Re: CHAT: Ability of Americans & Europeans to locate each others cities (was Re: The [??] attribute)

Roger Mills wrote:
>
> >On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> >
> >> Ouagadougou is the capital of Cameroun (at least when written with the
>French
> >> orthography), former Haute-Volta. I still remember it because such a
>name
>sound
> >> so silly in a French ear that it's unforgettable :)) .
> >
> >I found it on a globe when I was 6 or 7 and found the name hilarious.
> >
> >BTW Haute-Volta is now called Burkina Faso, it was part of French West
> >Africa.
> >
>This is getting confusing.  I agree with Burkina Faso, which I think used
>to
>be Mali???, which used to be part of FWA.....?
Burkina Faso used to be Upper Volta/Haute-Volta. It was French during
colonial times. If "Cameroun" is the French for "Cameroon", it's probably
just a slip on Christophe's part. Mali is the name of one of Burkina Faso's
neighbours, and also of an late-medieval empire encompassing most of the
western Sudan. (The modern Republic of Sudan consists of the eastern end of
the Sudan, plus some southern areas that aren't historically part of the
Sudan.)

                                            Andreas


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