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For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation).

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,370,000 km² (11,730,000 mi²) including adjacent islands, it covers 6.0% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area. With more than 840,000,000 people (as of 2002) in 61 territories, it accounts for over 12% of the world's human population.

The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean sea to the north, the Indian Ocean to the south-east, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the north-east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas. Because of the lack of natural regular precipitation and irrigation, as well as virtually no glaciers or mountain aquifer systems there is no natural moderating affect on the climate except near the coasts.

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

A satellite composite image of Africa

Etymology

The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans. The Roman province of Africa, established in the second century BC in the area roughly corresponding to modern-day Tunisia, took its name from Africa terra — "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular). The Afri were a tribe — possibly Berber — who dwelt in North Africa near the provincial capital, Carthage. The origin of Afer may be connected with Phoenician `afar, dust (also found in most other Semitic languages).

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

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

Ancient Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. Originally Egypt and the Levant had an indeterminate position between these locations, though as part of the Persian empire they were sometimes absorbed in the loose concept of "Asia". A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85 - 165 AD), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Africa

Political Map of Africa.

Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the main mass of the Earth's exposed surface. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 130 km (80 miles) wide. (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.[1][2]) From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles); from Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 miles). The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,010,000 square miles) — about a third of the surface of Africa — has a coastline of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).

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

Climate, fauna, and flora

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

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

History

Main article: History of Africa

Map of Africa 1890

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

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

Early civilizations and trade

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

Apart from the Nile valley, the Sahara desert presented a near impenetrable barrier between north and south, until the introduction of the camel. This beast of burden was first brought to Egypt by the Persians after 525 BC, although large herds did not become common enough in North Africa to establish the trans-Saharan trade until the eighth century AD. The Sanhaja Berbers were the first to exploit this, and after the spread of Islam a steady trade in precious metals, ivory, salt and slaves ensued between the Muslim states in the Maghreb and the Sahelian kingdoms.

Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities [3] characterised by different sorts of political organisation and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu-speaking people of central and southern Africa and heavily-structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa, the Sahelian Kingdoms, and autonomous city-states such as the Swahili coastal trading towns of the East African coast, whose trade network extended as far as China.

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

Slavery began to be phased out in Europe and America in the early nineteenth century, resulting in a dramatic shift in the economies of coastal states such as Dahomey and Asante.

Pre-colonial exploration

In the mid nineteenth century European and particularly British explorers became interested in exploring the heart of the continent and opening the area for trade, mining and other commercial exploitation. In addition, there was a desire to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. The central area of Africa was still largely unknown to Europeans at this time. bla bla bla nigger nigger nigger they never work or do shit fuck all those monkeys David Livingstone explored the continent between 1852 and his death in 1873, amongst other claims to fame, he was the first European to see the Victoria Falls. A prime goal for explorers was to locate the source of the River Nile. Expeditions by Burton and Speke (1857-1858) and Speke and Grant (1863) located Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. The latter was eventually proven as the source of the Nile. With subsequent expeditions by Baker and Stanley, Africa was well explored by the end of the century and this was to lead the way for the colonisation which followed.

Colonialism and the "scramble for Africa"

Main article: Colonization of Africa

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

In the late nineteenth century, the European imperial powers staged a major "scramble for Africa" and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial nation states, and leaving only two independent nations: Liberia, the Black American colony, and Orthodox Christian Abyssinia (Ethiopia). This colonial occupation continued until after the conclusion of World War II, when all the colonial states gradually obtained formal independence.

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

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

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

The Belgians introduced a racialized system. Individuals who had characteristics the Europeans admired — fairer skin, ample height, narrow noses, etc. — were given power amongst the colonized peoples. The Belgians determined these features were more ideally Hamitic, and in turn more ideally European and belonged to those people closest to Tutsi in ancestry. They instituted a policy of issuing identity cards based on this philosophy. Those closest to this ideal were proclaimed Tutsi and those not were proclaimed Hutu.

Post-colonial Africa

Today, Africa is home to 53 independent countries, which mostly still have the borders drawn during the era of European colonialism.

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

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

Politics

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

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

Economy

Main article: Economy of Africa

African Economic Community map

Due largely to the effects of colonialism, corrupt governments and despotism, Africa is the world's poorest inhabited continent. According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African nations. [4]

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

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

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

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

Demographics

Africans may be grouped according to whether they live north or south of the Sahara; these groups are called North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans, respectively. Afro-Asiatic speaking peoples predominate in North Africa, while Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by a number of populations grouped according to their language — Niger-Congo predominantly in West Africa, Afro-Asiatic in the Horn of Africa, Nilo-Saharan in Eastern Africa and the central Sahara, and Khoisan in the south.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Languages

Main article: African languages

Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. Afro-Asiatic extends from the Sahel to Southwest Asia. Niger-Congo is divided to show the size of the Bantu sub-family.

By most estimates, Africa contains well over a thousand languages, some have estimated it to be over two thousand languages (most of African rather than European origin). Africa is the most polyglot continent in the world. There are four major language families native to Africa.

• The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout East Africa, North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
• The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are mainly spoken in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and northern Tanzania.
• The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages. A substantial number of them are the Bantu languages spoken in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
• The Khoisan languages number about 50 and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 120 000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.

With a few notable exceptions in East Africa, nearly all African countries have adopted official languages that originated outside the continent and spread through colonialism or human migration, even though some countries' languages of native origin are used more than the "official" language. For example, in numerous countries English and French are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Malagasy are other examples of originally non-African languages that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres. But the rise of the use of languages like Swahili is spreading throughout East and South Africa, promoting the use of languages native to Africa. And the official languages of European origin in countries throughout Africa are not usually the ONLY official languages (from example, South Africa has 11 official languages, most not of European origin), and English is the second official language of Tanzania, AFTER Swahili. Uganda's official language is English, but most people speak Luganda.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Africa

Africa has a number of overlapping cultures, with several thousand ethnic groups. The most conventional distinction is that between sub-Saharan Africa and the North African countries from Egypt to Morocco, who largely associate themselves with Arabic culture. In this comparison, the nations to the south of the Sahara are considered to consist of many cultural areas, in particular that of the Bantu language group.

Divisions may also be made between French West Africa and the rest of Africa, in particular the former British colonies of southern and East Africa. Another cultural fault-line is that between those Africans living traditional lifestyles and those who are essentially modern. The traditionalists are sometimes subdivided into pastoralists and agriculturalists.

File:Nassarius shellbeads South Africa.jpg

75,000 year old Nassarius shell beads found in Blombos Cave, South Africa

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

Music and dance

Main article: Music of Africa

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

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

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

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

Religion

Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs [5], with Christianity and Islam being the most widespread. Approximately 46.3% of all Africans are Christians and another 40.5% are Muslims. Roughly 11.8% of Africans primarily follow indigenous African religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, or have beliefs from the Judaic tradition. Examples of African Jews are the Beta Israel, Lemba tribes and the Abayudaya of Eastern Uganda.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Territories and regions

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

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

Physical map of Africa.

File:Africa Satellite.jpg Satellite photo of Africa.

Name of region and territory, with flag	Area (km²)	Population (1 July 2002 est.)	Population density (per km²)	Capital
Eastern Africa:
Burundi	27,830	6,373,002	229.0	Bujumbura
Comoros	2,170	614,382	283.1	Moroni
Djibouti	23,000	472,810	20.6	Djibouti
Eritrea	121,320	4,465,651	36.8	Asmara
Ethiopia	1,127,127	67,673,031	60.0	Addis Ababa
Kenya	582,650	31,138,735	53.4	Nairobi
Madagascar	587,040	16,473,477	28.1	Antananarivo
Malawi	118,480	10,701,824	90.3	Lilongwe
Mauritius	2,040	1,200,206	588.3	Port Louis
Mayotte (France)	374	170,879	456.9	Mamoudzou
Mozambique	801,590	19,607,519	24.5	Maputo
Réunion (France)	2,512	743,981	296.2	Saint-Denis
Rwanda	26,338	7,398,074	280.9	Kigali
Seychelles	455	80,098	176.0	Victoria
Somalia	637,657	7,753,310	12.2	Mogadishu
Tanzania	945,087	37,187,939	39.3	Dodoma
Uganda	236,040	24,699,073	104.6	Kampala
Zambia	752,614	9,959,037	13.2	Lusaka
Zimbabwe	390,580	11,376,676	29.1	Harare
Middle Africa:
Angola	1,246,700	10,593,171	8.5	Luanda
Cameroon	475,440	16,184,748	34.0	Yaoundé
Central African Republic	622,984	3,642,739	5.8	Bangui
Chad	1,284,000	8,997,237	7.0	N'Djamena
Congo	342,000	2,958,448	8.7	Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo	2,345,410	55,225,478	23.5	Kinshasa
Equatorial Guinea	28,051	498,144	17.8	Malabo
Gabon	267,667	1,233,353	4.6	Libreville
São Tomé and Príncipe	1,001	170,372	170.2	São Tomé
Northern Africa:
Algeria	2,381,740	32,277,942	13.6	Algiers
Egypt	1,001,450	70,712,345	70.6	Cairo
Libya	1,759,540	5,368,585	3.1	Tripoli
Morocco	446,550	31,167,783	69.8	Rabat
Sudan	2,505,810	37,090,298	14.8	Khartoum
Tunisia	163,610	9,815,644	60.0	Tunis
Western Sahara	266,000	256,177	1.0	El Aaiún
Southern Europe dependencies in Northern Africa:
Canary Islands (Spain)	7,492	1,694,477	226.2	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Ceuta (Spain)	20	71,505	3,575.2	—
Madeira Islands (Portugal)	797	245,000	307.4	Funchal
Melilla (Spain)	12	66,411	5,534.2	—
Southern Africa:
Botswana	600,370	1,591,232	2.7	Gaborone
Lesotho	30,355	2,207,954	72.7	Maseru
Namibia	825,418	1,820,916	2.2	Windhoek
South Africa	1,219,912	43,647,658	35.8	Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria
Swaziland	17,363	1,123,605	64.7	Mbabane
Western Africa:
Benin	112,620	6,787,625	60.3	Porto-Novo
Burkina Faso	274,200	12,603,185	46.0	Ouagadougou
Cape Verde	4,033	408,760	101.4	Praia
Côte d'Ivoire	322,460	16,804,784	52.1	Abidjan, Yamoussoukro
Gambia	11,300	1,455,842	128.8	Banjul
Ghana	239,460	20,244,154	84.5	Accra
Guinea	245,857	7,775,065	31.6	Conakry
Guinea-Bissau	36,120	1,345,479	37.3	Bissau
Liberia	111,370	3,288,198	29.5	Monrovia
Mali	1,240,000	11,340,480	9.1	Bamako
Mauritania	1,030,700	2,828,858	2.7	Nouakchott
Niger	1,267,000	10,639,744	8.4	Niamey
Nigeria	923,768	129,934,911	140.7	Abuja
Saint Helena (UK)	410	7,317	17.8	Jamestown
Senegal	196,190	10,589,571	54.0	Dakar
Sierra Leone	71,740	5,614,743	78.3	Freetown
Togo	56,785	5,285,501	93.1	Lomé
Total	30,368,309	843,705,143	27.8

References

• "Africa". The Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online. 2005. New York: Columbia University Press.

External links

News

• allAfrica.com current news, events and statistics
• BBC News In Depth - Africa 2005: Time for Change?
• Guardian Unlimited - Special Report: Hear Africa 05
• Yale Economic Review Africa:Failed Economic History

Photos and Information

• Africa Photos Photos from Africa such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa
• L'Afrique Hundreds of photographs of Rwanda, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Burundi. Also articles in French and English.
• ASAP Africa Photo Galleries and Information about African Community Development
• Jungle Photos Jungle Photos Africa provides images and information on various countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Afrika.no News
• Inter Press Service-Africa
• Africa Encyclopedia Article from 1920s

Directories

• Africa's social networking site
• Africa Homepage
• African Community Portal
• AfricaResource.com Africaresource.com is an educational portal that develops and distributes content.
• ClickAfrique - African Portal and Directory
• Columbia University - African Studies
• Contemporary Africa Database
• Library of Congress - African & Middle Eastern Reading Room
• Open Directory Project - Africa directory category
• Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara
• The Index on Africa directory from The Norwegian Council for Africa
• University of Chicago - Joseph Regenstein Library: African Studies
• University of Pennsylvania - African Studies Center

Politics

• Africa Action Africa Action is the oldest organization in the United States working on African affairs. It is a national organization that works for political, economic and social justice in Africa.
• African Anarchism: The History of a Movement
• An Irish anarchist in Africa, western Africa from anarchist perspective.
• Commission for Africa
• African Unification Front
• Working class history in Africa -- people's and grassroots histories

Culture

• Traditional African Drumming Festivals and Ceremonies

Sports

• Confederation of African Football; in English and French

Tourism

• Template:Wikitravel