Place Names
10:11 am 10/29/06
I’m a bit confused about all of the recent fuss about pop singer Madonna’s (attempted?) adoption of a child from Malawi. Not the adoption, but rather the constant media references to the baby as “African” rather than referring to Malawi. If she had adopted a baby from, say, Romania, would the media refer to her adopting a “European baby?” No, they would call him a “Romanian baby.” Is it possible that there are some people who think that “Africa” is a single entity, just one large country, and don’t realize that it contains scores of countries, languages, religions, and such?
Well I think Asia is the same way, you’re not adopting an Korean child but an Asian child. They may just say African child in the case of David because no one except a geography nerd would know where in hell Malawi was.
If he was Egyptian, he’d be referred to as such, even though Egypt’s on the African continent. But Jen’s right: nobody knows where Malawi is.
Unfortunately, all the countries in sub-Saharan Africa are clumped under the label, Africa, while the countries in North Africa are usually mentioned by specific name.
There is a similar type confusion when it comes to referring to some people as Asians (Orientals). To most people, Asians (Orientals) are people from east Asia (east Orient): China, Korea, Japan, etc., etc. People from west Asia (west Orient) are never thought of as being Asian (Oriental). For example, how many think of Jesus of Nazareth as being ‘Asian’ (’Oriental’)? Jesus of Nazareth, like all Jews and other Semitic peoples, is Asian (Oriental): West Asian (west Oriental) is still Asian (Oriental).
I think in this case “African” is being used to refer to the child’s ethnicity, as opposed to his nationality. (Is Malawian the correct adjective?) Similarly, if the child were from Romania, we wouldn’t refer to him as European, but we might call him “Caucasian” — although we probably wouldn’t bother, since Madonna is also Caucasian.
Kate, I think today there are a lot more people who know where Malawi is than there were two weeks ago. As for geography nerds: http://www.geographyzone.com.
Oh, you know, those black countries all look the same.
(I’m being facetious here, folks.)
Good point, David.