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Africa's most forgotten country?

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    Africa's most forgotten country?

    Had to do a quick check which countries are neighbour's to Senegal. Was only sure of Gambia which is stuck in there like a pocket but to the north is Mauritania. I knew about the country from before, that it exists, but that's about it.

    You never hear about Mauritania, ever, do you? I can't recall I've even heard it mentioned related to the conflict about West Sahara. It's a gigantic country area-wise. Larger than Nigera, or Ethiopia judging by a glance on the map.

    I've even heard more about countries like Lesotho or Malawi on the news or read about them in the papers - be it politics, sports or whatever - than Mauritania. Is it the most anonymous African nation, or just me?

    Similar thing in South America where you never hear anything about Suriname but due to many payers in the Dutch national side it's triggered me to look up other info.
    Last edited by Pietro Paolo Virdis; 15-06-2018, 10:59.

    #2
    The Central African Republic is surely in with a shout here, although it's in the news today as tennis player Boris Becker is claiming he is a diplomatic for the country.

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      #3
      I had a student from Nouakchott once. As a result of which for me I think it would be Benin or Djibouti

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        #4
        I follow someone on twitter who is from Mauritania (though he mostly talks about the middle east and north Africa). It also comes up when you read about Western Sahara.

        I forget that Guinea-Bissau is a separate country to Guinea and I never include the island countries as being African when I think of Africa.

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          #5
          The Central African Republic has a protracted civil war. Pope Francis went there a couple of years ago, which gave the CAR some profile. Plus, it now gets points on Pointless.

          For purposes of this thread, I nominate Sao Tome & Principe

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            #6
            Djibouti has been in the news a bit since China built its first ever overseas naval base there. Very strategic spot apparently.

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              #7
              It certainly is, a bit surprising it hasn't been a bit more prominent down the years- I suppose the French have had things under a neocolonial lock and key?

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                #8
                Originally posted by Levin View Post
                I follow someone on twitter who is from Mauritania (though he mostly talks about the middle east and north Africa). It also comes up when you read about Western Sahara.
                Must have been lousy at paying attention. I did know it's Berber territory so would be logical they have more in common with people in West Sahara and further up north, than the countries to the south.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by G-Man View Post
                  The Central African Republic has a protracted civil war. Pope Francis went there a couple of years ago, which gave the CAR some profile. Plus, it now gets points on Pointless.

                  For purposes of this thread, I nominate Sao Tome & Principe
                  Sao Tome I'm familiar with only because of a previous job. That they have quite extensive oil reserves.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                    I had a student from Nouakchott once. As a result of which for me I think it would be Benin or Djibouti
                    Benin and Djibouti would at least pop up in my head if I was to list African countries as a knock-out question in a pub quiz. I have that sometimes in my own quiz, when there's a tie. Two teams send forth one each and during the time of one song they have to list as many countries they can think of in say Asia, or Africa. Obviously you'd be smart to do it alphabetically and instantly think Angola, Algeria, Botswana, Benin, Burkina Faso etc. But come to M, I don't think I myself would ever come to think of Mauritania. Not until now at least.

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                      #11
                      I think my brain would be drawn to doing it geographically not alphabetically

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                        I think my brain would be drawn to doing it geographically not alphabetically
                        Not a bad way to do it. But I'd probably travel too fast past many countries and ending in South Africa within 25.

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                          #13
                          i can recommend the "draw the borders on africa" Sporcle quiz for role-playing the 1884 Berlin Conference learning more about the political geography of Africa.

                          https://www.sporcle.com/games/kfasti...africa-borders

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                            #14
                            If I was naming my most forgotten African country it'd be Gabon.

                            Mauritania comes up in the news every now and again for the fact that it has by far the highest amount of slavery on the planet.

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                              #15
                              Congo republic (Brazzaville), big brother next door hogs the limelight,mainly by being a basket case

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                                #16
                                Comoros. Also a crap card in Africa Mapominoes.

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Pietro Paolo Virdis View Post
                                  You never hear about Mauritania, ever, do you? I can't recall I've even heard it mentioned related to the conflict about West Sahara. It's a gigantic country area-wise. Larger than Nigera, or Ethiopia judging by a glance on the map.
                                  I mentioned Western Sahara & Mauritania a week ago here (convo with linus about the tensions between Morocco and Algeria).

                                  Depends where you mean by never. In the Anglosphere and non-French-speaking Europe, you’re probably right, it's rare, although the Guardian website has an African section with daily articles and I think they sort of regularly cover Mauritania. BBC News Africa has the odd article too, this for instance. News24 (South African media) has a strong section on all the African countries, including Western Sahara, https://www.news24.com/Tags/Places/western_sahara

                                  In the Francosphere, Mauritania and the Western Sahara/Sahara Occidental are regularly reported on in a wide variety of French website/newspapers and radio & TV channels, such as:

                                  - Paris-based Jeune Afrique weekly mag & Jeuneafrique.com

                                  - the excellent and very comprehensive Slate Afrique website. slate.fr too has plenty on Africa, Afrik.com (French and English, eg this Sahara Occidental sub-section for instance).

                                  - Le Monde & Le Monde Diplo (Monde Afrique https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/) have daily articles on Africa with plenty of subsections (current news & issues, economy, politics, culture & style, sport, videos etc.). Monde Diplo has lots of handy maps and infographics too: https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/cartes/

                                  - the dailies Le Figaro, Libération, Les Échos (economy/finance) are fairly strong on Africa too.

                                  - all the main news mags (paper & website) in their international sections have specific African sections, particularly Le Point (African section), L’Express (African section), Les Échos.fr (African-Middle East section), Rue89-nouvel obs website (African section). Ditto the high circulation weeklies Obs, Marianne and the excellent Courier International (original articles translated into French).

                                  - the following TV channels: Arte, LCP, France24 (International News 24/7, in English, they have a comprehensive section on Africa too, in English
                                  http://www.france24.com/en/africa/, TV5 Monde (like this prog), or even France Télévisions (~BBC), sometimes on the commercial channels such as Canal + or M6.

                                  - radio channels too of course: France Inter, Radio France International (French & English), France Culture (pretty international) has plenty on Africa too, etc.

                                  This is a good and short recap on the situation there (in English, subtitled in French):

                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_cB0cXP72w

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                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                    Djibouti has been in the news a bit since China built its first ever overseas naval base there. Very strategic spot apparently.
                                    It’s a huge geostrategic outpost, so yes there is a sizeable French military presence there (~1,500 permanent staff + posted staff) but the world has moved on since the "Françafrique" era De Gaulle-Pompidou-Giscard-Chirac-Mitterrand and Sarkozy (but French influence seriously starting to dwindle by then, when Sarko was elected in 2007, Chinese muscling in), so plenty of other actors in on the act too throughout Africa.

                                    Big US presence there too since the 9/11 attacks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Lemonnier) and Chinese too of course, also Japanese and Italian military bases. Last year, China opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chines...se_in_Djibouti

                                    Chinese navy, the PLAN, has been in the Gulf of Aden and off Somalia for a decade as part of the anti-piracy operations in this extremely busy maritime corridor. As they’re constantly seeking to extend their commercial and political presence and influence with a view to be #1 one day, this is a key move for them (China is of course very strong on the African continent for trade, infrastructure building, development funding, loans etc., EU is still Africa’s largest trading partner but China is fast catching up, both in commercial terms and soft power, as are the other BRICS, notably India). Chinese base will also be used to evacuate Chinese citizens in case of crisis due to the volatile nature of the Horn of Africa and extended area, hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers and staff now permanently in Africa (they’re basically turning Africa into China’s workshop), many in nearby Ethiopia for instance.

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                                      #19
                                      The only word association I get for Mauritania is "Polisario". From TV news, a long time ago. Don't ask for details. It could be a Phil Collins album or the latest exercise fad.

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                                        #20
                                        I had no idea where Eritreia was until I started playing against a 5 a side team consisting of Eritraean refugees in Cairo and Googled it.

                                        Most lighweight team I've ever played against. Never really gave us a game and we were pretty awful. Nice enough lads, though.

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                                          #21
                                          Equatorial Guinea I find hard to place. Though, as a ten year old stamp collector, I had no problems finding Fernando Po.

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                                            #22
                                            This the wrong thread but I only found out about the CFA Franc a little while ago and it is awful.

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                                              #23
                                              Yep, it’s regularly denounced by French media and is an increasingly controversial currency. Officially (for its defenders) it’s been kept for stability reasons as they say it facilitates intra-African trade exchange between the 14 CFA countries, and also between those countries and the Eurozone. But the main practical problem is that because it’s pegged to the Euro, it’s overvalued. Many African leaders want to keep this status quo of course, so whatever talk there’s been in the past about local currencies has got nowhere.

                                              Kako Nubukpo : « Le franc CFA asphyxie les économies africaines »

                                              Le franc CFA, un outil de contrôle politique et économique sur les pays africains de la zone franc

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                                                #24
                                                Is Spanish Sahara an independent nation?

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                                                  #25
                                                  Western Sahara? Morocco is a bastard of an occupying force down there after the Espanish legged it, much like Indonesia went into East Timor.

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