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Africa

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: African Geography

   SOS Children works in 44 African Countries. For more information see
   SOS Children in Africa
   A world map showing the continent of Africa.
   Enlarge
   A world map showing the continent of Africa.

   Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous
   continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 mi²)
   including adjacent islands, it covers 6.0% of the Earth's total surface
   area, and 20.4% of the total land area. With more than 890,000,000
   people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the
   world's human population.

   The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the
   Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the
   southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

   Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it
   is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to
   southern temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular
   precipitation and irrigation, as well as virtually no glaciers or
   mountain aquifer systems there is no natural moderating effect on the
   climate except near the coasts.

   Although European speculation about the nature of Africa south of
   Sahara ( Aethiopia) dates back more than two millennia, Africa is
   generally assumed to be the continent longest inhabited by human
   beings.

Etymology

   Afri was the name of several peoples who dwelt in North Africa near the
   provincial capital, Carthage. The Roman suffix "-ca" denotes "country
   or land".

   Other etymologies that have been postulated for the ancient name
   'Africa' with less support include:

          + the Latin word aprica, meaning "sunny";
          + the Greek word aphrike, meaning "without cold." This was
            proposed by historian Leo Africanus (1488-1554), who suggested
            the Greek word phrike (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"),
            combined with the negating prefix "a-", thus indicating a land
            free of cold and horror. However, as the change of sound from
            ph to f in Greek is datable to about the 10th century, it is
            unlikely this is the origin.

   Roman Ancient Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to
   refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn
   between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85 - 165 AD),
   indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus
   of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As
   Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea
   of Africa expanded with their knowledge.

Geography

   A composite satellite image of Africa.
   Enlarge
   A composite satellite image of Africa.

   Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the
   main mass of the Earth's exposed surface. Separated from Europe by the
   Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by
   the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 130 km (80 miles)
   wide. ( Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal
   is often considered part of Africa, as well. ) From the most northerly
   point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly
   point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of
   approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles); from Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the
   westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27'52" E, the most
   easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600
   miles). The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the absence
   of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that
   Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,010,000 square miles) —
   about a third of the surface of Africa — has a coastline of 32,000 km
   (19,800 miles).

   Africa's largest country is Sudan, and its smallest country is the
   Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast. The smallest nation on
   the continental mainland is The Gambia.

Climate, fauna, and flora

   The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest
   peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central
   and southern areas contain both savanna plains and very dense jungle
   (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence where
   vegetation patterns such as sahel, and steppe dominate.

   Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of highest
   density and "range of freedom" of wild animal populations and
   diversity, with wild populations of large carnivores (such as lions,
   hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as buffalo, deer, elephants,
   camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily open nonprivate
   plains, as well as jungle creatures (including snakes and primates) and
   aquatic life (crocodiles and amphibians, for example).

History

   Map of Africa 1890
   Enlarge
   Map of Africa 1890

   Africa is the oldest inhabited territory on earth, with the human
   species originating from the continent. During the middle of the
   twentieth century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence
   of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago. Fossil
   remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have
   evolved into modern man, such as Australopithecus afarensis (
   radiometrically dated to c. 3.9-3.0 million years BC), Paranthropus
   boisei (c. 2.3-1.4 million BC) and Homo ergaster (c. 600,000-1.9
   million BC) have been discovered.

   The Ishango bone, dated to about 25,000 years ago, shows tallies in
   mathematical notation. Throughout humanity's prehistory, Africa (like
   all other continents) had no nation states, and was instead inhabited
   by groups of hunter-gatherers such as the Khoi and San.

   Although there are absolutely no records, theorists think that by
   130,000 BC the bulk of Africa's populations inhabited the Sahara, which
   was at that time a fertile valley criss-crossed by rivers. Artful
   incisions in African ocher made around this time are the oldest images
   in the world. In 70,000 BC Africa suffered an extinction of 30% of its
   wildlife species. According to this theory, in 30,000 BC the world
   entered the last major ice age. As a result of this, the Sahara Desert
   reached up to the Ethiopian Highlands. Central Africa's mountain ranges
   were covered by ice flow. The River Nile, north of Khartoum,
   disappeared.

   At the end of the ice age guessed to have been around 10,500 BC, the
   Sahara had become a green fertile valley again, and its African
   populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in
   Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the warming and drying climate meant that
   by 5000 BC the Sahara region was becoming increasingly drier. The
   population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley
   below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent
   settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy
   and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since then dry
   conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa, especially in Ethiopia in
   the last 200 years.

   The domestication of cattle in Africa precedes agriculture and seems to
   have existed alongside hunter-gathering cultures. It is speculated that
   by 6000 BC cattle were already domesticated in North Africa . In the
   Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals including the
   pack ass, and a small screw horned goat which was common from Algeria
   to Nubia.

   Agriculturally, the first cases of domestication of plants for
   agricultural purposes occurred in the Sahel region circa 5000 BC, when
   sorghum and African rice began to be cultivated. Around this time, and
   in the same region, the small guinea fowl became domesticated.

   According to the Oxford Atlas of World History, in the year 4000 BC the
   climate of the Sahara started to become drier at an exceedingly fast
   pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink rather
   significantly and caused increasing desertification. This, in turn,
   decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and helped to
   cause migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of
   West Africa.

   By 3000 BC agriculture arose independently in both the tropical
   portions of West Africa, where African yams and oil palms were
   domesticated, and in Ethiopia, where coffee and teff became
   domesticated. No animals were independently domesticated in these
   regions, although domestication did spread there from the Sahel and
   Nile regions. Agricultural crops were also adopted from other regions
   around this time as pearl millet, cowpea, groundnut, cotton, watermelon
   and bottle gourds began to be grown agriculturally in both West Africa
   and the Sahel Region while finger millet, peas, lentil and flax took
   hold in Ethiopia.

   The international phenomenon known as the Beaker culture began to
   affect western North Africa. Named for the distinctively shaped
   ceramics found in graves, the Beaker culture is associated with the
   emergence of a warrior mentality. North African rock art of this period
   depicts animals but also places a new emphasis on the human figure,
   equipped with weapons and adornments. People from the Great Lakes
   Region of Africa settled along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean
   Sea to become the proto-Canaanites who dominated the lowlands between
   the Jordan River, the Mediterranean and the Sinai Desert.

   By the 1st millennium BC ironworking had been introduced in Northern
   Africa and quickly began spreading across the Sahara into the northern
   parts of sub-saharan Africa and by 500 BC metalworking began to become
   commonplace in West Africa, possibly after being introduced by the
   Carthaginians. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in
   areas of East and West Africa, though other regions didn't begin
   ironworking until the early centuries AD. Some copper objects from
   Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia have been excavated in West
   Africa dating from around 500 BC time period, suggesting that trade
   networks had been established by this time.

Early civilizations and trade

   About 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Africa with the rise of
   literacy in the Pharaonic-ruled civilisation of Ancient Egypt, which
   continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343
   BC. Prominent civilizations at different times include Carthage, the
   Kingdom of Aksum, the Nubian kingdoms, the empires of the Sahel (
   Kanem-Bornu, Ghana, Mali, and Songhai), Great Zimbabwe, and the Kongo.

   After the Sahara had become a desert it did not present an impenetrable
   barrier for travellers between north and south. Even prior to the
   introduction of the camel the use of oxen for desert crossing was
   common, and trade routes followed oases that were strung across the
   desert. The camel was first brought to Egypt by the Persians after 525
   BC, although large herds did not become common enough in North Africa
   to establish the trans-Saharan trade until the eighth century AD. The
   Sanhaja Berbers were the first to exploit this.

   Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different
   states and polities characterised by different sorts of political
   organisation and rule. These included small family groups of
   hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger,
   more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the
   Bantu-speaking people of central and southern Africa and
   heavily-structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa, the Sahelian
   Kingdoms, and autonomous city-states such as the Swahili coastal
   trading towns of the East African coast, whose trade network extended
   as far as China.

   In 1414, the Chinese admiral Zheng He visited Africa's east coast. In
   1482, the Portuguese established the first of many trading stations
   along the coast of Ghana at Elmina. The chief commodities dealt in were
   slaves, gold, ivory and spices. The European discovery of the Americas
   in 1492 was followed by a great development of the slave trade, which,
   before the Portuguese era, had been an overland trade almost
   exclusively, and never confined to any one continent.

   In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s
   caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline
   of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New
   World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and
   the Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast,
   obliged African states to adopt new economies. The largest powers of
   West Africa: the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the
   Oyo Empire, adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and
   Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the
   form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West
   Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt,
   collapsed into civil wars.

Pre-colonial exploration

   In the mid nineteenth century European and particularly British
   explorers became interested in exploring the heart of the continent and
   opening the area for trade, mining and other commercial exploitation.
   In addition, there was a desire to convert the inhabitants to
   Christianity. The central area of Africa was still largely unknown to
   Europeans at this time. David Livingstone explored the continent
   between 1852 and his death in 1873; amongst other claims to fame, he
   was the first European to see the Victoria Falls. A prime goal for
   explorers was to locate the source of the River Nile. Expeditions by
   Burton and Speke (1857-1858) and Speke and Grant (1863) located Lake
   Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. The latter was eventually proven as the
   source of the Nile. With subsequent expeditions by Baker and Stanley,
   Africa was well explored by the end of the century and this was to lead
   the way for the colonization which followed.

Colonialism and the "scramble for Africa"

   Map showing European claimants to the African continent at the
   beginning of World War I
   Enlarge
   Map showing European claimants to the African continent at the
   beginning of World War I

   In the late nineteenth century, the European imperial powers staged a
   major "scramble for Africa" and occupied most of the continent,
   creating many colonial nation states, and leaving only two independent
   nations: Liberia, an independent state part-settled by African
   Americans; and Orthodox Christian Abyssinia (known today as Ethiopia).
   This colonial occupation continued until after the conclusion of World
   War II, when all the colonial states gradually obtained formal
   independence.

   Colonialism had a destabilizing effect on what had been a number of
   ethnic groups that is still being felt in African politics. Before
   European influence, national borders were not much of a concern, with
   Africans generally following the practice of other areas of the world,
   such as the Arabian Peninsula, where a group's territory was congruent
   with its military or trade influence. The European insistence of
   drawing borders around territories to isolate them from those of other
   colonial powers often had the effect of separating otherwise contiguous
   political groups, or forcing traditional enemies to live side by side
   with no buffer between them. For example, although the Congo River
   appears to be a natural geographic boundary, there were groups that
   otherwise shared a language, culture or other similarity living on both
   sides. The division of the land between Belgium and France along the
   river isolated these groups from each other. Those who lived in Saharan
   or Sub-Saharan Africa and traded across the continent for centuries
   often found themselves crossing borders that existed only on European
   maps.

   In nations that had substantial European populations, for example
   Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, systems of second-class
   citizenship were often set up in order to give Europeans political
   power far in excess of their numbers. In the Congo Free State, personal
   property of King Leopold II of Belgium, the native population was
   submitted to inhumane treatments, and a near slavery status assorted
   with forced labor. However, the lines were not always drawn strictly
   across racial lines. In Liberia, citizens who were descendants of
   American slaves had a political system for over 100 years that gave
   ex-slaves and natives to the area roughly equal legislative power
   despite the fact the ex-slaves were outnumbered ten to one in the
   general population. The inspiration for this system was the United
   States Senate, which had balanced the power of free and slave states
   despite the much-larger population of the former.

   Europeans often changed the balance of power, created ethnic divides
   where they did not previously exist, and introduced a cultural
   dichotomy detrimental to the native inhabitants in the areas they
   controlled. For example, in what are now Rwanda and Burundi, two ethnic
   groups Hutus and Tutsis had merged into one culture by the time German
   colonists had taken control of the region in the nineteenth century. No
   longer divided by ethnicity as intermingling, intermarriage, and
   merging of cultural practices over the centuries had long since erased
   visible signs of a culture divide, Belgium instituted a policy of
   racial categorization upon taking control of the region, as racial
   based categorization and philosophies was a fixture of the European
   culture of that time. The term Hutu originally referred to the
   agricultural-based Bantu-speaking peoples that moved into present day
   Rwanda and Burundi from the West, and the term Tutsi referred to
   Northeastern cattle-based peoples that migrated into the region later.
   The terms described a person's economic class; individuals who owned
   roughly 10 or more cattle were considered Tutsi, and those with fewer
   were considered Hutu, regardless of ancestral history. This was not a
   strict line but a general rule of thumb, and one could move from Hutu
   to Tutsi and vice versa.

   The Belgians introduced a racialized system; European-like features
   such as fairer skin, ample height, narrow noses were seen as more
   ideally Hamitic, and belonged to those people closest to Tutsi in
   ancestry, who were thus given power amongst the colonized peoples.
   Identity cards were issued based on this philosophy.

Post-colonial Africa

   Today, Africa contains 53 independent and sovereign countries, which
   mostly still have the borders drawn during the era of European
   colonialism.

   Since colonialism, African states have frequently been hampered by
   instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast
   majority of African nations are republics that operate under some form
   of the presidential system of rule. Few nations in Africa have been
   able to sustain democratic governments, and many have instead cycled
   through a series of brutal coups and military dictatorships. A number
   of Africa's post-colonial political leaders were military generals who
   were poorly educated and ignorant on matters of governance. Great
   instability, however, was mainly the result of marginalization of other
   ethnic groups and graft under these leaders. For political gain, many
   leaders fanned ethnic conflicts that had been exacerbated, or even
   created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the military was
   perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain
   order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the 1970s and early
   1980s. During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Africa
   had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations. Border and
   territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed
   borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.

   Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, as
   well as the policies of the International Monetary Fund, also played a
   role in instability. When a country became independent for the first
   time, it was often expected to align with one of the two superpowers.
   Many countries in Northern Africa received Soviet military aid, while
   many in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the United
   States, France or both. The 1970s saw an escalation, as newly
   independent Angola and Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet
   Union and the West and South Africa sought to contain Soviet influence.
   Some countries were ruled by communist parties that sought to impose
   Soviet policies resulting in atrocities such as the Ethiopian famine of
   1985-89.

Politics

   Algeria
   Togo
   Benin
   Equatorial Guinea
   Chad
   Egypt
   Ethiopia
   Eritrea
   Cape^*
   Verde
   Libya
   Mali
   Ghana
   Côte
   d'Ivoire
   Burkina
   Faso
   Mauritania
   Morocco
   São Tomé and Príncipe^*
   Niger
   Gabon
   Nigeria
   Congo
   Somalia
   South Africa
   Namibia
   Sudan
   Tunisia
   Western
   Sahara
   Senegal
   Gambia
   Guinea
   Bissau
   Guinea
   Liberia
   Madagascar
   Cent Afr Rep
   Kenya
   Uganda
   Tanzania
   Burundi
   Rwanda
   Angola
   Saint Helena (UK)^*
   Cameroon
   Sierra
   Leone
   Lesotho
   Zambia
   Zimbabwe
   Botswana
   Mauritius*
   Réunion*
   *Comoros
   Seychelles
   Democratic
   Republic of
   the Congo
   Swaziland
   Mozambique
   Malawi
   Djibouti
   Atlantic
   Ocean
   Atlantic
   Ocean
   Indian
   Ocean
   Strait of Gibraltar
   Mediterranean Sea
   Red
   Sea

   The African Union (AU), is a federation consisting of all of Africa's
   states apart from Morocco. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa as
   its capital, on June 26, 2001. In July 2004, the capital of the African
   Union was relocated to Midrand, in the AU Constituent Republic of South
   Africa. However, the AU Commission has its headquarters at Addis Ababa.
   There is a policy in effect to decentralise the African Federation's
   institutions so that they are shared by all the states

   The African Union, not to be confused with the AU Commission, is formed
   by an Act of Union which aims to transform the African Economic
   Community, a federated commonwealth, into a state, under established
   international conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary
   government, known as the African Union Government, consisting of
   legislative, judicial and executive organs, and led by the African
   Union President and Head of State, who is also the President of the Pan
   African Parliament. A person becomes AU President by being elected to
   the PAP, and subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP.

   President Gertrude Ibengwe Mongella is the Head of State and Chief of
   Government of the African Union, by virtue of the fact that she is the
   President of the Pan African Parliament. She was elected by Parliament
   in its inaugural session in March 2004, for a term of five years. The
   PAP consists of 265 legislators, five from each constituent state of
   the African Union. Over 21% of the members of the PAP are female.

   The powers and authority of the President of the African Parliament
   derive from the Union Act, and the Protocol of the Pan African
   Parliament, as well as the inheritance of presidential authority
   stipulated by African treaties and by international treaties, including
   those subordinating the Secretary General of the OAU Secretariat (AU
   Commission) to the PAP. The government of the AU consists of all-union
   (federal), regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as
   hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs
   of the institution.

   Failed state policies, inequitable global trade practices, and the
   effects of global climate change have resulted in many widespread
   famines, and significant portions of Africa remain with distribution
   systems unable to disseminate enough food or water for the population
   to survive. What had before colonialism been the source for 90% of the
   world's gold has become the poorest continent on earth, its former
   riches enjoyed by those on other continents. The spread of disease is
   also rampant, especially the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus
   (HIV) and the associated acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS),
   which has become a deadly epidemic on the continent. Despite numerous
   hardships, there have been some signs the continent has hope for the
   future. Democratic governments seem to be spreading, though they are
   not yet the majority (The National Geographic Society claims 13 African
   nations can be considered truly democratic). Many nations have
   recognized basic human rights for all citizens and have created
   independent judiciaries.

   There are clear signs of increased networking among African
   organisations and states. In the civil war in the Democratic Republic
   of the Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries
   intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also
   Second Congo War). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated
   death toll has reached 4 million. Many observers suggest that the
   conflict played a role similar to that of World War II, after which
   European countries integrated their societies in such a way that war
   between them becomes unthinkable. Political associations such as the
   African Union offer hope for greater co-operation and peace between the
   continent's many countries. Extensive human rights abuses still occur
   in several parts of Africa, often under the oversight of the state.
   Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often as a side
   effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations have
   been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the
   Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Economy

   African Economic Community map
   Enlarge
   African Economic Community map

   Due largely to the effects of colonialism, corrupt governments and
   despotism, Africa is the world's poorest inhabited continent. According
   to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25
   ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African nations.

   While rapid growth in China and now India, and moderate growth in Latin
   America, has lifted millions beyond subsistence living, Africa has gone
   backwards in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income.
   This poverty has widespread effects, including lower life expectancy,
   violence, and instability -- factors intertwined with the continent's
   poverty.

   Some areas, notably Botswana and South Africa, have experienced
   economic success, including the opening of the Johannesburg Stock
   Exchange. This is partly due to its wealth of natural resources, being
   the world's leading producer of both gold and diamonds, and partly due
   to its well-established legal system. South Africa also has access to
   financial capital, numerous markets, skilled labor, and first world
   infrastructure in much of the country. Other African countries are
   making comparable progress, such as Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon and Egypt.

   Nigeria sits on one of the largest proven oil reserves in the world and
   has the highest population among nations in Africa, with one of the
   fastest-growing economies in the world.

   From 1995 to 2005, economic growth picked up, averaging 5% in 2005.
   However some countries experienced much higher growth (10+%) in
   particular, Angola, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, all three of which
   have recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves.

Demographics

   Africa's population has grown rapidly since the mid 1800s when vast
   tracts of Africa were depopulated by slavery. The last 40 years have
   seen a rapid increase in population, and so Africa has a relatively
   young population. In some African states people under 25 years of age
   account for 50% of the population.

   Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger-Congo family) are the
   majority in southern, central and east Africa proper. But there are
   also several Nilotic groups in East Africa, and a few remaining
   indigenous Khoisan (' San' or ' Bushmen') and Pygmy peoples in southern
   and central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking Africans also
   predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in parts of
   southern Cameroon and southern Somalia. In the Kalahari Desert of
   Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San",
   closely related to, but distinct from " Hottentots") have long been
   present. The San are physically distinct from other Africans and are
   the indigenous people of southern Africa. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu
   indigenous peoples of central Africa.

   The peoples of North Africa comprise two main groups; Berber and
   Arabic-speaking peoples in the west, and Egyptians in the east. The
   Arabs who arrived in the seventh century introduced the Arabic language
   and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians, the European
   Greeks, Romans and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Berbers
   still make up the majority in Morocco, while they are a significant
   minority within Algeria. They are also present in Tunisia and Libya.
   The Tuareg and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal
   inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. Nubians are a
   Nilo-Saharan-speaking group (though many also speak Arabic), who
   developed an ancient civilization in northeast Africa.

   During the past century or so, small but economically important
   colonies of Lebanese and Chinese have also developed in the larger
   coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.

   Some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans,
   collectively known as " Habesha") speak Semitic languages. The Oromo
   and Somali peoples speak Cushitic languages, but some Somali clans
   trace their founding to legendary Arab founders. Sudan and Mauritania
   are divided between a mostly Arabized north and a native African south
   (although the "Arabs" of Sudan clearly have a predominantly native
   African ancestry themselves). Some areas of East Africa, particularly
   the island of Zanzibar and the Kenyan island of Lamu, received Arab
   Muslim and Southwest Asian settlers and merchants throughout the Middle
   Ages and in antiquity.

   Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans such as the Portuguese
   and Dutch began to establish trading posts and forts along the coasts
   of western and southern Africa. Eventually, a large number of Dutch
   augmented by French Huguenots and Germans settled in what is today
   South Africa. Their descendants, the Afrikaners and the Coloureds, are
   the largest European-descended groups in Africa today. In the
   nineteenth century, a second phase of colonization brought a large
   number of French and British settlers to Africa. The Portuguese settled
   mainly in Angola, but also in Mozambique. The French settled in large
   numbers in Algeria where they became known collectively as pieds-noirs,
   and on a smaller scale in other areas of North and West Africa as well
   as in Madagascar. The British settled chiefly in South Africa as well
   as the colony of Rhodesia, and in the highlands of what is now Kenya.
   Germans settled in what is now Tanzania and Namibia, and there is still
   a population of German-speaking white Namibians. Smaller numbers of
   European soldiers, businessmen, and officials also established
   themselves in administrative centers such as Nairobi and Dakar.
   Decolonization during the 1960s often resulted in the mass emigration
   of European-descended settlers out of Africa — especially from Algeria,
   Angola, Kenya and Rhodesia. However, in South Africa and Namibia, the
   white minority remained politically dominant after independence from
   Europe, and a significant population of Europeans remained in these two
   countries even after democracy was finally instituted at the end of the
   Cold War. South Africa has also become the preferred destination of
   white Anglo-Zimbabweans, and of migrants from all over southern Africa.

   European colonization also brought sizeable groups of Asians,
   particularly people from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies.
   Large Indian communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones
   are present in Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and east
   African countries. The large Indian community in Uganda was expelled by
   the dictator Idi Amin in 1972, though many have since returned. The
   islands in the Indian Ocean are also populated primarily by people of
   Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and Europeans. The Malagasy
   people of Madagascar are a Malay people, but those along the coast are
   generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and European origins. Malay
   and Indian ancestries are also important components in the group of
   people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with origins in
   two or more races and continents).

Languages

   Map showing the distribution of African language families and some
   major African languages. Afro-Asiatic extends from the Sahel to
   Southwest Asia. Niger-Congo is divided to show the size of the Bantu
   sub-family.
   Enlarge
   Map showing the distribution of African language families and some
   major African languages. Afro-Asiatic extends from the Sahel to
   Southwest Asia. Niger-Congo is divided to show the size of the Bantu
   sub-family.
   Many African countries today have more than one "official language".
   Enlarge
   Many African countries today have more than one "official language".

   By most estimates, Africa contains well over a thousand languages, some
   have estimated it to be over two thousand languages (most of African
   rather than European origin). Africa is the most polyglot continent in
   the world; it is not rare to find individuals there who fluently speak
   not only several African languages, but one or two European ones as
   well. There are four major language families native to Africa.
     * The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240
       languages and 285 million people widespread throughout East Africa,
       North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
     * The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred
       languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are
       mainly spoken in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and northern
       Tanzania.
     * The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa
       and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms
       of different languages. A substantial number of them are the Bantu
       languages spoken in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
     * The Khoisan languages number about 50 and are spoken in Southern
       Africa by approximately 120 000 people. Many of the Khoisan
       languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered
       the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.

   Following colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official
   languages that originated outside the continent, although several
   countries nowadays also use various languages of native origin (such as
   Swahili) as their official language. In numerous countries, English and
   French are used for communication in the public sphere such as
   government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese,
   Afrikaans and Malagasy are other examples of originally non-African
   languages that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the
   public and private spheres.

Culture

   African culture is characterised by a fairly uniform system of social
   values informed by historic processes that underpin its social
   organization. The most striking feature of African culture is the
   almost uniform nature of African paralanguage, those non-verbal
   elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion.
   Like south Europeans, Africans tend to be expressive, warm and engaged.
   African paralanguage is rooted in a complex of historical relations and
   ancient spiritual beliefs that have succeeded in transcending race,
   language, politics, and the twin tragedies of slavery and colonization
   of Africa.

   The paralinguistic expressions of Africans, and the fundamental social
   aspirations, are easily identifiable and are rooted in a strong and
   deeply engrained ancient philosophy that requires their continuation
   and augmentation even in the face of massive social and geopolitical
   shifts caused by demographic change.

   Modern African culture is characterised by conflicted responses to Arab
   imperialism and European imperialism. Increasingly, beginning in the
   late 1990s, Africans are reasserting their identity. In North Africa
   especially the rejection of the label Arab or European has resulted in
   an upsurge of demands for special protection of indigenous Amazigh
   languages and culture in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. The
   emergence of Pan-Africanism since the fall of apartheid has heightened
   calls for a renewed sense of African identity. In South Africa,
   intellectuals from settler communities of European descent increasingly
   identify as African for cultural rather than geographical or racial
   reasons. Famously, some have undergone ritual ceremonies to become
   members of the Zulu or other community.

   The similarities between the cultures of different ethnic and national
   groups give Africa the appearance of overlapping cultures. In fact the
   nature of the African culture consists of a continuum of related
   spiritual elements. Where cultural fault-lines do occur, they tend to
   decay rapidly into the more robust and stimulating elements that
   defined the African spiritualism. Cultural fault-lines, however, are
   evident between those Africans who have assimilated Western or
   Occidental lifestyles and Africans observing or practicing old African
   ethics and traditions.

   Much of the traditional African culture has become impoverished as a
   result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and neo-colonial
   regimes. There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and
   revalourize African traditional culture, under such movements as the
   African Renaissance led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism led by an
   influential group of scholars including Molefi Asante, as well as the
   increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through
   decriminalization of Voudoo and other forms of spirituality. In recent
   years African traditional culture has become synonymous with rural
   poverty and subsistence farming.

   Urban culture in Africa, now associated with Western values, is a great
   contrast from traditional African urban culture which was once rich and
   enviable even by modern Western standards. African cities such as
   Loango, M'banza Congo, Timbuktu, Thebes, Meroe and others had served as
   the world's most affluent urban and industrial centers, clean,
   well-laid out, and full of universities, libraries, and temples. This
   image of traditional African urban living is in deep contrast to
   European cities that were unclean, crowded and
   disorganised...characteristics that they have retained for the most
   part.

   The main and most enduring cultural fault-line in Africa is the divide
   between traditional pastoralists and agriculturalists. The divide is
   not, and never was based on economic competition, but rather on the
   colonial racial policy that identified pastoralists as constituting a
   different race from agriculturalists, and enforcing a form of apartheid
   between the two cultures beginning in the 1880s and lasting until the
   1960s. Although European colonial powers were largely industrial, many
   of the administrators and philosophers, whose writings provided
   rationale for colonialism, applied quasi-scientific eugenics policies
   and racist politics on Africans in experiments of misguided social
   engineering.

   Most of the racial recategorization of Africans to fit European
   stereotypes was contradictory and incoherent. However, because their
   legalism and laws that emanated from these policies were backed by
   police force, the scientific establishment and economic power, Africans
   reacted by either conforming to the new rules, or rejecting them in
   favour of Pan-Africanism. All across Africa communities and individuals
   were measured by colonial eugenics boards and reassigned identities and
   ethnicities based on vague science. The schools taught that in general
   Africans who resembled Europeans in some physical or cultural aspect
   were superior to other Africans and deserved more privileges. This
   caused animosity, incited by other Europeans - socialists and
   communists - who identified Africans according to dubious classes also
   modelled on European concerns.

   The easiest way to divide Africans was along economic lines.
   Pastoralists, agriculturalists, hunter-gatherers and Westernised
   Africans, all formed distinctly identifiable cultures each of which
   came to play a different and disfiguring role in Africa's modern
   politics. The Westernised Africans, specifically Senegalese and
   Sudanese Nubians from urban centers such as Dakar and Khartoum, were
   used to serve as the bulk of colonial troops against the rural
   Africans. Pastoralists were radicalised by the wholesale confiscation
   of grazing lands in favour of plantations. Agriculturalists came into
   conflict for land and water with pastoralists after the traditional
   sharing arrangements had been destroyed by colonial policies.

   In addition, a growing body of speculative anthropology and race
   science made false claims about the superiority and inferiority of
   Africans with different cultural and economic backgrounds. The vast
   majority of the scholarship on Africa was extraneous and catered to the
   demand for exotic and outlandish representations of Africa. The
   enforcement of the government decrees and policies tended to produce
   effects that confirmed the prejudices of the European colonialists.
   75,000 year old Nassarius shell beads found in Blombos Cave, South
   Africa
   Enlarge
   75,000 year old Nassarius shell beads found in Blombos Cave, South
   Africa

   African art and architecture reflect the diversity of African cultures.
   The oldest existing examples of art from Africa are 75,000 year old
   beads made from Nassarius shells that were found in Blombos Cave. The
   Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest architectural
   accomplishment for 4,000 years until the creation of the Eiffel Tower.
   The Ethiopian complex of monolithic churches at Lalibela, of which the
   Church of St. George is representative, is regarded as another marvel
   of engineering.

Music and dance

   The music of Africa is one of its most dynamic art forms. Egypt has
   long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the
   rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular west Africa, was
   transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern samba, blues,
   jazz, reggae, rap, and rock and roll. Modern music of the continent
   includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the
   dance rhythms of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic
   Republic of Congo. Recent developments include the emergence of African
   hip hop, in particular a form from Senegal blended with traditional
   mbalax, and Kwaito, a South African variant of house music. Afrikaans
   music, also found in South Africa, is idiosyncratic being composed
   mostly of traditional Boer music, while more recent immigrant
   communities have introduced the music of their homes to the continent.

   Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by
   oral traditions and they are distinct from the music and dance styles
   of North Africa and Southern Africa. Arab influences are visible in
   North African music and dance and in Southern Africa western influences
   are apparent due to colonization.

   Many African languages are tone languages, in which pitch level
   determines the meaning. This also finds expression in African musical
   melodies and rhythms. A variety of musical instruments are used,
   including drums (most widely used), bells, musical bow, lute, flute,
   and trumpet.

   African dances are important mode of communication and dancers use
   gestures, masks, costumes, body painting and a number of visual
   devices. With urbanization and modernization, modern African dance and
   music exhibit influences assimilated from several other cultures.

Religion

   Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs , with
   Christianity and Islam being the most widespread. Approximately 46.3%
   of all Africans are Christians and another 40.5% are Muslims. Roughly
   11.8% of Africans primarily follow indigenous African religions. A
   small number of Africans are Hindu, or have beliefs from the Judaic
   tradition. Examples of African Jews are the Beta Israel, Lemba peoples
   and the Abayudaya of Eastern Uganda.

   The indigenous Sub-Saharan African religions tend to revolve around
   animism and ancestor worship. A common thread in traditional belief
   systems was the division of the spiritual world into "helpful" and
   "harmful". Helpful spirits are usually deemed to include ancestor
   spirits that help their descendants, and powerful spirits that protect
   entire communities from natural disaster or attacks from enemies;
   whereas harmful spirits include the souls of murdered victims who were
   buried without the proper funeral rites, and spirits used by hostile
   spirit mediums to cause illness among their enemies. While the effect
   of these early forms of worship continues to have a profound influence,
   belief systems have evolved as they interact with other religions.

   The formation of the Old Kingdom of Egypt in the third millennium BCE
   marked the first known complex religious system on the continent.
   Around the ninth century BCE, Carthage (in present-day Tunisia) was
   founded by the Phoenicians, and went on to become a major cosmopolitan
   centre where deities from neighboring Egypt, Rome and the Etruscan
   city-states were worshipped. Today, many Jewish peoples also live in
   North Africa, particularly in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

   The Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Church
   officially date from the fourth century, and are thus one of the first
   established Christian churches anywhere. At first, Christian Orthodoxy
   made gains in modern-day Sudan and other neighbouring regions. However,
   after the spread of Islam, growth was slow and restricted to the
   highlands.

   Islam entered Africa as Arab Muslims conquered North Africa between 640
   and 710, beginning with Egypt. They settled in Mogadishu, Melinde,
   Mombasa, Kilwa, and Sofala, following the sea trade down the coast of
   East Africa, and diffusing through the Sahara desert into the interior
   of Africa -- following in particular the paths of Muslim traders.
   Muslims were also among the Asian peoples who later settled in
   British-ruled Africa.

   Many Sub-Saharan Africans were converted to West European forms of
   Christianity during the colonial period. In the last decades of the
   twentieth century, various sects of Charismatic Christianity rapidly
   grew. A number of Roman Catholic African bishops were even mentioned as
   possible papal candidates in 2005. African Christians appear to be more
   socially conservative than their co-religionists in much of the
   industrialized world, which has quite recently led to tension within
   denominations such as the Anglican and Methodist Churches.

   The African Initiated Churches have experienced significant growth in
   the twentieth and twenty first centuries.

Territories and regions

   The countries in this table are categorised according to the scheme for
   geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are
   per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos
   are clearly indicated.

   Regions of Africa: ██ Northern Africa ██ Western Africa ██ Middle
                             Africa ██ Eastern Africa ██ Southern Africa
                                                                         Enlarge
 Regions of Africa: ██ Northern Africa ██  Western Africa ██  Middle
                             Africa ██ Eastern Africa ██ Southern Africa

                                                         Physical map of Africa.
                                                                         Enlarge
                                                         Physical map of Africa.

                                                      Satellite photo of Africa.
                                                                         Enlarge
                                                      Satellite photo of Africa.

   Name of region and
   territory, with flag Area
   (km²) Population
   ( 1 July 2002 est.) Population density
   (per km²) Capital
   Eastern Africa:
   Burundi Burundi 27,830 6,373,002 229.0 Bujumbura
   Comoros Comoros 2,170 614,382 283.1 Moroni
   Djibouti Djibouti 23,000 472,810 20.6 Djibouti
   Eritrea Eritrea 121,320 4,465,651 36.8 Asmara
   Ethiopia Ethiopia 1,127,127 67,673,031 60.0 Addis Ababa
   Kenya Kenya 582,650 31,138,735 53.4 Nairobi
   Madagascar Madagascar 587,040 16,473,477 28.1 Antananarivo
   Malawi Malawi 118,480 10,701,824 90.3 Lilongwe
   Mauritius Mauritius 2,040 1,200,206 588.3 Port Louis
   Mayotte Mayotte (France) 374 170,879 456.9 Mamoudzou
   Mozambique Mozambique 801,590 19,607,519 24.5 Maputo
   Réunion Réunion (France) 2,512 743,981 296.2 Saint-Denis
   Rwanda Rwanda 26,338 7,398,074 280.9 Kigali
   Seychelles Seychelles 455 80,098 176.0 Victoria
   Somalia Somalia 637,657 7,753,310 12.2 Mogadishu
   Tanzania Tanzania 945,087 37,187,939 39.3 Dodoma
   Uganda Uganda 236,040 24,699,073 104.6 Kampala
   Zambia Zambia 752,614 9,959,037 13.2 Lusaka
   Zimbabwe Zimbabwe 390,580 11,376,676 29.1 Harare
   Middle Africa:
   Angola Angola 1,246,700 10,593,171 8.5 Luanda
   Cameroon Cameroon 475,440 16,184,748 34.0 Yaoundé
   Central African Republic Central African Republic 622,984 3,642,739 5.8
   Bangui
   Chad Chad 1,284,000 8,997,237 7.0 N'Djamena
   Republic of the Congo Congo 342,000 2,958,448 8.7 Brazzaville
   Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo
   2,345,410 55,225,478 23.5 Kinshasa
   Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea 28,051 498,144 17.8 Malabo
   Gabon Gabon 267,667 1,233,353 4.6 Libreville
   São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe 1,001 170,372 170.2 São
   Tomé
   Northern Africa:
   Algeria Algeria 2,381,740 32,277,942 13.6 Algiers
   Egypt Egypt 1,001,450 70,712,345 70.6 Cairo
   Libya Libya 1,759,540 5,368,585 3.1 Tripoli
   Morocco Morocco 446,550 31,167,783 69.8 Rabat
   Sudan Sudan 2,505,810 37,090,298 14.8 Khartoum
   Tunisia Tunisia 163,610 9,815,644 60.0 Tunis
   Western Sahara Western Sahara 266,000 256,177 1.0 El Aaiún
   Southern Europe dependencies in Northern Africa:
   Canary Islands (Spain) 7,492 1,694,477 226.2 Las Palmas de Gran
   Canaria,
   Santa Cruz de Tenerife
   Ceuta Ceuta (Spain) 20 71,505 3,575.2 —
   Madeira Islands (Portugal) 797 245,000 307.4 Funchal
   Melilla Melilla (Spain) 12 66,411 5,534.2 —
   Southern Africa:
   Botswana Botswana 600,370 1,591,232 2.7 Gaborone
   Lesotho Lesotho 30,355 2,207,954 72.7 Maseru
   Namibia Namibia 825,418 1,820,916 2.2 Windhoek
   South Africa South Africa 1,219,912 43,647,658 35.8 Bloemfontein, Cape
   Town, Pretoria
   Swaziland Swaziland 17,363 1,123,605 64.7 Mbabane
   Western Africa:
   Benin Benin 112,620 6,787,625 60.3 Porto-Novo
   Burkina Faso Burkina Faso 274,200 12,603,185 46.0 Ouagadougou
   Cape Verde Cape Verde 4,033 408,760 101.4 Praia
   Côte d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire 322,460 16,804,784 52.1 Abidjan,
   Yamoussoukro
   The Gambia Gambia 11,300 1,455,842 128.8 Banjul
   Ghana Ghana 239,460 20,244,154 84.5 Accra
   Guinea Guinea 245,857 7,775,065 31.6 Conakry
   Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau 36,120 1,345,479 37.3 Bissau
   Liberia Liberia 111,370 3,288,198 29.5 Monrovia
   Mali Mali 1,240,000 11,340,480 9.1 Bamako
   Mauritania Mauritania 1,030,700 2,828,858 2.7 Nouakchott
   Niger Niger 1,267,000 10,639,744 8.4 Niamey
   Nigeria Nigeria 923,768 129,934,911 140.7 Abuja
   Saint Helena Saint Helena (UK) 410 7,317 17.8 Jamestown
   Senegal Senegal 196,190 10,589,571 54.0 Dakar
   Sierra Leone Sierra Leone 71,740 5,614,743 78.3 Freetown
   Togo Togo 56,785 5,285,501 93.1 Lomé
   Total 30,368,609 843,705,143 27.8

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