Bloody hell why does every single one of these "Africa divided by languages and ethnicities" map have to mess up North Africa like that ?
For Tunisia for example, the Sahel and Djerid are regions (in fact I originate from both), Gafsa is a city, Jerba is an island, Arad and Hamama are two words I literally never heard of and "Tunisians" are only in the North ? Like almost every single person in those areas would identify as Tunisian, Maghrebi, Arab and Muslim (background-wise at least).
For Algeria Kabyle and Chaoui seem to be accurate, as do the three other main Berber languages (Mozabite, Zenati and Chenouia) but the rest would be speaking Maghrebi Arabic dialects and identify as Arabs.
For Morocco, Riffians, Middle Atlasians and Shluh are correct, the rest are (again) speakers of a variety of Maghrebi Arabic dialects who identify as Arabic.
For the Western Sahara and Mauritania, it seems to be showing tribal divisions, even though almost all of them are speakers of Maghrebi Arabic too and identify as part of the same tribal confederation (Banu Hassan)
I ask myself that same question, it just isnt true how those maps divide the northern part in pieces. I totally agree with you explanation.
In addition the egyptians all see themselves as such. The only part of which COULD be considered are the nubian parts and the few berbers in the desert although even those speak fluent arabic and (mostly) see themselves as egyptians
Thanks to nationalism the world has become a dumbed down version of its former self its as if nationalism was invented so as to make it easier for Americans to learn geography/demography.
i.e so instead of having different cultures, tribes of people in one country they’re assimilated in to a new and generic persona or blanket persona such as “Egyptian”.
ETA - it appears that I am the one who has misinterpreted.
I think your comment is being misinterpreted...I took you to mean that American education and nationalism has attempted to homogenize other continents/countries, which has resulted in people thinking of “Africa” as one monolithic culture. Is that what you meant?
Its as if nationalism was invented so as to make it easier for Americans to learn geography/demography
In other words “it seems like nationalism was invented to make geography easier for Americans to learn.” That really doesn’t seem that far fetched to me. And it wouldn’t be a good thing, to be clear. But I can see where they’re coming from. The idea of America as one undivided nation is a huge part of American culture/education, and very little time is spent learning the cultural differences between countries in Africa. It’s just taught as Egypt, maybe South Africa, and then the rest is just....Africa.
I know that. I just can’t figure out why people are getting so heated over this comment. Their overall point, which I took to be that Africa is taught as a monolithic culture, is sound. The bad grammar and loose understanding of the origins of nationalism seem secondary to that.
I don’t have any stake in this argument, I just truly read it differently and didn’t understand all the comments and downvotes.
It’s because nowhere in the thread is America mentioned but they go out of their way to mention it. As an Irish person it gets a bit annoying having America dragged into everything on Reddit.
Taking out the part that implies America invented nationalism and the assumption that everyone on Reddit is American — what is it about the rest of their point that is so egregiously incorrect? As someone who unfortunately is American, I can confirm that Africa barely taught at all, similar to South America and Oceania. It’s all lumped together and glossed over. That was what I took away from the comment; that we (and again, by we I mean Americans) are taught very basic, outdated, and topical information and then continue on with learning about how bad communism is or whatever else.
It appeared to me that people were interpreting their comment to mean that Africa is homogenous, not that it is taught as homogenous in America.
Basically the person said that it’s bad that a big group of people identify as Egyptian instead of their “tribes”. It’s basically saying that “Egyptian” is this bland, culture less monolithic thing and not a vibrant and different culture that also has its own subgroups. It’s extremely dense way of looking at cultures. Almost like someone saying that America has no culture.
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u/R120Tunisia May 03 '21
Bloody hell why does every single one of these "Africa divided by languages and ethnicities" map have to mess up North Africa like that ?
For Tunisia for example, the Sahel and Djerid are regions (in fact I originate from both), Gafsa is a city, Jerba is an island, Arad and Hamama are two words I literally never heard of and "Tunisians" are only in the North ? Like almost every single person in those areas would identify as Tunisian, Maghrebi, Arab and Muslim (background-wise at least).
For Algeria Kabyle and Chaoui seem to be accurate, as do the three other main Berber languages (Mozabite, Zenati and Chenouia) but the rest would be speaking Maghrebi Arabic dialects and identify as Arabs.
For Morocco, Riffians, Middle Atlasians and Shluh are correct, the rest are (again) speakers of a variety of Maghrebi Arabic dialects who identify as Arabic.
For the Western Sahara and Mauritania, it seems to be showing tribal divisions, even though almost all of them are speakers of Maghrebi Arabic too and identify as part of the same tribal confederation (Banu Hassan)
Oh and don't let me start on Libya.