Two African Concepts? The Divided Political Structure

Two Africa Concepts?

In the post-colonial era, many international organizations, foreign governments, and academics divided Africa into two Africa. That is North Africa (Arab Africa) and Sub-Saharan Africa (Black Africa). The justification for this divergence of Africa into two regions was political and cultural. Many outsiders perceived Sub-Saharan Africa as being socially and culturally distinct from North Africa.

While Sub-Saharan Africa is made up of black-race communities, North Africa, on the other hand, is dominated by Arabs who are not black.

The culture, language, and peoples of North Africa are not medically, culturally, or socially African. The cultures, languages, and peoples of North Africa are similar to those of West Asia. North Africa is also often classified under the Middle East region of the world.

Moroccan Culture: Facts and Traditions

This regional classification has also resulted in the common but fallacious perception that North Africa is not really Africa. The regional classification does not unite Africa, rather the ideologies racially separate the continent. Another thing it does is spring up a long-forgotten racial old-age cold war; as one part feels they are better than the other.

Although North Africa shares an Arab heritage that distinguishes it from other regions of Africa. There are, however, social, physical, cultural, and historical connections that unite North Africa with regions south of the Sahara. Thus making a distinct divergence between North and sub-Saharan Africa unsustainable.

The geographic entity North Africa has no single accepted definition. For some, the region of North Africa stretches from the Atlantic shores of Morocco in the west to the Red Sea in the east.

Others have limited it to the countries of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, a region known by the French during colonial times as Afrique du Nord and by the Arabs as the Maghrib (“West”). The most commonly accepted definition includes the three above-mentioned countries as well as Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.