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Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous
continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...
, after
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
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 resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...
s, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind
Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate,
tribalism Tribalism is the state of being organized by, or advocating for, tribes or tribal lifestyles. Human evolution has primarily occurred in small hunter-gatherer groups, as opposed to in larger and more recently settled agricultural societies or civ ...
,
colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...
, 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 Neocolonialism is the continuation or reimposition of imperialist rule by a state (usually, a former colonial power) over another nominally independent state (usually, a former colony). Neocolonialism takes the form of economic imperialism, gl ...
, 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 The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
to the north, the
Isthmus of Suez The Isthmus of Suez is the land bridge"Suez Canal ...
and the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
to the northeast, the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
to the southeast and the
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
to the west. The continent includes
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
and various
archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
s. It contains 54 fully recognised
sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a polity, political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defin ...
s, 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 ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
is Africa's largest country by area, and
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
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 Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
. 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 A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great c ...
. It is the only continent to stretch from the northern
temperate 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 t ...
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 Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the r ...
, Algeria,
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
and
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, 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 Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
,
Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
,
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 ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
which in turn are located above the
tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward ...
, in the northern temperate zone. In the other extreme of the continent, southern
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, southern
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
, great parts of
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, 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 Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
and Madagascar are located below the
tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...
, in the southern temperate zone. Africa is highly
biodiverse Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...
; 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 Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water Water resources, resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water ...
and
pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
. 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 The history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans and — around 300–250,000 years ago—anatomically modern humans (''Homo sapiens''), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of d ...
is long, complex, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community. Africa, particularly
Eastern Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...
, 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 ape 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 east ...
s). The earliest
hominids 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 east ...
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 ''Homo habilis'' ("handy man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.31 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago (mya). Upon species description in 1964, ''H. habilis'' was highly c ...
'' and '' H. ergaster''— the earliest ''
Homo sapiens 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, ...
'' (modern human) remains, found in
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, and
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
, 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 Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
emerged in
North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
. Following a subsequent long and complex history of civilizations, migration and trade, Africa hosts a large diversity of
ethnicities An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
,
cultures Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
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 Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
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 Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...
following
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.


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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
name used to refer to the inhabitants of then-known northern Africa to the west of the
Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
river, and in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
(
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 Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...
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 word ''ifri'' (plural ''ifran'') meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same word may be found in the name of the
Banu Ifran The Banu Ifran ( ar, بنو يفرن, ''Banu Yafran'') or Ifranids, were a Zenata Berber tribe prominent in the history of pre-Islamic and early Islamic North Africa. In the 8th century, they established a kingdom in the central Maghreb, with ...
from
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
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 Yafran ( Berber: ⵢⴼⵔⴰⵏ ''Ifran'', ar, يفرن, links=https://www.temehu.com/Cities_sites/Yefren.htm ', it, Iefren), also spelled ''Jefren'', ''Yefren'', ''Yifran'', ''Yifrin'' or ''Ifrane'', is a city in northwestern Libya, in the J ...
(also known as ''Ifrane'') in northwestern Libya, as well as the city of
Ifrane Ifrane ( Berber: ⵉⴼⵔⴰⵏ; ar, إفران) is a city in the Middle Atlas region of northern Morocco (population 14,659 as of November 2014). The capital of Ifrane Province in the region of Fès-Meknès, Ifrane is located at an elevation of ...
in Morocco. Under
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
rule,
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
became the capital of the province it then named ''
Africa Proconsularis 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 ...
'', following its defeat of the
Carthaginians The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
in the
Third Punic War The Third Punic War (149–146 BC) was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between Carthage and Rome. The war was fought entirely within Carthaginian territory, in modern northern Tunisia. When the Second Punic War ended in 201  ...
in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
. The Latin suffix '' -ica'' can sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g., in '' Celtica'' from '' Celtae'', 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 Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
(85–165 AD), indicating
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
along the
Prime Meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great c ...
and making the isthmus of Suez and the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
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 Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
(''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 Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Jew ...
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 ''Etymologiae'' (Latin for "The Etymologies"), also known as the ''Origines'' ("Origins") and usually abbreviated ''Orig.'', is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) towards the end of his life. Isidore was ...
'' 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 Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
in 1984 proposed: "The name Africa, derived from the Latin *Aphir-ic-a, is cognate to Hebrew
Ophir Ophir (; ) is a port or region mentioned in the Bible, famous for its wealth. King Solomon received a shipment from Ophir every three years (1 Kings 10:22) which consisted of gold, silver, sandalwood, pearls, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Biblica ...
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 An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and v ...
discovered many
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s 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 Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...
into modern man, such as ''
Australopithecus 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 ...
''
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 ''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 ''Homo erectus, H. erectus'' is an ongoin ...
'' (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered. After the evolution of ''
Homo sapiens 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, ...
'' 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 A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...
during the
Out of Africa II In paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans, also called the "Out of Africa" theory (OOA), recent single-origin hypothesis (RSOH), replacement hypothesis, or recent African origin model (RAO), is the dominant model of the ...
migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across
Bab-el-Mandeb The Bab-el-Mandeb (Arabic: , , ) is a strait between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula, and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Name The strait derives its name from the dangers attendin ...
over the
Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...
, 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 The Isthmus of Suez is the land bridge"Suez Canal ...
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 age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
s, 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 Tassili n'Ajjer ( Berber: ''Tassili n Ajjer'', ar, طاسيلي ناجر; "Plateau of rivers") is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in southeastern Algeria. Having one of the most important groupings of prehistoric ...
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 In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as a p ...
, the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the
Second Cataract The Cataracts of the Nile are shallow lengths (or whitewater rapids) of the Nile river, between Khartoum and Aswan, where the surface of the water is broken by many small boulders and stones jutting out of the river bed, as well as many rocky ...
where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and
Eastern Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...
. Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
. 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 Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
. 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
savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
hs 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,
gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and ''Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the earli ...
s,
watermelon Watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varieti ...
s,
castor bean ''Ricinus communis'', the castor bean or castor oil plant, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus, ''Ricinus'', and subtribe, Ricininae. The evolution of ...
s, and
cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
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 Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
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
harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, seal hunting, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the t ...
s, 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 Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
to
Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
. Between 9,000 and 5,000 BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the
oil palm ''Elaeis'' () is a genus of palms containing two species, called oil palms. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African oil palm ''Elaeis guineensis'' (the species name ''guineensis'' referring to its co ...
and
raffia palm Raffia palms (''Raphia'') are a genus of about twenty species of palms native to tropical regions of Africa, and especially Madagascar, with one species (''R. taedigera'') also occurring in Central and South America. ''R. taedigera'' is the sour ...
.
Black-eyed pea The black-eyed pea or black-eyed bean is a legume grown around the world for its medium-sized, edible bean. It is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant domesticated in Africa, and is sometimes simply called a cowpea. The common commer ...
s 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 Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with su ...
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 Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that
Trans-Saharan trade Trans-Saharan trade requires travel across the Sahara between sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa. While existing from prehistoric times, the peak of trade extended from the 8th century until the early 17th century. The Sahara once had a very d ...
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 Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...
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 Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
and
Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
, and, according to Martin Bernal, as far north as Crete. An independent centre of
civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...
with trading links to
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
was established by
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
ns 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 Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cultu ...
and
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
. In 332 BC,
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...
was welcomed as a liberator in Persian-occupied Egypt. He founded
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, 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 The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...
by the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
, 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 Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa (Roman province), Africa. As a young man he advanced thro ...
, 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 The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...
. 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 The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wha ...
. 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 A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...
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 Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by t ...
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 The Mandé peoples are ethnic groups who are speakers of Mande languages. Various Mandé speaking ethnic groups are found particularly toward the west of West Africa. The Mandé Speaking languages are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé ...
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 Koumbi Saleh, sometimes Kumbi Saleh is the site of a ruined medieval town in south east Mauritania that may have been the capital of the Ghana Empire. From the ninth century, Arab authors mention the Ghana Empire in connection with the trans-Saha ...
. 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 Djenné-Djenno (also Jenne-Jeno; ) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Niger River Valley in the country of Mali. Literally translated to "ancient Djenné", it is the original site of both Djenné and Mali and is considered to be among ...
(in present-day
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC
Djenné-Djenno Djenné-Djenno (also Jenne-Jeno; ) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the Niger River Valley in the country of Mali. Literally translated to "ancient Djenné", it is the original site of both Djenné and Mali and is considered to be among ...
had become a large, thriving market town. Farther south, in central
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
, around 1,500 BC, the
Nok culture The Nok culture (or Nok civilization) is a population whose material remains are named after the Ham village of Nok in Kaduna State of Nigeria, where their terracotta sculptures were first discovered in 1928. The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria ...
developed on the
Jos Plateau The Jos Plateau is a plateau located near the centre of Nigeria. The plateau has given its name to the Plateau State in which it is found and is named for the state's capital, Jos. The plateau is home to people of diverse cultures and languages ...
. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
, 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 Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
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 The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...
of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the
Bantu-speaking 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 tot ...
peoples A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
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 Akan may refer to: People and languages *Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire *Akan language, a language spoken by the Akan people *Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan *Central Tano languages, a language group w ...
; Edo,
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 coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa. By the ninth century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest
Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also * ...
states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
,
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 Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
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 north. The Kingdom of 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 Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate Igbo-Ukwu#Bronzes, bronzes, found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the ninth century. The Ifẹ, Kingdom of Ife, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba (ruler), oba ('king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language), 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 people, Fon ''Kingdom of Dahomey'' was one of the non-Yoruba domains under Oyo control. The Almoravid dynasty, Almoravids were a Berber people, Berber 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 Maqil, Banu Ma'qil were a collection of Arab Bedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their Human migration, migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabization, Arabized, and Arabs, 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 (1464–1492) founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan (region), Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Djenné, 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 Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also * ...
states – such as Kano (city), Kano, jigawa, Katsina, and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing camel train, 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 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 abolitionism, anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the Royal Navy, 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 Dahomey, Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, Cocoa bean, cocoa, 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. African independence movements, 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 ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
and
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
won their independence from France.
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
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 Portuguese Angola, Angola, Cape Verde, Portuguese Mozambique, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo regime was overthrown in Carnation Revolution, a military coup in Lisbon. Rhodesia Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the White minority rule, 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 Rhodesian Bush War, 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 South Africa under apartheid, 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 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 Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several Coup d'état, coups or periods of military dictatorship. 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. The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under Colonialism, colonial 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 Institutional racism, marginalization of ethnic groups, and Political corruption, corruption. In pursuit of personal Divide and rule, 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. 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 people, Igbo Biafra, separatist republic, which resulted in a famine that killed 1-2 million people. Two civil wars in Sudan, First Sudanese Civil War, the first lasting from 1955 to 1972 and Second Sudanese Civil War, 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 Dissolution of the Soviet Union, fall of the USSR resulted in severe economic and political turmoil in the countries most dependent on foreign support. There was a 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia, major famine in Ethiopia between 1983 and 1985, killing up to 1.2 million people, which most historians attribute primarily to the forced relocation of farmworkers and seizure of grain by communist Derg government, further exacerbated by the Ethiopian Civil War, civil war. In 1994 a Rwandan genocide, genocide in Rwanda resulted in up to 800,000 deaths, added to Great Lakes refugee crisis, a severe refugee crisis and fueled the rise of militia groups in neighboring countries. This contributed to the outbreak of the First Congo War, first and Second Congo War, second 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 List of wars by death toll, costliest wars in human history. File:African nations order of independence 1950-1993.gif, An animated map shows the order of Decolonisation of Africa, 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 War in Darfur, conflict in Darfur (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 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 in the Tigray War, famine. Overall though, violence across Africa has greatly declined in the 21st century, with the end of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone Civil War, Sierra Leone, and Algerian Civil War, Algeria in 2002, Second Liberian Civil War, Liberia in 2003, and Second Sudanese Civil War, Sudan and Burundian Civil War, Burundi 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). 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, and epidemics of Western African Ebola virus epidemic, Ebola and COVID-19 pandemic in Africa, 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 The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...
, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Suez Canal, Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), wide. (Geopolitics, Geopolitically, 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 in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately . Cap-Vert, Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, is a distance of approximately to Ras Hafun, 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 An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...
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 climate, tropical to Subarctic climate, subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert, or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both
savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
plains and dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence, where vegetation patterns such as sahel 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 Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
in 1922 (), was discredited in 2013. (The 136 °F (57.8 °C), claimed by 'Aziziya,
Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
, on 13 September 1922, has been officially deemed invalid by the World Meteorological Organization.)


Ecology and biodiversity

Africa has over 3,000 protected areas, 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 Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
'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, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as African buffalo, 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 ecosystem, aquatic life such as crocodiles and amphibians. 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 consisting of 55 Member states of the African Union, member states. The union was formed, with
Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
, 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 (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 African Union Commission, AU Commission, 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 Assembly of the African Union, 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. 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 Pan-African Parliament, 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 Organisation of African Unity, 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.


Boundary conflicts


Economy

Although it has abundant
natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...
s, Africa remains the world's poorest and Human Development Index, least-developed continent (other than Antarctica), the result of a variety of causes that may include Corruption Perceptions Index, 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 Slavery, slave trade, and the Cold War, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrilla warfare 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 in Africa, Poverty, 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 Poverty in Africa, 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, 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 maintained that several African countries, most notably
Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
, perform quite well on scales of mass support for democracy and the market economy. 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 Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
, the article suggests pessimistic tendencies for
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
, and especially for Africa's leading economy, South Africa. High Human Inequality, as measured by the UNDP's Human Development Report's Index of Human Inequality, 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, 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 capacitors for electronic devices such as cell phones. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world's diamond reserves. Guinea 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 2007–08 world food price crisis, 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 (part of the Niger–Congo languages, Niger–Congo family) are the majority in southern, central and southeast Africa. The Bantu-speaking peoples from the Sahel 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 on the Swahili Coast, and a few remaining Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous Khoisan ("Bushmen, 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 "Khoikhoi, 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, 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 language, Yoruba, Igbo language, Igbo, Fulani, Akan language, Akan and Wolof people, Wolof ethnic groups are the largest and most influential. In the central Sahara, Mandinka people, Mandinka or Mande languages, Mande groups are most significant. Chadic-speaking groups, including the Hausa language, Hausa, are found in more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara, and Nilo-Saharan communities, such as the Songhai people, Songhai, Kanuri people, Kanuri and Zarma people, 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
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
ns (who founded
Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...
) and Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian Alans, the Indo- European Ancient Greece, Greeks, Romans, and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Significant Berber communities remain within
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
and
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
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 people, 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 people, Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as Habesha people, Habesha) speak languages from the Semitic languages, Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic language family, while the Oromo people, Oromo and Somalis, Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic. Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era, Ethnic groups in Europe, Europeans 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-noirs'' in North Africa), Kenya, Congo, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola. Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone. Nevertheless, White Africans of European ancestry, white Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe,
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, Réunion, and
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. The country with the largest white African population is South Africa. Dutch people, Dutch and British diaspora in Africa, British diasporas represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today. European colonization also brought sizable groups of Asian people, Asians, particularly from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Non-resident Indian and person of Indian origin, 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 Indians in Uganda, Indian community in Uganda was expulsion of Asians from Uganda, 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, 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 Demographics of Lebanon#The Lebanese Diaspora, Lebanese and Overseas Chinese, Chinese have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West Africa, 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 in Africa, Islam and Christianity in Africa, 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 African religions, traditional religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianist, Baháʼí Faith, Baháʼí, or Judaism in Africa, Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are Irreligion in Africa, irreligious.


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 Multilingualism, 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 family, language families indigenous to Africa: * The Afroasiatic languages, ''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 languages, ''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,
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, Kenya,
Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
,
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 languages, ''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, ''Khoisan'' languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered language, endangered. The Khoikhoi, Khoi and Bushmen, 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 language, Swahili, Yoruba language, Yoruba, Igbo language, Igbo and Hausa language, 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 language, 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 Colonial Empire, Italian colonies in Africa. German is spoken in
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, 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 Organisation of African Unity, Organization of African Unity (OAU) Heads of State and Government declared the 2000s decade as the African Decade on African traditional medicine 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. HIV/AIDS in 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, led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism, led by a group of scholars, including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of West African Vodun, Vodou and other forms of spirituality.


Visual art


Architecture


Cinema


Music


Dance


Sports

Fifty-four African countries have Association football, football teams in the Confederation of African Football. 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 FIFA World Cup, 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, while lower-ranked clubs compete in CAF Confederation Cup. 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, Luanda and Rades. The number of African basketball players who drafted into the National Basketball Association, NBA has experienced major growth in the 2010s. Cricket is popular in some African nations. South Africa national cricket team, South Africa and Zimbabwe national cricket team, Zimbabwe have Test cricket, Test status, while Kenya national cricket team, Kenya is the leading non-test team and previously had One Day International, One-Day International cricket (ODI) status (from President's Cup 1997-98, 10 October 1997, until 2014 Cricket World Cup Qualifier#Super Six, 30 January 2014). The three countries jointly hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Namibia national cricket team, Namibia is the other African country to have played in a World Cup.
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
in northern Africa has also hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament. Rugby union, Rugby is popular in several southern African nations.
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
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 United Nations geoscheme for Africa, 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" , Coat of arms, Arms ! class="unsortable" style="width:20px" , Flag ! 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 ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
, 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 Ceuta (, , ; ar, سَبْتَة, Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of several Spanish territorie ...
(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 Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, 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 Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
, 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 Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
, 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 ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...
, 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 Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the r ...
The territory of
Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the r ...
is claimed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
. 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 Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
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 Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, 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 Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
, 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 Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
, 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 Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
, 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 (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 , 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 Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...
, 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 , 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 , 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 Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
, 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 Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, 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 South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, 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 Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...
, 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 Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
, 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 , 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 , 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, 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 Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. 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 Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...
, 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 Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
, 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