how has it been classified in the past?
The two branches - Berber and Semitic - were linked together for the first time.
Afroasiatic languages
In the 9th century, the Hebrew grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh of Tiaret in Algeria was the first to link two branches of Afroasiatic together; he perceived a relationship between Berber and Semitic. 
what was babakotia? It is an extinct genus of medium-sized lemurr, or strepsirrhine primate. how did it get its name? From the Malagasy name for the indri, "babakoto". where was this lemur found? Madagascar where is this place located? In the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa. what languages are spoken in the latter place? Afroasiatic languages - Cushitic, Semitic and Omotic family of languages. can you please elaborate on the first term? It is a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa and parts of the Sahel.
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Afroasiatic languages [SEP] Classification history
In the 9th century, the Hebrew grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh of Tiaret in Algeria was the first to link two branches of Afroasiatic together; he perceived a relationship between Berber and Semitic. He knew of Semitic through his study of Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In the course of the 19th century, Europeans also began suggesting such relationships. In 1844, Theodor Benfey suggested a language family consisting of Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic (calling the latter "Ethiopic"). In the same year, T.N. Newman suggested a relationship between Semitic and Hausa, but this would long remain a topic of dispute and uncertainty. Friedrich Müller named the traditional Hamito-Semitic family in 1876 in his "Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft" ("Outline of Linguistics"), and defined it as consisting of a Semitic group plus a "Hamitic" group containing Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic; he excluded the Chadic group.