: Oxford English Dictionary - 
 ::   African - noun  
 ::: 1 a person from Africa, especially a black person.  
 ::: 2 a person of black African descent. 
 ::   African American (chiefly US) 
 :::  • noun an American of African origin. 
 : So, in the prior definition, African means both a person from Africa and, also, a black person from Africa. In the latter definition, an African-American is an 'American of African origin'. The wikipedia article is full of language that is trying really hard to redefine 'African' to exclude huge sections of population from the continent of Africa. If 'African' means (I'm simplifying here) a black person from Africa then 'African American' literally means what the current article tries to describe. However, it doesn't mean that, the term 'African' primarily means 'a person from Africa', irrespective of colour, race or religion. So, I feel that the sentence below is unfair and incorrect -  
 :: "The term does not include white, Indian or Arab immigrants from the African continent, as they are not generally considered 'Africans'." 
 : Unfortunately, I fear that the removal of the sentence will cause other flare-ups as it weakens the desired definition currently in the nomenclature section.