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North Africa?

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Both the "Africa" board and the "Middle East" board list Morocco as part of their territory. Which is correct?

Should North African countries be in the Middle East board or in the Africa board?

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  1. As someone who wants to hang on those boards, I'd recommend sticking to geographic divisions (thus Morocco is in Africa) as much as possible, because it is a brighter-line rule. Having one board called "Africa" and one called "Middle East and Africa" may be confusing, as some will go only to the latter board for posts about Africa generally (even though it says in the smaller type what it encompasses). There are not many Africa posts, so we don't want to split them up. This is what works pretty well on the Lonely Planet's active Thorn Tree site, and avoids usenet-like discussions about Morocco's African history, etc.

    This would mean putting Morocco and Egypt in Africa, and leaving for the Middle East Board Syria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the Gulf region, and maybe Iran and Iraq (look, things will change one day), even though Iran is pushing it.

    But if people are determined to keep Morocco and Egypt on the same board as the Middle East, at a minimum, I'd call it "Middle East and North Africa." It still leaves some room for gray area, but is more clear.