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Africa
please note:
- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
{{Short description|Continent}}{{Other uses}}{{pp-move-indef}}{{pp-semi-indef}}{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}{{Use Oxford spelling|date=August 2016}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
| factoids |
|---|
| Christianity (49%)
| Islam (42%)
| Traditional faiths (8%)
| Others (1%)WEB,www.gordonconwell.edu/blog/african-christianity-101/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=a1d4c1d931e6c38110d5c3f059ae64bb66bafafa-1590463375-0-AezHrWRbV9jUadPbMq1KCYOzXRnMTcuigdG5X7oahVbSoI1-HbOZFVzICpNQM3DD6h-V4OowV97KMQvA_Z5xrEIueURh3cAjh_JOwgzb_0xJ8ApebiYm1YKfWINm1tpYbvki0LdD6UCp1tdLlxQ9SRwtdKFDMRidCaiTEuKpAgqahxqDYDT9efnF_jaiIEUQu0uIx-pJ0jUDCQtArMqdHTN8eI_S59hxJlvlxrSqBFOFsKFbiRy66EYOzblYbhaniwzQPIxiovSOAM7Yj6fu-5jMYVAPJtBJplpKoRDBlTtl44pnDC6wJInEyJbLw46dPuXcViyFEB57ebEfmUnpcYoJDlysExw35Ay28x7nvUDx3aIEa6ZhJsxwn62dv-R57g, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, African Christianity, 2020, 18 March 2020, 1 July 2021, 3 May 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210503132003/https://www.gordonconwell.edu/blog/african-christianity-101/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=a1d4c1d931e6c38110d5c3f059ae64bb66bafafa-1590463375-0-AezHrWRbV9jUadPbMq1KCYOzXRnMTcuigdG5X7oahVbSoI1-HbOZFVzICpNQM3DD6h-V4OowV97KMQvA_Z5xrEIueURh3cAjh_JOwgzb_0xJ8ApebiYm1YKfWINm1tpYbvki0LdD6UCp1tdLlxQ9SRwtdKFDMRidCaiTEuKpAgqahxqDYDT9efnF_jaiIEUQu0uIx-pJ0jUDCQtArMqdHTN8eI_S59hxJlvlxrSqBFOFsKFbiRy66EYOzblYbhaniwzQPIxiovSOAM7Yj6fu-5jMYVAPJtBJplpKoRDBlTtl44pnDC6wJInEyJbLw46dPuXcViyFEB57ebEfmUnpcYoJDlysExw35Ay28x7nvUDx3aIEa6ZhJsxwn62dv-R57g, live, }}
| Islam (42%)
| Traditional faiths (8%)
| Others (1%)WEB,www.gordonconwell.edu/blog/african-christianity-101/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=a1d4c1d931e6c38110d5c3f059ae64bb66bafafa-1590463375-0-AezHrWRbV9jUadPbMq1KCYOzXRnMTcuigdG5X7oahVbSoI1-HbOZFVzICpNQM3DD6h-V4OowV97KMQvA_Z5xrEIueURh3cAjh_JOwgzb_0xJ8ApebiYm1YKfWINm1tpYbvki0LdD6UCp1tdLlxQ9SRwtdKFDMRidCaiTEuKpAgqahxqDYDT9efnF_jaiIEUQu0uIx-pJ0jUDCQtArMqdHTN8eI_S59hxJlvlxrSqBFOFsKFbiRy66EYOzblYbhaniwzQPIxiovSOAM7Yj6fu-5jMYVAPJtBJplpKoRDBlTtl44pnDC6wJInEyJbLw46dPuXcViyFEB57ebEfmUnpcYoJDlysExw35Ay28x7nvUDx3aIEa6ZhJsxwn62dv-R57g, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, African Christianity, 2020, 18 March 2020, 1 July 2021, 3 May 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210503132003/https://www.gordonconwell.edu/blog/african-christianity-101/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=a1d4c1d931e6c38110d5c3f059ae64bb66bafafa-1590463375-0-AezHrWRbV9jUadPbMq1KCYOzXRnMTcuigdG5X7oahVbSoI1-HbOZFVzICpNQM3DD6h-V4OowV97KMQvA_Z5xrEIueURh3cAjh_JOwgzb_0xJ8ApebiYm1YKfWINm1tpYbvki0LdD6UCp1tdLlxQ9SRwtdKFDMRidCaiTEuKpAgqahxqDYDT9efnF_jaiIEUQu0uIx-pJ0jUDCQtArMqdHTN8eI_S59hxJlvlxrSqBFOFsKFbiRy66EYOzblYbhaniwzQPIxiovSOAM7Yj6fu-5jMYVAPJtBJplpKoRDBlTtl44pnDC6wJInEyJbLw46dPuXcViyFEB57ebEfmUnpcYoJDlysExw35Ay28x7nvUDx3aIEa6ZhJsxwn62dv-R57g, live, }}
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Etymology
File:AS17-148-22733 (21516723298).jpg|thumb|The totality of Africa seen by the Apollo 17Apollo 17Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of then-known northern Africa to the west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean (Ancient Libya).ENCYCLOPEDIA, Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich, Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 1913–1918, Hannover, 8th,latin_german.deacademic.com/1644, 20 September 2015, de, Afri,latin_german.deacademic.com/1644," title="web.archive.org/web/20160116044500latin_german.deacademic.com/1644,">web.archive.org/web/20160116044500latin_german.deacademic.com/1644, 16 January 2016, dead, ENCYCLOPEDIA, Lewis, Charlton T., Short, Charles, A Latin Dictionary, 1879, Clarendon Press, Oxford,www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DAfer, 20 September 2015, Afer, 16 January 2016,www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DAfer," title="web.archive.org/web/20160116044500www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DAfer,">web.archive.org/web/20160116044500www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DAfer, live, This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers; see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician word meaning “dust”,Venter & Neuland, NEPAD and the African Renaissance (2005), p. 16 but a 1981 hypothesisWEB,michel-desfayes.org/namesofcountries.html, The Names of Countries, Desfayes, Michel, michel-desfayes.org, Africa. From the name of an ancient tribe in Tunisia, the Afri (adjective: Afer). The name is still extant today as Ifira and Ifri-n-Dellal in Greater Kabylia (Algeria). A Berber tribe was called Beni-Ifren in the Middle Ages and Ifurace was the name of a Tripolitan people in the 6th century. The name is from the Berber language ifri ‘cave’. Troglodytism was frequent in northern Africa and still occurs today in southern Tunisia. Herodote wrote that the Garamantes, a North African people, used to live in caves. The Ancient Greek called troglodytÄ“s an African people who lived in caves. Africa was coined by the Romans and {{’, Ifriqiyeh{{’}} is the arabized Latin name. (Most details from Decret & Fantar, 1981). |date=25 January 2011 |access-date=9 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627022921michel-desfayes.org/namesofcountries.html |archive-date=27 June 2019 |url-status=dead }} has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran) meaning “cave”, in reference to cave dwellers.JOURNAL, 714549, The Berbers, Journal of the Royal African Society, 2, 6, 161–194, Babington Michell, Geo, 1903, 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a093193,zenodo.org/record/1782363, 30 August 2020, 30 December 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201230012624/https://zenodo.org/record/1782363, live, 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,Edward Lipinski, Itineraria Phoenicia {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160116044459books.google.com/books?id=SLSzNfdcqfoC&pg=PA200 |date=16 January 2016 }}, Peeters Publishers, 2004, p. 200. {{ISBN|90-429-1344-4}} as well as the city of Ifrane in Morocco.Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province then named Africa Proconsularis, following its defeat of the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya.WEB,www.consultsos.com/pandora/africa.htm, Africa African Africanus Africus, Consultos.com, 14 November 2006, 29 January 2009,www.consultsos.com/pandora/africa.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090129111458www.consultsos.com/pandora/africa.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20090129111458www.consultsos.com/pandora/africa.htm, live, The Latin suffix (wikt:-ica#Latin|-ica) can sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g., in Celtica from Celtae, as used by Julius Caesar). The later Muslim region of Ifriqiya, following its conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire’s Exarchatus Africae, also preserved a form of the name.According to the Romans, Africa lies to the west of Egypt, while “Asia” was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 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 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 aprica, meaning “sunny”.
- Massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, meaning “to turn toward the opening of the Ka.” The Ka is the energetic double of every person and the “opening of the Ka” refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, “the birthplace.“WEB,gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/cmc_nile_genesis.htm, Nile Genesis: the opus of Gerald Massey, Gerald-massey.org.uk, 29 October 1907, 18 May 2010,gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/cmc_nile_genesis.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20100130200159gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/cmc_nile_genesis.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20100130200159gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/cmc_nile_genesis.htm, 30 January 2010, dead,
- Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposedJOURNAL, Fruyt, M., D’Africus ventus a Africa terrain, Revue de Philologie, 50, 1976, 221–238, linking the Latin word with africus “south wind”, which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally “rainy wind”.
- Robert R. Stieglitz of Rutgers University in 1984 proposed: “The name Africa, derived from the Latin Aphir-ic-a, is cognate to Hebrew Ophir [’rich’].“JOURNAL, 10.2307/3209914, 3209914, Long-Distance Seafaring in the Ancient Near East, The Biblical Archaeologist, 47, 3, 134–142, 1984, Stieglitz, Robert R., 130072563,
- Ibn Khallikan and some other historians claim that the name of Africa came from a Himyarite king called Afrikin ibn Kais ibn Saifi also called “Afrikus son of Abraham” who subdued Ifriqiya.BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=3cdLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA35, Kitab Wafayat Ala’yan. Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary Transl. by (Guillaume) B(aro)n Mac-Guckin de Slane, Hallikan, ‘Abu-l-’Abbas Sams-al-din ‘Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn, 1842, Benjamin Duprat, en, 30 July 2018, 24 September 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190924231636/https://books.google.com/books?id=3cdLAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA35, live, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=mcN7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38, Science in the Medieval World, al-Andalusi, Sa’id, 2010, University of Texas Press, 978-0292792319, en, 30 July 2018, 24 September 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190924231632/https://books.google.com/books?id=mcN7AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA38, live, BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=pbo5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA113, Travels in the Arabian Desert: With Special Reference to the Arabian Horse and Its Pedigree, Upton, Roger D., 1881, C.K. Paul & Company, en, 30 July 2018, 24 September 2019,web.archive.org/web/20190924231639/https://books.google.com/books?id=pbo5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA113, live,
- Arabic afrÄ«qÄ (feminine noun) and ifrÄ«qiyÄ, now usually pronounced afrÄ«qiyÄ (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’.Modified from Wilhelm Sturmfels and Heinz Bischof: Unsere Ortsnamen im ABC erklärt nach Herkunft und Bedeutung, Bonn, 1961, Ferdinand Dümmlers Verlag.
- Possibly Phoenician faraqa in the sense of ‘colony, separation’.Serge Losique: Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de pays et de peuples, Paris, 1971, Éditions Klincksieck.
History
{{See also|History of North Africa|History of West Africa|History of Central Africa|History of East Africa|History of Southern Africa|List of kingdoms in Africa throughout history}}{{Further|General History of Africa|Cambridge History of Africa}}Prehistory
{{See also|Recent African origin of modern humans}}File:Lucy blackbg.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Lucy, an Australopithecus afarensis skeleton discovered in 1974 in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar TriangleAfar TriangleAfrica is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the Human species originating from the continent.BOOK, Rene J., Herrera, Ralph, Garcia-Bertrand, Ancestral DNA, Human Origins, and Migrations,books.google.com/books?id=ZF1gDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA61, 2018, Elsevier Science, 978-0-12-804128-4, 61–, 18 October 2020, 30 March 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210330032459/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZF1gDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA61, live, 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,Kimbel, William H. and Yoel Rak and Donald C. Johanson. (2004) The Skull of Australopithecus Afarensis, Oxford University Press US. {{ISBN|0-19-515706-0}} Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP)Tudge, Colin. (2002) The Variety of Life., Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-860426-2}} 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.Mokhtar, G. (1990) UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. II, Abridged Edition: Ancient Africa, University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-85255-092-8}}Eyma, A.K. and C.J. Bennett. (2003) Delts-Man in Yebu: Occasional Volume of the Egyptologists’ Electronic Forum No. 1, Universal Publishers. p. 210. {{ISBN|1-58112-564-X}} 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,Wells, Spencer (December 2002) The Journey of Man {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110427020944news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1212_021213_journeyofman.html |date=27 April 2011 }}. National GeographicOppenheimer, Stephen. The Gates of Grief {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530001241www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/gates2.html |date=30 May 2014 }}. bradshawfoundation.com the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco,WEB, 15. Strait of Gibraltar, Atlantic Ocean/Mediterranean Sea,www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/humanimprints/slide_15.html, www.lpi.usra.edu, 13 May 2020, 26 January 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210126205023/https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/slidesets/humanimprints/slide_15.html, live, JOURNAL, Fregel, Rosa, Méndez, Fernando L., Bokbot, Youssef, MartÃn-Socas, Dimas, Camalich-Massieu, MarÃa D., Santana, Jonathan, Morales, Jacob, Ãvila-Arcos, MarÃa C., Underhill, Peter A., Shapiro, Beth, Wojcik, Genevieve, Rasmussen, Morten, Soares, André E. R., Kapp, Joshua, Sockell, Alexandra, RodrÃguez-Santos, Francisco J., Mikdad, Abdeslam, Trujillo-Mederos, Aioze, Bustamante, Carlos D., Ancient genomes from North Africa evidence prehistoric migrations to the Maghreb from both the Levant and Europe, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 26 June 2018, 115, 26, 6774–6779, 10.1073/pnas.1800851115, 29895688, 6042094, 2018PNAS..115.6774F, free, or the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.JOURNAL,www.ffzg.unizg.hr/arheo/ska/tekstovi/out_of_africa.pdf, 10.1007/s10963-006-9002-z, Getting “Out of Africa”: Sea Crossings, Land Crossings and Culture in the Hominin Migrations, Journal of World Prehistory, 19, 2, 119–132, 2005, Derricourt, Robin, 28059849, 26 December 2013, 22 February 2012,www.ffzg.unizg.hr/arheo/ska/tekstovi/out_of_africa.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20120222031934www.ffzg.unizg.hr/arheo/ska/tekstovi/out_of_africa.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20120222031934www.ffzg.unizg.hr/arheo/ska/tekstovi/out_of_africa.pdf, live, 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.BOOK, Goucher, Candice, Walton, Linda, World History: Journeys from Past to Present,books.google.com/books?id=gY7cAAAAQBAJ, 2013, Routledge, 978-1-134-72354-6, 2–20, 5 February 2018, 11 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200611044204/https://books.google.com/books?id=gY7cAAAAQBAJ, live,Emergence of civilization
{{See also|Cradle of civilization#Ancient Egypt}}The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions.BOOK, Keenan, Jeremy, The Sahara: Past, Present and Future,books.google.com/books?id=KUKPAQAAQBAJ, 2013, Routledge, 978-1-317-97001-9, 5 February 2018, 28 February 2017,web.archive.org/web/20170228175639/https://books.google.com/books?id=KUKPAQAAQBAJ, live, At the end of the Ice ages, estimated to have been around 10,500 BCE, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in sub-Saharan Africa, with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n’Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia.JOURNAL, Mercier, Norbert, etal, 2012, OSL dating of quaternary deposits associated with the parietal art of the Tassili-n-Ajjer plateau (Central Sahara), Quaternary Geochronology, 10, 367–373, 10.1016/j.quageo.2011.11.010, 2012QuGeo..10..367M, However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 BC, the Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500 BC, due to a tilt in the Earth’s orbit, the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification.“Sahara’s Abrupt Desertification Started by Changes in Earth’s Orbit, Accelerated by Atmospheric and Vegetation Feedbacks” {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140307060153www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/07/990712080500.htm|date=7 March 2014 }}, Science Daily The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa.Diamond, Jared. (1999) Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: Norton, p. 167. {{ISBN|978-0813498027}} In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia. Between 10,000 and 9,000 BC, pottery was independently invented in the region of Mali in the savannah of West Africa.JOURNAL, Jesse, Friederike, Early Pottery in Northern Africa – An Overview, 2, 219–238, Journal of African Archaeology, 8, 43135518, 2010, 10.3213/1612-1651-10171, 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 {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306002155www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Home/Archive/Swiss_archaeologist_digs_up_West_Africas_past.html?cid=5675736 |date=6 March 2012 }}, 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 File:Mathendous giraffes.jpg|thumb|left|Saharan rock art in the Fezzan, LibyaLibyaWest Africa, people possibly ancestral to modern Nilo-Saharan and Mandé cultures started to collect wild millet,BOOK,link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-89839-1_22, 10.1007/978-3-319-89839-1_22, Evidence of Sorghum Cultivation and Possible Pearl Millet in the Second Millennium BC at Kassala, Eastern Sudan, Plants and People in the African Past, 2018, Beldados, Alemseged, Manzo, Andrea, Murphy, Charlene, Stevens, Chris J., Fuller, Dorian Q., 503–528, 978-3-319-89838-4, 20 May 2022, 20 May 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220520170752/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-89839-1_22, live, around 8000 to 6000 BCE. Later, gourds, watermelons, castor beans, and cotton were also collected.Ehret (2002), pp. 64–75. Sorghum was first domesticated in Eastern Sudan around 4000 BC, in one of the earliest instances of agriculture in human history. Its cultivation would gradually spread across Africa, before spreading to India around 2000 BC.JOURNAL,www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/693898?journalCode=ca, 10.1086/693898, Evidence for Sorghum Domestication in Fourth Millennium BC Eastern Sudan: Spikelet Morphology from Ceramic Impressions of the Butana Group, 2017, Winchell, Frank, Stevens, Chris J., Murphy, Charlene, Champion, Louis, Fuller, Dorianq., Current Anthropology, 58, 5, 673–683, 149402650, 20 May 2022, 20 May 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220520170745/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/693898?journalCode=ca, live, WEB, September 28, 2017, Earliest Evidence of Domesticated Sorghum Discovered | Sci.News,www.sci.news/archaeology/earliest-evidence-domesticated-sorghum-05271.html, Sci.News: Breaking Science News, 16 May 2023, 9 February 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230209081124/https://www.sci.news/archaeology/earliest-evidence-domesticated-sorghum-05271.html, live, 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.WEB,humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/getting-food/katanda-bone-harpoon-point, Katanda Bone Harpoon Point, 22 January 2010, The Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program, en, 19 February 2019, 14 August 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200814055506/https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/getting-food/katanda-bone-harpoon-point, live, In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in an expanding rainforest and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9,000 and 5,000 BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Black-eyed peas and voandzeia (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.Ehret (2002), pp. 82–84.Around 4000 BC, the Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace.O’Brien, Patrick K. ed. (2005) Oxford Atlas of World History. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 22–23. {{ISBN|978-0199746538}} 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 File:Abu Simbel Main Temple (2346939149).jpg|thumb|Colossal statues of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, EgyptEgyptthe 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.JOURNAL, 10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.066, The Rise and Fall of African Rice Cultivation Revealed by Analysis of 246 New Genomes, 2018, Cubry, Philippe, Tranchant-Dubreuil, Christine, Thuillet, Anne-Céline, Monat, Cécile, Ndjiondjop, Marie-Noelle, Labadie, Karine, Cruaud, Corinne, Engelen, Stefan, Scarcelli, Nora, Rhoné, Bénédicte, Burgarella, Concetta, Dupuy, Christian, Larmande, Pierre, Wincker, Patrick, François, Olivier, Sabot, François, Vigouroux, Yves, Current Biology, 28, 14, 2274–2282.e6, 29983312, 51600014, free, 2018CBio...28E2274C, JOURNAL,www.researchgate.net/publication/265663363, Searching for the Origins of African Rice Domestication, January 2004, Antiquity (journal), Antiquity, 78, Shawn Sabrina Murray, researchgate.net, 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 northMartin and O’Meara, “Africa, 3rd Ed.” {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011083356princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/history1.htm |date=11 October 2007 }} Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1995Breunig, Peter. 2014. Nok: African Sculpture in Archaeological Context: p. 21. and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD, having lasted approximately 2,000 years,Fagg, Bernard. 1969. Recent work in west Africa: New light on the Nok culture. World Archaeology 1(1): 41–50. and by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions did not begin ironworking until the early centuries CE. Copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date.Antiquity (3600 BC – 500 AD)
{{See also|Ancient Africa|History of Africa#Antiquity (3600 BC – 500 AD)}}{{clear}}North-east Africa
(File:Ancient Egypt map-en.svg|thumb|Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC))From 3500 BC, nomes ruled by nomarchs coalesced to form the kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt in northeast Africa. Ancient Egypt was unified by the 1st dynasty circa 3100 BC when Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt, with the process of consolidation and assimilation completed by the time of the 3rd dynasty who formed the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2686 BC.BOOK, Abu Bakr, Abdel, General History of Africa: Volume 2, Pharoanic Egypt, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=62–63}} 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.BOOK, 2012, The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, J. R., Anderson, 10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah15224, The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 9781444338386, Kerma, She states, “To date, Kerma-culture has been found from the region of the First Cataract to upstream of the Fourth Cataract.“WEB,docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=anthpubs, Nubian identity in the Bronze Age. Patterns of cultural and biological variation, 2011, Michele, Buzon, 30 March 2017, The 4th dynasty oversaw the height of the Old Kingdom, and constructed many great pyramids, however under the 6th dynasty power gradually decentralised to the nomarchs, culminating in the disintegration of the kingdom, exacerbated by drought and famine, and the beginning of the First Intermediate Period in 2200 BC. This shattered state would last until 2055 BC when the 11th dynasty, based in Thebes, conquered the others to form the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, with the 12th dynasty expanding into Lower Nubia at the expense of Kerma.BOOK, Abu Bakr, Abdel, General History of Africa: Volume 2, Pharoanic Egypt, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=68–71}} In 1700 BC, the Middle Kingdom fractured in two, ushering in the Second Intermediate Period, with the Hyksos, a militaristic people from Palestine, invading and conquering Lower Egypt, whilst Kerma coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent.NEWS,www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-7-2003_pg9_1, Tomb Reveals Ancient Egypt’s Humiliating Secrets, 29 July 2003, Daily Times (Pakistan), Daily Times, dead,www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-7-2003_pg9_1," title="web.archive.org/web/20131105214410www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-7-2003_pg9_1,">web.archive.org/web/20131105214410www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-7-2003_pg9_1, 5 November 2013, In 1550 BC, the 18th dynasty eventually 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 Kerma, incorporating Nubia, and sending the Egyptian empire into its golden age.BOOK, Abu Bakr, Abdel, General History of Africa: Volume 2, Pharoanic Egypt, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=73}} Internal struggles, drought and famine, and invasions by a confederation of seafaring peoples contributed to the New Kingdom’s collapse in 1069 BC, commencing the Third Intermediate Period.BOOK, Abu Bakr, Abdel, General History of Africa: Volume 2, Pharoanic Egypt, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=76–77}} Egypt’s disintegration liberated the more Egyptianised Kingdom of Kush, who manoeuvred power in Upper Egypt and conquered Lower Egypt in 754 BC to form the Kushite Empire. The Kushites ruled for a century and oversaw a revival in pyramid building, until they were forcibly driven out of Egypt by the Assyrians in 663 BC as reprisal for their expansion towards the Assyrian Empire.BOOK, Elayi, Josette, Sennacherib, King of Assyria, 2018, SBL Press, 978-0-88414-318-5, 66–67,books.google.com/books?id=OVNtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA66, en, The Assyrians installed a puppet dynasty which later gained independence and once more unified Egypt, until they were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525 BC.BOOK, Abu Bakr, Abdel, General History of Africa: Volume 2, Pharoanic Egypt, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=77}} Egypt regained independence under the 28th dynasty in 404 BC however they were later reconquered by the Achaemenids in 343 BC. The conquest of the Achaemenid Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC marked the beginning of Hellenistic rule and the installation of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.BOOK, Riad, Henry, General History of Africa: Volume 2, Egypt in the Hellenistic era, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=119}} The Ptolemaics lost their holdings outside of Africa to the Seleucids in the Syrian Wars, however expanded into Cyrenaica and subjugated Kush in the 3rd century BC. In the 1st century BC, Ptolemaic Egypt became entangled in a Roman civil war, leading to its conquest by the Romans in 30 BC. The Crisis of the Third Century in the Roman Empire freed the Levantine city state of Palmyra which conquered Egypt, however their brief rule ended when they were reconquered by the Romans. In the midst of this, Kush regained total 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 both the Noba and Aksum caused their disintegration into Makuria, Alodia, and Nobatia in the 5th century AD. The Romans managed to hold on to Egypt for the rest of the ancient period.Horn of Africa
File:The Kingdom of Aksum.png|thumb|The Kingdom of AksumKingdom of AksumIn 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.WEB,www.newscientist.com/article/mg25634170-800-we-have-finally-found-the-land-of-punt-where-pharaohs-got-their-gifts/, We have finally found the land of Punt, where pharaohs got their gifts, 2022-12-14, 2023-10-28, New Scientist, The Ancient Egyptians initially traded via middle-men with Punt until in 2350 BC 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 980 BC. In modern-day Somalia and Djibouti there was the Macrobian Kingdom, with archaeological discoveries indicating the possibility of other unknown sophisticated civilisations at this time.BOOK, Njoku, Raphael Chijioke, The History of Somalia, 2013, ABC-CLIO, 978-0313378577, 29–31,books.google.com/books?id=FlL2vE_qRQ8C, BOOK, Dalal, Roshen, The Illustrated Timeline of the History of the World, 2011, The Rosen Publishing Group, 978-1448847976, 131,books.google.com/books?id=RO4kS1IR71sC, 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 south Arabian influence, until the growth and expansion of Aksum in the 1st century BC.Pankhurst, Richard K.P. Addis Tribune, “www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm" title="web.archive.org/web/20060109162335www.addistribune.com/Archives/2003/01/17-01-03/Let.htm">Let’s Look Across the Red Sea I”, January 17, 2003 (archive.org mirror copy) Along the Horn’s coast there were many ancient Somali city-states which thrived off of the wider Red Sea trade and transported their cargo via beden, exporting myrrh, frankincense, spices, gum, incense, and ivory, with freedom from Roman interference causing Indians to give the cities a lucrative monopoly on cinnamon from ancient India.Eric Herbert Warmington, The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India, p. 187. The Kingdom of Aksum grew from a principality into a major power on the 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 peoples, and expanded into South Arabia.George Hatke, Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa (New York University Press, 2013), pp. 44. {{ISBN|0-7486-0106-6}}JOURNAL, August 1910, The Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes,archive.org/details/christiantopogra00cosmuoft, Nature, 84, 2127, 133–134, 1910Natur..84..133., 10.1038/084133a0, 0028-0836, 3942233, free, 2027/coo1.ark:/13960/t07w6zm1b, BOOK, Uhlig, Siegbert, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C, 175, This led the Persian prophet Mani to consider Aksum as one of the four great powers of the 3rd century AD alongside Persia, Rome, and China.BOOK, Munro-Hay, Stuart, Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity, 1991, Edinburgh University Press, 0748601066, Edinburgh, 17, In the 4th century AD Aksum’s king converted to Christianity and Aksum’s population, who had followed 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.North-west Africa
File:Carthage 323 BC.png|thumb|Carthaginian EmpireCarthaginian Empirethe Maghreb and Ifriqiya were mostly cut off from the cradle of civilisation in Egypt by the Libyan desert, exacerbated by 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 settlements came to dominate the most lucrative trading locations in the Gulf of Tunis.BOOK, Warmington, Brian, General History of Africa: Volume 2, The Carthaginian Period, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=247}} Phoenician settlements subsequently grew into Ancient Carthage after gaining independence from Phoenicia in the 6th century BC, and they would build an extensive empire and a strict mercantile network, all secured by one of the largest and most powerful navies in the ancient Mediterranean.BOOK, Warmington, Brian, General History of Africa: Volume 2, The Carthaginian Period, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=251–253}} 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 crossing of the alps into northern Italy.BOOK, Warmington, Brian, General History of Africa: Volume 2, The Carthaginian Period, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=256–257}} 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 tribal kingdom and home of the legendary 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 Romans established the province of 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.BOOK, Warmington, Brian, General History of Africa: Volume 2, The Carthaginian Period, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=258}} File:Map depicting the Romano-Berber Kingdoms.png|thumb|Romanised-Berber kingdoms: Altava, Ouarsenis, Hodna, Aures, Nemencha, Capsus, Dorsale, CabaonCabaonAt the turn of the millennium they would both would face the same fate as Carthage and be conquered by the Romans who established Mauretania and Numidia as provinces of their empire, whilst Musulamii, led by Tacfarinas, and Garamantes were eventually defeated in war in the 1st century AD however weren’t conquered.BOOK, Mahjoubi, Ammar, Salama, Pierre, General History of Africa: Volume 2, The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=261–262}} In the 5th century AD the Vandals conquered north Africa precipitating the fall of Rome. Swathes of indigenous peoples would regain self-governance in the Mauro-Roman Kingdom and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, namely the kingdoms of Ouarsenis, Aurès, and Altava. The Vandals ruled Ifriqiya for a century until 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 coexistedBOOK, Mahjoubi, Ammar, Salama, Pierre, General History of Africa: Volume 2, The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa, 1981, UNESCO Publishing,unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000134375, {{rp|pages=284}} Further inland to the Byzantine Exarchate of Africa were the Sanhaja in modern-day Algeria, a grouping of three smaller groupings of 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
File:Ghana empire map.png|thumb|The Ghana EmpireGhana EmpireIn 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 3rd millennium BC, which had developed iron metallurgy by 1200 BC, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons.Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, ‘Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa’ Journal of African History 35 (1994) 1–36; Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe, ‘Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa’ Current Anthropology 1968. 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 across deserts, grasslands, and forests,{{sfnp|Collins|Burns|2007|pp=79–80}} trading meats, copper, iron, salt, and gold. Various civilisations prospered in this period, such as the Tichitt culture from 4000 BC, the oldest known complexly organised society in West Africa with a four tiered hierarchical social structure;JOURNAL, Holl, Augustine, Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (mauritania), Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 4, 2, 73–115, 1985, 10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4,www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0278416585900054, the Serer civilisation in modern-day Senegal who’s people constructed monumental monolith circles; the Nok culture in modern-day Nigeria who’s people developed art in the form of terracotta sculptures presumably through large-scale economic production from 900 BC; the Kintampo culture in modern-day Ghana with finds suggesting the people had formed a complex society and were skilled with Later Stone Age technologies from 2500 BC;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: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-11585-X}} the shadowy Bura culture in modern-day Niger and Burkina Faso; and Djenné-Djenno, an egalitarian civilisation in modern-day Mali whose people also produced expressive terracotta sculptures. There is also record of Igodomigodo, a small kingdom founded in 40 BC which would later go on to form the Benin Empire. Towards the end of the 3rd century, a wet period in the Sahel opened up areas for human exploitation and habitation which had not been inhabitable for the best part of a millennium, causing the Kingdom of Wagadu, the predecessor to the Ghana Empire, to rise out of the Tichitt culture, growing wealthy through the newfound viability of trans-Saharan trade routes following the introduction of the camel to the western Sahel by camel-owning Berbers, which linked their capital and Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in North Africa.BOOK, Gestrich, Nikolas, Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African history, Ghana Empire, 2019,oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-396, Wagadu made its profits from exporting gold and textiles among other goods, incentivising the further development of major urban centres.WEB,www.vitaminedz.com/articlesfiche/7182/7182321.pdf, Wagadu’s core traversed modern-day southern Mauritania and western Mali, and Soninke tradition portrays early Ghana as very warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population.BOOK, Gestrich, Nikolas, Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African history, Ghana Empire, 2019,oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-396, It has been stipulated that relative to Wagadu there were many more simultaneous and preceding kingdoms, based on large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, which have unfortunately been lost to time.BOOK, Posnansky, Merrick,unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000184265&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_976b4f2f-4e7c-44ec-a92e-2014aa9d86f0%3F_%3D184265engo.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000184265/PDF/184265engo.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A2903%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D, General History of Africa: Volume 2, UNESCO, 1981, 729, The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age, JOURNAL, Holl, Augustine, 1985, Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (mauritania),www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0278416585900054, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 4, 2, 73–115, 10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4,Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa
File:Bantu Phillipson.png|thumb|The Bantu expansion1 = 2000–1500 BC origin2 = {{Circa|1500 BC}} first dispersal{{nbsp|4}} 2.a = Eastern Bantu{{nbsp|4}} 2.b = Western Bantu3 = 1000–500 BC (Urewe]] nucleus of Eastern Bantu4–7 = southward advance9 = 500–1 BC Congo nucleus10 = AD 1–1000 last phaseWEB,www.txstate.edu/anthropology/cas/journal_articles/herder.pdf,www.txstate.edu/anthropology/cas/journal_articles/herder.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20090325021249www.txstate.edu/anthropology/cas/journal_articles/herder.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20090325021249www.txstate.edu/anthropology/cas/journal_articles/herder.pdf, dead, The Chronological Evidence for the Introduction of Domestic Stock in Southern Africa, 25 March 2009, WEB,www.thuto.org/ubh/bw/bhp1.htm, Botswana History Page 1: Brief History of Botswana, 13 May 2015, WEB,elaine.ihs.ac.at/~isa/diplom/node59.html, 5.2 Historischer Ãœberblick, 13 May 2015,elaine.ihs.ac.at/~isa/diplom/node59.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20071016165014elaine.ihs.ac.at/~isa/diplom/node59.html,">web.archive.org/web/20071016165014elaine.ihs.ac.at/~isa/diplom/node59.html, 16 October 2007, dead, )In Central Africa the Sao Civilisation flourished for over a millennium beginning in the 6th century BC. The Sao lived by the Chari River south of Lake Chad 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,Fanso 19. with finds including bronze sculptures, terracotta statues of human and animal figures, coins, funerary urns, household utensils, jewellery, highly decorated pottery, and spears.Fanso 19; Hudgens and Trillo 1051. Nearby, around Lake Ejagham in south-west Cameroon, the Ekoi Civilisation rose circa 2nd century AD, and are most notable for constructing the Ikom monoliths. Further east, the northern part of the Swahili coast was home to the elusive Azania, most likely a Southern Cushitic polity.BOOK, JournalInsert Hilton, John (1993-10). “Peoples of Azania”. Electronic Antiquity: Communicating the Classics. 1 (5). ISSN 1320-3606. Check date values in: {{!, date= (help)}}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.WEB, The Amazing Bantu Migration and the Fascinating Bantu People,www.south-africa-tours-and-travel.com/bantu.html, www.south-africa-tours-and-travel.com, 2020-05-24, 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 crowded out Azania, with Rhapta being its last stronghold by the 1st century AD,BOOK, Fage, John,books.google.com/books?id=mXa4AQAAQBAJ, A History of Africa, 23 October 2013, Routledge, 978-1317797272, 25–26, 20 January 2015, and forming various city states constituting the decentralised Zanj Empire, and the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the Zambezi valley. 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 original Khoisan. To their west in the Tsodilo hills of Botswana there were the San, a semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer people who are thought to have descended from the first inhabitants of Southern Africa 100,000 years BP, making them one of the oldest cultures on Earth.BOOK, Anton, Donald K., Shelton, Dinah L., Environmental Protection and Human Rights, 2011, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-76638-8, 640,books.google.com/books?id=F_dFYq4oFeYC&q=san+kalahari,Ninth to eighteenth centuries
Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and politiesNEWS,www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/01/11/DI2006011101372.html, The Fate of Africa – A Survey of Fifty Years of Independence, 23 July 2007, The Washington Post, Martin, Meredith, 20 January 2006, 2 May 2019,www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/01/11/DI2006011101372.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20190502070029www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/01/11/DI2006011101372.html,">web.archive.org/web/20190502070029www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/01/11/DI2006011101372.html, live, characterized by many different sorts of political organization and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu-speaking peoples of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa; the large Sahelian kingdoms; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the Akan; Edo, Yoruba, and Igbo people in West Africa; and the Swahili coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa.File:Bronze ornamental staff head, 9th century, Igbo-Ukwu.JPG|thumb|upright=.7|The intricate 9th-century bronzes from Igbo-Ukwu, in NigeriaNigeriaBy the ninth century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana, Gao, 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 was established around the ninth century and was one of the first. It is also one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeria and was ruled by the Eze Nri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the ninth century.WEB, Igbo-Ukwu (c. 9th century) | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History,www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/igbo/hd_igbo.htm, live,www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/igbo/hd_igbo.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20081204053356www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/igbo/hd_igbo.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20081204053356www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/igbo/hd_igbo.htm, 4 December 2008, 18 May 2010, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Kingdom of Ife, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba (’king’ or ‘ruler’ in the Yoruba language), called the Ooni of Ife. Ife was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in West Africa, and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife model of government was adapted at the Oyo Empire, where its obas or kings, called the Alaafins of Oyo, once controlled a large number of other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms; the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey was one of the non-Yoruba domains under Oyo control.The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century.Glick, Thomas F. (2005) Islamic And Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages. Brill Academic Publishers, p. 37. {{ISBN|978-9004147713}} 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 File:Great Zimbabwe Closeup.jpg|thumb|Ruins of Great ZimbabweGreat Zimbabwethirteenth centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized,WEB,countrystudies.us/mauritania/8.htm, Mauritania – Arab Invasions, countrystudies.us, 25 April 2010, 23 June 2011,countrystudies.us/mauritania/8.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20110623125418countrystudies.us/mauritania/8.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20110623125418countrystudies.us/mauritania/8.htm, live, and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.JOURNAL, Genetic Evidence for the Expansion of Arabian Tribes into the Southern Levant and North Africa, 1 April 2010, 379148, 70, 6, 11992266, Nebel, A, etal, 1594–1596, 10.1086/340669, American Journal of Human Genetics, 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 and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I (1493–1528) made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and brought to Gao Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship.Lapidus, Ira M. (1988) A History of Islamic Societies, Cambridge. By the eleventh century, some Hausa states – such as Kano, jigawa, Katsina, and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans, and the manufacture of goods. Until the fifteenth century, these small states were on the periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era, paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east.Height of the slave trade
{{See also|Trans-Saharan slave trade|Atlantic slave trade|Indian Ocean slave trade|Red Sea slave trade}}(File:Africa slave Regions.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|Major slave trading regions of Africa, 15th–19th centuries.)Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.Historical survey: Slave societies {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230184609www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24157 |date=30 December 2007 }}, Encyclopædia BritannicaSwahili Coast {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206102932www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/10/01/html/ft_20011001.6.html |date=6 December 2007 }}, National Geographic Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World.Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica’s Guide to Black History {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223090720www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156 |date=23 February 2007 }}, Encyclopædia BritannicaNEWS,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm, Focus on the slave trade, BBC News – Africa, bbc.co.uk, 3 September 2001, 28 February 2008, 28 July 2011,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20110728134034news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20110728134034news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523100.stm, live, BOOK, Lovejoy, Paul E., Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa,archive.org/details/transformationsi0000love, registration, 2000, Cambridge University Press, 978-0-521-78430-6, 25, 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.Rees Davies, “British Slaves on the Barbary Coast” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110425235016www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml |date=25 April 2011 }}, BBC, 1 July 2003In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy’s increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.Jo Loosemore, Sailing against slavery {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081103004954www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/articles/2007/03/20/abolition_navy_feature.shtml |date=3 November 2008 }}. BBCAction 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.WEB,www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm#WAS, The West African Squadron and slave trade, Pdavis.nl, 18 May 2010,www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20100610030306www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20100610030306www.pdavis.nl/Background.htm, 10 June 2010, live, The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of “legitimate commerce” in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa’s modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.Simon, Julian L. (1995) State of Humanity, Blackwell Publishing. p. 175. {{ISBN|1-55786-585-X}}Colonialism
(File:Scramble-for-Africa-1880-1913-v2.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Comparison of Africa in the years 1880 and 1913){{Excerpt|Scramble for Africa| only=paragraphs}}Independence struggles
(File:Africa map 1939, colours.svg|right|thumb|upright=1.5|European control in 1939)Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France.BOOK, Bély, Lucien, The History of France,books.google.com/books?id=Ltzav890zpIC&pg=PA118, 2001, Editions Jean-paul Gisserot, 978-2-87747-563-1, 118, 5 February 2018, 11 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200611045035/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ltzav890zpIC&pg=PA118, live, Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957),BOOK, Aryeetey, Ernest, Harrigan, Jane, Nissanke, Machiko, Economic Reforms in Ghana: The Miracle and the Mirage,books.google.com/books?id=87V55ZHppSYC&pg=PA5, 2000, Africa World Press, 978-0-86543-844-6, 5, 5 February 2018, 11 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200611044656/https://books.google.com/books?id=87V55ZHppSYC&pg=PA5, live, 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.BOOK, Hargreaves, John D., Decolonization in Africa, 1996, Longman, 0-582-24917-1, 2nd, London, 33131573, Portugal’s overseas presence in sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and PrÃncipe) lasted from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon. Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith, but was not internationally recognized as an independent state (as Zimbabwe) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war. Although South Africa was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country’s white minority, initially through qualified voting rights and from 1956 by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid, until 1994.Post-colonial Africa
{{See also|Decolonisation of Africa|Neocolonialism|Status of forces agreement|Non-Aligned Movement}}Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, who decided to keep their colonial borders in the Organisation of African Unity conference of 1964 due to fears of civil wars and regional instability, placing emphasis on pan-Africanism.JOURNAL, Touval, Saadia, The Organization of African Unity and African Borders, International Organization, 21, 1, 102–127, 1967, 10.1017/S0020818300013151, 2705705,www.jstor.org/stable/2705705, 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{{snd}}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.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13510347.2019.1613980Upon independence an overwhelming majority of Africans lived in extreme poverty. The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under 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 marginalization of ethnic groups, and corruption. In pursuit of personal political gain, many leaders deliberately promoted ethnic conflicts, some of which had originated during the colonial period, such as from the grouping of multiple unrelated ethnic groups into a single colony, the splitting of a distinct ethnic group between multiple colonies, or existing conflicts being exacerbated by colonial rule (for instance, the preferential treatment given to ethnic Hutus over Tutsis in Rwanda during German and Belgian rule).Faced with increasingly frequent and severe violence, military rule was widely accepted by the population of many countries as means to maintain order, and during the 1970s and 1980s a majority of African countries were controlled by military dictatorships. Territorial disputes between nations and rebellions by groups seeking independence were also common in independent African states. The most devastating of these was the Nigerian Civil War, fought between government forces and an Igbo separatist republic, which resulted in a famine that killed 1–2 million people. Two civil wars in Sudan, the first lasting from 1955 to 1972 and the second from 1983 to 2005, collectively killed around 3 million. Both were fought primarily on ethnic and religious lines.Cold War 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 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 civil war.NEWS,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm, BBC: 1984 famine in Ethiopia, 6 April 2000, 1 January 2010, BBC News, 19 April 2019,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20190419011700news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20190419011700news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm, live, Robert G. Patman, The Soviet Union in the Horn of Africa 1990, {{ISBN|0-521-36022-6}}, pp. 295–296Steven Varnis, Reluctant aid or aiding the reluctant?: U.S. food aid policy and the Ethiopian Famine Relief 1990, {{ISBN|0-88738-348-3}}, p. 38JOURNAL,www.jstor.org/stable/722691, 722691, The Consequences of Resettlement in Ethiopia, Woldemeskel, Getachew, African Affairs, 1989, 88, 352, 359–374, 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098187, 20 May 2022, 20 May 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220520194833/https://www.jstor.org/stable/722691, live, In 1994 a genocide in Rwanda resulted in up to 800,000 deaths, added to a severe refugee crisis and fueled the rise of militia groups in neighboring countries. This contributed to the outbreak of the first and second Congo Wars, which were the most devastating military conflicts in modern Africa, with up to 5.5 million deaths,NEWS,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/8792068/Is-your-mobile-phone-helping-fund-war-in-Congo.html, Is your mobile phone helping fund war in Congo?, 27 September 2011, The Daily Telegraph, London, Gordon, Rayner, 3 April 2018, 18 October 2017,www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/8792068/Is-your-mobile-phone-helping-fund-war-in-Congo.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20171018135029www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/8792068/Is-your-mobile-phone-helping-fund-war-in-Congo.html,">web.archive.org/web/20171018135029www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/8792068/Is-your-mobile-phone-helping-fund-war-in-Congo.html, live, making it by far the deadliest conflict in modern African history and one of the costliest wars in human history.NEWS, 22 January 2008, Congo war-driven crisis kills 45,000 a month-study, Reuters,www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-democratic-death-idUSL2280201220080122, 20 May 2022, 14 April 2011,www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/22/us-congo-democratic-death-idUSL2280201220080122," title="web.archive.org/web/20110414093820www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/22/us-congo-democratic-death-idUSL2280201220080122,">web.archive.org/web/20110414093820www.reuters.com/article/2008/01/22/us-congo-democratic-death-idUSL2280201220080122, live, File:African nations order of independence 1950-1993.gif|An animated map shows the order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011File:Africa’s wars and conflicts, 1980–96.svg|Africa’s wars and conflicts, 1980–96{{legend|#cc4c02|Major Wars/Conflict (>100,000 casualties)}}{{legend|#fe9929|Minor Wars/Conflict}}{{legend|#fed98e|Other Conflicts}}File:Political Map of Africa.svg|Political map of Africa in 2021Various 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 which began in 2020 has killed an estimated 300,000–500,000 people, primarily due to famine.Overall though, violence across Africa has greatly declined in the 21st century, with the end of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Algeria in 2002, Liberia in 2003, and Sudan and 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 $1.63 Trillion (Constant 2015 USD).WEB,data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD?end=2014&locations=ZG&start=2000, GDP (Constant 2015 US$) – Sub-Saharan Africa | Data, 21 May 2022, 21 May 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220521052321/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD?end=2014&locations=ZG&start=2000, live, North Africa experienced comparable growth rates.JOURNAL,www.researchgate.net/publication/344266156, Onyishi, Augustine, Solomon, Ogbonna, 2019, The African Continental Free Trade Zone (AFCFTZ): Economic Tsunami Or Development Opportunities In Sub-Sahara Africa, Journal of Development and Administrative Studies., 1, 133–149, A significant part of this growth can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.Jenny Aker, Isaac Mbiti, “Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210330032528papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1693963 |date=30 March 2021 }} SSRN 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 Ebola and COVID-19.JOURNAL,academic.oup.com/afraf/article/117/469/543/5038419, African Affairs, October 2018, 117, 469, 543–568, 10.1093/afraf/ady022, Frankema, Ewout, Van Waijenburg, Marlous, Africa rising? A historical perspective, 21 May 2022, 21 May 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220521052321/https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article/117/469/543/5038419, live, free, NEWS,www.un.org/africarenewal/news/development-prospects-africa-undermined-severe-economic-downturn, Development prospects in Africa undermined by a severe economic downturn, Africa Renewal, 25 January 2021, 21 May 2022, 21 May 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220521052321/https://www.un.org/africarenewal/news/development-prospects-africa-undermined-severe-economic-downturn, live,Geology, geography, ecology, and environment
(File:Topography of africa.png|thumb|upright=1.2|Topography of Africa)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), {{convert|163|km|mi|abbr=on}} wide.Drysdale, Alasdair and Gerald H. Blake. (1985) The Middle East and North Africa, Oxford University Press US. {{ISBN|0-19-503538-0}} (Geopolitically, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)WEB,www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=africa&Rootmap=&Mode=d, Atlas – Xpeditions, National Geographic Society, 2003, 1 March 2009,www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=africa&Rootmap=&Mode=d," title="web.archive.org/web/20090303230811www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=africa&Rootmap=&Mode=d,">web.archive.org/web/20090303230811www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=africa&Rootmap=&Mode=d, 3 March 2009, dead, The coastline is {{convert|26000|km|mi|abbr=on}} long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only {{convert|10400000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of {{convert|32000|km|mi|abbr=on}}. 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 {{convert|8,000|km|mi|abbr=on}}.Lewin, Evans. (1924) Africa, Clarendon press Cape Verde, 17°33’22” W, the westernmost point, is a distance of approximately {{convert|7400|km|mi|abbr=on}} to Ras Hafun, 51°27’52” E, the most easterly projection that neighbours Cape Guardafui, the tip of the Horn of Africa.(1998) Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary (Index), Merriam-Webster, pp. 10–11. {{ISBN|0-87779-546-0}}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. {{ISBN|0-7534-5569-2}} The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.African plate
missing image!
- Motion of Nubia Plate.gif -
upright=1.2|Today, the African Plate is moving over Earth’s surface at a speed of 0.292° ± 0.007° per million years, relative to the “average” Earth (NNR-MORVEL56)
{{Excerpt|African Plate}}- Motion of Nubia Plate.gif -
upright=1.2|Today, the African Plate is moving over Earth’s surface at a speed of 0.292° ± 0.007° per million years, relative to the “average” Earth (NNR-MORVEL56)
Climate
The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert, or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and 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.” {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120105193432www.africa.upenn.edu/afrfocus/afrfocus061708.html |date=5 January 2012 }} African Studies Center {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110731143110www.africa.upenn.edu/ |date=31 July 2011 }}, University of Pennsylvania. Accessed June 2011. The record for the highest-ever recorded temperature, in Libya in 1922 ({{convert|58|C|F}}), was discredited in 2013.JOURNAL, El Fadli, KI, World Meteorological Organization Assessment of the Purported World Record 58°C Temperature Extreme at El Azizia, Libya (13 September 1922), Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, September 2012, 10.1175/BAMS-D-12-00093.1, 94, 2, 199, etal, 2013BAMS...94..199E, free, (The 136 °F (57.8 °C), claimed by ’Aziziya, Libya, on 13 September 1922, has been officially deemed invalid by the World Meteorological Organization.)WEB, World Meteorological Organization World Weather / Climate Extremes Archive,wmo.asu.edu/world-highest-temperature, 10 January 2013, dead,wmo.asu.edu/world-highest-temperature," title="web.archive.org/web/20130104143844wmo.asu.edu/world-highest-temperature,">web.archive.org/web/20130104143844wmo.asu.edu/world-highest-temperature, 4 January 2013,Climate change
{{Excerpt|Climate change in Africa|paragraphs=1-2}}Ecology and biodiversity
(File:Vegetation Africa.png|thumb|upright=1.2|The main biomes in Africa.)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).Deforestation reaches worrying level – UN {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206051452www.africanews.com/site/list_messages/18831 |date=6 December 2008 }}. AfricaNews. 11 June 2008 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.Forests and deforestation in Africa – the wasting of an immense resource {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520182556www.afrol.com/features/10278 |date=20 May 2009 }}. afrol News Over 90% of Madagascar’s original forests have been destroyed since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago.{{NatGeo ecoregion|id=at0118|name=Madagascar subhumid forests}} About 65% of Africa’s agricultural land suffers from soil degradation.“Nature laid waste: The destruction of Africa” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017221918www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/nature-laid-waste-the-destruction-of-africa-844370.html |date=17 October 2017 }}, The Independent, 11 June 2008.{{see also|Afrotropical realm|Palearctic realm}}Fauna
File:Zebras, Serengeti savana plains, Tanzania.jpg|thumb|Savanna at Ngorongoro Conservation Area, TanzaniaTanzaniaAfrica 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 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 extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.Environmental issues
{{Excerpt|Environmental issues in Africa|paragraphs=1-2|file=no}}Infrastructure
Water resources
{{See also|Water scarcity in Africa|Water supply and sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa}}Water development and management are complex in Africa due to the multiplicity of trans-boundary water resources (rivers, lakes and aquifers).BOOK, The United Nations World Water Development Report 2016: Water and Jobs, UNESCO, 2016, 978-92-3-100146-8, Paris, (File:CC_BY-SA_icon.svg|50x50px) 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.WEB, Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA),www.worldbank.org/en/programs/cooperation-in-international-waters-in-africa, 2016-11-13, www.worldbank.org, 19 January 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220119001509/https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/cooperation-in-international-waters-in-africa, 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.Politics
{{See also|List of political parties in Africa by country}}African Union
File:Regions of the African Union.png|thumb|(Regions of the African Union]]:{{Color box|#DAA520|Northern Region|border=darkgray}},{{Color box|#87CEEB|Southern Region|border=darkgray}},{{Color box|#90EE90|Eastern Region|border=darkgray}},{{Color box|#FA8072|Western Regions A and B|border=darkgray}},{{Color box|#B88FFF|Central Region|border=darkgray}})The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 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 2002WEB,www.africa-union.org/official_documents/Speeches_&_Statements/HE_Thabo_Mbiki/Launch%20of%20the%20African%20Union,%209%20July%202002.htm, Launch of the African Union, 9 July 2002: Address by the chairperson of the AU, President Thabo Mbeki, Mbeki, Thabo, 9 July 2002, africa-union.org, ABSA Stadium, Durban, South Africa, 8 February 2009, dead,www.africa-union.org/official_documents/Speeches_%26_Statements/HE_Thabo_Mbiki/Launch%20of%20the%20African%20Union%2C%209%20July%202002.htm," title="web.archive.org/web/20090503210549www.africa-union.org/official_documents/Speeches_%26_Statements/HE_Thabo_Mbiki/Launch%20of%20the%20African%20Union%2C%209%20July%202002.htm,">web.archive.org/web/20090503210549www.africa-union.org/official_documents/Speeches_%26_Statements/HE_Thabo_Mbiki/Launch%20of%20the%20African%20Union%2C%209%20July%202002.htm, 3 May 2009, 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 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 Protocol of the Pan-African Parliament, as well as the inheritance of presidential authority stipulated by African treaties and by international treaties, including those subordinating the Secretary General of the OAU Secretariat (AU Commission) to the PAP. The government of the AU consists of all-union, regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution.Extensive human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa, often under the oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur for political reasons, often as a side effect of civil war. Countries where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Ivory Coast.Boundary conflicts
{{see|The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885|List of conflicts in Africa}}{{Excerpt|Military history of Africa#Post-colonial|paragraph=1|file=no}}Economy
{{See also|Economy of the African Union}}File:RECs of the AEC.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|Map of the African Economic Community.{{legend|#691717|CEN-SAD}}{{legend|#4F4FB1|COMESA}}{{legend|#E88356|EAC}}{{legend|#272759|ECCAS}}{{legend|#C43C7F|ECOWAS}}{{legend|#4DB34D|IGAD}}{{legend|#D22E2E|SADC}}{{legend|#7E8000|UMA}}]]Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world’s poorest and least-developed continent (other than Antarctica), the result of a variety of causes that may include corrupt governments that have often committed serious human rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, low self-esteem, lack of access to foreign capital, legacies of colonialism, the slave trade, and the Cold War, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrilla warfare to genocide).Sandbrook, Richard (1985) The Politics of Africa’s Economic Stagnation, Cambridge University Press. passim 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.WEB,hdr.undp.org/, Human Development Reports – United Nations Development Programme, hdr.undp.org, 11 September 2005, 16 March 2018,hdr.undp.org/," title="web.archive.org/web/20180316042117hdr.undp.org/,">web.archive.org/web/20180316042117hdr.undp.org/, live, Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the World BankWEB,econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:21882162~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html, World Bank Updates Poverty Estimates for the Developing World, World Bank, 26 August 2008, 18 May 2010,econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0%2C%2CcontentMDK%3A21882162~pagePK%3A64165401~piPK%3A64165026~theSitePK%3A469382%2C00.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20100519204804econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0%2C%2CcontentMDK%3A21882162~pagePK%3A64165401~piPK%3A64165026~theSitePK%3A469382%2C00.html,">web.archive.org/web/20100519204804econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0%2C%2CcontentMDK%3A21882162~pagePK%3A64165401~piPK%3A64165026~theSitePK%3A469382%2C00.html, 19 May 2010, dead, 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.WEB,econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20080826113239, The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty, World Bank, 16 April 2009,econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20080826113239," title="web.archive.org/web/20090323214139econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20080826113239,">web.archive.org/web/20090323214139econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&piPK=64165421&theSitePK=469372&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000158349_20080826113239, 23 March 2009, dead, Sub-Saharan Africa is the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty ($1.25 per day); some 50% of the population living in poverty in 1981 (200 million people), a figure that rose to 58% in 1996 before dropping to 50% in 2005 (380 million people). The average poor person in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to live on only 70 cents per day, and was poorer in 2003 than in 1973,Economic report on Africa 2004: unlocking Africa’s potential in the global economy {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118033000www.un.org/Depts/rcnyo/newsletter/survs/ecasurv2004.doc |date=18 January 2017 }} (Substantive session 28 June–23 July 2004), United Nations 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.WEB,www.globalpolitician.com/21498-africa-malawi-poverty, Neo-Liberalism and the Economic and Political Future of Africa, Globalpolitician.com, 19 December 2005, 18 May 2010, dead,globalpolitician.com/21498-africa-malawi-poverty," title="web.archive.org/web/20100131200200globalpolitician.com/21498-africa-malawi-poverty,">web.archive.org/web/20100131200200globalpolitician.com/21498-africa-malawi-poverty, 31 January 2010, WEB,www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=58925,www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=58925," title="web.archive.org/web/20080924092909www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=58925,">web.archive.org/web/20080924092909www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=58925, dead, 24 September 2008, The Number of the Poor Increasing Worldwide while Sub-Saharan Africa is the Worst of All, Turkish Weekly, 29 August 2008, 7 November 2011, 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.NEWS,www.economist.com/leaders/2018/09/15/zambias-looming-debt-crisis-is-a-warning-for-the-rest-of-africa, Zambia’s looming debt crisis is a warning for the rest of Africa, The Economist, 19 September 2018, en, 18 September 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180918163443/https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/09/15/zambias-looming-debt-crisis-is-a-warning-for-the-rest-of-africa, live, 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.WEB, 10.2139/ssrn.3214715, 3214715, Africa on the Maps of Global Values: Comparative Analyses, Based on Recent World Values Survey Data, 2018, Tausch, Arno, 158596579,mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87966/1/MPRA_paper_87966.pdf, 26 September 2019, 11 February 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200211141227/https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/87966/1/MPRA_paper_87966.pdf, live, The following table is projection(s) as of 2024 in terms of the peak level of GDP (nominal) and (Purchasing Power Parity) by the IMFWEB, World Economic Outlook Database April 2024,www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2024/April, 2024-05-04, www.imf.org, and the World Bank.{{-}}{| class=“wikitable” style="text-align: right; float:left; border:1px solid #aaa; margin:10px auto 10px auto”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.WEB, 2012-10-14, An inside look at Kainji Dam,www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/star-feature/14058-an-inside-look-at-kainji-dam,www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/star-feature/14058-an-inside-look-at-kainji-dam," title="web.archive.org/web/20121014181017www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/star-feature/14058-an-inside-look-at-kainji-dam,">web.archive.org/web/20121014181017www.dailytrust.com.ng/index.php/other-sections/star-feature/14058-an-inside-look-at-kainji-dam, 2012-10-14, 2020-11-28, Hence, the continuous investment in the last decade, which has increased the amount of power generated.Demographics
Child marriage in Africa}}{{See also|List of African countries by population|List of African countries by life expectancy}}{{Pie chart
| caption= 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’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.WEB,www.overpopulation.org/Africa.html, Africa Population Dynamics, overpopulation.org, 26 July 2007, 17 February 2015,www.overpopulation.org/Africa.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20150217040305www.overpopulation.org/Africa.html,">web.archive.org/web/20150217040305www.overpopulation.org/Africa.html, live, The total number of people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in 1990.Past and future population of Africa {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924044751www.geohive.com/earth/his_proj_africa.aspx |date=24 September 2015 }}. Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2013) 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; Africa’s rapid population growth is expected to overtake the only two nations currently larger than its population, at roughly the same time – India and China’s 1.4 billion people each will swap ranking around the year 2022.NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/world/asia/india-will-be-most-populous-country-sooner-than-thought-un-says.html, India Will Be Most Populous Country Sooner Than Thought, U.N. Says, Rick, Gladstone, 29 July 2015, The New York Times, 14 February 2017, 1 December 2020,web.archive.org/web/20201201022241/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/world/asia/india-will-be-most-populous-country-sooner-than-thought-un-says.html, live, 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.NEWS,www.economist.com/leaders/2018/09/22/what-to-do-about-africas-dangerous-baby-boom, What to do about Africa’s dangerous baby boom, The Economist, 26 September 2018, en, 25 September 2018,web.archive.org/web/20180925235351/https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/09/22/what-to-do-about-africas-dangerous-baby-boom, live, The total fertility rate (children per woman) for Sub-Saharan Africa is 4.7 as of 2018, the highest in the world.WEB, Fertility rate, total (births per woman) – Sub-Saharan Africa,data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?locations=ZG, The World Bank, 29 May 2020, 13 May 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200513095844/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?locations=ZG, live, All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs (average number of children) above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27.1% of global livebirths.WEB,www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30977-6/fulltext, Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950–2019: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, The Lancet, 14 May 2023, 11 June 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230611204109/https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30977-6/fulltext, live, In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 29% of global births.BOOK, United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs,www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/wpp2022_summary_of_results.pdf, World Population Prospects 2022. Summary of Results, New York, 14, 6 July 2023, 19 July 2022,web.archive.org/web/20220719031934/https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/wpp2022_summary_of_results.pdf, live, 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.Luc-Normand Tellier (2009). Urban world history: an economic and geographical perspective {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924171325books.google.com/books?id=cXuCjDbxC1YC |date=24 September 2015 }}. PUQ. p. 204. {{ISBN|2-7605-1588-5}} 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 Khoisan (“San” or “Bushmen“) and Pygmy peoples in Southern and Central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking Africans also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in parts of southern Cameroon. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also “San”, closely related to, but distinct from “Hottentots“) have long been present. The San are physically distinct from other Africans and are the indigenous people of southern Africa.{{cn|date=October 2023}} Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.Pygmies struggle to survive in war zone where abuse is routine {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525095020www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article402970.ece |date=25 May 2010 }}. Times Online. 16 December 2004The 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, Igbo, Fulani, Akan, and Wolof ethnic groups are the largest and most influential. In the central Sahara, Mandinka or Mande groups are most significant. Chadic-speaking groups, including the Hausa, are found in more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara, and Nilo-Saharan communities, such as the Songhai, Kanuri and Zarma, are found in the eastern parts of West Africa bordering Central Africa.| 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
}}
missing image!
- African_countries_by_HDI_(2019).png -
upright=1.2|{| width=“100%” style="background:transparent;“| Map of Africa indicating Human Development Index]] (2018).Africa|{{Col-begin}}{{Col-break}}{{Legend|#00C400|0.800–0.849
#00F900|0.750–0.799}}{{Legend|#D3FF00|0.700–0.749}}{{Legend|#FFFF00|0.650–0.699}}{{Legend|#FFD215|0.600–0.649}}{{Legend|#FFA83C|0.550–0.599}}{{Col-break}}{{Legend|#FF852F|0.500–0.549}}{{Legend|#FF5B00|0.450–0.499}}{{Legend|#FF0000|0.400–0.449}}{{Legend|#A70000|≤ 0.399}}{{Legend|#D9D9D9|No data}}{{Col-end}} 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 CE introduced the Arabic language and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians (who founded Carthage) and Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian Alans, the Indo- European Greeks, Romans, and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Significant Berber communities remain within Morocco and Algeria in the 21st century, while, to a lesser extent, Berber speakers are also present in some regions of Tunisia and Libya.NEWS, Q&A: The Berbers,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm, 30 December 2013, BBC News, 12 March 2004, 12 January 2018,news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm," title="web.archive.org/web/20180112181804news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm,">web.archive.org/web/20180112181804news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3509799.stm, live, 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.BOOK, 10.1017/9781108634311.014, The Linguistic Prehistory of the Sahara, Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond, 2019, Blench, Roger, 431–463, 978-1-108-63431-1, 197854997, In the Horn of Africa, some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as Habesha) speak languages from the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, while the Oromo and Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic.Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era, Europeans were represented in every part of Africa.“We Want Our Country” (3 of 10) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723000220www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901759-3,00.html |date=23 July 2013 }}. Time, 5 November 1965 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),Raimondo Cagiano De Azevedo (1994). Migration and development co-operation. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906025429books.google.com/books?id=N8VHizsqaH0C&pg=PA25 |date=6 September 2015 }}. Council of Europe, p. 25. {{ISBN|92-871-2611-9}} Kenya, Congo,“Jungle Shipwreck” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722210703www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,826488-4,00.html |date=22 July 2013 }}. Time 25 July 1960 Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola.“Flight from Angola” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723131954www.economist.com/node/12079340?story_id=12079340 |date=23 July 2013 }}, The Economist , 16 August 1975 Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone.Portugal – Emigration {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629081956countrystudies.us/portugal/48.htm |date=29 June 2011 }}, Eric Solsten, ed. Portugal: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1993 Nevertheless, white Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia, Réunion, and South Africa.BOOK, John A., Holm, Pidgins and Creoles: References survey,books.google.com/books?id=PcD7p9y3EIcC&pg=PA394, Cambridge University Press, 1989, 394, 978-0-521-35940-5, 14 October 2015, 5 September 2015,web.archive.org/web/20150905192604/https://books.google.com/books?id=PcD7p9y3EIcC&pg=PA394, live, The country with the largest white African population is South Africa.South Africa: People: Ethnic Groups. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210110042951www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/south-africa |date=10 January 2021 }} CIA World Factbook Dutch and British diasporas represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today.ENCYCLOPEDIA, 1989, Africa, World Book Encyclopedia, World Book, Inc., Chicago, 978-0-7166-1289-6, registration,archive.org/details/1989worldbookencyclo22worl, European colonization also brought sizable groups of Asians, particularly from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Indian communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and southeast African countries. The large Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin in 1972, though many have since returned. The islands in the Indian Ocean are also populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and Europeans. The Malagasy people of Madagascar are an Austronesian people, but those along the coast are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and European origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also important components in the group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with origins in two or more races and continents). During the 20th century, small but economically important communities of Lebanese and Chinese have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.Naomi Schwarz, “Lebanese Immigrants Boost West African Commerce” {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224135631www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2007-07-10-voa46.html |date=24 December 2011 }}, VOANews.com, 10 July 2007! scope=“col” |Year! scope=“col” |0! 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 000ACCESS-DATE=2022-07-23 ARCHIVE-DATE=16 JUNE 2023 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 680WEBSITE=UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU ACCESS-DATE=18 JULY 2019 ARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20190718064224/HTTPS://WWW.CENSUS.GOV/NEWSROOM/STORIES/2018/WORLD-POPULATION.HTML, live, |10 349 323 ! scope=“col” |Year! scope=“col” |0! 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|12.9WEBSITE=WORLDOMETERS.INFO ARCHIVE-DATE=2 SEPTEMBER 2020 URL-STATUS=LIVE, TITLE=WORLD’S POPULATION IS PROJECTED TO NEARLY STOP GROWING BY THE END OF THE CENTURY AUTHOR2=NEIL G. RUIZ ACCESS-DATE=2 JUNE 2023 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/, live, {{legend|#2b0000|over 15%}}{{legend|#800000|5–15%}}{{legend|#d40000|2–5%}}{{legend|#ff2a2a|1–2%}}{{legend|#ff9955|0.5-1%}}{{legend|#ffb380|0.1–0.5%}}{{legend|#b9b9b9|not available}} style="background:#ececec;“! class=“unsortable” style="width:20px” | Arms! class=“unsortable” style="width:20px” | Flag! Name of region{{efn|Continental regions as per UN categorizations/map.}} andterritory, with flag! data-sort-type=“number” | Area(km2)! data-sort-type=“number” | PopulationWEB,www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl, IDB: Countries Ranked by Population, 28 November 1999, bot: unknown,www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl," title="web.archive.org/web/19991128111024www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl,">web.archive.org/web/19991128111024www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl, 28 November 1999, ! Year! data-sort-type=“number” | Density(per km2)! Capital! Name(s) in official language(s)! ISO 3166-1 style="background:#eee;”North Africa {{flagicon|Algeria}}| Algeria 2,381,740 46,731,000 2022 17.7|Algiers| الجزائر (al-JazÄʾir)/Algérie| DZA {{flagicon|Canary Islands}} Canary Islands (Spain){{efn>The Spanish Canary Islands, of which Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are Santa Cruz de Tenerife are co-capitals, are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their relative proximity to Morocco and Western Sahara; population and area figures are for 2001.}} 7,492 2,154,905 2017 226|Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,Santa Cruz de Tenerife| Canarias| IC {{flagicon|Italy}} Pelagie Islands (Italy) 25.5 6,556 2019 247 Lampedusa| Pelagie/Isole Pelagie/ÃŒsuli Pilaggî| ITA {{flagicon|Ceuta}} Ceuta (Spain){{efn>The Spanish exclave of Ceuta is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa; population and area figures are for 2001.}} 20 85,107 2017 3,575|—| Ceuta/Sebta/سَبْتَة (Sabtah)| EA {{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.}} 1,001,450 82,868,000 2012 83|Cairo| Ù…Ùصر (Miá¹£r)| EGY {{flagicon|Libya}}|Libya 1,759,540 6,310,434 2009 4 Tripoli, Libya>Tripoli| ليبيا (LÄ«biyÄ)| LBY {{flagicon|Madeira}} Madeira (Portugal){{efn>The Portuguese Madeira Islands are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their relative proximity to Morocco; population and area figures are for 2001.}} 797 245,000 2001 307|Funchal| Madeira| PRT-30 {{flagicon|Melilla}} Melilla (Spain){{efn>The Spanish exclave of Melilla is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa; population and area figures are for 2001.}} 12 85,116 2017 5,534|—| Melilla/Mlilt/مليلية| EA {{flagicon|Morocco}}|Morocco 446,550 35,740,000 2017 78|Rabat| المغرب (al-maḡrib)/âµâµŽâµ–ⵔⵉⴱ (lmeÉ£rib)/Maroc| MAR {{flagicon|Sudan}}|Sudan 1,861,484 30,894,000 2008 17|Khartoum| Sudan/السودان (as-SÅ«dÄn)| SDN {{flagicon|Tunisia}}|Tunisia 163,610 10,486,339 2009 64|Tunis| تونس (TÅ«nis)/Tunest/Tunisie| TUN {{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.}} 266,000 405,210 2009 2|El Aaiún| الصØراء الغربية (aá¹£-á¹¢aḥrÄ’ al-Gharbiyyah)/Taneẓroft Tutrimt/Sáhara Occidental| ESH style="background:#eee;”East Africa {{flagicon|Burundi}}| Burundi 27,830 8,988,091 2009 323|Gitega| Uburundi/Burundi/Burundi| BDI {{flagicon|Comoros}}| Comoros 2,170 752,438 2009 347 Moroni, Comoros>Moroni| Komori/Comores/جزر القمر (Juzur al-Qumur)| COM {{flagicon|Djibouti}}| Djibouti 23,000 828,324 2015 22 Djibouti (city)>Djibouti| Yibuuti/جيبوتي (JÄ«bÅ«tÄ«)/Djibouti/Jabuuti| DJI {{flagicon|Eritrea}}| Eritrea 121,320 5,647,168 2009 47|Asmara| Eritrea| ERI {{flagicon|Ethiopia}}| Ethiopia 1,127,127 84,320,987 2012 75|Addis Ababa| ኢትዮጵያ (ĪtyÅá¹—á¹—yÄ)/Itiyoophiyaa/ኢትዮጵያ/Itoophiyaa/Itoobiya/ኢትዮጵያ| ETH {{flagicon|French Southern and Antarctic Lands}} French Southern and Antarctic Lands>French Southern Territories (France) 439,781 100 2019 — Saint-Pierre, Réunion>Saint Pierre| Terres australes et antarctiques françaises| FRA-TF {{flagicon|Kenya}}| Kenya 582,650 39,002,772 2009 66|Nairobi| Kenya| KEN {{flagicon|Madagascar}}| Madagascar 587,040 20,653,556 2009 35|Antananarivo| Madagasikara/Madagascar| MDG {{flagicon|Malawi}}|Malawi 118,480 14,268,711 2009 120|Lilongwe| Malaŵi/Malaŵi| MWI {{flagicon|Mauritius}}|Mauritius 2,040 1,284,264 2009 630|Port Louis| Mauritius/Maurice/Moris| MUS {{flagicon local}}|Mayotte (France) 374 223,765 2009 490|Mamoudzou| Mayotte/Maore/Maiôty| MYT {{flagicon|Mozambique}}|Mozambique 801,590 21,669,278 2009 27|Maputo| Moçambique/Mozambiki/Msumbiji/Muzambhiki| MOZ {{flagicon|Réunion}}| Réunion (France) 2,512 743,981 2002 296 Saint-Denis, Réunion>Saint Denis| La Réunion| FRA-RE {{flagicon|Rwanda}}| Rwanda 26,338 10,473,282 2009 398|Kigali| Rwanda| RWA {{flagicon|Seychelles}}|Seychelles 455 87,476 2009 192 Victoria, Seychelles>Victoria| Seychelles/Sesel| SYC {{flagicon|Somalia}}|Somalia 637,657 9,832,017 2009 15|Mogadishu| ð’ˆð’ð’‘ð’›ð’ð’˜ð’•ð’– (Soomaaliya) /الصومال (aá¹£-ṢūmÄl)| SOM {{flagicon|Somaliland}}|Somaliland 176,120 5,708,180 2021 25|Hargeisa| Soomaaliland/صوماليلاند (ṢūmÄlÄ«lÄnd)| {{flagicon|South Sudan}}|South Sudan 619,745 8,260,490 2008 13|Juba| South Sudan| SSD {{flagicon|Tanzania}}|Tanzania 945,087 44,929,002 2009 43|Dodoma| Tanzania/Tanzania| TZA {{flagicon|Uganda}}|Uganda 236,040 32,369,558 2009 137|Kampala| Uganda/Yuganda| UGA {{flagicon|Zambia}}|Zambia 752,614 11,862,740 2009 16|Lusaka| Zambia| ZMB {{flagicon|Zimbabwe}}|Zimbabwe 390,580 11,392,629 2009 29|Harare| Zimbabwe| ZWE Central Africa {{flagicon|Angola}}|Angola 1,246,700 12,799,293 2009 10|Luanda| Angola| AGO {{flagicon|Cameroon}}|Cameroon 475,440 18,879,301 2009 40|Yaoundé| Cameroun/Kamerun| CMR {{flagicon|Central African Republic}}|Central African Republic 622,984 4,511,488 2009 7|Bangui| Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka/République centrafricaine| CAF {{flagicon|Chad}}|Chad 1,284,000 10,329,208 2009 8|N’Djamena| تشاد (TÅ¡Äd)/Tchad| TCD {{flagicon|Republic of the Congo}}|Republic of the Congo 342,000 4,012,809 2009 12|Brazzaville| Congo/Kôngo/Kongó| COG {{flagicon|Democratic Republic of the Congo}}|Democratic Republic of the Congo 2,345,410 69,575,000 2012 30|Kinshasa| République démocratique du Congo| COD {{flagicon|Equatorial Guinea}}|Equatorial Guinea 28,051 633,441 2009 23|Malabo| Guinea Ecuatorial/Guinée Équatoriale/Guiné Equatorial| GNQ {{flagicon|Gabon}}|Gabon 267,667 1,514,993 2009 6|Libreville| gabonaise| GAB {{flagicon|São Tomé and PrÃncipe}}| São Tomé and PrÃncipe 1,001 212,679 2009 212|São Tomé| São Tomé e PrÃncipe| STP style="background:#eee;”Southern Africa {{flagicon|Botswana}}|Botswana 600,370 1,990,876 2009 3|Gaborone| Botswana/Botswana| BWA {{flagicon|Eswatini}}|Eswatini 17,363 1,123,913 2009 65|Mbabane| eSwatini/Eswatini| SWZ {{flagicon|Lesotho}}|Lesotho 30,355 2,130,819 2009 70|Maseru| Lesotho/Lesotho| LSO {{flagicon|Namibia}}| Namibia 825,418 2,108,665 2009 3|Windhoek| Namibia| NAM {{flagicon|South Africa}}|South Africa 1,219,912 51,770,560 2011 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;”West Africa {{flagicon|Benin}}| Benin 112,620 8,791,832 2009 78|Porto-Novo| Bénin| BEN {{flagicon|Burkina Faso}}| Burkina Faso 274,200 15,746,232 2009 57|Ouagadougou| Burkina Faso| BFA {{flagicon|Cape Verde}}| Cape Verde 4,033 429,474 2009 107|Praia| Cabo Verde/Kabu Verdi| CPV {{flagicon|The Gambia}}| The Gambia 11,300 1,782,893 2009 158|Banjul| The Gambia| GMB {{flagicon|Ghana}}| Ghana 239,460 23,832,495 2009 100|Accra| Ghana| GHA {{flagicon|Guinea}}| Guinea 245,857 10,057,975 2009 41|Conakry| Guinée| GIN {{flagicon|Guinea-Bissau}}| Guinea-Bissau 36,120 1,533,964 2009 43|Bissau| Guiné-Bissau| GNB {{flagicon|Ivory Coast}}|Ivory Coast 322,460 20,617,068 2009 64 Abidjan,{{efn>Yamoussoukro is the official capital of Ivory Coast, while Abidjan is the de facto seat.}} Yamoussoukro| Côte d’Ivoire| CIV {{flagicon|Liberia}}|Liberia 111,370 3,441,790 2009 31|Monrovia| Liberia| LBR {{flagicon|Mali}}|Mali 1,240,000 12,666,987 2009 10|Bamako| Mali/Maali/مالي (MÄlÄ«)/𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤠(Maali)/ߡߊߟߌ (Mali)| MLI {{flagicon|Mauritania}}|Mauritania 1,030,700 3,129,486 2009 3|Nouakchott| موريتانيا (MÅ«rÄ«tÄnyÄ)| MRT {{flagicon|Niger}}|Niger 1,267,000 15,306,252 2009 12|Niamey| Niger| NER {{flagicon|Nigeria}}|Nigeria 923,768 166,629,000 2012 180|Abuja| Nigeria| NGA {{flagicon|Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha}}|Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom) 420 7,728 2012 13 Jamestown, Saint Helena>Jamestown| Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha| SHN {{flagicon|Senegal}}|Senegal 196,190 13,711,597 2009 70|Dakar| Sénégal| SEN {{flagicon|Sierra Leone}}|Sierra Leone 71,740 6,440,053 2009 90|Freetown| Sierra Leone| SLE {{flagicon|Togo}}|Togo 56,785 6,019,877 2009 106|Lomé| togolaise| TGO style="font-weight:bold; background:#eee;” Africa Total 30,368,609 1,001,320,281 2009 33! colspan=“3“|
- African_countries_by_HDI_(2019).png -
upright=1.2|{| width=“100%” style="background:transparent;“| Map of Africa indicating Human Development Index]] (2018).
Alternative Estimates of African Population, 0–2018 AD (in thousands)
Source: Maddison and others. (University of Groningen).WEB,www.ggdc.net/maddison/other_books/appendix_B.pdf, Growth of World Population, GDP and GDP Per Capita before 1820, Maddison, 27 July 2016, 17 July 2019, 12 February 2021,www.ggdc.net/maddison/other_books/appendix_B.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20210212183845www.ggdc.net/maddison/other_books/appendix_B.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20210212183845www.ggdc.net/maddison/other_books/appendix_B.pdf, live, {| class=“wikitable ” style="text-align:right”Shares of Africa and World Population, 0–2020 AD (% of world total)
Source: Maddison and others (University of Groningen).{| class=“wikitable ” style="text-align:right”Religion
(File:Religion distribution Africa crop.png|A map showing religious distribution in Africa|thumb|upright=1.1)
{{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.WEB,library.stanford.edu/africa/religion.html, African Religion on the Internet,library.stanford.edu/africa/religion.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20060902182749library.stanford.edu/africa/religion.html,">web.archive.org/web/20060902182749library.stanford.edu/africa/religion.html, 2 September 2006, dead, Stanford University, NEWS,www.nytimes.com/2001/11/01/world/rising-muslim-power-in-africa-causes-unrest-in-nigeria-and-elsewhere-963950.html, 1 November 2001, Rising Muslim Power in Africa Causing Unrest in Nigeria and Elsewhere, Normitsu, Onishi, The New York Times, 1 March 2009, {{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam and 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.{{Citation |title=Algeria |date=2024-04-11 |work=The World Factbook |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/algeria/#people-and-society |access-date=2024-04-16 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en |archive-date=4 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210104184359www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/algeria/#people-and-society |url-status=live }} 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.WEB, Center, Pew Research, 2017-11-08, Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century,www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/11/08/orthodox-christianity-in-the-21st-century/, 2024-04-16, Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, en-US, 17 April 2024,web.archive.org/web/20240417210805/https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/11/08/orthodox-christianity-in-the-21st-century/, live, According to Encyclopædia Britannica, 45% of the population are Christians, 40% are Muslims, and 10% follow traditional religions.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} A small number of Africans are Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianist, BaháʼÃ, or Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are irreligious.Languages
{{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.WEB,portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=8048&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html, Africa, 2005, UNESCO, 1 March 2009,portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D8048%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20080602050234portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D8048%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html,">web.archive.org/web/20080602050234portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D8048%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html, 2 June 2008, dead, 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.{{Further explanation needed|reason=Africa is not one country with one single tradition of polyglots|date=February 2023}} There are four major groups indigenous to Africa:(File:Map of African language families.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|A simplistic view of language families spoken in Africa)- The Afroasiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
- The Nilo-Saharan languages consist of a group of several possibly related families,BOOK, Wolff, Ekkehard, Linguistic features and typologies in languages commonly referred to as ‘Nilo-Saharan’, Cambridge University Press, 326–381,www.researchgate.net/publication/335691200, 22 October 2023, 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 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 form a group of three unrelatedBOOK, Güldemann, Tom, Beyond ‘Khoisan’: Historical relations in the Kalahari Basin, 29 August 2014, 1–40,www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027269928overview, 22 October 2023, en, 24 October 2023,web.archive.org/web/20231024073158/https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027269928overview, live, families and two isolates and number about fifty in total. They are mainly spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people.WEB, Khoisan Languages,www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Khoisan.html, The Language Gulper, 2 January 2017, 25 January 2017,languagesgulper.com/eng/Khoisan.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20170125082754languagesgulper.com/eng/Khoisan.html,">web.archive.org/web/20170125082754languagesgulper.com/eng/Khoisan.html, live, Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.
Health
File:HIV in Africa 2011.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|Prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa, total (% of population ages 15–49), in 2011 ((World Bank]]){| style="width:100%;”Culture
File:Wassu Stone Circle.jpg|thumb|The Senegambian stone circles, lying in The Gambia and Senegal, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.]]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.WEB,www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205208606.pdf,www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205208606.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20150501070358www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205208606.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20150501070358www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205208606.pdf, dead, Pearsonhighered.com, 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.JOURNAL,quod.lib.umich.edu/g/gefame/4761563.0002.103/--crisis-of-appropriating-identity-for-african-art-and-artists?rgn=main;view=fulltext, The Crisis of Appropriating Identity for African Art and Artists: The Abayomi Barber School Responsorial Paradigm, Gefame, 2005, Freeborn, Odiboh, 18 December 2015, 22 December 2015,quod.lib.umich.edu/g/gefame/4761563.0002.103/--crisis-of-appropriating-identity-for-african-art-and-artists?rgn=main;view=fulltext," title="web.archive.org/web/20151222185342quod.lib.umich.edu/g/gefame/4761563.0002.103/--crisis-of-appropriating-identity-for-african-art-and-artists?rgn=main;view=fulltext,">web.archive.org/web/20151222185342quod.lib.umich.edu/g/gefame/4761563.0002.103/--crisis-of-appropriating-identity-for-african-art-and-artists?rgn=main;view=fulltext, live, 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.“BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=sSIxOcgE378C&pg=PA95, African Art and Leadership, Douglas, Fraser, Herbert M., Cole, 2004, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 978-0-299-05824-1, 95, 18 December 2015, 11 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200611043035/https://books.google.com/books?id=sSIxOcgE378C&pg=PA95, 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.“BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=ojPJBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT63, Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria, Chika, Okeke-Agulu, 2015, Duke University Press, 978-0-8223-7630-9, 63, 18 December 2015, 11 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200611035844/https://books.google.com/books?id=ojPJBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT63, live, 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.“BOOK, 10.1017/CHOL9780521832755.021, African literature and the colonial factor, The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature, 2000, Gikandi, Simon, 379–397, 978-1-139-05463-8, 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.“BOOK,books.google.com/books?id=o3y9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8, 8, African Music, Power, and Being in Colonial Zimbabwe, Mhoze, Chikowero, 2015, Indiana University Press, 978-0253018090, 18 December 2015, 11 June 2020,web.archive.org/web/20200611043301/https://books.google.com/books?id=o3y9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8, live, 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 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 includes 15 African sites.WEB, Africa,whc.unesco.org/en/africa/, 30 March 2023, UNESCO World Heritage Convention, 30 March 2023,web.archive.org/web/20230330132125/https://whc.unesco.org/en/africa/, live,Visual art
File:Nok sculpture Louvre 70-1998-11-1.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|left| Nok figure (5th century BCE-5th century CE)]]{{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
(File:World cup african countries best results and hosts.png|thumb|Best results of African men’s national football teams at the FIFA World Cup)File:Watching South Africa & France match at World Cup 2010-06-22 in Soweto 13.jpg|thumb|Supporters watching the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the township of Soweto, South AfricaSouth AfricaFifty-four African countries have 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 made history at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA Men’s World Cup. South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to do so. The top clubs in each African football league play the CAF Champions League, while lower-ranked clubs compete in CAF Confederation Cup.In recent years, the continent has made major progress in terms of state-of-the-art basketball facilities which have been built in cites as diverse as Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg, Kigali, Luanda and Rades.NEWS, Getting to know Africa’s flashy basketball arenas,www.fiba.basketball/news/getting-to-know-africas-flashy-basketball-arenas, 10 December 2020, FIBA, 2 September 2019, 7 January 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210107193242/https://www.fiba.basketball/news/getting-to-know-africas-flashy-basketball-arenas, live, The number of African basketball players who drafted into the NBA has experienced major growth in the 2010s.NEWS, Lee, Nxumalo, Basketball’s next frontier is Africa,www.newframe.com/basketballs-next-frontier-is-africa/, 11 January 2021, New Frame, 20 December 2020, 16 January 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210116062357/https://www.newframe.com/basketballs-next-frontier-is-africa/, live, Cricket is popular in some African nations. South Africa and Zimbabwe have Test status, while Kenya is the leading non-test team and previously had One-Day International cricket (ODI) status (from 10 October 1997, until 30 January 2014). The three countries jointly hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Namibia is the other African country to have played in a World Cup. Morocco in northern Africa has also hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament.Rugby is popular in several southern African nations. Namibia and Zimbabwe both have appeared on multiple occasions at the Rugby World Cup, while South Africa is the most successful national team at the Rugby World Cup, having won the tournament on four occasions, in 1995, 2007, 2019, and 2023. WEB,www.rugbyworldcup.com/2023/news/608463/rwc-2023-spotlight-south-africa, RWC 2023 Spotlight: South Africa ｜ Rugby World Cup 2023, www.rugbyworldcup.com, 29 May 2021, 2 June 2021,web.archive.org/web/20210602213126/https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/2023/news/608463/rwc-2023-spotlight-south-africa, live,Territories and regions
{{center|{{Africa Labelled Map}}}}The countries in this table are categorized according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.{| class=“wikitable sortable” style="margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; border:1px solid #aaa;”See also
Notes
{{notelist}}References
{{reflist}}Sources
- JOURNAL, Brantlinger, Patrick, Victorians and Africans: The Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent, Critical Inquiry, 12, 1, 1985, 166–203, 1343467, 161311164, 10.1086/448326,www.uwf.edu/dearle/imperialadventure/imperial%20adventure/documents/brantlinger%20victorians%20and%20africans.pdf,
- BOOK, Malone, Jacqui, Steppin’ on the Blues: the Visible Rhythms of African American Dance, 1996, University of Illinois Press, 891842452,
- BOOK, Robinson, Ronald, John, Gallagher, Denny, Alice, Africa and the Victorians: The official mind of imperialism, Macmillan, 1961, 17989466M, 2, 9780333310069,
- BOOK, Shillington, Kevin, History of Africa, 2005, Palgrave Macmillan, 978-0-333-59957-0,
- BOOK, Southall, Roger, Melber, Henning, Henning Melber, A New Scramble For Africa?: Imperialism, Investment and Development, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009,
- BOOK, Welsh-Asante, Kariamu,books.google.com/books?id=WrbrTfSO3fwC, African Dance, 2009, Infobase Publishing, 978-1-4381-2427-8, en,
Further reading
{{see also|Africa Bibliography}}- BOOK, Asante, Molefi, Molefi Asante, The History of Africa, Routledge, US, 2007, 978-0-415-77139-9,
- BOOK, Clark, J. Desmond, J. Desmond Clark, The Prehistory of Africa, Thames and Hudson, London, 1970, 978-0-500-02069-2,
- BOOK, Crowder, Michael, The Story of Nigeria, Faber, London, 1978, 978-0-571-04947-9,
- BOOK, Davidson, Basil, Basil Davidson, The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1966, 2016817,
- BOOK, Gordon, April A., Donald L., Gordon, Understanding Contemporary Africa, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, 1996, 978-1-55587-547-3,
- BOOK, Khapoya, Vincent B., The African experience: an introduction, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1998, 978-0-13-745852-3,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.
- Naipaul, V.S. The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief. Picador, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-330-47205-0}}
- JOURNAL, Wade, Lizzie, Drones and satellites spot lost civilizations in unlikely places, Science, 10.1126/science.aaa7864, 2015,
External links
{{Sister project links|n=Category: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
- The Story of Africa from BBC World Service
- EB1911, Africa, 1, 320–358, 1,
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