How Colonialism Renamed a Continent

Maps of Extraction: How Colonialism Renamed a Continent

​The colonization of Africa was not merely a physical occupation of land; it was a profound linguistic and psychological overhaul. Long before European powers carved the continent into arbitrary borders, African territories possessed names rooted in rich ancestral lineage, spiritual identity, and complex social structures. To facilitate the “Scramble for Africa,” colonizers first had to engage in a systematic erasure of these identities, replacing them with titles that reflected European commercial interests.

​From Identity to Industry

​The renaming process was a strategic branding exercise designed to turn sovereign lands into corporate assets. The shift in nomenclature shifted the focus from the people to the resources they possessed.

• ​The Gold Coast (Ghana): Labeled not for its ancient kingdoms or the Ashanti people, but for the precious metal exported to European vaults.

• ​The Slave Coast (Nigeria/Benin): A chillingly literal designation that reduced a diverse region to its primary “commodity” human lives.

• ​The Ivory Coast: A name that remains today, forever tethered to the trade of elephant tusks rather than the heritage of its inhabitants.

​By reducing vast regions to “coasts” of extraction, the colonial machine signaled that an African territory’s only value was its contribution to the global market.

​The Weaponization of Names

​In many cases, the names were chosen to honor the very men who orchestrated systemic oppression. Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) was named after Cecil Rhodes, a man whose policies laid the groundwork for the apartheid system. This was psychological warfare; it forced the indigenous population to honor their oppressor every time they spoke the name of their home.

​Similarly, the name “Nigeria” was coined in 1897 by Flora Shaw, a British journalist and the future wife of Lord Lugard. It was a “cleaner” alternative to the brutal “Slave Coast” branding, designed to make the British Empire’s administration seem like a neutral, civilizing force rather than an extractive one.

​The Long Journey to Reclamation

​The mental chains of colonization often proved harder to break than the physical ones. Many nations continued to use their colonial names for decades after gaining independence. It took years of revolutionary struggle to reclaim indigenous identities:

• ​Upper Volta did not become Burkina Faso (“The Land of Incorruptible People”) until 1984.

• ​Rhodesia finally reclaimed its identity as Zimbabwe in 1980.

​The persistence of colonial nomenclature raises a vital question about modern sovereignty: If true freedom includes the power to define oneself, then reclaiming an indigenous name is one of the most radical acts of decolonization a nation can perform.