Dear Editor,

Controversy has supervened in a situation where it should not have done. Dr Kimani Nehusi in his prodigious and protracted footnote to my letter (20/3/2002) has taken upon himself to spell Africa with a 'k' rather than with the accustomed 'c'. I don't see how such a deliberate change to a highly popular word can be justified. If it had been a political change it might have been acceptable. But Dr Nehusi is not a statesman.

It was the Phoenicians, Arabs and Europeans who circumnavigated the continent and put such names to it. Now, at this late stage, Nehusi has come up with a new spelling.

Dr Nehusi has coined a new word without moral, spiritual, intellectual, political or geographical justification. How can we trust his historical judgements in respect to what he wrote about Africa?

Can Dr Nehusi offer evidence in support of this usage?