10 African Countries and How They Got Their Names

Here are some back-stories behind some African countries and how they got their names.
10. Liberia
Liberia got its name from the group of Quakers and slaveholders who wanted to repatriate freed Black people to Africa, a report by PBS explains. The group, known as the American Colonization Society, planned to send freed Black people back to Africa instead of having them potentially causing an uprising in America. The scheme of creating an entire country full of freed Black people from America ultimately resulted in the land being deemed Liberia, which translates to “Land of Freedom.”
9. Sierra Leone
In 1462, Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra mapped the hills around what is now known as Freetown Harbour. As he mapped the landscape, he deemed the formation Serra da Leoa, Portuguese for “lioness mountains,” according to the Kingfisher Geography Encyclopedia. The name was eventually adapted and the now misspelled term for the majestic mountains became the country’s new name — Sierra Leone.
8. Cameroon
Cameroon’s name originated from one Portuguese sailor’s fascination with how many shrimp he spotted when he arrived in the African country. According to an article posted by the Cameroon Embassy in the Netherlands, “Cameroon is derived from the Portuguese word, Camaroes, meaning shrimps.” Fernando Po arrived at the Wouri River in Douala when he spotted so many shrimp that he declared the river Rio Dos Camaroes, which translates to river of shrimps. Eventually, explorers from all around the globe came to know the land adjacent to the Rio Dos Camaroes as Cameroon.
7. Eriteria
According to a report published by Uppsala University, the country’s name comes from Italian settlers who created colonies on the Horn of Africa in the 19th century. Italians used the phrase “Mare Erythraeum,” which loosely translates to Red Sea, to describe the cluster of colonies that lined what is now known as the Red Sea. Adaptations of that name eventually led to the name it still holds today.
6. Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe’s name originates from one of the most prominent landmarks in the country. The name is derived from a large, historical stone structure called the Great Zimbabwe, which translates to “houses of stone,” the Zimbabwe embassy’s website explains. The embassy’s site states that this stone structure is one of the largest in Africa following the Egyptian pyramids.
5. Togo
Prior to the era of colonial rule by Germany, various tribes had already settled into the country that would soon become known as Togo. In the neighboring countries of Ghana and Benin, Portuguese settlers built forts and began to trade at the small fort at Porto Seguro, according to the Journal of the Royal African Society. The area became a major trading center for Europeans in search of slaves, earning the region the name Togo, which translates to “The Slave Coast.”
4. Seychelles
According to an article published by the National Assembly of Seychelles, the 115-island country was named after Jean Moreau de Sechelles, Louis XV’s minister of finance. In 1756, the French started taking control of the country, which was eventually contested by the British for years starting in 1794.
3. Gabon
Gabon’s name originated from the unusual shape of the Rio de Como estuary, according to Encyclopedia of Nations. The Portuguese arrived on the country’s coast around 1470 when explorers realized the estuary was shaped like a hooded cloak called a “gabao.” After a series of adaptations and translations, the country became known as Gabon.
2. Mauritius
According to Mauritius: A Country Study, the island nation was named in honor of Prince Maurice Nassau by Dutch explorers. In 1715, the French claimed the country and renamed it Ile de France before the British captured the country in 1810 and changed its name back to Mauritius.
1. Zimbabwe
According to the country’s official tourism site, the origin of Mozambique’s name isn’t certain, but there is a widely believed theory. The site explains that it is “believed to have come from the name of a Muslim leader called ‘Musa al Bique’ that lived in the Island of Mozambique, where Vasco de Gama in 1498 anchored his ship.”

Give Thanks in All Circumstances

“Pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus .” 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
Life is full of challenges and some of you are in the midst of one right now. Maybe like the Israelites in Psalm 107 you’ve gone from one difficult period to another. They were hungry and thirsty wanderers in the desert, prisoners in chains, sailors reeling in terror at the furious storm…each time they cried out to the Lord and He saved them. Remembering this, they are encouraged to “give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.”
We are encouraged to give thanks in everything , not for everything. Some things are plain evil and It wouldn’t be realistic to give thanks for them. But we can give thanks “in” them. How?
Thank you, Jesus, that you know all about this.
Thank you, that you are with me in this.
Thank you that you are holding my hand as we walk through it together.
Thank you that you are acting in love even now “for your love endures forever”
I’ve found that as I look back on that difficult time, I marvel how God has lovingly brought me through it. And he will do the same for you.
Father, I can thank you in everything for your plans for me are plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future ( Jeremiah 29:11 )
By Helen Lescheid

Praise God for All He has Done

“Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits ” Psalm 103:2
It is delightful and profitable to observe how the hand of God was upon the lives of ancient saints, to see His goodness deliver them, see His mercy pardon them, and see His faithfulness keep His covenant with them.
But isn’t it even more delightful and profitable for us to remember the hand of God working in our own lives? We should look back at our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of His goodness and of His truth, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before. We do our Lord an injustice when we presume that He performed all His mighty acts for those in the past, but doesn’t perform wonders for us today.
Let’s review our own lives. Surely we will discover some happy incidents which are both refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to God.
Has God delivered you from trouble? Have you passed safely through rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through proverbial fires unharmed?
Remember, this is the God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart. Hasn’t He also often heard and answered your requests? This is the God of beautiful outpourings about whom David sang, “Who satisfies your desires with good things. ” Has He never satiated you with blessing? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters?
Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of the past. Let us then weave His mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness, and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls make sweet music, music that is as exhilarating as that which came from David’s harp, while we praise the Lord whose mercy endures forever!

Originally written by Charles H. Spurgeon