Africa’s True Name

Have you ever stopped to wonder: what is in a name? If you are interested in discovering Africa and her name for yourself, you might want to consider car rental in South Africa. There is no better place to start looking than the tip of Africa. Image by: Alice

If words’ sound power, and there is knowledge in power, then it stands to reason that by gaining knowledge of the origin and perceived meaning of a word, one surely garners more knowledge about that particular word; right? Well, that is the stance I undertook when pondering the name of our beautifully majestic continent. The cradle of civilization; presently referred to as the continent of ‘Africa’ – but is this the name our ancestors of old used when referring to our motherland? Or have we as decedents of this magnificent continent not only been robbed of our inherent way of life (thanks to colonization) but been robbed of the knowledge of our motherlands’ true name too?

My quest to answer these questions was not an arduous one (all thanks due to the wonders of technology and ‘Google). I simply typed in the phrase: ‘Africa’s true name’; low and behold, my inherent feelings that this ‘Africa’ is not the true name of my beloved homeland struck!



The name ‘Africa’ stems from the time when the Roman Empire took occupation of the majority of the continent. As is the practice in these type war times, the “Romans sought to completely disconnect the indigenous Africans with their culture, deities, and knowledge. This could only be successfully done by renaming all archetypal icons, thereby disconnecting the significance, meaning, and sacredness from any specific archetype.” As I stumbled across quite a few forums and discussions about this very matter, it became clear that there is a very present and real debate on the go about the origin of our continent’s name, and what I found is that our motherland’s true name is: Alkebulan.

Moremi Game Reserve| Discover Africa Group

According to the following resource: Kemetic History of Afrika; the definition of Alkebulan is as follows: “The ancient name of Africa was Alkebulan. Alkebu-lan “mother of mankind” or “garden of eden”. Alkebulan is the oldest and the only word of indigenous origin. It was used by the Moors, Nubians, Numidians, Khart-Haddans (Carthagenians), and Ethiopians. Africa, the current misnomer adopted by almost everyone today , was given to this continent by the ancient Greeks and Romans. ” Perhaps in line with this new found knowledge, we should boldly go forward as ‘Alkebulanites’; true and sincere, moving to the beat of our own ancient drums.

Should you wish to discover Alkebulan at your own pace, look into car hire. You gain the flexibility to do what you want when you want. Alkebulan is the ideal place for to experience a memorable African Safari.

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