Africa 17th century

Africa is one such continent where there still exists a hybrid structure of indigenous tribes living in symphony with the speeding civilisation, all with a European touch. Every single nation of today's Africa had been affected directly or indirectly by Europeans in the colonial era, so much so that nations such as Belgium and Italy that didn't have colonies anywhere else could find themselves holding strongly in African territories. Also, it needs to be specially noted that the African nations of today still retain the borders sketched out for them by Europeans in the 19th-20th centuries. 'Scramble of Africa' as it's properly known as straight lines divided tribes within themselves and created a plethora of African colonies that could be administrated by Europeans conveniently. This post shall discuss the start of the colonial era and how cartographers looked and mapped the continent, based on their knowledge about Africa. It is to be noted that all the colloquial maps of Africa available throughout, are mapped from European eyes, and not necessarily African. Hence many regions that were mentioned as 'unknown' or incorrectly marked, were actually a dense labyrinth of inaccessible African tribes that forms the cornerstone of African culture. 

The following are the most common regions marked by European geographers on African maps: 

1. Barbaria -  It covered the Arabic tribes of Rif, Kabyle, Bedouins and the Berbers. This would consist of today's coastal Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and parts of Libya. 
2. Biledulgerid - Moving a little southwards, the country of Bilegulgerid would cover the Berbers of Algeria and a small Moroccon tribe of Atta. 
3. Libya Interior - Interestingly, this region was far away from the current location of Libya and was denoted as what is today's southern Algeria in the midst of the Sahara desert. 
4. Numidia - The Libyan region of Fezzan along with the Bedouin Arabs would point to the location of Numidia. The territory would also have labels such as Berdoa, Garamantes, Gaoga and Barcha. 
5. Nubia - The Tibesti region of Chad was the homeland of Nubians bordering a giant inland lake then known as Borneo Lacus (denoting Lake Chad). 
6. Ægyptus - The country of Egypt that covered almost the same area as it covers today, was denoted as Ægyptus. Perhaps it's one of the few names that has survived the Antiquity Age and is still used today. A region called Elfocat Desert marked the western boundary of Egypt. 
7. Bello - The coast of Sudan inhabited by the Beja group was denoted as Bello. The coast would also be shown populated by regions such as Guegaffo, Barna and extending towards the Eritrean coast would be the country of Dangali (denoting the Danakil tribe of Eritrea and Djibouti)
8. Adel - the Somali people of Somalia and Ethiopia were marked as living in this region bordered by neighbouring territories of Doara, Dobas and Balli. 
9. Bagamidri - This territory would be somewhere around today's South Sudan and northeastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo, covering tribes such as Ndogo, Madi, Dinka, Bari Lotoko, Murle, Anuak, Topotha etc. 
10. Biafar - Although it might be compared parallelly to Biafra, which was once a secessionist state of West Africa (part of Nigeria) between 1967 to 1970, the territory of Biafar on the 17th-century maps would denote to many interior territories of Cameroon. This would be a criss-cross of tribes such as Adamawa Fulani, Baya, Chamba and Bamileke. 
11. Benin - Contrary to its current size, once Benin was a large kingdom of west Africa, covering majorly what today is Nigeria. The tribes of Nupe, Idoma, Gbari, Tiv, Edo, Ibo, Ekoi, Ijaw, Ibibio Efik, Angas, Yoruba, Kamberi and Jarawa would add to its population. 
12. Mandinga - the country of Mandinga would denote today's parts of Ghana, Burkina Faso and parts of the Ivory Coast. Thus, the tribes such as Grusi, Dagomba, Ashanti, Brong, Mossi, Gurma, Tribu and Ewe would populate this region. 
13. Guinea or Gvinea - the entire western coast of Guinea that stretches from Guinea to the coast of Ghana covering Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Ivory Coast was marked majorly as Guinea. This territory would consist of numerous tribes such as Mende, Vai, Kru, Guro, Kpelle, Dida, Anyi, Temne, Susu, Yalunja and Koranko. 
14. Melli - Possibly denoting to today's Mali, but only the southwestern portion. Tribes such as Soninke, Malinke and Bambara would live in this region. 
15. Gagor - This territory would border Melli to its south, covering a section of the Malinke tribe. 
16. Senega - Most likely the former Senegambia region - Senegal and The Gambia - covering tribes such as Fulani, Wolof, Serer and Diola.
17. Genehoa - The upper territory of Senegal that consisted of the Wolof and Fulani tribes would be labelled as Genehoa.   
18. Bramas - Moving to the southwest region of central Africa's Cameroon, the country of Bramas would be found here inhabiting the Kossi-Koko, Bamileke and Fang tribes. 
19. Anzicana - Bordering Bramas to its south, Anzicana would be today's Gabon region with Fang and Kota tribes living in it. 
20. Congo - As the name denotes, today's Republic of Congo has various Congolese tribes, which would be denoted as the country of Congo (also spelt Kongo on various sources). 
21. Malema - this country denoted the southwestern part of DRC and parts of Angola that corresponds to tribes such as Yaka, Luwa, Pende, Mbala and Lunda. 
22. Monomotapa - Technically, this is a predecessor to today's Zimbabwe and also covering neighbouring parts of Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa. The tribes of Matabele, Shona and Ila-Tonga would denote this kingdom. Interestingly, the Kingdom of Monomotapa or Mutapa existed between 1430 to 1760, having its capital near the Zambezi River, Zvongombe. 
23. Zet - This country would be what today is the junction of Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, north of the Monomotapa Kingdom. Consisting of tribes such as Bemba, Kunda and Cewa, on all such maps, Zet would be shown sandwiched between two large inland lakes denoted as Lake Zaire and Lake Zaflan. This, to the best possible guess, would be today's Lake Kariba (in Zambia) and Lake Tanganyika (bordering Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique). 
24. Gafafila - The Cewa people of northwest Mozambique and parts of Malawi would be denoted as the country of Gafafila. 
25. Quiloa - The country would lie around the border of Tanzania-Mozambique, consisting of Yao people majorly. It also denotes the former colloquial name for Kilwa or the town of Kilwa Kisiwani in Tanzania. 
26. Melinde - Around the coast of Zanzibar and Pemba islands, the country of Melinde would cover the tribes of Luguru, Zaramo, the Afro-Shirazi and a small fragment of Arabs that resided here. This would also be a precursor to the great Zanzibar Sultanate that existed between 1856 to 1964. 
27. The island nation of Madagascar was surrounded by further smaller islands such as Ile de Mascarhenas, Ile de Domingos, Ile de Juan de Lisboa, Ile de Los Romeros etc. 

There were several other names that kept coming on vintage maps as time passed by. With better technology and more exploration of African territories, maps were improved and names were given their proper spellings. Of course, there were many European names that later got renamed to their local ones. The most significant was the towns of the Democratic Republic of Congo such as Albertville (Kalamie), Costermansville (Bukavu), Leopoldville (Kinshasa), Stanleyville (Kisangani), Port Francqui (Ilebo), Charlesville (Djokupunda) etc. There were hundreds of other tribes that were divided into colonies, most notably in the 20th century when new names such as Rhodesia, German East Africa (today's Tanzania), Belgian Congo (today's DRC), German Southwest Africa (today's Namibia) etc. were seen. 

Today, the entire continent is free from any European colonisation except for the island of Mayotte (which is under the French) and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco. Below here is a recreation of a map of Africa as sketched by the 16th-17th century Flemish cartographer Jodocus Hondius (1563 - 1612). The date marked is 1607.