Continental blunder
I have, on multiple occasions, questioned the rationale behind many people, including leaders, writers and news anchors referring to Africa as “the African continent”.
I find the use of an adjectival phrase in place of a noun to be grammatically misled as it renders Africa as “belonging to a continent” and not as a continent itself. My reason is because the word “African” is an adjective that implies something relating or belonging to Africa.
When we say “the African continent” we are, in a way, acknowledging that there is an existing continent that belongs to Africa, which is unfortunately not true. This continent we live in does not belong to Africa, it is Africa itself, therefore it is grammatically wrong to say “the African continent”.
It is so sad that of all the continents, only ours is sometimes identified as a mere adjective, modifying the noun. Europe is never ever referred to as “the European continent”, Asia is not the “the Asian continent”, the same thing with North America, South America and others. Grammatically, saying the “African continent” puts emphasis on the word “continent’ rather than ‘Africa”.
I know this is just me challenging an old norm, and I stand to be corrected if there are different views or explanations. However, my take is that the continent does not belong to Africa so it cannot be addressed as “the African continent”. It should instead be called “Africa” because that is its name.
Gottenburg, emanyeleti