First Sentence

"Since the time of Pliny the Elder, who is reputed to have first used it, the term "Africa" has been a bone of contention because it means different things to different people-for many people Africa is essentially a racial group; for some, Africa is a geopolitical entity carved up in the last century at the Berlin conference of 1884-85; for others, Africa is a linguistic cultural entity that describes the life of the African peoples that belong to these communities: the Niger-Congo, the Nilo-Sahara, the Afro-Asiatic, and the Khoisan linguistic groups."