#Nambia

During a meeting of the UN General Assembly in September 2017, President Trump hosted a lunch in which he was "honored to be joined by the leaders of Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Nambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa." Unfortunately the leader of Nambia was not actually present, because like the great nation of Nambia, they don't exist. However, President Hage Geingob of Namibia was in attendance at the luncheon in which he listened to Trump repeatedly mispronounce the name of his country, skipping the middle "i".

Though clearly speaking about Namibia, Trump sounded like he was speaking about "a fictional land probably somewhere between the borders of Namibia and Zambia," as Namibian Twitter user @curate_Namibia said. Many Namibians took to social media angry about Trump's faux pas, but others happily watched #Nambia become a trending topic. As a sparsely populated nation rarely noticed on international news, Trump's mispronunciation brought attention to the country that was appreciated by many as a potential incentive for tourism. Some began using the hashtag to express their national pride. For example @HendrinaNel tweeted "Appreciating my beautiful country and its landscapes. #Namibia not #Nambia."

One Namibian tourism company called the Gondwana Collection capitalized upon the opportunity and created a video which also riffed on Trump's previous comments about "shithole" countries in Africa. It went viral.

- Madelyn

Sources:
http://time.com/4951122/namibia-nambia-trump-facts/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/21/how-namibia-responded-to-trump-inventing-a-country-called-nambia/?utm_term=.5f0082caf246
http://www.africanews.com/2018/01/16/namibia-shares-hilarious-response-to-trump-s-shithole-comments//