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 placenames 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 Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influenc ...

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 change Regime change is the partly forcible or coercive replacement of one government regime with another. Regime change may replace all or part of the state's most critical leadership system, administrative apparatus, or bureaucracy. Regime change may ...

Other place names

*Fernando Po island changed to

Bioko Bioko (; historically Fernando Po; bvb, Ëtulá Ëria) is an island off the west coast of Africa and the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea. Its population was 335,048 at the 2015 census and it covers an area of . The island is located of ...

Island *Léopoldville changed to Kinshasa *Salisbury changed to Harare *Lourenço Marques changed to Maputo *Nova Lisboa changed to

Huambo Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa (English: ''New Lisbon''), is the third-most populous city in Angola, after the capital city Luanda and Lubango, with a population of 595,304 in the city and a population of 713,134 in the municipality of Huambo (Cens ...

*Fort Lamy changed to

N'Djaména N'Djamena ( ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a Regions of Chad, special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements''. The city serves as the centre of economic activity in Chad. Meat, fish a ...

*Tananarive changed to Antananarivo *Bathurst changed to Banjul *Santa Isabel/Port Clarence changed to Malabo *Élisabethville changed to Lubumbashi *Stanleyville changed to

Kisangani Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville or Stanleystad) is the capital of Tshopo province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the fifth most populous urban area in the country, with an estimated population of 1,312,000 in 2021, and the larg ...

*Luluabourg changed to Kananga *Ponthierville changed to

Ubundu Ubundu, formerly known as Ponthierville or Ponthierstad, is a town located in the Tshopo Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is the administrative center of the territory of the same name. It is on the Lualaba River, or Upper Congo ...

*Novo Redondo changed to Sumbe *Moçâmedes changed to Namibe, but changed back to

Moçâmedes Moçâmedes is a city in southwestern Angola, capital of Namibe Province. The city's current population is 255,000 (2014 census). Founded in 1840 by the Portuguese colonial administration, the city was named Namibe between 1985 and 2016. Moç� ...

in 2016 *Abercorn changed to Mbala *Broken Hill changed to

Kabwe Kabwe is the capital of the Zambian Central Province and the Kabwe District, with a population estimated at 202,914 at the 2010 census. Named Broken Hill until 1966, it was founded when lead and zinc deposits were discovered in 1902. Kabwe also ...

*Fort Jameson changed to Chipata *Hartley changed to Chegutu *Fort Victoria changed to

Masvingo Masvingo is a city in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The city is situated close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name and close to Lake Mutirikwi, its recreational park, ...

*Many places whose names were of European origin in South Africa have undergone Africanization since 1994; see South African Geographical Names Council. * Port Elizabeth changed to Gqeberha in 2021.

Personal names

*Joseph-Désiré Mobutu changed to Mobutu Sese Seko *François Tombalbaye changed to N'Garta Tombalbaye *Étienne Eyadéma changed to Gnassingbé Eyadéma *

Francisco Macías Nguema Francisco Macías Nguema ( Africanised to Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong; 1 January 1924 – 29 September 1979), often mononymously referred to as Macías, was an Equatoguinean politician who served as the first President of Equatorial Guinea ...

changed to Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong Sometimes, the name change can be used to reflect a change of faith, most prominently seen in the case of Islam. (See Islamic name.)
Examples: *Albert-Bernard Bongo changed to Omar Bongo *

Dawda Jawara Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara (16 May 1924 – 27 August 2019) was a Gambian politician who served as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1970, and then as the first President of the Gambia from 1970 to 1994. Jawara was born in Barajally, MacCarthy Island ...

changed to David Jawara in 1953 *

Jean-Bédel Bokassa Jean-Bédel Bokassa (; 22 February 1921 – 3 November 1996), also known as Bokassa I, was a Central African political and military leader who served as the second president of the Central African Republic (CAR) and as the emperor of its s ...

changed to Salah Eddine Ahmed Bokassa

Africanization of civil services

In some countries after following their independence, "Africanization" was the name given to

racial A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

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 The languages of Africa are divided into several major language families: * Niger–Congo or perhaps Atlantic–Congo languages (includes Bantu and non-Bantu, and possibly Mande and others) are spoken in West, Central, Southeast and Souther ...

References

{{Cultural assimilation, sp=ize African culture Decolonization Cultural assimilation Geographical naming disputes Names of places in Africa Anti-Western sentiment Pan-Africanism Human names