Geography

To give everybody a sneak peek at our research, some of the keywords that would appear in the project are Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Gambia. Now close your eyes and locate them on an imaginary globe. If you were like me, you’d have a much harder time than if the keywords were instead Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Among all other inspirations, this research has urged me to spend more time on the African map, to at least give myself the right to say the names of these countries.  To be fair, this is not the fault of my country’s education system – I used to do a lot better on names and places in Africa back in secondary school, just as I used to do better in classical Chinese poetry.

Anyway, as years go by, now is March 2008, and as an adult, I have become extremely ignorant on geography concerning Africa, Latin America and Middle and West Asia, in other terms, regions that are not my home and not majorly OECD. Before I spent a whole afternoon trying not to fail an online game/quiz, the only countries that I know exactly where their positions are on the continent are Egypt and South Africa. Which is nothing to be really proud of, since the latter has such a self-defining name, and the former has a most acient civilization plus a memorable shape, thanks to you-know-who.

Now I challenge the readers to try out this small game: Africa Map Quiz. I promise that it is entertaining and engaging. And I don’t think I’ll be the only one out here who finds it helpful.

Oh, and it has versions for other cotinents too. Another challenge to you: try finding Afghanistan.

Dali