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Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area.Sayre, April Pulley (1999), ''Africa'', Twenty-First Century Books. . With nearly billion people as of , it accounts for about of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will exceed 3.8 billion people by 2100. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, corruption, colonialism, the Cold War, and neocolonialism. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context, and Africa has a large quantity of natural resources.

Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Arabian Plate and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Yemen have parts of their territories located on African geographical soil, mostly in the form of islands.

The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states, eight cities and islands that are part of non-African states, and two ''de facto'' independent states with limited or no recognition. This count does not include Malta and Sicily, which are geologically part of the African continent. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.

Africa is highly biodiverse; it is the continent with the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. However, Africa is also heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and pollution. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as the continent most vulnerable to climate change.

The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community. In African societies the oral word is revered, and they have generally recorded their history via oral tradition, which has led anthropologists to term them "oral civilisations"'','' contrasted with "literate civilisations" which pride the written word. African culture is rich and diverse both within and between the continent's regions, encompassing art, cuisine, music and dance, religion, and dress.

Africa, particularly Eastern Africa, is widely accepted to be the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade, also known as the great apes. The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, and ''Homo sapiens'' (modern human) are believed to have originated in Africa 350,000 to 260,000 years ago. In the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE Ancient Egypt, Kerma, Punt, and the Tichitt Tradition emerged in North, East and West Africa, while from 3000 BCE to 500 CE the Bantu expansion swept from modern-day Cameroon through Central, East, and Southern Africa, displacing or absorbing groups such as the Khoisan and Pygmies. Some African empires include Wagadu, Mali, Songhai, Sokoto, Ife, Benin, Asante, the Fatimids, Almoravids, Almohads, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Kongo, Mwene Muji, Luba, Lunda, Kitara, Aksum, Ethiopia, Adal, Ajuran, Kilwa, Sakalava, Imerina, Maravi, Mutapa, Rozvi, Mthwakazi, and Zulu. Despite the predominance of states, many societies were heterarchical and stateless. Slave trades created various diasporas, especially in the Americas. From the late 19th century to early 20th century, driven by the Second Industrial Revolution, most of Africa was rapidly conquered and colonised by European nations, save for Ethiopia and Liberia. European rule had significant impacts on Africa's societies, and colonies were maintained for the purpose of economic exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Most present states emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II, and established the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, the predecessor to the African Union. The nascent countries decided to keep their colonial borders, with traditional power structures used in governance to varying degrees.

Etymology

was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of what was then known as northern Africa, located west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referring to all lands south of the Mediterranean, also known as Ancient Libya. This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers; see Terence#Biography, Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician language, Phoenician word ' meaning "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from the Berber languages, Berber word (plural ) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, a Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as ''Ifrane'') in northwestern Libya, as well as the city of Ifrane in Morocco.

Under Roman Empire, Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province then named ''Africa Proconsularis'', following the Roman victory over the Ancient Carthage, Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Latin suffix can sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g., in from , as used by Julius Caesar). The later Muslim region of Ifriqiya, following its conquest of the Byzantine Empire, Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire's ''Exarchate of Africa, Exarchatus Africae'', also preserved a form of the name.

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

Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":
* The 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (''Ant. 1.15'') asserted that it was named for Epher, grandson of Abraham according to Book of Genesis, Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
* Isidore of Seville in his 7th-century ''Etymologiae'' XIV.5.2. suggests "Africa" comes from the Latin , 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 Egyptian soul#Ka, 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 "south wind", which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally "rainy wind".
* Robert R. Stieglitz of Rutgers University in 1984 proposed: "The name Africa, derived from the Latin ''*Aphir-ic-a'', is cognate to Hebrew Ophir ['rich']."
* Ibn Khallikan and some other historians claim that the name of Africa came from a Himyarite king called Afrikin ibn Kais ibn Saifi ("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

History in Africa

In accordance with African cosmology, African historical consciousness viewed historical change and continuity, order and purpose within the framework of man and his environment, the gods, and his ancestors, and he believed himself part of a holistic spiritual entity. In African societies, the historical process is largely a African communalism, communal one, with eyewitness accounts, hearsay, reminiscences, and occasionally Vision (spirituality), visions, dreams, and hallucinations crafted into narrative Oral tradition, oral traditions which are performed and transmitted through generations. In oral traditions time is sometimes Myth, mythical and social, and ancestors were considered historical actors. Mind and memory shapes traditions, as events are condensed over time and crystallise into Cliché, clichés. Oral tradition can be wiktionary:exoteric, exoteric or wiktionary:esoteric, esoteric. It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes. In African epistemology, the epistemic subject "experiences the epistemic object in a sensuous, emotive, intuitive, abstractive understanding, rather than through abstraction alone, as is the case in Epistemology, Western epistemology" to arrive at a "complete knowledge", and as such oral traditions, music, Proverb, proverbs, and the like were used in the preservation and transmission of knowledge.

Prehistory

Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the cradle of Humankind, oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the Human species originating from the continent. During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as seven million years ago (Before present, BP). Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern humans, such as ''Australopithecus afarensis'' radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP, ''Paranthropus boisei'' (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP) and ''Homo ergaster'' (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered.

After the evolution of ''Homo sapiens'' approximately 350,000 to 260,000 years BP in Africa, the continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers. These first modern humans left Africa and populated the rest of the globe during the Out of Africa II migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across Bab-el-Mandeb over the Red Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco, or the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.

Other migrations of modern humans within the African continent have been dated to that time, with evidence of early human settlement found in Southern Africa, Southeast Africa, North Africa, and the Sahara.

Emergence of civilization

The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions. At the end of the Ice ages, estimated to have been around 10,500BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in Africa, with Saharan rock art, rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5,000BC, the Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500BC, due to a tilt in the Earth's orbit, the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.

The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6,000BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat that was common from Algeria to Nubia. Between 10,000 and 9,000BC, 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 steppes and savannahs of the Sahara and Sahel in Northern West Africa, people possibly ancestral to modern Nilo-Saharan and Mandé cultures started to collect wild millet, around 8,000 to 6,000BC. Later, gourds, watermelons, castor beans, and cotton were also collected. Sorghum was first domesticated in Eastern Sudan around 4,000BC, in one of the earliest instances of agriculture in human history. Its cultivation would gradually spread across Africa, before spreading to India around 2000BC.

People around modern-day Mauritania started making pottery and built stone settlements (e.g., Tichitt, Oualata). Fishing, using bone-tipped harpoons, became a major activity in the numerous streams and lakes formed from the increased rains. In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in an expanding rainforest and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9,000 and 5,000BC, Niger–Congo languages, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the Elaeis guineensis, oil palm and raffia palm. Black-eyed peas and voandzeia (African groundnuts), were domesticated, followed by okra and kola nuts. Since most of the plants grew in the forest, the Niger–Congo speakers invented polished stone axes for clearing forest.

Around 4,000BC, 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. 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 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 500AD, 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 500BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions did not begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date.

4th millenniumBC – 6th centuryAD

Northeast Africa

From 3500BC, nome (Egypt), nomes (ruled by nomarchs) coalesced to form the kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt in northeast Africa. Around 3100BC Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt to unify Ancient Egypt, Egypt under the First Dynasty of Egypt, 1st dynasty, with the process of consolidation and assimilation completed by the time of the 3rd dynasty who formed the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2686BC. The Kingdom of Kerma emerged around this time to become the dominant force in Nubia, controlling territory as large as Egypt between the 1st and 4th cataracts of the Nile.

The 4th Dynasty of Egypt, 4th dynasty oversaw the height of the Old Kingdom, and constructed many Egyptian pyramids, great pyramids. Under the 6th dynasty power gradually decentralised to the nomarchs, culminating in the disintegration of the kingdom, exacerbated by drought and famine, thus commencing the First Intermediate Period in 2200BC. This shattered state would last until 2055BC when the 11th dynasty, based in Thebes, Egypt, Thebes, conquered the others to form the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, with the 12th dynasty expanding into Lower Nubia at the expense of Kingdom of Kerma, Kerma. In 1700BC, the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Middle Kingdom fractured in two, ushering in the Second Intermediate Period. The Hyksos, a militaristic people from Palestine (region), Palestine, invaded and conquered Lower Egypt, while Kingdom of Kerma, Kerma coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent.

In 1550BC, the 18th dynasty expelled the Hyksos, and established the New Kingdom of Egypt. Using the advanced military technology the Hyksos had brought, the New Kingdom conquered the Levant from the Canaanites, Mittani, Amorites, and Hittites, and extinguished Kingdom of Kerma, Kerma, incorporating Nubia into the empire, and sending the Egyptian empire into its golden age. Internal struggles, drought, famine, and invasions by a Sea peoples, confederation of seafaring peoples contributed to the New Kingdom's collapse in 1069BC, commencing the Third Intermediate Period.

Egypt's collapse liberated the more Egyptianised Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, who manoeuvred into power in Upper Egypt and conquered Lower Egypt in 754BC to form the Kushite Empire. The Kushites ruled for a century and oversaw a Nubian pyramids, revival in pyramid building, until they were Assyrian conquest of Egypt, driven out of Egypt by the Assyrians in 663BC in reprisal for their expansion towards the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrians installed a 26th Dynasty of Egypt, puppet dynasty that later gained independence and once more Late Period of ancient Egypt, unified Egypt, until they were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525BC. Egypt regained independence under the 28th Dynasty of Egypt, 28th dynasty in 404BC but they were reconquered by the Achaemenid Empire, Achaemenids in 343BC. The conquest of Achaemenid Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332BC marked the beginning of Hellenistic period, Hellenistic rule and the installation of the Ancient Macedonian, Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.

The Ptolemaic dynasty, Ptolemaics lost their holdings outside of Africa to the Seleucids in the Syrian Wars, expanded into Cyrenaica and subjugated Kingdom of Kush, Kush in the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century BC, Ptolemaic dynasty, Ptolemaic Egypt became entangled in a Caesar's civil war, Roman civil war, leading to its conquest by the Roman Empire, Romans in 30BC. The Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire freed the Levantine city state of Palmyra, which Palmyrene Empire, conquered Egypt; their brief rule ended when they were reconquered by the Roman Empire, Romans. In the midst of this, Kingdom of Kush, Kush regained independence from Egypt, and they would persist as a major regional power until, having been weakened from internal rebellion amid worsening climatic conditions, invasions by Aksum and the Noba caused their disintegration into Makuria, Alodia, and Nobatia in the 5th centuryAD. The Romans managed to hold on to Egypt for the rest of the ancient period.

Horn of Africa

In the Horn of Africa, there was the Land of Punt, a kingdom on the Red Sea, likely located in modern-day Eritrea or northern Somaliland. The Ancient Egyptians initially traded via middle-men with Punt until in 2350BC when they established direct relations. They would become close trading partners for over a millennium. Towards the end of the ancient period, northern Ethiopia and Eritrea bore the Kingdom of D'mt beginning in 980BC. In modern-day Somalia and Djibouti there was the Macrobians, Macrobian Kingdom, with archaeological discoveries indicating the possibility of other unknown sophisticated civilisations at this time. After D'mt's fall in the 5th century BC the Ethiopian Plateau came to be ruled by numerous smaller unknown kingdoms who experienced strong Sabaeans, south Arabian influence, until the growth and expansion of Aksum in the 1st century BC. Along the Horn's coast there were many ancient Somali city-states that thrived off of the Maritime history of Somalia, wider Red Sea trade and transported their cargo via beden, exporting myrrh, frankincense, spices, Natural gum, gum, incense, and ivory, with freedom from Roman interference causing Indians to give the cities a lucrative monopoly on cinnamon from History of India#Iron Age (c. 1800 – 200 BCE), ancient India.

The Kingdom of Aksum grew from a principality into a major power on the Indo-Roman trade relations, trade route between Rome and India through conquering its unfortunately unknown neighbours, gaining a monopoly on Indian Ocean trade in the region. Aksum's rise had them rule over much of the regions from Lake Tana to the valley of the Nile, and they further conquered parts of the ailing Kingdom of Kush, led campaigns against the Noba and Beja people, Beja peoples, and GDRT, expanded into South Arabia. This led the Persian prophet Mani (prophet), Mani to consider Aksum as one of the four great powers of the 3rd century AD alongside Sassanian Empire, Persia, Roman Empire, Rome, and Three Kingdoms, China. In the 4th century AD Ezana of Axum, Aksum's king converted to Christianity and Aksum's population, who had followed Traditional African religions, syncretic mixes of local beliefs, slowly followed. The end of the 5th century saw Aksum allied with the Byzantine Empire, who viewed themselves as defenders of Christendom, balanced against the Sassanid Empire and the Himyarite Kingdom in Arabia.

Northwest Africa

The Maghreb and Ifriqiya were mostly cut off from the cradle of civilisation in Egypt by the Libyan desert, exacerbated by Ancient Egyptian royal ships, Egyptian boats being tailored to the Nile and not coping well in the open Mediterranean Sea. This caused its societies to develop contiguous to those of Southern Europe, until Phoenician settlement of North Africa, Phoenician settlements came to dominate the most lucrative trading locations in the Gulf of Tunis. Phoenician settlements subsequently grew into Ancient Carthage after gaining independence from Phoenicia in the 6th century BC, and they would build an Ancient Carthage#Independence, expansion and hegemony, extensive empire and a strict mercantile network, all secured by one of the largest and most powerful navies in the Classical antiquity, ancient Mediterranean. Carthage would meet its demise in the Punic Wars against the expansionary Roman Republic, however momentum in these wars was not linear, with Carthage initially experiencing considerable success in the Second Punic War following Hannibal's infamous Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, crossing of the alps into northern Italy. Their defeat and subsequent collapse of their empire would produce two further polities in the Maghreb; Numidia, which had assisted the Romans in the Second Punic War, Mauretania, a Mauri chiefdom, tribal kingdom and home of the legendary Atlas (mythology)#King of Mauretania, King Atlas, and various tribes such as Garamantes, Musulamii, and Bavares. The Third Punic War would result in Carthage's total defeat in 146 BC and the Roman Empire, Romans established the province of Africa (Roman province), Africa, with Numidia assuming control of many of Carthage's African ports. Towards the end of the 2nd century BC Mauretania fought alongside Numidia's Jugurtha in the Jugurthine War against the Romans after he had usurped the Numidian throne from a Roman ally. Together they inflicted heavy casualties that quaked the Roman Senate, with the war only ending inconclusively when Mauretania's Bocchus I sold out Jugurtha to the Romans.

At the turn of the millennium, they both would face the same fate as Carthage and be conquered by the Romans who established Mauretania#Roman province(s), Mauretania and Numidia (Roman province), Numidia as provinces of their empire, while Musulamii, led by Tacfarinas, and Garamantes were eventually defeated in war in the 1st century AD however weren't conquered. In the 5th century AD the Vandal conquest of Roman Africa, Vandals conquered north Africa precipitating the fall of Rome. Swathes of Berbers, indigenous peoples would regain self-governance in the Mauro-Roman Kingdom and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, namely the kingdoms of Kingdom of Ouarsenis, Ouarsenis, Kingdom of the Aurès, Aurès, and Kingdom of Altava, Altava. The Vandal Kingdom, Vandals ruled Ifriqiya for a century until Vandalic War, Byzantine reconquest in the early 6th century AD. The Byzantines and the Berber kingdoms fought minor inconsequential conflicts, such as in the case of Garmul, however largely coexisted. Further inland to the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa were the Sanhaja in modern-day Algeria, a broad grouping of three groupings of Confederation, tribal confederations, one of which is the Masmuda grouping in modern-day Morocco, along with the nomadic Zenata; their composite tribes would later go onto shape much of North African history.

West Africa

In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum. Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in the 4th millennium BC, which had crucially developed Iron metallurgy in Africa, iron metallurgy by 1200BC, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons. Extensive east-west belts of Sahel, deserts, West Sudanian savanna, grasslands, and Guinean forest–savanna mosaic, forests from north to south were crucial for the moulding of their respective societies and meant that prior to the accession of trans-Saharan trade routes, symbiotic trade relations developed in response to the opportunities afforded by north–south diversity in ecosystems. Various civilisations prospered in this period. From 4000BC, the Tichitt culture in modern-day Mauritania and Mali was the oldest known Complex society, complexly organised society in West Africa, with a four tiered hierarchical social structure. Other civilisations include the Kintampo culture from 2500BC in modern-day Ghana,Anquandah, James (1995). The Kintampo Complex: a case study of early sedentism and food production in sub-Sahelian west Africa, pp. 255–259 in Shaw, Thurstan, Andah, Bassey W and Sinclair, Paul (1995). The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London, England: Routledge. . the Nok culture from 1500 BC in modern-day Nigeria, the Daima, Daima culture around Lake Chad from 550BC, Djenné-Djenno from 250BC in modern-day Mali, and the Serer prehistory, Serer civilisation in modern-day Senegal, which built the Senegambian stone circles from the 3rd century BC. There is also detailed List of the Ogiso, record of Igodomigodo, a small kingdom founded presumably in 40BC, which would later go on to form the Benin Empire.

Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, a Monsoon#Africa (West African and Southeast African), wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation that had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium, with the Ghana Empire#Rise of the Empire, Kingdom of Wagadu, the local name of the Ghana Empire, rising out of the Tichitt culture, growing wealthy following the introduction of the Dromedary, camel to the western Sahel, revolutionising the trans-Saharan trade that linked their capital and Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in North Africa. Soninke traditions likely contain content from prehistory, mentioning four previous foundings of Wagadu (mythology), Wagadu, and holds that the final founding of Wagadu occurred after their first king did a deal with ''Bida'', a serpent deity who was guarding a well, to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for assurance regarding plenty of rainfall and gold supply. Wagadu's core traversed modern-day southern Mauritania and western Mali, and Soninke people, Soninke Oral tradition, tradition portrays early Ghana as warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population, although details of their expansion are extremely scarce. Wagadu made its profits from maintaining a monopoly on gold heading north and salt heading south, despite not controlling the gold fields themselves, located in the Guinean forest–savanna mosaic, forest regions. It is probable that Wagadu's dominance on trade allowed for the gradual consolidation of many polities into a confederation, confederated state, whose composites stood in varying relations to the core, from fully administered to nominal tribute-paying parity. Based on Tumulus#Africa, large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, it has been stipulated that relative to Wagadu, there were further simultaneous and preceding kingdoms that have unfortunately been lost to time.

Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa

At the 4th millennium BC the Congo Basin was inhabited by the Bambenga, Bayaka, Bakoya, and Bongo people (Gabon), Babongo in the west, the Mbuti people, Bambuti in the Ituri Rainforest, east, and the Twa, Batwa who were widely scattered and also present in the African Great Lakes, Great Lakes region; together they are grouped as Pygmies. On the later-named Swahili coast there were Cushitic languages, Cushitic-speaking peoples, and the Khoisan languages, Khoisan (a neologism for the Khoekhoe and San people, San) in the continent's south.

The Bantu expansion constituted a major series of migrations of Bantu peoples from central Africa to eastern and southern Africa and was substantial in the settling of the continent. Commencing in the 2nd millennium BC, the Bantu began to migrate from Cameroon to central, eastern, and southern Africa, laying the foundations for future states such as the Kingdom of Kongo in the Congo Basin, the Empire of Kitara in the African Great Lakes, the Luba Empire in the Upemba Depression, the Kilwa Sultanate in the Swahili coast by crowding out Azania, with Rhapta being its last stronghold by the 1st century AD. These migrations also prefaced the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the Zambezi basin. After reaching the Zambezi, the Bantu continued southward, with eastern groups continuing to modern-day Mozambique and reaching Maputo in the 2nd century AD. Further to the south, settlements of Bantu peoples who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen were well established south of the Limpopo River by the 4th century AD, displacing and absorbing the Khoisan languages, Khoisan.

By the Chari River south of Lake Chad the Sao civilisation flourished for over a millennium beginning in the 6th century BC, in territory that later became part of present-day Cameroon and Chad. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper, and iron, with finds including bronze sculptures, terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears. Nearby, around Lake Ejagham in south-west Cameroon, the Ekoi people#History, Ekoi civilisation rose circa 2nd century AD, and are most notable for constructing the Ikom monoliths and developing the Nsibidi, Nsibidi script.

9th to 18th centuries

Pre-colonial Africa possessed as many as 10,000 different states and polities. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu peoples of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa; the large Sahelian kingdoms; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms, such as those of the Akan people, Akan; Kingdom of Benin, Edo, Yoruba people, Yoruba, and Igbo people in West Africa; and the Swahili people, Swahili coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa.

By the 9th century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa Kingdoms, Hausa states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana Empire, Ghana, Gao Region, Gao, and the Kanem-Bornu Empire. Ghana declined in the eleventh century, but was succeeded by the Mali Empire, 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, which was ruled by the Eze Nri, was established around the ninth century, making it one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate Igbo-Ukwu#Bronzes, bronzes, found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu.

The 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 by the Oyo Empire, whose obas, called the ''Alaafins of Oyo'', controlled many other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms including the Fon people, Fon ''Kingdom of Dahomey''.

The Almoravids were a Berber people, Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century. The Banu Hilal and 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 Arabized, and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.

Following the breakup of Mali, a local leader named Sonni Ali (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 Kingdoms, Hausa states – such as Kano (city), Kano, Jigawa, Katsina (city), 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 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 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 continued until after the conclusion of World War II, 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 and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957), becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Over the next decade, waves of decolonization took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa and the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

Portugal's overseas presence in sub-Saharan Africa (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, initially through qualified voting rights and from 1956 by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid, until 1994.

Post-colonial Africa

Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries. 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 and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several coups or periods of military dictatorship. 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 conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union also contributed to instability. Both the Soviet Union and the United States offered considerable incentives to African political and military leaders who aligned themselves with the superpowers' foreign policy. As an example, during the Angolan Civil War, the Soviet and Cuban aligned MPLA and the American aligned UNITA received the vast majority of their military and political support from these countries. Many African countries became highly dependent on foreign aid. The sudden loss of both Soviet and American aid at the end of the Cold War and fall of the USSR 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 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 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 from 2020 to 2022 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 individual 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.

Geography

Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), wide. 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.''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (Index) (1998)'', Merriam-Webster, pp. 10–11. .

Africa's largest country is Algeria, and its smallest country is Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.Hoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A–Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publications. p. 11. . The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.

African plate

Climate

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical 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 plains and dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence, where vegetation patterns such as sahel and steppe dominate. Africa is the hottest continent on Earth and 60% of the entire land surface consists of drylands and deserts."Africa: Environmental Atlas, 06/17/08."African Studies Center
, University of Pennsylvania. Accessed June 2011. The record for the highest-ever recorded temperature, in Libya in 1922 (), was discredited in 2013. (The 136 °F (57.8 °C), claimed by 'Aziziya, Libya, on 13 September 1922, has been officially deemed invalid by the World Meteorological Organization.)

Climate change

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'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.

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 life such as crocodiles and amphibians. In addition, Africa has the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the Quaternary extinction event#The Pleistocene or Ice Age extinction event, extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.

Environmental issues

Politics

African Union

The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 Member states of the African Union, member states. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as its headquarters, on 26 June 2001. The union was officially established on 9 July 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In July 2004, the African Union's Pan-African Parliament (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 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 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 in Africa, human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa, often under the oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often as a side effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Ivory Coast.

Boundary conflicts

List of states and territories

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{{efn, Continental regions as per United Nations geoscheme for Africa, UN categorizations/map 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=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991128111024/http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl , archive-date=28 November 1999
! Year
! data-sort-type="number" , List of countries and dependencies by population density, Density
(per km²)
! Capital
! Language, Name(s) in official language(s)
! ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, ISO 3166-1
, - style="background:#eee;"
, colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", North Africa
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Algeria
, Algeria
, style="text-align:right;", 2,381,740
, style="text-align:right;", 46,731,000
, style="text-align:right;", 2022
, style="text-align:right;", 17.7
, Algiers
, الجزائر (al-Jazāʾir)/Algérie
, DZA
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Egypt
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Egypt
, Egypt{{efn, Egypt is generally considered a transcontinental country in Northern Africa (UN region) and Western Asia; population and area figures are for African portion only, west of the Suez Canal.
, style="text-align:right;", 1,001,450
, style="text-align:right;", 82,868,000
, style="text-align:right;", 2012
, style="text-align:right;", 83
, Cairo
, مِصر (Miṣr)
, EGY
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Libya
, Libya
, style="text-align:right;", 1,759,540
, style="text-align:right;", 6,310,434
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 4
, Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli
, ليبيا (Lībiyā)
, LBY
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Morocco
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Morocco
, Morocco
, style="text-align:right;", 446,550
, style="text-align:right;", 35,740,000
, style="text-align:right;", 2017
, style="text-align:right;", 78
, Rabat
, المغرب (al-maḡrib)/ⵍⵎⵖⵔⵉⴱ (lmeɣrib)/Maroc
, MAR
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Sudan
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Sudan
, Sudan
, 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, Tunisia
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Tunisia
, Tunisia
, style="text-align:right;", 163,610
, style="text-align:right;", 10,486,339
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 64
, Tunis
, تونس (Tūnis)/Tunest/Tunisie
, TUN
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Western Sahara
, Western Sahara{{efn, name="Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic", The territory of Western Sahara is claimed by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Morocco. The SADR is recognized as a sovereign state by the African Union. Morocco claims the entirety of the country as its Southern Provinces. Morocco administers 4/5 of the territory while the SADR controls 1/5. Morocco's annexation of this territory has not been recognized internationally.
, style="text-align:right;", 266,000
, style="text-align:right;", 405,210
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 2
, El Aaiún
, الصحراء الغربية (aṣ-Ṣaḥrā' al-Gharbiyyah)/Taneẓroft Tutrimt/Sáhara Occidental
, ESH
, - style="background:#eee;"
, colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", East Africa
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Burundi
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Burundi
, Burundi
, style="text-align:right;", 27,830
, style="text-align:right;", 8,988,091
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 323
, Gitega
, Uburundi/Burundi/Burundi
, BDI
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Comoros
, Comoros
, style="text-align:right;", 2,170
, style="text-align:right;", 752,438
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 347
, Moroni, Comoros, Moroni
, Komori/Comores/جزر القمر (Juzur al-Qumur)
, COM
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Djibouti
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Djibouti
, Djibouti
, style="text-align:right;", 23,000
, style="text-align:right;", 828,324
, style="text-align:right;", 2015
, style="text-align:right;", 22
, Djibouti (city), Djibouti
, Yibuuti/جيبوتي (Jībūtī)/Djibouti/Jabuuti
, DJI
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Eritrea
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Eritrea
, Eritrea
, style="text-align:right;", 121,320
, style="text-align:right;", 5,647,168
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 47
, Asmara
, Eritrea
, ERI
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Ethiopia
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Ethiopia
, Ethiopia
, style="text-align:right;", 1,127,127
, style="text-align:right;", 84,320,987
, style="text-align:right;", 2012
, style="text-align:right;", 75
, Addis Ababa
, ኢትዮጵያ (Ītyōṗṗyā)/Itiyoophiyaa/ኢትዮጵያ/Itoophiyaa/Itoobiya/ኢትዮጵያ
, ETH
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, French Southern and Antarctic Lands
, French Southern Territories (France)
, style="text-align:right;", 439,781
, style="text-align:right;", 100
, style="text-align:right;", 2019
, style="text-align:right;", —
, Saint-Pierre, Réunion, Saint Pierre
, Terres australes et antarctiques françaises
, FRA-TF
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Kenya
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Kenya
, Kenya
, style="text-align:right;", 582,650
, style="text-align:right;", 39,002,772
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 66
, Nairobi
, Kenya
, KEN
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Madagascar
, Madagascar
, style="text-align:right;", 587,040
, style="text-align:right;", 20,653,556
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 35
, Antananarivo
, Madagasikara/Madagascar
, MDG
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Malawi
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Malawi
, Malawi
, style="text-align:right;", 118,480
, style="text-align:right;", 14,268,711
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 120
, Lilongwe
, Malaŵi/Malaŵi
, MWI
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Mauritius
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mauritius
, Mauritius
, style="text-align:right;", 2,040
, style="text-align:right;", 1,284,264
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 630
, Port Louis
, Mauritius/Maurice/Moris
, MUS
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Mayotte
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mayotte
, Mayotte (France)
, style="text-align:right;", 374
, style="text-align:right;", 223,765
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 490
, Mamoudzou
, Mayotte/Maore/Maiôty
, MYT
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mozambique
, Mozambique
, style="text-align:right;", 801,590
, style="text-align:right;", 21,669,278
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 27
, Maputo
, Moçambique/Mozambiki/Msumbiji/Muzambhiki
, MOZ
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Réunion
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Réunion
, Réunion (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" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Somalia
, 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" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, South Sudan
, 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" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Tanzania
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Tanzania
, Tanzania
, style="text-align:right;", 945,087
, style="text-align:right;", 44,929,002
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 43
, Dodoma
, Tanzania/Tanzania
, TZA
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Uganda
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Uganda
, Uganda
, style="text-align:right;", 236,040
, style="text-align:right;", 32,369,558
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 137
, Kampala
, Uganda/Yuganda
, UGA
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Zambia
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Zambia
, Zambia
, style="text-align:right;", 752,614
, style="text-align:right;", 11,862,740
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 16
, Lusaka
, Zambia
, ZMB
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Zimbabwe
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Zimbabwe
, Zimbabwe
, style="text-align:right;", 390,580
, style="text-align:right;", 11,392,629
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 29
, Harare
, Zimbabwe
, ZWE
, -
, colspan="10" style="background:#eee; text-align:center;", Central Africa
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Angola
, Angola
, style="text-align:right;", 1,246,700
, style="text-align:right;", 12,799,293
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 10
, Luanda
, Angola
, AGO
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Cameroon
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Cameroon
, Cameroon
, style="text-align:right;", 475,440
, style="text-align:right;", 18,879,301
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 40
, Yaoundé
, Cameroun/Kamerun
, CMR
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Central African Republic
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Central African Republic
, Central African Republic
, style="text-align:right;", 622,984
, style="text-align:right;", 4,511,488
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 7
, Bangui
, Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka/République centrafricaine
, CAF
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Chad
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Chad
, Chad
, 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;", 69,575,000
, style="text-align:right;", 2012
, style="text-align:right;", 30
, Kinshasa
, République démocratique du Congo
, COD
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Equatorial Guinea
, 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
, Gabon
, GAB
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, São Tomé and Príncipe
, São Tomé and Príncipe
, style="text-align:right;", 1,001
, style="text-align:right;", 212,679
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 212
, São Tomé
, São Tomé e Príncipe
, STP
, - style="background:#eee;"
, colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", Southern Africa
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Botswana
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Botswana
, Botswana
, style="text-align:right;", 600,370
, style="text-align:right;", 1,990,876
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 3
, Gaborone
, Botswana/Botswana
, BWA
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Eswatini
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Eswatini
, Eswatini
, 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
, style="text-align:right;", 30,355
, style="text-align:right;", 2,130,819
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 70
, Maseru
, Lesotho/Lesotho
, LSO
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Namibia
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Namibia
, Namibia
, style="text-align:right;", 825,418
, style="text-align:right;", 2,108,665
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 3
, Windhoek
, Namibia
, NAM
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, South Africa
, South Africa
, style="text-align:right;", 1,219,912
, style="text-align:right;", 51,770,560
, style="text-align:right;", 2011
, style="text-align:right;", 42
, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria{{efn, Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa, while Cape Town is its legislative seat, and Pretoria is the country's administrative seat.
, yaseNingizimu Afrika/yoMzantsi-Afrika/Suid-Afrika/Afrika-Borwa/Aforika Borwa/Afrika Borwa/Afrika Dzonga/yeNingizimu Afrika/Afurika Tshipembe/yeSewula Afrika
, ZAF
, - style="background:#eee;"
, colspan="10" style="text-align:center;", West Africa
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Benin
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Benin
, Benin
, style="text-align:right;", 112,620
, style="text-align:right;", 8,791,832
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 78
, Porto-Novo
, Bénin
, BEN
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Burkina Faso
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Burkina Faso
, Burkina Faso
, style="text-align:right;", 274,200
, style="text-align:right;", 15,746,232
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 57
, Ouagadougou
, Burkina Faso
, BFA
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Cape Verde
, Cape Verde
, style="text-align:right;", 4,033
, style="text-align:right;", 429,474
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 107
, Praia
, Cabo Verde/Kabu Verdi
, CPV
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, The Gambia
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, The Gambia
, The Gambia
, style="text-align:right;", 11,300
, style="text-align:right;", 1,782,893
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 158
, Banjul
, The Gambia
, GMB
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Ghana
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Ghana
, Ghana
, style="text-align:right;", 239,460
, style="text-align:right;", 23,832,495
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 100
, Accra
, Ghana
, GHA
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Guinea
, 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,{{efn, 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
, style="text-align:right;", 111,370
, style="text-align:right;", 3,441,790
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 31
, Monrovia
, Liberia
, LBR
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Mali
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mali
, Mali
, style="text-align:right;", 1,240,000
, style="text-align:right;", 12,666,987
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 10
, Bamako
, Mali/Maali/مالي (Mālī)/𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Maali)/ߡߊߟߌ (Mali)
, MLI
, -
, style="text-align:center" ,
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Mauritania
, Mauritania
, style="text-align:right;", 1,030,700
, style="text-align:right;", 3,129,486
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 3
, Nouakchott
, موريتانيا (Mūrītānyā)
, MRT
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Niger
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Niger
, Niger
, style="text-align:right;", 1,267,000
, style="text-align:right;", 15,306,252
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 12
, Niamey
, Niger
, NER
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Nigeria
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Nigeria
, Nigeria
, style="text-align:right;", 923,768
, style="text-align:right;", 166,629,000
, style="text-align:right;", 2012
, style="text-align:right;", 180
, Abuja
, Nigeria
, NGA
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, United Kingdom
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)
, style="text-align:right;", 420
, style="text-align:right;", 7,728
, style="text-align:right;", 2012
, style="text-align:right;", 13
, Jamestown, Saint Helena, Jamestown
, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
, SHN
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Senegal
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Senegal
, Senegal
, style="text-align:right;", 196,190
, style="text-align:right;", 13,711,597
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 70
, Dakar
, Sénégal
, SEN
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Sierra Leone
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Sierra Leone
, Sierra Leone
, style="text-align:right;", 71,740
, style="text-align:right;", 6,440,053
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 90
, Freetown
, Sierra Leone
, SLE
, -
, style="text-align:center" , {{Coat of arms, text=none, Togo
, style="text-align:center" , {{flagicon, Togo
, Togo
, style="text-align:right;", 56,785
, style="text-align:right;", 6,019,877
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 106
, Lomé
, Togo
, TGO
, - style="font-weight:bold; background:#eee;"
, colspan="3" , Africa Total
, style="text-align:right;", 30,368,609
, style="text-align:right;", 1,001,320,281
, style="text-align:right;", 2009
, style="text-align:right;", 33
! colspan="3",

Other territories

This list contains nine territories that are administered as incorporated areas of a primarily non-African country but that belong geographically to the African continent.

{, class="wikitable sortable"
, -
! class="unsortable" , Flag
! class="unsortable" , Map
! English short, formal names, and ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, ISO
! Ruling power
! Status
! Domestic short name(s)
and
formal name(s)
! Capital
! Population
! Area
! Currency
, -
,
,
, Canary Islands

Autonomous Region of the Canary Islands

ES-CN
, rowspan="2" , {{flagcountry, Spain
, Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous community of Spain
, Spanish language, Spanish: ''Islas Canarias''
, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santa Cruz and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas

Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Cruz de Tenerife'' and ''Las Palmas de Gran Canaria''
, 2,207,225
, {{convert, 7447, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, euro
, -
,
,
, Ceuta

Autonomous City of Ceuta

ES-CE
, Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, Autonomous city of Spain
, Spanish language, Spanish: ''Ceuta—Ciudad autónoma de Ceuta''
, Ceuta

Spanish language, Spanish: ''Ceuta''
, 84,843
, {{convert, 28, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, euro
, -
,
,
, Madeira

Autonomous Region of Madeira

PT-30
, {{flagcountry, Portugal
, Autonomous Regions of Portugal, Autonomous Region of Portugal
, Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Madeira—Região Autónoma da Madeira''
, Funchal

Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Funchal''
, 267,785
, {{convert, 828, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, euro
, -
,
,
, Mayotte

Mayotte Region

YT
, {{flagcountry, France
, Overseas department and region, Overseas region and constituent part of the French Fifth Republic, French Republic
, French language, French: ''Mayotte—Région Mayotte''
, Mamoudzou

French language, French: ''Mamoudzou''
, 266,380
, {{convert, 374, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, euro
, -
,
,
, Melilla

Autonomous City of Melilla

ES-ML
, {{flagcountry, Spain
, Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, Autonomous city of Spain
, Spanish language, Spanish: ''Melilla—Ciudad autónoma de Melilla''
, Melilla

Spanish language, Spanish: ''Melilla''
, 84,714
, {{convert, 20, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, euro
, -
,
,
, Pelagie Islands


, {{flagcountry, Italy
, Archipelago of Italy
, Italian language, Italian: ''Isole Pelagie''

Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Ìsuli Pilaggî''
, Lampedusa e Linosa{{efn, Geographically part of the archipelago (Lampedusa and Lampione) belongs to the African continent; politically and administratively, the islands fall within the Province of Agrigento in Sicily

Italian language, Italian: ''Lampedusa e Linosa''

Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Lampidusa e Linusa''
, 6,304
, {{convert, 21.4, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, euro
, -
,
,
, Plazas de soberanía


, {{flagcountry, Spain
, Overseas territory of Spain
, Spanish language, Spanish: ''Plazas de soberanía''
, N/A
, 74
, 0.59 km² (0.23 sq mi)
, euro
, -
,
,
, Réunion

Réunion Region

RE
, {{flagcountry, France
, Overseas department and region, Overseas region and constituent part of the French Fifth Republic, French Republic
, French language, French: ''Réunion—Région Réunion''
, Saint-Denis, Réunion, Saint-Denis

French language, French: ''Saint-Denis''
, 889,918
, {{convert, 2512, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, euro
, -
,
,
, Socotra Governorate, Socotra Archipelago


, {{flagcountry, Yemen
, Governorates of Yemen, Governorate of Yemen
, {{langx, ar, أرخبيل سقطرى
(''ʾArḫabīl Suquṭrā'')

, Hadibu

Arabic language, Arabic: اديبو (''Ḥādībū'')
, 60,550
, {{convert, 3974.64, km2, sqmi, 0, abbr=on
, Yemeni rial

Economy

{{Main, Economy of Africa, List of African countries by GDP (nominal), List of African countries by GDP (PPP)
{{See also, Economy of the African Union

Although it has abundant natural resources, 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 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, inadequate WASH, water supply and sanitation, and poor health affect a large proportion of the people who reside on 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). Eighty-one percent of the sub-Saharan African 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 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, perform quite well on scales of mass support for democracy and the market economy.

The following table shows the projected nominal GDP and GDP per capita (at Purchasing Power Parity) in 2025 by the IMF.{{Cite web, title=World Economic Outlook Database April 2025, url=https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2025/april/weo-report?c=512,914,612,171,614,311,213,911,314,193,122,912,313,419,513,316,913,124,339,638,514,218,963,616,223,516,918,748,618,624,522,622,156,626,628,228,924,233,632,636,634,238,662,960,423,935,128,611,321,243,248,469,253,642,643,939,734,644,819,172,132,646,648,915,134,652,174,328,258,656,654,336,263,268,532,944,176,534,536,429,433,178,436,136,343,158,439,916,664,826,542,967,443,917,544,941,446,666,668,672,946,137,546,674,676,548,556,678,181,867,682,684,273,868,921,948,943,686,688,518,728,836,558,138,196,278,692,694,962,142,449,564,565,283,853,288,293,566,964,182,359,453,968,922,714,862,135,716,456,722,942,718,724,576,936,961,813,726,199,733,184,524,361,362,364,732,366,144,146,463,528,923,738,578,537,742,866,369,744,186,925,869,746,926,466,112,111,298,927,846,299,582,487,474,754,698,&s=NGDPD,PPPPC,&sy=2025&ey=2025&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1 , publisher=IMF, access-date=2025-04-26

{, class="wikitable sortable" style="border:1px solid #aaa; margin:10px auto 10px auto"
, - style="background:#dbdbdb;"
! Rank
! Country
! List of countries by GDP (nominal), GDP (nominal, in 2025)
millions of United States dollar, USD
! List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita, GDP per capita (PPP, in 2025)
in international dollars
, -
, —, , style="text-align:left", ''{{nowrap, {{flag, Africa '', , style="text-align:right", 2,834,002, , style="text-align:right", 7,373
, -
, 1 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, South Africa, , style="text-align:right", 410,338, , style="text-align:right", 15,989
, -
, 2 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Egypt, , style="text-align:right", 347,342, , style="text-align:right", 21,668
, -
, 3 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Algeria, , style="text-align:right", 268,885, , style="text-align:right", 18,525
, -
, 4 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Nigeria , , style="text-align:right", 188,271, , style="text-align:right", 6,792
, -
, 5 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Morocco , , style="text-align:right", 165,835, , style="text-align:right", 11,266
, -
, 6 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Kenya , , style="text-align:right", 131,673, , style="text-align:right", 7,534
, -
, 7 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Ethiopia, , style="text-align:right", 117,457, , style="text-align:right", 4,398
, -
, 8 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Angola , , style="text-align:right", 113,343, , style="text-align:right", 10,234
, -
, 9 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Côte d'Ivoire, , style="text-align:right", 94,483, , style="text-align:right", 8,111
, -
, 10 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Ghana, , style="text-align:right", 88,332, , style="text-align:right", 8,417
, -
, 11 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Tanzania, , style="text-align:right", 85,977, , style="text-align:right", 4,371
, -
, 12 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, DR Congo, , style="text-align:right", 79,119, , style="text-align:right", 1,884
, -
, 13 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Uganda, , style="text-align:right", 64,277, , style="text-align:right", 3,896
, -
, 14 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Tunisia, , style="text-align:right", 56,291, , style="text-align:right", 14,779
, -
, 15 , , style="text-align:left", {{flag, Cameroon, , style="text-align:right", 56,011, , style="text-align:right", 5,760

Tausch's global value comparison based on the World Values Survey derived the following factor analytical scales: 1. The non-violent and law-abiding society 2. Democracy movement 3. Climate of personal non-violence 4. Trust in institutions 5. Happiness, good health 6. No redistributive religious fundamentalism 7. Accepting the market 8. Feminism 9. Involvement in politics 10. Optimism and engagement 11. No welfare mentality, acceptancy of the Calvinist work ethics. The spread in the performance of African countries with complete data, Tausch concluded "is really amazing". While one should be especially hopeful about the development of future democracy and the market economy in Ghana, the article suggests pessimistic tendencies for Egypt and Algeria, and especially for Africa's leading economy, South Africa. High human inequality, as measured by the UNDP's Human Development Report's ''Index of Human Inequality'', 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, 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"
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140129114909/http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=690, date=29 January 2014, ''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."

Electricity generation

The main source of electricity is hydropower, which contributes significantly to the current installed capacity for energy. The Kainji Dam is a typical hydropower resource generating electricity for all the large cities in Nigeria as well as their neighbouring country, Niger. Hence, the continuous investment in the last decade, which has increased the amount of power generated.

Infrastructure

Water resources

{{See also, Water scarcity in Africa, Water supply and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa
Water development and Water resource management, management are complex in Africa due to the multiplicity of trans-boundary water resources (rivers, lakes and aquifers).{{Cite book , title=The United Nations World Water Development Report 2016: Water and Jobs , publisher=UNESCO , year=2016 , isbn=978-92-3-100146-8 , location=Paris Text was copied from this source, which is available under a creativecommons:by-sa/3.0/igo/, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license. Around 75% of sub-Saharan Africa falls within 53 international river basin catchments that traverse multiple borders.{{Cite web , title=Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) , url=http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/cooperation-in-international-waters-in-africa , access-date=2016-11-13 , publisher=The World Bank , archive-date=19 January 2022 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119001509/https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/cooperation-in-international-waters-in-africa , url-status=live This particular constraint can also be converted into an opportunity if the potential for trans-boundary cooperation is harnessed in the development of the area's water resources. A multi-sectoral analysis of the Zambezi River, for example, shows that riparian cooperation could lead to a 23% increase in firm energy production without any additional investments. A number of institutional and legal frameworks for transboundary cooperation exist, such as the Zambezi River Authority, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol, Volta River Authority and the Nile Basin Commission. However, additional efforts are required to further develop political will, as well as the financial capacities and institutional frameworks needed for win-win multilateral cooperative actions and optimal solutions for all riparians.

Demographics

{{Main, Demographics of Africa, Genetic history of Africa
{{See also, List of African countries by population, List of African countries by life expectancy
{{Pie chart
, caption= List of African countries by population, Proportion of total African population by country
, other = yes
, label1 = Nigeria
, value1 = 15.38 , color1=#36A
, label2 = Ethiopia
, value2 = 8.37 , color2=#1A9
, label3 = Egypt
, value3 = 7.65 , color3=#6A5
, label4 = Democratic Republic of the Congo
, value4 = 6.57 , color4=#CC5
, label5 = Tanzania
, value5 = 4.55 , color5=#928
, label6 = South Africa
, value6 = 4.47 , color6=#E33
, label7 = Kenya
, value7 = 3.88 , color7=#E72
, label8 = Uganda
, value8 = 3.38 , color8=#FE3
, label9 = Algeria
, value9 = 3.36 , color9=#A45

Africa is considered by anthropologists to be the most genetically diverse continent as a result of being the longest inhabited. 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 {{UN_Population, Year, the population of Africa is estimated at {{#expr:{{replace, {{UN_Population, Africa, ,} / 1e9 round 1 billion.{{UN_Population, ref 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. 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; while in 1990 sub-Saharan Africa accounted for only 16% of the world's births.

The total fertility rate (children per woman) for Sub-Saharan Africa is 4.7 as of 2018, the highest in the world. All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had Total fertility rate, TFRs (average number of children) above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27.1% of earth, global livebirths. In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 29% of global births.

Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the 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.{{citation needed, date=October 2023 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 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 Phoenicians (who founded Carthage) 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 and Algeria in the 21st century, while, to a lesser extent, Berber speakers are also present in some regions of Tunisia and Libya. The Berber-speaking Tuareg and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. In Mauritania, there is a small but near-extinct Berber community in the north and Niger–Congo-speaking peoples in the south, though in both regions Arabic and Arab culture predominates. In Sudan, although Arabic and Arab culture predominate, it is mostly inhabited by groups that originally spoke Nilo-Saharan, such as the Nubians, Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa, who, over the centuries, have variously intermixed with migrants from the Arabian peninsula. Small communities of Afro-Asiatic-speaking Beja nomads can also be found in Egypt and Sudan.

In the Horn of Africa, some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara people, Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as Habesha) speak languages from the Semitic languages, Semitic branch of the 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, 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 remain an important minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia, Réunion, and South Africa. 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.{{cite encyclopedia , title=Africa , encyclopedia=World Book Encyclopedia , publisher=World Book, Incorporated , location=Chicago, Illinois , url=https://archive.org/details/1989worldbookencyclo22worl , date=1989 , isbn=978-0-7166-1289-6 , url-access=registration

European colonization also brought Asian diaspora, sizable groups of Asians, particularly South Asian diaspora, 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#Diaspora, Lebanese have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West Africa, West and East Africa, respectively.

Alternative estimates of African population, 1–2018 AD (in thousands)

Source: Maddison and others (University of Groningen){{cite web, url=http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/other_books/appendix_B.pdf, title=Growth of World Population, GDP and GDP Per Capita before 1820, author=Maddison, date=27 July 2016 , access-date=17 July 2019, archive-date=12 February 2021, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212183845/http://www.ggdc.net/maddison/other_books/appendix_B.pdf, url-status=live

{, class="wikitable " style="text-align:right"
, -
! scope="col" , Year
! scope="col" , 1
! scope="col" , 1000
! scope="col" , 1500
! scope="col" , 1600
! scope="col" , 1700
! scope="col" , 1820
! scope="col" , 1870
! scope="col" , 1913
! scope="col" , 1950
! scope="col" , 1973
! scope="col" , 1998
! scope="col" , 2018
! scope="col" , 2100
(projected)
, -
, Africa
, 16 500
, 33 000
, 46 000
, 55 000
, 61 000
, 74 208
, 90 466
, 124 697
, 228 342
, 387 645
, 759 954
, 1 321 000
, 3 924 421{{Cite web , title=Five key findings from the 2022 UN Population Prospects , url=https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-update-2022 , access-date=2022-07-23 , website=Our World in Data , archive-date=16 June 2023 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230616102535/https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-update-2022 , url-status=live
, -
, World
, 230 820
, 268 273
, 437 818
, 555 828
, 603 410
, 1 041 092
, 1 270 014
, 1 791 020
, 2 524 531
, 3 913 482
, 5 907 680
, 7 500 000
, 10 349 323

Shares of Africa and world population, 1–2020 AD (% of world total)

Source: Maddison and others (University of Groningen)

{, class="wikitable " style="text-align:right"
, -
! scope="col" , Year
! scope="col" , 1
! scope="col" , 1000
! scope="col" , 1500
! scope="col" , 1600
! scope="col" , 1700
! scope="col" , 1820
! scope="col" , 1870
! scope="col" , 1913
! scope="col" , 1950
! scope="col" , 1973
! scope="col" , 1998
! scope="col" , 2020
! scope="col" , 2100
(projected)
, -
, Africa
, 7.1
, 12.3
, 10.5
, 9.9
, 10.1
, 7.1
, 7.1
, 7.0
, 9.0
, 9.9
, 12.9
, 18.2{{cite web, url=https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-population/, title=Africa Population (LIVE), website=worldometers.info, access-date=17 July 2019, archive-date=2 September 2020, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902033531/https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-population/, url-status=live
, 39.4{{cite web , last1=Cilluffo , first1=Anthony , last2=Ruiz , first2=Neil G. , date=17 June 2019 , title=World's population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century , url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/worlds-population-is-projected-to-nearly-stop-growing-by-the-end-of-the-century/ , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722151827/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/worlds-population-is-projected-to-nearly-stop-growing-by-the-end-of-the-century/ , archive-date=22 July 2019 , access-date=2 June 2023 , publisher=Pew Research Center

Religion

{{Main, Religion in Africa {{See also, , African divination

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.{{cite web, url=http://library.stanford.edu/africa/religion.html, title=African Religion on the Internet , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902182749/http://library.stanford.edu/africa/religion.html , archive-date=2 September 2006 , url-status=dead , publisher=Stanford University{{cite news , last=Onishi , first=Normitsu , date=1 November 2001 , title=Rising Muslim Power in Africa Causing Unrest in Nigeria and Elsewhere , url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/01/world/rising-muslim-power-in-africa-causes-unrest-in-nigeria-and-elsewhere.html , access-date=1 March 2009 , work=The New York Times According to the ''World Book Encyclopedia'', Islam in Africa, Islam and Christianity in Africa, Christianity are the two largest religions in Africa. Islam is most prevalent in Northern Africa, and is the state religion of many North African countries, such as Algeria, where 99% of the population practices Islam. The majority of people in most governments in Southern, Southeast, and Central Africa, as well as in a sizable portion of the Horn of Africa and West Africa, identify as Christians. The Coptic Christians constitute a sizable minority in Egypt, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the largest church in Ethiopia, with 36 million and 51 million adherents. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, 45% of the population are Christians, 40% are Muslims, and 10% follow Traditional African religions, traditional religions.{{citation needed, date=October 2020 A small number of Africans are Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianist, Baháʼí, or Judaism in Africa, Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are Irreligion in Africa, irreligious.

Languages

{{Main, Languages of Africa
{{See also, Writing systems of Africa#Indigenous writing systems
By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa. Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most multilingual continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well.{{Explain, reason=Africa is not one country with one single tradition of polyglots, date=February 2023 There are four major groups 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, and Southwest Asia.
* The Nilo-Saharan languages, ''Nilo-Saharan'' languages consist of a group of several possibly related Language family, families, spoken by 30 million people between 100 languages. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by ethnic groups in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, 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 form a group of three unrelated families and two Language isolate, isolates and number about fifty in total. They are mainly spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered language, endangered. The 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 colonies in Africa. German is spoken in Namibia, as it was a former German protectorate. In total, at least a fifth of Africans speak the former colonial languages.{{Efn, The previous three references show that there a total of 130 million English speakers, 120 million French speakers, and over 30 million Portuguese speakers in Africa, making them about 20% of Africa's 2022 population of 1.4 billion people. Moreover, in recent years some African countries have been considering removing their official former colonial languages, such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger which removed French as an official language in the 2020s in favour of native languages, while also renaming colonial street names.

Health

More than 85% of individuals in Africa use traditional medicine as an alternative to often expensive allopathic medical health care and costly pharmaceutical products. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) Heads of State and Government declared the 2000s decade as the African Decade on African traditional medicine 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.{{Cite book , last1=Appiah , first1=Anthony , title=Encyclopedia of Africa , last2=Gates , first2=Henry Louis , publisher=Oxford University Press , year=2010 , pages=8 Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for an estimated 69 percent of all people living with HIV{{Cite web , url=http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2012/gr2012/20121120_FactSheet_Global_en.pdf , title="Global Fact Sheet", Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, 20 November 2012 , access-date=18 October 2020 , archive-date=27 March 2014 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327233932/http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2012/gr2012/20121120_factsheet_global_en.pdf , url-status=live and 70 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011.{{cite web, title=UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2012 , url=http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids//documents/epidemiology/2012/gr2012/20121120_UNAIDS_Global_Report_2012_with_annexes_en.pdf , access-date=13 May 2013 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 has declined, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as low as thirty-four years.
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Culture

{{Main, Culture of Africa

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.{{Cite web, url=http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205208606.pdf, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501070358/http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205208606.pdf, url-status=dead, title=Pearsonhighered.com, archive-date=1 May 2015 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."{{Cite book, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSIxOcgE378C&pg=PA95, title=African Art and Leadership, first1=Douglas, last1=Fraser, first2=Herbert M., last2=Cole, year=2004, publisher=University of Wisconsin Press, isbn=978-0-299-05824-1, page=95, access-date=18 December 2015, archive-date=11 June 2020, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611043035/https://books.google.com/books?id=sSIxOcgE378C&pg=PA95, url-status=live 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.

As of March 2023, 98 African properties are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Among these proprieties, 54 are cultural sites, 39 are natural sites and 5 are mixed sites. The List of World Heritage in Danger, List Of World Heritage in Danger includes 15 African sites.

Visual art

{{Excerpt, African art, paragraph=1,2,3,4,5, , only=paragraphs

Architecture

{{Excerpt, Architecture of Africa, paragraph=1,2,3, file=1

Cinema

{{Excerpt, Cinema of Africa, paragraphs=1-2, file=1

Music

{{Excerpt, Music of Africa, paragraph=1,2

Dance

{{Excerpt, African dance, paragraph=1,2, file=no

Sports

{{Main, Sport in Africa


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, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, and Algeria have advanced to the knockout stage of recent FIFA World Cups. Morocco, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA Men's World Cup. 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 progressed in terms of state-of-the-art basketball facilities, which have been built in cities such as Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg, Kigali, Luanda and Rades. The number of African basketball players who drafted into the U.S. NBA has experienced 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, in northern Africa, 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 and Zimbabwe have appeared on multiple occasions at the Rugby World Cup, while South Africa is the most successful national team at the Rugby World Cup, having won the tournament on four occasions, in 1995, 2007, 2019, and 2023.

Traditional sports and games, Traditional sports were strictly marginalised during the Colonial Africa, colonial era, and many are dying or have gone extinct under the pressure of Modernization theory, modernisation, however lots remain popular despite not having formal governmental recognition or support.{{Cite book , last1=Keim , first1=Marion , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8jsrAwAAQBAJ&dq=traditional+sport+in+africa&pg=PA7 , title=Sport and Development Policy in Africa: Results of a Collaborative Study of Selected Country Cases , last2=Coning , first2=Christo de , date=2014-03-26 , publisher=AFRICAN SUN MeDIA , isbn=978-1-920689-20-9 , language=en{{Rp, pages=193–194 Some examples are Senegalese wrestling, Dambe, Nguni stick-fighting, and Savika.
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See also

{{Portal, Africa

* Index of Africa-related articles
* Outline of Africa

Notes

{{notelist

References

{{reflist

Sources

* {{Cite journal , last=Brantlinger , first=Patrick , title=Victorians and Africans: The Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent , journal=Critical Inquiry , volume=12 , issue=1 , date=1985 , pages=166–203 , jstor=1343467 , s2cid=161311164 , doi=10.1086/448326 , url=http://www.uwf.edu/dearle/imperialadventure/imperial%20adventure/documents/brantlinger%20victorians%20and%20africans.pdf
* {{cite book , last1=Collins , first1=Robert O. , author1-link=Robert O. Collins , last2=Burns , first2=James M. , year=2007 , title=A History of Sub-Saharan Africa , location=New York , publisher=Cambridge University Press , isbn=978-0-521-68708-9
* {{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 , last1=Robinson , first1=Ronald , first2=John , last2=Gallagher , last3=Denny , first3=Alice , title=Africa and the Victorians: The official mind of imperialism , publisher=Macmillan , date=1961 , ol=17989466M , edition=2 , isbn=9780333310069
* {{cite book , last1=Shillington , first1=Kevin , title=History of Africa , date=2005 , publisher=Palgrave Macmillan , isbn=978-0-333-59957-0
* {{Cite book , last1=Southall , first1=Roger , last2=Melber , first2=Henning , author-link=Henning Melber , title=A New Scramble For Africa?: Imperialism, Investment and Development , publisher=University of KwaZulu-Natal Press , date=2009
* {{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

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, England , date=1970 , isbn=978-0-500-02069-2
* {{cite book , last=Crowder , first=Michael , title=The Story of Nigeria , publisher=Faber , location=London, England , 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 , last1=Gordon , first1=April A. , first2=Donald L. , last2=Gordon , title=Understanding Contemporary Africa , publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers , location=Boulder, Colorado , 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, New Jersey , 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
* {{GovPubs, Africa
* {{Britannica, 7924

Africa: Human Geography
at the National Geographic Society

African & Middle Eastern Reading Room
from the United States Library of Congress

Africa South of the Sahara
from Stanford University

Aluka
digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa

History

The Story of Africa
from BBC World Service
* {{Cite EB1911, wstitle= Africa , volume= 1 , pages=320–358 , short= 1

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