Africanization

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Making something African

title: "Africanization" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["culture-of-africa", "decolonization", "cultural-assimilation", "geographical-naming-disputes", "names-of-places-in-africa", "anti-western-sentiment", "pan-africanism", "human-names", "toponymy"] description: "Making something African" topic_path: "general/culture-of-africa" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanization" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Making something African ::

Africanization or Africanisation (lit., making something African) has been applied in various contexts, notably in geographic and personal naming and in the composition of the civil service via processes such as indigenization.

Africanization of names

Africanization has referred to the modification of place names and personal names to reflect an "African" identity. In some cases, changes are not only of transliteration but of the European name.

In many cases during the colonial period, African placenames were Anglicized or Francized.

Place names

Country names

Various African countries have undergone name changes during the previous century as the result of consolidations and secessions, territories gaining sovereignty, and regime changes.

::data[format=table]

Previous nameYearCurrent name
Dahomey, Republic of1975Benin, Republic of
Bechuanaland Protectorate1966Botswana, Republic of
Upper Volta1984Burkina Faso
Ubangi-Shari1958Central African Republic
Zaire, Republic of1997Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Middle Congo1960Congo, Republic of the
French Somaliland / Afars and Issas1977Djibouti, Republic of
Spanish Guinea1968Equatorial Guinea, Republic of
Swaziland, Kingdom of2018Eswatini, Kingdom of
Gold Coast1957Ghana, Republic of
French Guinea1958Guinea, Republic of
Portuguese Guinea1974Guinea-Bissau, Republic of
Basutoland, Territory of1966Lesotho, Kingdom of
Nyasaland Protectorate1964Malawi, Republic of
French Sudan1960Mali, Republic of
South-West Africa1990Namibia, Republic of
Ruanda-Urundi1962Rwanda, Republic of / Burundi, Republic of
Zanzibar / Tanganyika1964Tanzania, United Republic of
Northern Rhodesia1964Zambia, Republic of
Southern Rhodesia1980Zimbabwe, Republic of
::

Other place names

Personal names

Africanization of civil services

In some countries after following their independence, "Africanization" was the name given to racial policies and affirmative action, which were intended to increase the number of indigenous Africans in the civil service.

Localization in African languages

The term Africanization, abbreviated as the numeronym "A12n," has been applied to discussion of internationalization and localization of software and content in African languages.

References

References

  1. African Successes Four Public Managers of Kenyan Rural Development David K. Leonard UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
  2. Edgar A. Gregersen. (1977). "Language in Africa: An Introductory Survey". CRC Press.

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culture-of-africadecolonizationcultural-assimilationgeographical-naming-disputesnames-of-places-in-africaanti-western-sentimentpan-africanismhuman-namestoponymy