this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's true, why wouldn't you want to be in the center of the world? I wonder if the Persians had similar thoughts about themselves, being at the center point of the silk road. The other option is to take pride in being at an extreme, which a few cultures do, but I don't know how common that is in relation.

Dubai is pretty central for the inhabited old world. IIRC the centerpoint of land on earth ends up in France, because of the Americas, and the higher landmass in the northern hemisphere, but nobody thinks of it as a global crossroads. Ice caps, mountains, the rough Atlantic and the world's largest desert make sure of that.

Alkebulan (the native name for Africa) is the cradle of humanity and the only continent where everyone there agreed what said continent was called for all of recorded/known history.

I'm sorry, you otherwise have interesting points but that's nutty. Africa has seen more languages and cultures than anywhere else, what with being our home continent, and there's no way they all coordinated their name for the continent - which maybe nobody know the extent of until the invention of proper seafaring.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

...

You're right. My fault, I looked it up and don't know where that came from but the evidence doesn't seem to exist at all and I'm not sure why I remembered that as being a thing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

Oh, phew! I thought I was about to get bombarded by hate replies from Black Israelites or something (no relation to the actual country). Thanks for the grace.