Africa Zone Group III – Play-offs
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Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's
human population Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the
median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...
age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, tribalism, colonialism, the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, neocolonialism, lack of democracy, and corruption. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states, eight
territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...
and two ''de facto'' independent states with limited or no recognition. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa. Africa straddles the
equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
and the prime meridian. It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the
Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, the northern tip of
Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
, and the entire territories of Morocco, Ceuta,
Melilla Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was par ...
, and Tunisia which in turn are located above the tropic of Cancer, in the
northern temperate zone In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...
. In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia, southern Botswana, great parts of South Africa, the entire territories of
Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
and
Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
and the southern tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn, in the southern temperate zone. Africa is highly biodiverse; it is the continent with the largest number of
megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...
species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. However, Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity and pollution. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa. The UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...
has identified Africa as the continent most vulnerable to climate change.Niang, I., O.C. Ruppel, M.A. Abdrabo, A. Essel, C. Lennard, J. Padgham, and P. Urquhart, 2014: Africa. In: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part B: Regional Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change arros, V.R., C.B. Field, D.J. Dokken et al. (eds.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1199–1265. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap22_FINAL.pdf The history of Africa is long, complex, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community. Africa, particularly Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans and the
Hominidae The Hominidae (), whose members are known as the great apes or hominids (), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: '' Pongo'' (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); ''Gorilla'' (the ea ...
clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...
( great apes). The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, including ''
Sahelanthropus tchadensis ''Sahelanthropus tchadensis'' is an extinct species of the Homininae (African apes) dated to about , during the Miocene epoch. The species, and its genus ''Sahelanthropus'', was announced in 2002, based mainly on a partial cranium, nicknamed ''T ...
'', ''
Australopithecus africanus ''Australopithecus africanus'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfonte ...
'', ''
A. afarensis ''Australopithecus afarensis'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago (mya) in the Pliocene of East Africa. The first fossils were discovered in the 1930s, but major fossil finds would not ta ...
'', ''
Homo erectus ''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
'', '' H. habilis'' and ''
H. ergaster ''Homo ergaster'' is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Africa in the Early Pleistocene. Whether ''H. ergaster'' constitutes a species of its own or should be subsumed into ''H. erectus'' is an ongoing and unres ...
''— the earliest '' Homo sapiens'' (modern human) remains, found in Ethiopia, South Africa, and Morocco, date to circa 233,000, 259,000, and 300,000 years ago respectively, and ''Homo sapiens'' is believed to have originated in Africa around 350,000–260,000 years ago. Africa is also considered by anthropologists to be the most genetically diverse continent as a result of being the longest inhabited. Early human civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Carthage emerged in North Africa. Following a subsequent long and complex history of civilizations, migration and trade, Africa hosts a large diversity of ethnicities, cultures and
languages Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
. The last 400 years have witnessed an increasing European influence on the continent. Starting in the 16th century, this was driven by trade, including the
Trans-Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...
, which created large
African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...
populations in the Americas. From the
late 19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 (Roman numerals, MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (Roman numerals, MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social ...
to the early 20th century, European nations colonized almost all of Africa, reaching a point when only Ethiopia and
Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
were independent polities. Most present states in Africa emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II.


Etymology

''
Afri (singular ) was a Latin name for the inhabitants of Africa, referring in its widest sense to all the lands south of the Mediterranean ( Ancient Libya). Latin speakers at first used as an adjective, meaning "of Africa". As a substantive, it den ...
'' was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of then-known northern Africa to the west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean (
Ancient Libya The Latin name ''Libya'' (from Greek Λιβύη: ''Libyē'', which came from Berber: ''Libu'') referred to North Africa during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. Berbers occupied the area for thousands of years before the recording of histor ...
). This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern
Berbers , image = File:Berber_flag.svg , caption = The Berber ethnic flag , population = 36 million , region1 = Morocco , pop1 = 14 million to 18 million , region2 = Algeria , pop2 ...
; see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician word ' meaning "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from the
Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
word ''ifri'' (plural ''ifran'') meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and
Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...
, a Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as ''Ifrane'') in northwestern Libya, as well as the city of Ifrane in Morocco. Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province it then named '' Africa Proconsularis'', following its defeat of the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Latin suffix '' -ica'' can sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g., in '' Celtica'' from ''
Celtae The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
'', as used by
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
). The later Muslim region of
Ifriqiya Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna ( ar, المغرب الأدنى), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (today's western Libya). It included all of what had previously ...
, following its conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire's '' Exarchatus Africae'', also preserved a form of the name. According to the Romans, Africa lies 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. Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa": * The 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (''Ant. 1.15'') asserted that it was named for
Epher Epher*Ephera'im, Effrain* ( ''ʿĒp̄er'') was a grandson of Abraham, according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, Jewish historian Flavius Josephus claimed, had invaded Libya. Josephus also claimed that Epher's name was the etymological root of the ...
, grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya. *
Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
in his 7th-century '' Etymologiae'' XIV.5.2. suggests "Africa comes from the Latin ''aprica'', meaning "sunny". * Massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian ''af-rui-ka'', meaning "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and the "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace." * Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposed linking the Latin word with ''africus'' "south wind", which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally "rainy wind". * Robert R. Stieglitz of Rutgers University in 1984 proposed: "The name Africa, derived from the Latin *Aphir-ic-a, is cognate to Hebrew Ophir rich'" *
Ibn Khallikan Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān) ( ar, أحمد بن محمد بن إبراهيم بن أبي بكر ابن خلكان; 1211 – 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a 13th century Shafi'i Islamic scholar w ...
and some other historians claim that the name of Africa came from a
Himyarite The Himyarite Kingdom ( ar, مملكة حِمْيَر, Mamlakat Ḥimyar, he, ממלכת חִמְיָר), or Himyar ( ar, حِمْيَر, ''Ḥimyar'', / 𐩹𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬) ( fl. 110 BCE–520s CE), historically referred to as the Homerit ...
king called Afrikin ibn Kais ibn Saifi also called "Afrikus son of Abraham" who subdued Ifriqiya. * Arabic ''afrīqā'' (feminine noun) and ''ifrīqiyā'', now usually pronounced ''afrīqiyā'' (feminine) 'Africa', from ''‘afara'' = ''‘ain'', not ''’alif'''to be dusty' from ''‘afar'' 'dust, powder' and ''‘afir'' 'dried, dried up by the sun, withered' and ''‘affara'' 'to dry in the sun on hot sand' or 'to sprinkle with dust'. * Possibly Phoenician ''faraqa'' in the sense of 'colony, separation'.


History


Prehistory

Africa is considered by most
paleoanthropologists Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship ...
to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the Human species originating from the continent. During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago (BP=before present). Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern man, such as '' Australopithecus afarensis''
radiometrically dated Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares t ...
to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP, ''
Paranthropus boisei ''Paranthropus boisei'' is a species of australopithecine from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2.5 to 1.15 million years ago. The holotype specimen, OH 5, was discovered by palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey in 1959, and described by h ...
'' (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP) and '' Homo ergaster'' (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered. After the evolution of '' Homo sapiens'' approximately 350,000 to 260,000 years BP in Africa, the continent was mainly populated by groups of
hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
s. These first modern humans left Africa and populated the rest of the globe during the Out of Africa II migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across Bab-el-Mandeb over the Red Sea, the
Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar ( ar, مضيق جبل طارق, Maḍīq Jabal Ṭāriq; es, Estrecho de Gibraltar, Archaic: Pillars of Hercules), also known as the Straits of Gibraltar, is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Medi ...
in Morocco, or the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. Other migrations of modern humans within the African continent have been dated to that time, with evidence of early human settlement found in Southern Africa, Southeast Africa, North Africa, and the
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
.


Emergence of civilization

The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions. At the end of the Ice ages, estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
, with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 BC, the Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500 BC, due to a tilt in the earth's orbit, the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification. 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 this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia. The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia. Between 10,000 and 9,000 BC, pottery was independently invented in the region of Mali in the savannah of West Africa. Simon Bradley, ''A Swiss-led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC''
, SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), 18 January 2007
In the
steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...
s and savannahs of the Sahara and
Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
in Northern West Africa, people possibly ancestral to modern
Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...
and Mandé cultures started to collect wild
millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
, around 8000 to 6000 BC. Later, gourds, watermelons, castor beans, and cotton were also collected. Sorghum was first domesticated in Eastern
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
around 4000 BC, in one of the earliest instances of agriculture in human history. Its cultivation would gradually spread across Africa, before spreading to India around 2000 BC.
Sorghum ''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...
was first domesticated in the . They also started making pottery and built stone settlements (e.g.,
Tichitt Tichit or Tichitt ( ber, Ticit, ar, تيشيت) is a partly abandoned village at the foot of the Tagant Plateau in central southern Mauritania that is known for its vernacular architecture. The main agriculture in Tichit is date farming, and the ...
,
Oualata , settlement_type = Communes of Mauritania, Commune and town , image_skyline = Oualata 03.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = View of the town looking in a southeas ...
). Fishing, using bone-tipped harpoons, became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the increased rains. In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in an expanding
rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9,000 and 5,000 BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Black-eyed peas and
voandzeia ''Vigna'' is a genus of plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution.Aitawade, M. M., et al. (2012)Section ''Ceratotropis'' of subgenus ''Ceratotropis'' of ''Vigna'' (Leguminosae–Papilionoideae) in India with a new ...
(African groundnuts), were domesticated, followed by okra and
kola nut The term kola nut usually refers to the seeds of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and now usually subsumed in the mallow family Malvaceae (as subfamily Sterculioideae). These cola ...
s. Since most of the plants grew in the forest, the Niger–Congo speakers invented polished stone axes for clearing forest. Around 4000 BC, the Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace.O'Brien, Patrick K. ed. (2005) ''Oxford Atlas of World History''. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 22–23. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing
desertification Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. It is the spread of arid areas caused by ...
. This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and encouraged migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa. During the first millennium BC, a reduction in wild grain populations related to changing climate conditions facilitated the expansion of farming communities and the rapid adoption of rice cultivation around the Niger River. By the first millennium BC,
ironworking Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...
had been introduced in Northern Africa. Around that time it also became established in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, either through independent invention there or diffusion from the northBreunig, Peter. 2014. Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context: p. 21. and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years,Fagg, Bernard. 1969. Recent work in west Africa: New light on the Nok culture. World Archaeology 1(1): 41–50. and by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa.
Ironworking Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...
was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions didn't begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date.


Early civilizations

At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt. One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC. Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day Libya and Nubia, and, according to Martin Bernal, as far north as Crete. An independent centre of civilization with trading links to Phoenicia was established by Phoenicians from Tyre on the north-west African coast at Carthage.
European exploration of Africa The geography of North Africa has been reasonably well known among Europeans since classical antiquity in Greco-Roman geography. Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) was known as either ''Libya'' or ''Africa'', while Egypt was considered part of Asia. ...
began with Ancient Greeks and Romans. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great was welcomed as a liberator in Persian-occupied Egypt. He founded Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the
Ptolemaic dynasty The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic ...
after his death. Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. The first Roman emperor native to North Africa was Septimius Severus, born in
Leptis Magna Leptis or Lepcis Magna, also known by other names Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent fil ...
in present-day Libya—his mother was Italian Roman and his father was Punic. Christianity spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia; by AD 340 at the latest, it had become the
state religion A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular state, secular, is not n ...
of the Aksumite Empire. Syro-Greek missionaries, who arrived by way of the Red Sea, were responsible for this theological development. In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic Caliphate expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while, the local Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Umayyad capital Damascus fell in the 8th century, the Islamic centre of the Mediterranean shifted from
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
to Qayrawan in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists, and philosophers. During the above-mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration. In West Africa,
Dhar Tichitt Dhar Tichitt is a Neolithic archaeological site located in the southwestern region of the Sahara Desert, in Mauritania. It is one of several settlement locations along the sandstone cliffs in the area. Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Néma, an ...
and
Oualata , settlement_type = Communes of Mauritania, Commune and town , image_skyline = Oualata 03.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = View of the town looking in a southeas ...
in present-day
Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
figure prominently among the early urban centers, dated to 2,000 BC. About 500 stone settlements litter the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found by Augustin Holl that the Soninke of the Mandé peoples were likely responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh. Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent
Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, ...
. Djenné-Djenno (in present-day Mali) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable Iron Age population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC Djenné-Djenno had become a large, thriving market town. Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1,500 BC, the Nok culture developed on the Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in terracotta, including human heads and human figures, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC, and possibly earlier, they were smelting iron. By 200 AD the Nok culture had vanished. and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
kingdom of Ife and those of the Bini kingdom of Benin are suggested to be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nok culture.


Ninth to eighteenth centuries

Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities characterized by many different sorts of political organization 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 peoples of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in the
Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...
; the large
Sahelian kingdoms The Sahelian kingdoms were a series of centralized kingdoms or empires that were centered on the Sahel, the area of grasslands south of the Sahara, from the 8th century to the 19th. The wealth of the states came from controlling the trade routes ...
; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the Akan;
Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...
,
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
, and
Igbo people The Igbo people ( , ; also spelled Ibo" and formerly also ''Iboe'', ''Ebo'', ''Eboe'', * * * ''Eboans'', ''Heebo''; natively ) are an ethnic group in Nigeria. They are primarily found in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States. A ...
in West Africa; and the
Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...
coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa. By the ninth century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana,
Gao Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...
, and the Kanem-Bornu Empire. Ghana declined in the eleventh century, but was succeeded by the
Mali Empire The Mali Empire ( Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or Manden; ar, مالي, Māl ...
which consolidated much of western Sudan in the thirteenth century. Kanem accepted Islam in the eleventh century. In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew with little influence from the
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
north. The
Kingdom of Nri The Kingdom of Nri () was a medieval polity located in what is now Nigeria. The kingdom existed as a sphere of religious and political influence over a third of Igboland, and was administered by a priest-king called an ''Eze Nri''. The ''Eze Nri ...
was established around the ninth century and was one of the first. It is also one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeria and was ruled by the
Eze Nri The following is a list of rulers of Nri. The title of the ruler of Nri is ''Eze Nri''. He held religious and political authority over the Kingdom of Nri. The Nri culture is believed to stretch back to at least the 13th century, with a traditiona ...
. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the ninth century. The
Kingdom of Ife Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba ('king' or 'ruler' in the
Yoruba language Yoruba (, ; Yor. '; Ajami script, Ajami: ) is a language spoken in West Africa, primarily in South West (Nigeria), Southwestern Middle Belt, and Central Nigeria. It is spoken by the Ethnic group, ethnic Yoruba people. The number of Yoruba speake ...
), called the ''Ooni of Ife''. Ife was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in West Africa, and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted at the Oyo Empire, where its obas or kings, called the ''Alaafins of Oyo'', once controlled a large number of other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms; the Fon ''Kingdom of
Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...
'' was one of the non-Yoruba domains under Oyo control. The
Almoravids The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...
were a
Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century. The Banu Hilal and
Banu Ma'qil The Banu Ma'qil ( ar, بنو معقل) was an Arab nomadic tribe that originated in South Arabia. The tribe emigrated to the Maghreb region of North Africa with the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym tribes in the 11th century. They mainly settled in and ...
were a collection of Arab
Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
tribes from the
Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate ...
who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized, and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam. Following the breakup of Mali, a local leader named
Sonni Ali Sunni Ali, also known as Si Ali, Sunni Ali Ber (Ber meaning "the Great"), was born in Ali Kolon. He reigned from about 1464 to 1492. Sunni Ali was the first king of the Songhai Empire, located in Africa and the 15th ruler of the Sunni dynasty. ...
(1464–1492) founded the
Songhai Empire The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical ...
in the region of middle Niger and the western
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–1528) made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought to Gao Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship.Lapidus, Ira M. (1988) ''A History of Islamic Societies'', Cambridge. By the eleventh century, some Hausa states – such as Kano,
jigawa Jigawa State (Hausa: ''Jihar Jigawa'' (Fula Leydi Jigawa 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤮𞤤 𞤶𞤭𞤺𞤢𞤱𞤢) is one of the 36 states of Nigeria, located in the northern region of the country. Created in 1991 from the northeastern-most region of Kan ...
, Katsina, and
Gobir Gobir (Demonym: ''Gobirawa'') was a city-state in what is now Nigeria. Founded by the Hausa in the 11th century, Gobir was one of the seven original kingdoms of Hausaland, and continued under Hausa rule for nearly 700 years. Its capital was the ci ...
– had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans, and the manufacture of goods. Until the fifteenth century, these small states were on the periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east.


Height of the slave trade

Slavery had long been practiced in Africa. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World. In addition, more than 1 million Europeans were captured by
Barbary pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli. This area was known i ...
and sold as slaves in North Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries. 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 British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the
Asante Confederacy The Asante Empire ( Asante Twi: ), today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted between 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana as well as parts of ...
, the
Kingdom of Dahomey The Kingdom of Dahomey () was a West African kingdom located within present-day Benin that existed from approximately 1600 until 1904. Dahomey developed on the Abomey Plateau amongst the Fon people in the early 17th century and became a region ...
, 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 Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from ...
,
cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.


Colonialism


Independence struggles

Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957), becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Most of the rest of the continent became independent over the next decade. Portugal's overseas presence in
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
(most notably in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon.
Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith, but was not internationally recognized as an independent state (as Zimbabwe) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war. Although South Africa was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority through a system of racial segregation known as apartheid until 1994.


Post-colonial Africa

Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which have borders that were drawn during the era of European colonialism. Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the
presidential system A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separati ...
of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis—per the criteria laid out by Lührmann et al. (2018), only Botswana and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several coups or periods of
military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
. Between 1990 and 2018, though, the continent as a whole has trended towards more democratic governance. Upon independence an overwhelming majority of Africans lived in
extreme poverty Extreme poverty, deep poverty, abject poverty, absolute poverty, destitution, or penury, is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, includi ...
. The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under
colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 a ...
rule, along with political instability. With limited financial resources or access to global markets, relatively stable countries such as Kenya still experienced only very slow economic development. Only a handful of African countries succeeded in obtaining rapid economic growth prior to 1990. Exceptions include Libya and Equatorial Guinea, both of which possess large oil reserves. Instability throughout the continent after decolonization resulted primarily from marginalization of ethnic groups, and
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
. In pursuit of personal political gain, many leaders deliberately promoted ethnic conflicts, some of which had originated during the colonial period, such as from the grouping of multiple unrelated ethnic groups into a single colony, the splitting of a distinct ethnic group between multiple colonies, or existing conflicts being exacerbated by colonial rule (for instance, the preferential treatment given to ethnic Hutus over Tutsis in Rwanda during German and Belgian rule). Faced with increasingly frequent and severe violence, military rule was widely accepted by the population of many countries as means to maintain order, and during the 1970s and 1980s a majority of African countries were controlled by
military dictatorships A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...
. Territorial disputes between nations and rebellions by groups seeking independence were also common in independent African states. The most devastating of these was the Nigerian Civil War, fought between government forces and an Igbo separatist republic, which resulted in a famine that killed 1-2 million people. Two civil wars in Sudan,
the first The First may refer to: * ''The First'' (album), the first Japanese studio album by South Korean boy group Shinee * ''The First'' (musical), a musical with a book by critic Joel Siegel * The First (TV channel), an American conservative opinion ne ...
lasting from 1955 to 1972 and the second from 1983 to 2005 collectively killed around 3 million. Both were fought primarily on ethnic and religious lines.
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union also contributed to instability. Both the Soviet Union and the United States offered considerable incentives to African political and military leaders who aligned themselves with the superpowers' foreign policy. As an example, during the Angolan Civil War, the Soviet and Cuban aligned MPLA and the American aligned UNITA received the vast majority of their military and political support from these countries. Many African countries became highly dependent on foreign aid. The sudden loss of both Soviet and American aid at the end of the Cold War and
fall of the USSR The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
resulted in severe economic and political turmoil in the countries most dependent on foreign support. There was a major famine in Ethiopia between 1983 and 1985, killing up to 1.2 million people, which most
historians A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
attribute primarily to the forced relocation of farmworkers and seizure of grain by communist
Derg The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " c ...
government, further exacerbated by the civil war. In 1994 a genocide in Rwanda resulted in up to 800,000 deaths, added to a severe refugee crisis and fueled the rise of militia groups in neighboring countries. This contributed to the outbreak of the
first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and
second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
Congo Wars, which were the most devastating military conflicts in modern Africa, with up to 5.5 million deaths, making it by far the deadliest conflict in modern African history and one of the costliest wars in human history. File:African nations order of independence 1950-1993.gif, An animated map shows the order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011 File:Africa’s wars and conflicts, 1980–96.svg, Africa's wars and conflicts, 1980–96
File:Political Map of Africa.svg, Political map of Africa in 2021
Various conflicts between various insurgent groups and governments continue. Since 2003 there has been an ongoing
conflict in Darfur The War in Darfur, also nicknamed the Land Cruiser War, is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups bega ...
(Sudan) which peaked in intensity from 2003 to 2005 with notable spikes in violence in 2007 and 2013–15, killing around 300,000 people total. The
Boko Haram Insurgency The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing iss ...
primarily within Nigeria (with considerable fighting in Niger, Chad, and Cameroon as well) has killed around 350,000 people since 2009. Most African conflicts have been reduced to low-intensity conflicts as of 2022. However, the Tigray War which began in 2020 has killed an estimated 300,000-500,000 people, primarily due to
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
. Overall though, violence across Africa has greatly declined in the 21st century, with the end of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Algeria in 2002,
Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
in 2003, and
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and
Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...
in 2005. The Second Congo War, which involved 9 countries and several insurgent groups, ended in 2003. This decline in violence coincided with many countries abandoning communist-style command economies and opening up for market reforms, which over the course of the 1990s and 2000s promoted the establishment of permanent, peaceful trade between neighboring countries (see
Capitalist peace The capitalist peace, or capitalist peace theory, or commercial peace, posits that market openness contributes to more peaceful behavior among states, and that developed market-oriented economies are less likely to engage in conflict with one anoth ...
). Improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations, mainly from China, which further spurred economic growth. Between 2000 and 2014, annual GDP growth in Sub-Saharan Africa averaged 5.02%, doubling its total GDP from $811 Billion to $1.63 Trillion (Constant 2015 USD). North Africa experienced comparable growth rates. A significant part of this growth can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone. While several individuals countries have maintained high growth rates, since 2014 overall growth has considerably slowed, primarily as a result of falling commodity prices, continued lack of
industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
, and epidemics of
Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...
and COVID-19.


Geology, geography, ecology and environment

Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. 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 The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
), wide. (
Geopolitically Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...
, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.) The coastline is long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of . From the most northerly point,
Ras ben Sakka Ras ben Sakka (Arabic for "Cape Ben Sakka"), the tip of Cape Angela in northern Tunisia, is the northernmost point of the African continent. It is located from Bizerte and to the northeast of Ichkeul Lake World Heritage Site. It is located ...
in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately .
Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, is a distance of approximately to
Ras Hafun Ras Hafun ( so, Ras Xaafuun, ar, رأس حـافـون, it, Capo Hafun), also known as Cape Hafun, is a promontory in the northeastern Bari region of Somalia. Jutting out into the Guardafui Channel, it constitutes the easternmost point in Afric ...
, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection that neighbours Cape Guardafui, the tip of the Horn of Africa.(1998) ''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (Index)'', Merriam-Webster, pp. 10–11. Africa's largest country is Algeria, and its smallest country is Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.Hoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A–Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publications. p. 11. The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.


African plate


Climate

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to
subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Generally, ...
on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily
desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
, or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence, where vegetation patterns such as
sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
and
steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...
dominate. Africa is the hottest continent on Earth and 60% of the entire land surface consists of drylands and deserts."Africa: Environmental Atlas, 06/17/08."African Studies Center
, University of Pennsylvania. Accessed June 2011.
The record for the highest-ever recorded temperature, in Libya in 1922 (), was discredited in 2013. (The 136 °F (57.8 °C), claimed by 'Aziziya, Libya, on 13 September 1922, has been officially deemed invalid by the World Meteorological Organization.)


Ecology and biodiversity

Africa has over 3,000
protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
s, with 198 marine protected areas, 50 biosphere reserves, and 80 wetlands reserves. Significant habitat destruction, increases in human population and poaching are reducing Africa's biological diversity and arable land. Human encroachment, civil unrest and the introduction of non-native species threaten biodiversity in Africa. This has been exacerbated by administrative problems, inadequate personnel and funding problems. Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme ( UNEP). According to the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center, 31% of Africa's pasture lands and 19% of its forests and woodlands are classified as degraded, and Africa is losing over four million hectares of forest per year, which is twice the average deforestation rate for the rest of the world. Some sources claim that approximately 90% of the original, virgin forests in West Africa have been destroyed. Over 90% of Madagascar's original forests have been destroyed since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago. About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from soil degradation.


Environmental issues


Water


Climate change


Fauna

Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of freedom" of wild animal populations and diversity, with wild populations of large carnivores (such as lions,
hyena Hyenas, or hyaenas (from Ancient Greek , ), are feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae . With only four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the Carnivora and one of the smallest in the clas ...
s, and cheetahs) and
herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...
s (such as buffalo, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of "jungle" animals including snakes and primates and aquatic life such as crocodiles and
amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...
s. In addition, Africa has the largest number of
megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...
species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.


Politics


African Union

The
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
(AU) is a
continental union A continental union is a regional organization which facilitates pan-continental integration. Continental unions vary from collaborative intergovernmental organizations, to supranational politico- economic unions. Continental unions are a relativ ...
consisting of 55
member states A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...
. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as its headquarters, on 26 June 2001. The union was officially established on 9 July 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In July 2004, the African Union's
Pan-African Parliament The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union. It held its inaugural session in March 2004. The Parliament exercises oversight, and has advisory and consultative powers, ha ...
(PAP) was relocated to Midrand, in South Africa, but the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights remained in Addis Ababa. The African Union, not to be confused with the
AU Commission Au, AU, au or a.u. may refer to: Science and technology Computing * .au, the internet country code for Australia * Au file format, Sun Microsystems' audio format * Audio Units, a system level plug-in architecture from Apple Computer * Adobe Audi ...
, is formed by the Constitutive Act of the African 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. It is led by the African Union President and Head of State, who is also the President of the
Pan-African Parliament The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union. It held its inaugural session in March 2004. The Parliament exercises oversight, and has advisory and consultative powers, ha ...
. A person becomes AU President by being elected to the PAP, and subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP. The powers and authority of the President of the African Parliament derive from the Constitutive 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, regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution. 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 Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
,
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
, Zimbabwe, and
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
.


Boundary conflicts


Economy

Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and least-developed continent (other than Antarctica), the result of a variety of causes that may include corrupt governments that have often committed serious human rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, low self-esteem, lack of access to foreign capital, legacies of colonialism, the
slave Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
trade, and the Cold War, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from
guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...
to genocide). Its total nominal GDP remains behind that of the United States, China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and France. According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 24 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African.
Poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 81% of the
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) per day in 2005, compared with 86% for India. Sub-Saharan Africa is the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty ($1.25 per day); some 50% of the population living in poverty in 1981 (200 million people), a figure that rose to 58% in 1996 before dropping to 50% in 2005 (380 million people). The average poor person in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to live on only 70 cents per day, and was poorer in 2003 than in 1973, indicating increasing poverty in some areas. Some of it is attributed to unsuccessful economic liberalization programmes spearheaded by foreign companies and governments, but other studies have cited bad domestic government policies more than external factors. Africa is now at risk of being in debt once again, particularly in Sub-Saharan African countries. The last debt crisis in 2005 was resolved with help from the heavily indebted poor countries scheme (HIPC). The HIPC resulted in some positive and negative effects on the economy in Africa. About ten years after the 2005 debt crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa was resolved, Zambia fell back into debt. A small reason was due to the fall in copper prices in 2011, but the bigger reason was that a large amount of the money Zambia borrowed was wasted or pocketed by the elite. From 1995 to 2005, Africa's rate of economic growth increased, averaging 5% in 2005. Some countries experienced still higher growth rates, notably Angola,
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
and
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...
, all of which had recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded their oil extraction capacity. In a recently published analysis based on World Values Survey data, the Austrian political scientist
Arno Tausch The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber. Source and route The river originates on Monte Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a sou ...
maintained that several African countries, most notably Ghana, perform quite well on scales of mass support for democracy and the
market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
. Tausch's global value comparison based on the World Values Survey derived the following factor analytical scales: 1. The non-violent and law-abiding society 2. Democracy movement 3. Climate of personal non-violence 4. Trust in institutions 5. Happiness, good health 6. No redistributive religious fundamentalism 7. Accepting the market 8. Feminism 9. Involvement in politics 10. Optimism and engagement 11. No welfare mentality, acceptancy of the Calvinist work ethics. The spread in the performance of African countries with complete data, Tausch concluded "is really amazing". While one should be especially hopeful about the development of future democracy and the market economy in Ghana, the article suggests pessimistic tendencies for Egypt and Algeria, and especially for Africa's leading economy, South Africa. High
Human Inequality Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...
, as measured by the UNDP's
Human Development Report The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual Human Development Index report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The first HDR was launched in 1990 by the Pakistani economist ...
's
Index of Human Inequality Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...
, further impairs the development of human security. Tausch also maintains that the certain recent optimism, corresponding to economic and human rights data, emerging from Africa, is reflected in the development of a civil society. The continent is believed to hold 90% of the world's cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its
chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...
, 70% of its tantalite, 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world's coltan, a mineral used in the production of
tantalum capacitor A tantalum electrolytic capacitor is an electrolytic capacitor, a passive component of electronic circuits. It consists of a pellet of porous tantalum metal as an anode, covered by an insulating oxide layer that forms the dielectric, surrounded ...
s for electronic devices such as cell phones. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world's diamond reserves.
Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
is the world's largest exporter of bauxite. As the growth in Africa has been driven mainly by services and not manufacturing or agriculture, it has been growth without jobs and without reduction in poverty levels. In fact, the food security crisis of 2008 which took place on the heels of the global financial crisis pushed 100 million people into food insecurity. In recent years, the People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations and is Africa's largest trading partner. In 2007, Chinese companies invested a total of US$1 billion in Africa.Malia Politzer, "China and Africa: Stronger Economic Ties Mean More Migration"
, ''Migration Information Source''. August 2008
A Harvard University study led by professor Calestous Juma showed that Africa could feed itself by making the transition from importer to self-sufficiency. "African agriculture is at the crossroads; we have come to the end of a century of policies that favoured Africa's export of raw materials and importation of food. Africa is starting to focus on agricultural innovation as its new engine for regional trade and prosperity."


Demographics

Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and is consequently relatively young. In some African states, more than half the population is under 25 years of age. The total number of people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in 1990. As of , the population of Africa is estimated at billion . Africa's total population surpassing other continents is fairly recent; African population surpassed Europe in the 1990s, while the Americas was overtaken sometime around the year 2000; Africa's rapid population growth is expected to overtake the only two nations currently larger than its population, at roughly the same time – India and China's 1.4 billion people each will swap ranking around the year 2022. This increase in number of babies born in Africa compared to the rest of the world is expected to reach approximately 37% in the year 2050, an increase of 21% since 1990 alone. Speakers of
Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...
(part of the Niger–Congo family) are the majority in southern, central and southeast Africa. The Bantu-speaking peoples from
the Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid cli ...
progressively expanded over most of Sub-Saharan Africa. But there are also several Nilotic groups in South Sudan and East Africa, the mixed
Swahili people The Swahili people ( sw, WaSwahili) comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago and mainland Tanzania's seaboard, littoral Kenya, northern Mozambique, ...
on the Swahili Coast, 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. 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 West Africa primarily speak
Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic-Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups of ...
, belonging mostly to its non-Bantu branches, though some
Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...
and Afro-Asiatic speaking groups are also found. The Niger–Congo-speaking
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
, Igbo, Fulani, Akan and
Wolof Wolof or Wollof may refer to: * Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania * The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...
ethnic groups are the largest and most influential. In the central Sahara,
Mandinka Mandinka, Mandika, Mandinkha, Mandinko, or Mandingo may refer to: Media * ''Mandingo'' (novel), a bestselling novel published in 1957 * ''Mandingo'' (film), a 1975 film based on the eponymous 1957 novel * ''Mandingo (play)'', a play by Jack Kir ...
or
Mande Mande may refer to: * Mandé peoples of western Africa * Mande languages * Manding, a term covering a subgroup of Mande peoples, and sometimes used for one of them, Mandinka * Garo people of northeastern India and northern Bangladesh * Mande River ...
groups are most significant. Chadic-speaking groups, including the Hausa, are found in more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara, and Nilo-Saharan communities, such as the Songhai, Kanuri and Zarma, are found in the eastern parts of West Africa bordering Central Africa. The peoples of North Africa consist of three main indigenous groups: Berbers in the northwest, Egyptians in the northeast, and Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in the east. The Arabs who arrived in the 7th century AD introduced the Arabic language and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians (who founded Carthage) and Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian Alans, the Indo- European Greeks, Romans, and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Significant Berber communities remain within Morocco and Algeria in the 21st century, while, to a lesser extent, Berber speakers are also present in some regions of Tunisia and Libya. The Berber-speaking Tuareg and other often- nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. In Mauritania, there is a small but near-extinct Berber community in the north and Niger–Congo-speaking peoples in the south, though in both regions Arabic and Arab culture predominates. In Sudan, although Arabic and Arab culture predominate, it is mostly inhabited by groups that originally spoke Nilo-Saharan, such as the Nubians, Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa, who, over the centuries, have variously intermixed with migrants from the Arabian peninsula. Small communities of Afro-Asiatic-speaking Beja nomads can also be found in Egypt and Sudan. In the
Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...
, some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as
Habesha am, ሐበሻ, አበሻ, translit=Häbäša, 'äbäša ti, ሓበሻ, translit=Ḥabäša , regions = , languages = Ethiopian Semitic languages , religions = Predominantly Oriental Orthodox Christianity (Orthodox Te ...
) speak languages from the
Semitic Semitic most commonly refers to the Semitic languages, a name used since the 1770s to refer to the language family currently present in West Asia, North and East Africa, and Malta. Semitic may also refer to: Religions * Abrahamic religions ** ...
branch of the
Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
language family, while the Oromo and Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic. Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era,
Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...
were represented in every part of Africa. Decolonization during the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass emigration of white settlers – especially from Algeria and Morocco (1.6 million ''
pieds-noir The ''Pieds-Noirs'' (; ; ''Pied-Noir''), are the people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962; the vast majority of whom departed for mainland France as soon as Alger ...
s'' in North Africa), Kenya, Congo, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola. Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone. Nevertheless, white Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia,
Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...
, and South Africa. The country with the largest white African population is South Africa. Dutch and British
diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
s represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today. European colonization also brought sizable groups of
Asians Asian people (or Asians, sometimes referred to as Asiatic people)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 200Nlm.nih.gov: ''Asian Continental Ancestry Group'' is also used for categorical purpos ...
, particularly 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 southeast 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 an
Austronesian people The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austrones ...
, 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). During the 20th century, small but economically important communities of Lebanese and
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.


Religion

While Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs, the majority of the people respect African religions or parts of them. However, in formal surveys or census, most people will identify with major religions that came from outside the continent, mainly through colonisation. There are several reasons for this, the main one being the colonial idea that African religious beliefs and practices are not good enough. Religious beliefs and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by since they are often a sensitive topic for governments with mixed religious populations. According to the '' World Book Encyclopedia'',
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and Christianity are the two largest religions in Africa. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, 45% of the population are Christians, 40% are Muslims, and 10% follow traditional religions. A small number of Africans are
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
, Buddhist,
Confucianist Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...
, Baháʼí, or Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are
irreligious Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ant ...
.


Languages

By most estimates, well over a thousand languages ( UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa. Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most multilingual continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well. There are four major language families indigenous to Africa: * The ''Afroasiatic'' languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the
Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
, and Southwest Asia. * The ''Nilo-Saharan'' language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by ethnic groups in
Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria,
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
, South Sudan, Uganda, and northern Tanzania. * The ''Niger-Congo'' language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of number of languages, it is the largest language family in Africa and perhaps one of the largest in the world. * The ''Khoisan'' languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The
Khoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa. Following the end of colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official languages that originated outside the continent, although several countries also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as
Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...
,
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
, Igbo and Hausa). In numerous countries, English and French (''see African French'') are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Spanish are examples of languages that trace their origin to outside of Africa, and that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres. Italian is spoken by some in former
Italian colonies The Italian colonial empire ( it, Impero coloniale italiano), known as the Italian Empire (''Impero Italiano'') between 1936 and 1943, began in Africa in the 19th century and comprised the colonies, protectorates, concessions and dependenc ...
in Africa. German is spoken in Namibia, as it was a former German protectorate.


Health

More than 85% of individuals in Africa use traditional medicine as an alternative to often expensive allopathic medical health care and costly pharmaceutical products. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) Heads of State and Government declared the 2000s decade as the African Decade on
African traditional medicine Traditional African medicine is a range of traditional medicine disciplines involving indigenous herbalism and African spirituality, typically including diviners, midwives, and herbalists. Practitioners of traditional African medicine claim to ...
in an effort to promote The WHO African Region's adopted resolution for institutionalizing traditional medicine in health care systems across the continent. Public policy makers in the region are challenged with consideration of the importance of traditional/indigenous health systems and whether their coexistence with the modern medical and health sub-sector would improve the equitability and accessibility of health care distribution, the health status of populations, and the social-economic development of nations within sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS in post-colonial Africa is a prevalent issue. Although the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population, more than two-thirds of the total infected worldwide – some 35 million people – were Africans, of whom 15 million have already died.
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...
alone accounted for an estimated 69 percent of all people living with HIV and 70 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011. In the countries of sub-Saharan Africa most affected, AIDS has raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49 by about twenty years. Furthermore, the life expectancy in many parts of Africa is declining, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as low as thirty-four years.


Culture

Some aspects of traditional African cultures have become less practised in recent years as a result of neglect and suppression by colonial and post-colonial regimes. For example, African customs were discouraged, and African languages were prohibited in mission schools. Leopold II of Belgium attempted to "civilize" Africans by discouraging polygamy and witchcraft. Obidoh Freeborn posits that colonialism is one element that has created the character of modern African art. According to authors Douglas Fraser and Herbert M. Cole, "The precipitous alterations in the power structure wrought by colonialism were quickly followed by drastic iconographic changes in the art." Fraser and Cole assert that, in Igboland, some art objects "lack the vigor and careful craftsmanship of the earlier art objects that served traditional functions. Author Chika Okeke-Agulu states that "the racist infrastructure of British imperial enterprise forced upon the political and cultural guardians of empire a denial and suppression of an emergent sovereign Africa and modernist art." Editors F. Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi comment that the current identity of African literature had its genesis in the "traumatic encounter between Africa and Europe." On the other hand, Mhoze Chikowero believes that Africans deployed music, dance, spirituality, and other performative cultures to (re)assert themselves as active agents and indigenous intellectuals, to unmake their colonial marginalization and reshape their own destinies." There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalue African traditional cultures, under such movements as the
African Renaissance The African Renaissance is the concept that the African people shall overcome the current challenges confronting the continent and achieve cultural, scientific, and economic renewal. This concept was first articulated by Cheikh Anta Diop in a serie ...
, led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism, led by a group of scholars, including
Molefi Asante Molefi Kete Asante ( ; born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently professor ...
, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of Vodou and other forms of spirituality.


Visual art


Architecture


Cinema


Music


Dance


Sports

Fifty-four African countries have
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
teams in the
Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...
. Egypt has won the African Cup seven times, and a record-making three times in a row. Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, and Algeria have advanced to the knockout stage of recent FIFA World Cups. South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to do so. The top clubs in each African football league play the
CAF Champions League The CAF Champions League, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies CAF Champions League and formerly the African Cup of Champions Clubs, is an annual football club competition organized by the Confederation of African Football and co ...
, while lower-ranked clubs compete in
CAF Confederation Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football club competition established in 2004 from a merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners' Cup and organi ...
. In recent years, the continent has made major progress in terms of state-of-the-art basketball facilities which have been built in cites as diverse as Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg,
Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...
, Luanda and Rades. The number of African basketball players who drafted into the
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
has experienced major growth in the 2010s.
Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
is popular in some African nations. South Africa and Zimbabwe have Test status, while Kenya is the leading non-test team and previously had One-Day International cricket (ODI) status (from 10 October 1997, until 30 January 2014). The three countries jointly hosted the
2003 Cricket World Cup The 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup was the eighth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya from 9 February to 23 March 2003. This edition of the World Cup was the f ...
. Namibia is the other African country to have played in a World Cup. Morocco in northern Africa has also hosted the
2002 Morocco Cup The 2002 Morocco Cup was a three-team cricket tournament which took place in Tangier, Morocco during August 2002. The tournament was the first occasion on which the highest level of international cricket had been played in North Africa. Pakistan n ...
, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament.
Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...
is popular in several southern African nations. Namibia and Zimbabwe both have appeared on multiple occasions at the Rugby World Cup, while South Africa is the joint-most successful national team (alongside New Zealand) at the Rugby World Cup, having won the tournament on 3 occasions, in 1995, 2007, and 2019.


Territories and regions

The countries in this table are categorized 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. {, class="wikitable sortable" style="margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; border:1px solid #aaa;" , - style="background:#ececec;" ! class="unsortable" style="width:20px" ,
Arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...
! class="unsortable" style="width:20px" ,
Flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...
! Name of region and
territory, with flag ! data-sort-type="number" , List of countries and dependencies by area, Area
(km2) ! data-sort-type="number" , List of countries and dependencies by population, Population{{cite web, url=https://www.census.gov\/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl, title=IDB: Countries Ranked by Population, date=28 November 1999, url-status=bot: unknown, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991128111024/http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl, archive-date=28 November 1999 ! Year ! data-sort-type="number" , List of countries and dependencies by population density, Density
(per km2) ! Capital ! Language, Name(s) in official language(s) ! ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, ISO 3166-1 , - style="background:#eee;" , colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", North Africa , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Algeria , Algeria , style="text-align:right;", 2,381,740 , style="text-align:right;", 46,731,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 17.7 , Algiers , الجزائر (al-Jazāʾir) / Algérie , DZA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Canary Islands , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Canary Islands , Canary Islands (Spain) , style="text-align:right;", 7,492 , style="text-align:right;", 2,154,905 , style="text-align:right;", 2017 , style="text-align:right;", 226 , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife , Canarias , IC , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Ceuta , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Ceuta , Ceuta (Spain) , style="text-align:right;", 20 , style="text-align:right;", 85,107 , style="text-align:right;", 2017 , style="text-align:right;", 3,575 , — , Ceuta/Sebta/سَبْتَة (Sabtah) , EA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Egypt , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Egypt , Egypt , style="text-align:right;", 1,001,450 , style="text-align:right;", 107,800,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 102 , Cairo , مِصر (Miṣr) , EGY , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Libya , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Libya , Libya , style="text-align:right;", 1,759,540 , style="text-align:right;", 6,310,434 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 4 , Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli , ليبيا (Lībiyā) , LBY , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Madeira , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Madeira , Madeira (Portugal) , style="text-align:right;", 797 , style="text-align:right;", 245,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2001 , style="text-align:right;", 307 , Funchal , Madeira , PRT-30 , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Melilla , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Melilla ,
Melilla Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was par ...
(Spain) , style="text-align:right;", 12 , style="text-align:right;", 85,116 , style="text-align:right;", 2017 , style="text-align:right;", 5,534 , — , Melilla/Mlilt/مليلية‎ , EA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Morocco , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Morocco , Morocco , style="text-align:right;", 446,550 , style="text-align:right;", 35,740,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2017 , style="text-align:right;", 78 , Rabat , المغرب‎ (al-maḡrib)/ⵍⵎⵖⵔⵉⴱ (lmeɣrib)/Maroc , MAR , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Tunisia , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Tunisia , Tunisia , style="text-align:right;", 163,610 , style="text-align:right;", 10,486,339 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 64 , Tunis , تونس‎ (Tūnis)/Tunest/Tunisie , TUN , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Western Sahara , Western SaharaThe territory of Western Sahara is claimed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Morocco. The SADR is recognized as a sovereign state by the
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...
. Morocco claims the entirety of the country as its Southern Provinces. Morocco administers 4/5 of the territory while the SADR controls 1/5. Morocco's annexation of this territory has not been recognized internationally.
, style="text-align:right;", 266,000 , style="text-align:right;", 405,210 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 2 , El Aaiún , الصحراء الغربية (aṣ-Ṣaḥrā' al-Gharbiyyah)/Taneẓroft Tutrimt/Sáhara Occidental , ESH , - style="background:#eee;" , colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", East Africa , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Burundi , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Burundi , Burundi , style="text-align:right;", 27,830 , style="text-align:right;", 8,988,091 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 323 , Gitega , Uburundi/Burundi/Burundi , BDI , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Comoros , Comoros , style="text-align:right;", 2,170 , style="text-align:right;", 752,438 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 347 , Moroni, Comoros, Moroni , Komori/Comores/جزر القمر (Juzur al-Qumur) , COM , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Djibouti , Djibouti , style="text-align:right;", 23,000 , style="text-align:right;", 828,324 , style="text-align:right;", 2015 , style="text-align:right;", 22 , Djibouti (city), Djibouti , Yibuuti/جيبوتي‎ (Jībūtī)/Djibouti/Jabuuti , DJI , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Eritrea , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Eritrea , Eritrea , style="text-align:right;", 121,320 , style="text-align:right;", 5,647,168 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 47 , Asmara , Eritrea , ERI , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Ethiopia , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Ethiopia , Ethiopia , style="text-align:right;", 1,127,127 , style="text-align:right;", 113,800,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 92.7 , Addis Ababa , ኢትዮጵያ (Ītyōṗṗyā)/Itiyoophiyaa/ኢትዮጵያ/Itoophiyaa/Itoobiya/ኢትዮጵያ , ETH , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, French Southern and Antarctic Lands , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, French Southern and Antarctic Lands , French Southern and Antarctic Lands, French Southern Territories (France) , style="text-align:right;", 439,781 , style="text-align:right;", 100 , style="text-align:right;", 2019 , style="text-align:right;", — , Saint-Pierre, Réunion, Saint Pierre , Terres australes et antarctiques françaises , FRA-TF , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Kenya , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Kenya , Kenya , style="text-align:right;", 582,650 , style="text-align:right;", 39,002,772 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 66 , Nairobi , Kenya , KEN , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Madagascar , Madagascar , style="text-align:right;", 587,040 , style="text-align:right;", 20,653,556 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 35 , Antananarivo , Madagasikara/Madagascar , MDG , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Malawi , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Malawi , Malawi , style="text-align:right;", 118,480 , style="text-align:right;", 14,268,711 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 120 , Lilongwe , Malaŵi/Malaŵi , MWI , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Mauritius , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mauritius , Mauritius , style="text-align:right;", 2,040 , style="text-align:right;", 1,284,264 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 630 , Port Louis , Maurice/Moris , MUS , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Mayotte , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mayotte, local , Mayotte (France) , style="text-align:right;", 374 , style="text-align:right;", 223,765 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 490 , Mamoudzou , Mayotte/Maore/Maiôty , MYT , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mozambique , Mozambique , style="text-align:right;", 801,590 , style="text-align:right;", 21,669,278 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 27 , Maputo , Moçambique/Mozambiki/Msumbiji/Muzambhiki , MOZ , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Réunion , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Réunion ,
Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...
(France) , style="text-align:right;", 2,512 , style="text-align:right;", 743,981 , style="text-align:right;", 2002 , style="text-align:right;", 296 , Saint-Denis, Réunion, Saint Denis , La Réunion , FRA-RE , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Rwanda , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Rwanda , Rwanda , style="text-align:right;", 26,338 , style="text-align:right;", 10,473,282 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 398 ,
Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...
, Rwanda , RWA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Seychelles , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Seychelles , Seychelles , style="text-align:right;", 455 , style="text-align:right;", 87,476 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 192 , Victoria, Seychelles, Victoria , Seychelles/Sesel , SYC , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Somalia , Somalia , style="text-align:right;", 637,657 , style="text-align:right;", 9,832,017 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 15 , Mogadishu , 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖 (Soomaaliya) /الصومال‎ (aṣ-Ṣūmāl) , SOM , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Somaliland , Somaliland , style="text-align:right;", 176,120 , style="text-align:right;", 5,708,180 , style="text-align:right;", 2021 , style="text-align:right;", 25 , Hargeisa , Soomaaliland/صوماليلاند‎ (Ṣūmālīlānd) , , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, South Sudan , South Sudan , style="text-align:right;", 619,745 , style="text-align:right;", 8,260,490 , style="text-align:right;", 2008 , style="text-align:right;", 13 , Juba , South Sudan , SSD , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Sudan ,
Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
, style="text-align:right;", 1,861,484 , style="text-align:right;", 30,894,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2008 , style="text-align:right;", 17 , Khartoum , Sudan/السودان‎ (as-Sūdān) , SDN , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Tanzania , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Tanzania , Tanzania , style="text-align:right;", 945,087 , style="text-align:right;", 61,800,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 47.5 , Dodoma , Tanzania/Tanzania , TZA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Uganda , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Uganda , Uganda , style="text-align:right;", 236,040 , style="text-align:right;", 32,369,558 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 137 , Kampala , Uganda/Yuganda , UGA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Zambia , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Zambia , Zambia , style="text-align:right;", 752,614 , style="text-align:right;", 11,862,740 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 16 , Lusaka , Zambia , ZMB , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Zimbabwe , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Zimbabwe , Zimbabwe , style="text-align:right;", 390,580 , style="text-align:right;", 11,392,629 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 29 , Harare , Zimbabwe , ZWE , - , colspan="10" style="background:#eee; text-align:center;", Central Africa , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Angola , Angola , style="text-align:right;", 1,246,700 , style="text-align:right;", 12,799,293 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 10 , Luanda , Angola , AGO , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Cameroon , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Cameroon , Cameroon , style="text-align:right;", 475,440 , style="text-align:right;", 18,879,301 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 40 , Yaoundé , Cameroun/Kamerun , CMR , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Central African Republic , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Central African Republic , Central African Republic , style="text-align:right;", 622,984 , style="text-align:right;", 4,511,488 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 7 , Bangui , Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka/République centrafricaine , CAF , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Chad , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Chad ,
Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...
, style="text-align:right;", 1,284,000 , style="text-align:right;", 10,329,208 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 8 , N'Djamena , تشاد‎ (Tšād)/Tchad , TCD , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Republic of the Congo , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Republic of the Congo , Republic of the Congo , style="text-align:right;", 342,000 , style="text-align:right;", 4,012,809 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 12 , Brazzaville , Congo/Kôngo/Kongó , COG , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Democratic Republic of the Congo , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Democratic Republic of the Congo , Democratic Republic of the Congo , style="text-align:right;", 2,345,410 , style="text-align:right;", 108,400,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 46.3 , Kinshasa , République démocratique du Congo , COD , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Equatorial Guinea ,
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...
, style="text-align:right;", 28,051 , style="text-align:right;", 633,441 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 23 , Malabo , Guinea Ecuatorial/Guinée Équatoriale/Guiné Equatorial , GNQ , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Gabon , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Gabon , Gabon , style="text-align:right;", 267,667 , style="text-align:right;", 1,514,993 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 6 , Libreville , gabonaise , GAB , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, São Tomé and Príncipe , São Tomé and Príncipe , style="text-align:right;", 1,001 , style="text-align:right;", 212,679 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 212 , São Tomé , São Tomé e Príncipe , STP , - style="background:#eee;" , colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", Southern Africa , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Botswana , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Botswana , Botswana , style="text-align:right;", 600,370 , style="text-align:right;", 1,990,876 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 3 , Gaborone , Botswana/Botswana , BWA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Eswatini , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Eswatini ,
Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
, style="text-align:right;", 17,363 , style="text-align:right;", 1,123,913 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 65 , Mbabane , eSwatini/Eswatini , SWZ , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Lesotho , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Lesotho ,
Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
, style="text-align:right;", 30,355 , style="text-align:right;", 2,130,819 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 70 , Maseru , Lesotho/Lesotho , LSO , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Namibia , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Namibia , Namibia , style="text-align:right;", 825,418 , style="text-align:right;", 2,108,665 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 3 , Windhoek , Namibia , NAM , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, South Africa , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, South Africa , South Africa , style="text-align:right;", 1,219,912 , style="text-align:right;", 60,800,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 42.4 , Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria , yaseNingizimu Afrika/yoMzantsi-Afrika/Suid-Afrika/Afrika-Borwa/Aforika Borwa/Afrika Borwa/Afrika Dzonga/yeNingizimu Afrika/Afurika Tshipembe/yeSewula Afrika , ZAF , - style="background:#eee;" , colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", West Africa , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Benin , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Benin , Benin , style="text-align:right;", 112,620 , style="text-align:right;", 8,791,832 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 78 , Porto-Novo , Bénin , BEN , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Burkina Faso , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Burkina Faso , Burkina Faso , style="text-align:right;", 274,200 , style="text-align:right;", 15,746,232 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 57 , Ouagadougou , Burkina Faso , BFA , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Cape Verde , Cape Verde , style="text-align:right;", 4,033 , style="text-align:right;", 429,474 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 107 , Praia , Cabo Verde/Kabu Verdi , CPV , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, The Gambia , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, The Gambia , The Gambia , style="text-align:right;", 11,300 , style="text-align:right;", 1,782,893 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 158 , Banjul , The Gambia , GMB , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Ghana , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Ghana , Ghana , style="text-align:right;", 239,460 , style="text-align:right;", 23,832,495 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 100 , Accra , Ghana , GHA , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Guinea ,
Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
, style="text-align:right;", 245,857 , style="text-align:right;", 10,057,975 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 41 , Conakry , Guinée , GIN , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Guinea-Bissau , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Guinea-Bissau , Guinea-Bissau , style="text-align:right;", 36,120 , style="text-align:right;", 1,533,964 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 43 , Bissau , Guiné-Bissau , GNB , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Ivory Coast , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Ivory Coast ,
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
, style="text-align:right;", 322,460 , style="text-align:right;", 20,617,068 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 64 , Abidjan,Yamoussoukro is the official capital of
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
, while Abidjan is the ''de facto'' seat.
Yamoussoukro , Côte d'Ivoire , CIV , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Liberia , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Liberia ,
Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
, style="text-align:right;", 111,370 , style="text-align:right;", 3,441,790 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 31 , Monrovia , Liberia , LBR , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Mali , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mali , Mali , style="text-align:right;", 1,240,000 , style="text-align:right;", 12,666,987 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 10 , Bamako , Mali , MLI , - , style="text-align:center" , , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mauritania ,
Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
, style="text-align:right;", 1,030,700 , style="text-align:right;", 3,129,486 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 3 , Nouakchott , موريتانيا‎ (Mūrītānyā) , MRT , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Niger , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Niger , Niger , style="text-align:right;", 1,267,000 , style="text-align:right;", 15,306,252 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 12 , Niamey , Niger , NER , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Nigeria , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Nigeria , Nigeria , style="text-align:right;", 923,768 , style="text-align:right;", 225,100,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 218 , Abuja , Nigeria , NGA , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, United Kingdom , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha , Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom) , style="text-align:right;", 420 , style="text-align:right;", 7,728 , style="text-align:right;", 2012 , style="text-align:right;", 13 , Jamestown, Saint Helena, Jamestown , Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha , SHN , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Senegal , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Senegal , Senegal , style="text-align:right;", 196,190 , style="text-align:right;", 13,711,597 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 70 , Dakar , Sénégal , SEN , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Sierra Leone , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Sierra Leone , Sierra Leone , style="text-align:right;", 71,740 , style="text-align:right;", 6,440,053 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 90 , Freetown , Sierra Leone , SLE , - , style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Togo , style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Togo , Togo , style="text-align:right;", 56,785 , style="text-align:right;", 6,019,877 , style="text-align:right;", 2009 , style="text-align:right;", 106 , Lomé , togolaise , TGO , - style="font-weight:bold; background:#eee;" , colspan="3" , Africa Total , style="text-align:right;", 30,368,609 , style="text-align:right;", 1,400,000,000 , style="text-align:right;", 2022 , style="text-align:right;", 33 ! colspan="3",


See also

{{Portal, Africa * Index of Africa-related articles * African historiography * Outline of Africa


References

{{reflist


Sources

* {{Cite book, last=Malone, first=Jacqui, url= , title=Steppin' on the Blues: the Visible Rhythms of African American Dance, date=1996, publisher=University of Illinois Press, oclc=891842452 * {{Cite book, last=Welsh-Asante, first=Kariamu, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WrbrTfSO3fwC, title=African Dance, date=2009, publisher=Infobase Publishing, isbn=978-1-4381-2427-8, language=en * {{cite book , last1=Shillington , first1=Kevin , title=History of Africa , date=2005 , publisher=Palgrave Macmillan , isbn=978-0-333-59957-0


Further reading

{{see also, Africa Bibliography {{refbegin * {{cite book, last=Asante, first=Molefi, author-link=Molefi Asante, title=The History of Africa, publisher=Routledge, location=US, date=2007, isbn=978-0-415-77139-9 * {{cite book, last=Clark, first=J. Desmond, author-link=J. Desmond Clark, title=The Prehistory of Africa, publisher=Thames and Hudson, location=London, date=1970, isbn=978-0-500-02069-2 * {{cite book, last=Crowder, first=Michael, title=The Story of Nigeria, publisher=Faber, location=London, date=1978, isbn=978-0-571-04947-9 * {{cite book, last=Davidson, first=Basil, author-link=Basil Davidson, title=The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times, publisher=Penguin, location=Harmondsworth, date=1966, oclc=2016817 * {{cite book, last=Gordon, first=April A., first2=Donald L., last2=Gordon, title=Understanding Contemporary Africa, publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers, location=Boulder, date=1996, isbn=978-1-55587-547-3 * {{cite book, last=Khapoya, first=Vincent B., title=The African experience: an introduction, publisher=Prentice Hall, location=Upper Saddle River, NJ, date=1998, isbn=978-0-13-745852-3, url=https://archive.org/details/africanexperienc00khap * Moore, Clark D., and Ann Dunbar (1968). ''Africa Yesterday and Today'', in series, ''The George School Readings on Developing Lands''. New York: Praeger Publishers. * V. S. Naipaul, Naipaul, V.S. ''The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief''. Picador, 2010. {{ISBN, 978-0-330-47205-0 * {{cite journal, last1=Wade, first1=Lizzie, title=Drones and satellites spot lost civilizations in unlikely places, journal=Science, doi=10.1126/science.aaa7864, year=2015, doi-access=free {{refend


External links

{{Sister project links, n=Africa, voy=Africa General information * {{curlie, Regional/Africa
African & Middle Eastern Reading Room
from the United States Library of Congress
Africa South of the Sahara
from Stanford University
The Index on Africa
from ''The Norwegian Council for Africa''
Aluka
Digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa
Africa Interactive Map
from the United States Army Africa History
African Kingdoms

The Story of Africa
from BBC World Service *{{Cite EB1911, wstitle= Africa , volume= 1 , pages = 320–358 , short= 1
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC)

Hungarian military forces in Africa
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103230525/http://www.scribd.com/doc/161017303/Hungarian-military-forces-in-Africa-%E2%80%93-past-and-future-Recovering-lost-knowledge-exploiting-cultural-anthropology-resources-creating-a-comprehensive , date=3 November 2013 News media
allAfrica.com
current news, events and statistics
''Focus on Africa''
magazine from BBC World Service {{Africa topics {{Africa {{Navboxes , title = Articles related to Africa , list = {{African Trade Agreements {{Continents of the world {{Regions of the world {{Authority control Africa, Continents Regions