Nigerian-born Chika Onyeani, who is chairman ofCelebrate Africa Foundation, told VOA the group has written to the African Union Commission, the United Nations, U.S. President Barack Obama and others urging a halt to the use of “sub-Saharan Africa.” Onyeani said the phrase is racist and used with the onset and spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. “I believe that it is demeaning to Africa because Africa was always Africa during the time of Nkrumah (Kwame). Nobody referred to Africa as ‘sub-Saharan Africa,’ but it was due to the AIDS pandemic. That was when this term started being used to refer to black Africa as against Arab Africa,” he said. Onyeani said he and his group feel “sub-Saharan Africa” is a racist term that should be rejected by all Africans. “We feel that it’s a racist term, and it is something that Africans should not accept. Right now, there is no other continent that you have sub-anything. You have Europe, you don’t have sub-something Europe; you have America, you don’t have anything sub about (America); you have Asia. But, it’s only the same people who have been referred to as sub-humans that are being referred to as sub-Saharan Africa,” Onyeani said.”[7]
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 05:01:18 +0000
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