...Before the 16th century CE,African polity was different from what became of it in 1884/85 CE, after the Berlin conference that ushered in western Europeans' "scramble for Africa."

The waters around the western coast of the African continent was known as the Aethiopian ocean, the change to Atlantic ocean came up in the 18th century CE. Most of the continent of Africa was at one point, in history, known as Aethiopia and the people of the continent were known as Athiopes. According to researches by Cheik Anta Diop, the whole continent was at some point known as Alk'bulan. This meant "mother of mankind" or "garden of the beginning."

Names of kingdoms, empires and countries also went through changes in names and geographical borders too. The modern African country, Ethiopia, with Addis Ababa as its capital, adopted the name for its polity in 1929 CE.