Colonization cost Africa a lot, including the indigenous names of some of its countries. But After independence, several countries changed their names in an effort to completely cut authoritative links from their colonial rulers.
Below is the full list of Africa’s 54 countries and colonial territories and what they were called, prior to their independence. Bear in mind that Liberia and Ethiopia were never colonized but had their names changed.
Abyssinia – Ethiopia
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Africa (province) – Tunisia
Barbary Coast – Algeria
Bechuanaland – Botswana
Belgian Congo – The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Carthage – Tunisia
Central African Empire – Central African Republic
Congo Free State – The Democratic Republic of the Congo
Dahomey – Benin
Equatoria – Sudan and Uganda
Fernando Pó – Bioko
French Congo – Gabon and Republic of the Congo
French Equatorial Africa – Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Republic of the Congo
French Sudan – Mali
French West Africa – Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Benin
German East Africa – Tanzania and Zanzibar
German South-West Africa – Namibia
The Gold Coast – Ghana
Guinea
Grain Coast or Pepper Coast – Liberia
Malagasy Republic – Madagascar
Monomotapa – Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and parts of Namibia and Botswana
Middle Congo – Republic of the Congo
Nubia – Sudan and Egypt
Numidia – Algeria, Libya and Tunisia
Nyasaland – Malawi
Western Pentapolis – Libya
Portuguese Guinea – Guinea-Bissau
Rhodesia -Northern Rhodesia – Zambia
Southern Rhodesia – Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia was commonly referred to simply as Rhodesia from 1964 to 1980)
Rwanda-Urundi – Rwanda and Burundi
The Slave Coast – Benin
Somaliland – Somalia
South-West Africa – Namibia
Spanish Sahara – Western Sahara
Swaziland – Eswatini
French Upper Volta – Republic of Upper Volta – Burkina Faso
Zaire – Republic of the Congo – The Democratic Republic of the Congo
