Minha Sombria Vanessa

 Um prazer e uma dor - em suma, uma paixão - traduzir este livro.

Happy Hallowe'en!

 With Tom Gauld

Abracadabra - Palavras para o Século XXI

 

RIP Quino (1932-2020)

 

Happy International Translation Day 2020

 

Pig Latin, and the Art of Grant Snider :)

 

Palindromes

 

The UnRead :[

 

Literary Licence

 

Irregularities of English Spelling and Pronunciation

 

The Chaos

by Charivarius (Gerard Nolst Trenité - 1870-1946)

Dearest creature in Creation,
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer.
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word.
Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter, how it's written!)
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say-said, pay-paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say break, steak, but bleak and streak.
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via;
Pipe, snipe, recipe and choir,
Cloven, oven; how and low;
Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
Typhoid; measles, topsails, aisles;
Exiles, similes, reviles;
Wholly, holly; signal, signing;
Thames; examining, combining;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war, and far.<br/>From "desire": desirable--admirable from "admire";
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier;
Chatham, brougham; renown but known,
Knowledge; done, but gone and tone,
One, anemone; Balmoral;
Kitchen, lichen; laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German; wind and mind;
Scene, Melpomene, mankind;
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.
This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.
Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet;
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which is said to rhyme with "darky."
Viscous, viscount; load and broad;
Toward, to forward, to reward,
And your pronunciation's OK.
Rounded, wounded; grieve and sieve;
Friend and fiend; alive and live.
Liberty, library; heave and heaven;
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven,
We say hallowed, but allowed;
People, leopard; towed, but vowed.
Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover,
Leeches, breeches; wise, precise;
Chalice but police and lice.<br/>Camel, constable, unstable;
Principle, disciple; label;
Petal, penal, and canal;
Wait, surmise, plait, promise; pal.
Suit, suite, ruin; circuit, conduit
Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it."
But it is not hard to tell
Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.
Muscle, muscular; gaol, iron;
Timber, climber; bullion, lion,
Worm and storm; chaise, chaos, chair;
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rime with "hammer."
Pussy, hussy, and possess,
Desert, but desert, address.
Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants
Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants.
Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb,
Cow, but Cowper, some, and home.
"Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker,"
Quoth he, "than liqueur or liquor,"
Making, it is sad but true,
In bravado, much ado.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant.
Arsenic, specific, scenic,
Relic, rhetoric, hygienic.
Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close,
Paradise, rise, rose, and dose.<br/>Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,
Make the latter rhyme with eagle.
Mind! Meandering but mean,
Valentine and magazine.
And I bet you, dear, a penny,
You say mani-(fold) like many,
Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
Tier (one who ties), but tier.
Arch, archangel; pray, does erring
Rhyme with herring or with stirring?
Prison, bison, treasure trove,
Treason, hover, cover, cove,
Perseverance, severance. Ribald
Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled.
Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw,
Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.
Don't be down, my own, but rough it,
And distinguish buffet, buffet;
Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon,
Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn.
Say in sounds correct and sterling
Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling.
Evil, devil, mezzotint,
Mind the Z! (A gentle hint.)

Now you need not pay attention
To such sounds as I don't mention,
Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws,
Rhyming with the pronoun yours;
Nor are proper names included,
Though I often heard, as you did,
Funny rhymes to unicorn,
Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan.
No, my maiden, coy and comely,
I don't want to speak of Cholmondeley.
No. Yet Froude compared with proud
Is no better than McLeod.
But mind trivial and vial,
Tripod, menial, denial,
Troll and trolley, realm and ream,
Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme.
Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely
May be made to rhyme with Raleigh,
But you're not supposed to say
Piquet rhymes with sobriquet.
Had this invalid invalid
Worthless documents? How pallid,
How uncouth he, couchant, looked,
When for Portsmouth I had booked!
Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite,
Paramour, enamoured, flighty,
Episodes, antipodes,
Acquiesce, and obsequies.
Please don't monkey with the geyser,
Don't peel 'taters with my razor,
Rather say in accents pure:
Nature, stature and mature.
Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly,
Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly,
Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan,
Wan, sedan and artisan.<br/>The TH will surely trouble you
More than R, CH or W.
Say then these phonetic gems:
Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.
Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,
There are more but I forget 'em-
Wait! I've got it: Anthony,
Lighten your anxiety.
The archaic word albeit
Does not rhyme with eight-you see it;
With and forthwith, one has voice,
One has not, you make your choice.
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say: finger;
Then say: singer, ginger, linger.
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,
Hero, heron, query, very,
Parry, tarry fury, bury,
Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,
Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.
Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,
Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners
Holm you know, but noes, canoes,
Puisne, truism, use, to use?
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual,
Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,
Put, nut, granite, and unite.
Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.
Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific;
Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.<br/>Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit,
Next omit, which differs from it
Bona fide, alibi
Gyrate, dowry and awry.
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,
Rally with ally; yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
Never guess--it is not safe,
We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.
Starry, granary, canary,
Crevice, but device, and eyrie,
Face, but preface, then grimace,
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging;
Ear, but earn; and ere and tear
Do not rhyme with here but heir.
Mind the O of off and often
Which may be pronounced as orphan,
With the sound of saw and sauce;
Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.
Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting?
Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.
Respite, spite, consent, resent.
Liable, but Parliament.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,
Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.
A of valour, vapid vapour,
S of news (compare newspaper),
G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,
I of antichrist and grist,
Differ like diverse and divers,
Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.<br/>Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,
Polish, Polish, poll and poll.
Pronunciation--think of Psyche!-
Is a paling, stout and spiky.
Won't it make you lose your wits
Writing groats and saying 'grits'?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel
Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,
Islington, and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, bough, cough, hough,
sough, tough?
Hiccough has the sound of 'cup' . . .
My advice is: give it up!

HAPPY WORLD OCEANS DAY 2020

Happy Africa Day

Primeiro de Maio!

Planta inédita em Portugal descoberta no Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros

Decorrente de uma ação de prospeção botânica no Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros (PNSAC), concebida e coordenada na Direção Regional da Conservação da Natureza e Florestas de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo (DRCNF-LVT), foi identificada uma espécie de planta nunca antes observada e registada, em território português.

A nova espécie para a flora de Portugal, cujo nome científico é Arenaria grandiflora L. ocorre no PNSAC quase exclusivamente em fendas de rochas calcárias.
António Flor, Vigilante da Natureza especialista em botânica que exerce funções na DRCNF-LVT, é o coordenador do projeto e autor da descoberta que resultou de um processo de investigação documental relacionado com geologia, geomorfologia, pedologia e solos da área do Maciço Calcário Estremenho.

Na mitologia romana, Maia é uma antiga divindade itálica, filha de Fauno e esposa de Vulcano. É a deusa da Primavera e deu nome ao mês de Maio, que lhe era consagrado. No 1º dia de Maio, o flâmine de Vulcano sacrificava-lhe uma porca grávida. Era essencialmente venerada por mulheres sendo os homens excluídos do perímetro sagrado dos seus templos. 

Imagem: Jovem colhendo flores, detalhe da pintura mural de Stabiae, Séc. I d.C., Museu Arqueológico Nacional, Nápoles, Itália 

The Animal I Keep in the Cage of My Bones

by Leah Falk

For the body

Alan Turing, age 16

is a machine, sharing its eyes
with the horse and the cinemascope,
blood with the gas engine, fountain pen.
What have I in common
with other living things? The moment
a dinosaur’s jaw cracked
in two — one half snapping birdlike,
the other ground to powder. We have
that. We have the objects in this room
where a billion years have come
and laid down on the tile, seeping
out the screen door and down the garden
drain. This parlor: dresser scarf — ashtray —
good light for reading — easy chairs
with ribbing. Moonstone bust of a mother,
a child rising out of her, mountain
from slip-strike. Although it hurts me, out
of a living line, out of stone or meat, I choose
myself again, again that is one of me, here
where my carriage grew vertical, where my fists
forgot the heavy ground. But your body, wedge,
remembered. Cartridge leaking color.
On the year’s white page, parting
black from un-black. I don’t feel much
like writing more today.

Portuguese cuisine may be the most influential cuisine on the planet

From BBC Travel

When 16th-Century Portuguese came to Japan, they brought a special dish with them. Today, in Japan, it’s called tempura and has been a staple of the country’s cuisine ever since.

 In 1543, a Chinese ship with three Portuguese sailors on board was headed to Macau, but was swept off course and ended up on the Japanese island of Tanegashima. Antonio da Mota, Francisco Zeimoto and Antonio Peixoto – the first Europeans to ever step on Japanese soil – were deemed ‘southern barbarians’ by the locals because of the direction from which they came and their ‘unusual’, non-Japanese features. The Japanese were in the middle of a civil war and eventually began trading with the Portuguese, in general, for guns. And thus began a Portuguese trading post in Japan, starting with firearms and then other items such as soap, tobacco, wool and even recipes.

The Portuguese remained in Japan until 1639, when they were banished because the ruling shogun Iemitsu believed Christianity was a threat to Japanese society. As their ships sailed away for the final time, the Portuguese left an indelible mark on the island: a battered and fried green bean recipe called peixinhos da horta. Today, in Japan, it’s called tempura and has been a staple of the country’s cuisine ever since.

However, peixinhos da horta was only one of many dishes the Portuguese inspired around the world. In fact, Portuguese cuisine, still heavily overshadowed by the cuisines of Italy, Spain and France, may be the most influential cuisine on the planet.

When the Portuguese turned up in Goa, India, where they stayed until 1961, they cooked a garlicky, wine-spiked pork dish called carne de vinha d’alhos, which was adopted by locals to become vindaloo, one of the most popular Indian dishes today. In Malaysia, several staples, including the spicy stew debal, hail from Portuguese traders of centuries past. Egg tarts in Macao and southern China are direct descendants to the egg tarts found in Lisbon bakeries. And Brazil’s national dish, feijoada, a stew with beans and pork, has its origins in the northern Portuguese region of Minho; today, you can find variations of it everywhere the Portuguese have sailed, including Goa, Mozambique, Angola, Macau and Cape Verde.

Peixinhos da horta were often eaten during Lent or Ember days (the word ‘tempura’ comes from the Latin word tempora, a term referring to these times of fasting), when the church dictated that Catholics go meatless.

Perhaps not constricted by tradition, the Japanese lightened the batter and changed up the fillings. Today, everything from shrimp to sweet potatoes to shitake mushrooms is turned into tempura.

Abril!

"Aquele que na hora da vitória
respeitou o vencido
Aquele que deu tudo e não pediu a paga

Aquele que na hora da ganância
Perdeu o apetite
Aquele que amou os outros e por isso
Não colaborou com a sua ignorância ou vício
Aquele que foi «Fiel à palavra dada à ideia tida»
como antes dele mas também por ele Pessoa disse"

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, dedicado a Salgueiro Maia

Feliz Dia da Terra 2020

Com esta obra belíssima da nossa Vanessa Barragão :)

Highway 1

AUTOESTRADA DA COSTA DO PACÍFICO, CALIFÓRNIA – “Às vezes precisamos de sair da estrada para apreciar a beleza da Autoestrada da Costa do Pacífico. Já percorri esta estrada inúmeras vezes pela sua vista imbatível. Como não existem lugares para estacionar, pedi a um amigo para me deixar aqui. Depois do pôr do sol, a névoa marinha fundiu-se rapidamente com o penhasco, e tive a sorte de captar esta imagem. Adoro a Califórnia!”

Fotografia de Jiawei L., 2019 National Geographic Travel Photo Contest

Frank Lloyd Wright

Check all of them at Home Advisor

 

Dia do Livro Português

Hoje, dia 26 de março, celebra-se o Dia do Livro Português, uma iniciativa da Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores (SPA), com o intuito de destacar a importância do livro e da língua portuguesa em todo o mundo.
Porquê o dia 26 de março?
Porque foi precisamente neste dia, 26 de março, que se imprimiu o primeiro livro em Portugal, o Pentateuco (em hebraico), corria o ano de 1487. O Pentateuco, do grego «cinco rolos», é composto pelos cinco primeiros livros da Bíblia: Génesis, Êxodo, Levítico, Números e Deuteronómio.

Hope

Incidental Comics

RIP Albert Uderzo 1927 - 2020

Dia Mundial da Poesia, da Árvore e da Floresta

Poema
Deixo que venha
se aproxime ao de leve
pé ante pé até ao meu ouvido
Enquanto no peito o coração
estremece
e se apressa no sangue enfebrecido
Primeiro a floresta e em seguida
o bosque
mais bruma do que neve no tecido
Do poema que cresce e o papel absorve
verso a verso primeiro
em cada desabrigo
Toca então a torpeza e agacha-se
sagaz
um lobo faminto e recolhido
Ele trepa de manso e logo tão voraz
que da luz é a noz
e depois o ruído
Toma ágil o caminho
e em seguida o atalho
corre em alcateia ou fugindo sozinho
Na calada da noite desloca-se e traz
consigo o luar
com vestido de arminho
Sinto-o quando chega no arrepio
da pele, na vertigem selada
do pulso recolhido
À medida que escrevo
e o entorno no sonho
o dispo sem pressa e o deito comigo

Maria Teresa Horta

Quando é que passará esta noite interna, o universo,
E eu, a minha alma, terei o meu dia?
Quando é que despertarei de estar acordado?
Não sei. O sol brilha alto,
Impossível de fitar.
As estrelas pestanejam frio,
Impossíveis de contar.
O coração pulsa alheio,
Impossível de escutar.
Quando é que passará este drama sem teatro,
Ou este teatro sem drama,
E recolherei a casa?
Onde? Como? Quando?
Gato que me fitas com olhos de vida, que tens lá no fundo?
É esse! É esse!
Esse mandará como Josué parar o sol e eu acordarei;
E então será dia.
Sorri, dormindo, minha alma!
Sorri, minha alma, será dia!

Álvaro de Campos

World Poetry Day

KINDNESS
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye

 

Did you know these things had names?

1. The space between your eyebrows is called a glabella.
2. The way it smells after the rain is called petrichor.
3. The plastic or metallic coating at the end of your shoelaces is called an aglet.
4. The rumbling of stomach is actually called a wamble.
5. The cry of a new born baby is called a vagitus.
6. The prongs on a fork are called tines.
7. The sheen or light that you see when you close your eyes and press your hands on
them is called phosphenes.
8. The tiny plastic table placed in the middle of a pizza box is called a box tent.
9. The day after tomorrow is called overmorrow.
10. Your tiny toe or finger is called minimus.
11. The wired cage that holds the cork in a bottle of champagne is called an agraffe.
12. The 'na na na' and 'la la la', which don't really have any meaning in the lyrics of any song, are called vocables.
13. When you combine an exclamation mark with a question mark (like this ?!), it is referred to as an interrobang.
14. The space between your nostrils is called columella nasi.
15. The armhole in clothes, where the sleeves are sewn, is called armscye.
16. The condition of finding it difficult to get out of the bed in the morning is called dysania.
17. Unreadable hand-writing is called griffonage.
18. The dot over an “i” or a “j” is called tittle.
19. That utterly sick feeling you get after eating or drinking too much is called crapulence.
20. The metallic device used to measure your feet at the shoe store is called Bannock device.

Pão!

Era uma vez um pão que vivia revoltado. Sentia-se moído desde o primeiro grão e amassado desde o primeiro dia. Detestava que o confundissem com os outros pães e que dissessem que era da mesma fornada. Não conseguia impedir algumas migalhas de raiva quando diziam que era tudo farinha do mesmo saco. Não. Ele não tinha nascido para pão de forma. Era inconformado. Sabia de que massa era feito. Sentia uma facada sempre que ouvia perguntar se era fresco. Era o pão de cada dia. Mas depois lá acalmava. Tinha a côdea dura, mas o miolo era mole. Uma certa altura, farto de ser pão para toda a colher, decidiu fugir com um queijo tradicional. Pão pão, queijo queijo. A relação não durou muito tempo, o queijo amanteigou-se com uma broa. A tradição já não é o que era. Dizem as más-línguas e as boas bocas que, perante tal desilusão, entrou num convento e se tornou num devoto pão de Deus.

RIP Terry Jones

Isto é que vai uma crise :)

Devido à crise ....
Os padeiros não têm massa
Os padres já não comem como abades
Os relojoeiros andam com a barriga a dar horas
Os talhantes estão feitos ao bife
Os criadores de galinhas estão depenados
Os pescadores andam a ver navios
Os vendedores de carapau estão tesos
Os vendedores de caranguejo vêem a vida a andar para trás.
Os desinfestadores estão piores que uma barata
Os fabricantes de cerveja perderam o seu ar imperial
Os cabeleireiros arrancam os cabelos
Os futebolistas baixam a bolinha
Os jardineiros engolem sapos
Os cardiologistas estão num aperto
Os coveiros vivem pela hora da morte
Os sapateiros estão com a pedra no sapato
As sapatarias não conseguem descalçar a bota
Os sinaleiros estão de mãos a abanar
Os golfistas não batem bem da bola
Os fabricantes de fios estão de mãos atadas
Os coxos já não vivem com uma perna às costas
Os cavaleiros perdem as estribeiras
Os pedreiros trepam pelas paredes
Os alfaiates viram as casacas
Os almocreves prendem o burro
Os pianistas batem na mesma tecla
Os pastores procuram o bode expiatório
Os pintores carregam nas tintas
Os agricultores confundem alhos com bugalhos
Os lenhadores não dão galho
Os domadores andam maus como as cobras
As costureiras não acertam as agulhas
Os barbeiros têm as barbas de molho
Os aviadores caem das nuvens
Os bebés choram sobre o leite derramado
Os olivicultores andam com os azeites
Os oftalmologistas fazem vista grossa
Os veterinários protestam até que a vaca tussa
Os alveitares pensam na morte da bezerra
As cozinheiras não têm papas na língua
Os trefiladores vão aos arames
Os sobrinhos andam "Ó tio, ó tio"
Os elefantes andam de trombas...
SÓ OS POETAS CONTINUAM COMO SEMPRE: TESOS MAS MARAVILHOSOS!

Why should you read "Don Quixote"?

Universo Humano, para começar bem 2020 :)

Rebracketing, from Starkey Comics

How Africa got its name - from Strange Maps at Big Think

• Libya is an ancient Greek toponym for the lands between the Nile and the Atlantic Ocean, and sometimes by extension for the entire continent. The name may derive from the local Libu tribe. Libya is also the name of the modern North African country between Tunisia and Egypt, formerly infamous for the violent surrealism of Colonel Ghadaffi's decades-long dictatorship and currently for its lawlessness and low-intensity civil war.

• Ethiopia derives from the classical Greek for "burnt-face" (possibly in contrast to the lighter-skinned inhabitants of Libya). It first appears in Homer's Iliad and was used by the historian Herodotus to denote those areas of Africa south of the Sahara part of the "Ecumene" (i.e. the inhabitable world). But the Greek term originally applied to Nubia (a.k.a. Kush). Later, it was adopted by the kingdom of Axum, a distant precursor to present-day Ethiopia.
• In 148 BCE, the Romans established the province of Africa Proconsularis, which covered most of present-day Tunisia and adjoining coastal bits of Algeria and Libya. The etymology is uncertain: "Africa" might mean "sunny," "birthplace," "cave-dwelling," or "rainwind;" refer to the ancient Afri tribe, the biblical port of Ophir, a grandson of Abraham named Epher, or a Himyarite king named Afrikin. Over time, perhaps because of its solid Roman pedigree, "Africa" became (European) cartographers' preferred term for the entire continent. 

 

• Bilad as-Sudaan is Arabic for "Land of Black People." Once referring to all of sub-Saharan Africa, the name latterly applied to the savannah belt running south of the Sahara from the Atlantic to the edge of the country that came in the British sphere of influence in 1899 as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Following a successful referendum, South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011. The other country outlined here is Mali, which until independence was known as French Soudan.

• Guiné was the Portuguese geographical term for West Africa. Its zone of application covers two of the three African countries named after it: Guinea (the larger country in the west) and Equatorial Guinea (in the east). Guinea Bissau, the smaller neighbor of Guinea, falls just outside the ancient domain of Guiné. A fourth country, Papua New Guinea, just north of Australia, was named after the region by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez. In 1545, he first used the term "New Guinea" because of the similarities in appearance between the natives of both regions.

• Maghreb is Arabic for "sunset." In some definitions, the wider region of this name includes Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania. A narrower definition (the one current in France, for example) only encompasses Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The narrowest definition is Maghreb al-Aqsa, "the Furthest Sunset," i.e. Morocco. 

• Mauretania was the portion of the Maghreb the Berber inhabitants of which were known to the Romans as Mauri. The local kingdoms became vassals of Rome and were later annexed. The current Islamic Republic of Mauritania derives its name from ancient Mauretania but shares no territory and little else with its nominal predecessor.
• "Ghana" means "warrior king," a title conferred to the kings of the so-called Ghana Empire (it called itself "Wagadou"), which existed from around 700 to 1240 CE in an area covering parts of the modern states of Mauritania and Mali. There is no overlap with the modern country – the British colony of the Gold Coast adopted the name upon gaining independence in 1957. 
• Benin City, now in Nigeria, was the capital of the old kingdom of Benin. The modern kingdom of Benin, formerly the French colony of Dahomey, is located a few hundred miles to the west.