted those names

I’m from the DR Congo 🇨🇩 You’re right for what you said that the name came from the KINGDOM OF KONGO which included the two 🇨🇩 🇨🇬 also a part of Angola 🇦🇴 and a part of Gabon 🇬🇦 but Kongo is deducted from AKONGO which means in Kikongo language GOD .

8:45 Guineus comes from the old Berber word ⴳⵉⵏⴻ (pronounced Gine) which describe the people living under the Sahara

Rwanda comes from a Knyarwanda (native language) word "kwanda" which means to expand. It was adopted between the 14th and 15th century by the kingdom founders who wanted to expand their kingdom.

Am a Ugandan from Buganda and a muganda too, Buganda is the largest ethnic group of people in Uganda and according to what I studied in my primary school, kabaka( title of the king) Muteesa the first invited the British in his kingdom to tech his people religion. He invited missionaries, Europeans were surprised to find an organized kingdom that had an administrative body similar to theirs, later the land become a British protectorate.

This videos are fun and interesting! I just would prefer if you could slow down a bit, so it would be easier to process. Normally I'm a very fast reader and also process things quick but this kinda makes me nervous 😉😏

good work. NIGERIA means NIGER-AREA, named by the wife of the British governor of the time.

I believe Zimbabwe's name was chosen because it is the location of the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, a palace for an ancient king.

Your Portuguese is so good!