Africa's average population is the youngest amongst all the continents;
[5][6] the
median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4.
[7] Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and
Nigeria is its largest by population. Africa, particularly central
Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of
humans and the
Hominidae clade (
great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest
hominids and their ancestors as well as later ones that have been dated to around 7 million years ago, including
Sahelanthropus tchadensis,
Australopithecus africanus,
A. afarensis,
Homo erectus,
H. habilis and
H. ergaster—the earliest
Homo sapiens (modern human), found in
Ethiopia, date to circa 200,000 years ago. Africa straddles the
equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern
temperate to southern temperate zones.
Etymology
Afri 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). 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 ʿafar meaning "dust",but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, a Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane) in northwestern Libya.
According to the Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to
Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer
Ptolemy (85–165 AD), indicating
Alexandria along the
Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the
Red Sea the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of "Africa" expanded with their knowledge.
Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":
- The 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for Epher, 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."[17]
- Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposed[18] 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."
- 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 Abrahah" who subdued Ifriqiya.
Prehistory
The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions. At the end of the Ice ages, estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had again become a green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in Sub-Saharan Africa, with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 BC, the Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500 BC, due to a tilt in the earth's orbit, the Sahara experienced a period of rapid desertification. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.
The domestication of
cattle in Africa preceded
agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the
donkey and a small screw-horned goat which was common from
Algeria to
Nubia.
Around 4000 BC, the Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. 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 helped to cause migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa.
By the first millennium BC,
ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa and around that time also became established in parts of sub-Saharan Africa either through independent invention or diffusion form the north
[39] 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 didn't begin ironworking until the early centuries AD.
Copper objects from
Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that
Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date.
[38]
Early civilizations
At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt.[40] One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC. Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day Libya and Nubia, and, according to Martin Bernal, as far north as Crete.
Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the
Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system.
Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. The first
Roman emperor native to North Africa was
Septimius Severus, born in
Leptis Magna in present-day Libya—his mother was Italian Roman and his father was
Punic.
Christianity spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia; by AD 340 at the latest, it had become the
state religion of the
Aksumite Empire.
Syro-Greek missionaries, who arrived by way of the Red Sea, were responsible for this theological development.
In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic
Caliphate expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while, the local Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Umayyad capital Damascus fell in the 8th century, the Islamic centre of the Mediterranean shifted from Syria to
Qayrawan in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists, and philosophers. During the above-mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration.
In West Africa,
Dhar Tichitt and
Oualata in present-day
Mauritania figure prominently among the early urban centers, dated to 2,000 BC. About 500 stone settlements litter the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet. It has been found Augustin Holl that the
Soninke of the
Mandé peoples were likely responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to
Koumbi Saleh.
[52] Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent
Ghana Empire.
Djenné-Djenno (in present-day
Mali) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable
Iron Age population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC
Djenné-Djenno had become a large, thriving market town.
Farther south, in central
Nigeria, around 1,000 BC, the
Nok culture developed on the
Jos Plateau. It was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in
terracotta, including human heads and human figures, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC they were smelting iron. By 200 AD the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the
Yoruba kingdom of
Ife and those of the
Bini kingdom of
Benin are now
[when?] believed
[by whom?] to be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nok culture.
Ninth to eighteenth centuries
The intricate 9th-century bronzes from
Igbo-Ukwu, in
Nigeria displayed a level of technical accomplishment that was notably more advanced than European bronze casting of the same period.
[56]
Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities
[57] 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.
By the ninth century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest
Hausa states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were
Ghana,
Gao, 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.
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.
[59] The
Banu Hilal and
Banu Ma'qil were a collection of
Arab Bedouin tribes from the
Arabian Peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their
migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were
Arabized,
[60] and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.
[61]
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.
[62] 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.
1803
Cedid Atlas, showing a map of the African continent from the perspective of the
Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans controlled much of Northern Africa between the 14th and 19th centuries, and had
vassal arrangements with a number of Saharan states.
Height of slave trade
Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.
[63][64] Between the 7th and 20th centuries, the Arab slave trade (also known as "slavery in the east") took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World.
[65][66][67] 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.
[68]
In
West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the
New World, increasing
anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the
British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British
West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.
[69]
Slave being inspected, from
Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of
Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.
[70] 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.
[71]
Colonialism and the "Scramble for Africa"
Areas of Africa under the sovereignty or influence of the
colonial powers in 1913, along with modern borders.
Belgium
Germany
Spain
France
United Kingdom
Italy
Portugal
independent
In the late 19th century, the European
imperial powers engaged in a major territorial scramble and occupied most of the continent, creating many
colonial territories, and leaving only two fully independent states:
Ethiopia (known to Europeans as "Abyssinia"), and
Liberia.
Egypt and
Sudan were never formally incorporated into any European colonial empire; however, after the British occupation of 1882, Egypt was effectively under British administration
until 1922.
Berlin Conference
The
Berlin Conference held in 1884–85 was an important event in the political future of African ethnic groups. It was convened by King
Leopold II of Belgium, and attended by the European powers that laid claim to African territories. The Berlin Conference sought to end the European powers' Scramble for Africa, by agreeing on political division and spheres of influence. They set up the political divisions of the continent, by spheres of interest, that exist in Africa today.
Independence struggles
Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of
World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence.
Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951,
Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956,
Tunisia and
Morocco won their independence from France.
[72] Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957),
[73] becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Most of the rest of the continent became independent over the next decade.
Post-colonial Africa
Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which have borders that were 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 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, and many have instead cycled through a series of
coups, producing
military dictatorships.
Great instability was mainly the result of
marginalization of ethnic groups, and
graft under these leaders. For
political gain, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts, some of which 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,
[citation needed] 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 others in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the United States, France or both. The 1970s saw an escalation of Cold War intrigues, as newly independent
Angola and
Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, and the West and South Africa sought to contain Soviet influence by supporting friendly regimes or insurgency movements. In
Rhodesia, Soviet and Chinese-backed leftist guerrillas of the
Zimbabwe Patriotic Front waged a brutal
guerrilla war against the country's white government. There was a
major famine in Ethiopia, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. Some claimed that Marxist economic policies made the situation worse.
[74][75][76] The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the
Second Congo War; this conflict and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.5 million people.
[77] Since 2003 there has been an ongoing
conflict in Darfur which has become a humanitarian disaster. Another notable tragic event is the 1994
Rwandan Genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were murdered.
AIDS in post-colonial Africa has also been a prevalent issue.
In the 21st century, however, the number of armed conflicts in Africa has steadily declined. For instance, the
civil war in Angola came to an end in 2002 after nearly 30 years. This coincided with many countries abandoning communist-style command economies and opening up for market reforms. The improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations, mainly from
China,
[78] which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly ending decades of stagnation and decline. Several African economies are among the world's fastest growing as of 2016. A significant part of this growth, which is sometimes referred to as
Africa Rising, can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.
[79] Migration from African nations has increased dramatically in the last decade.
[80]
Geology and geography
Satellite photo of Africa. The
Sahara Desert in the north can be clearly seen.
A composite satellite image of Africa (centre) with North America (left) and Eurasia (right), to scale
The coastline is 26,000 km (16,000 mi) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km
2 (4,000,000 sq mi) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (20,000 mi).
[83] 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 mi).
[84] Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 mi) to
Ras Hafun, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection that neighbours
Cape Guardafui, the tip of the Horn of Africa.
[83]
African plate
| Africa |
|---|
 |
| Type | Major |
|---|
| Approximate area | 61,300,000 km2 (23,700,000 sq mi)[86] |
|---|
| Features | Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea |
|---|
The African Plate is a major
tectonic plate straddling the
equator as well as the
prime meridian. It includes much of the
continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges. Between
60 million years ago and
10 million years ago, the
Somali Plate began
rifting from the African Plate along the
East African Rift.
[87] Since the continent of Africa consists of crust from both the African and the Somali plates, some literature refers to the African Plate as the
Nubian Plate to distinguish it from the continent as a whole.
[88]
Climate
Africa map of Köppen climate classification
[89]
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.
[90] The record for the highest-ever recorded temperature, in
Libya in 1922 (58 °C (136 °F)), was discredited in 2013.
[91][92]
Fauna
Ecology and biodiversity
Africa has over 3,000
protected areas, with 198 marine protected areas, 50 biosphere reserves, and 80 wetlands reserves. Significant habitat destruction, increases in human population and poaching are reducing Africa's biological diversity and
arable land. Human encroachment, civil unrest and the introduction of non-native species threaten biodiversity in Africa. This has been exacerbated by administrative problems, inadequate personnel and funding problems.
[90]
Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (
UNEP).
[93] 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.
[90] Some sources claim that approximately 90% of the original, virgin forests in
West Africa have been destroyed.
[94] Over 90% of
Madagascar's original forests have been destroyed since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago.
[95] About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from
soil degradation.
[96]
Politics
There are clear signs of increased networking among African organizations and states. For example, in the civil war in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (former
Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also
Second Congo War). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 5 million.
The African Union
Member states of the African Union
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 (federal), regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution.
Political associations such as the African Union offer 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,
Zimbabwe, and
Côte d'Ivoire.
Euler diagram showing the relationships among various multinational African entities
v • t • e
Economy
Satellite image of city lights in Africa showing the relatively low modern development on the continent in 2012 as compared to Eurasia.
| Rank | Country | GDP (PPP, Peak Year)
millions of USD | Peak Year |
|---|
| 1 |  Egypt | 1,391,734 | 2019 |
| 2 |  Nigeria | 1,214,827 | 2019 |
| 3 |  South Africa | 813,100 | 2019 |
| 4 |  Algeria | 684,649 | 2019 |
| 5 |  Morocco | 330,381 | 2019 |
| 6 |  Ethiopia | 240,705 | 2019 |
| 7 |  Ghana | 211,127 | 2019 |
| 8 |  Angola | 203,763 | 2019 |
| 9 |  Kenya | 190,970 | 2019 |
| 10 |  Libya | 187,796 | 2010 |
| Rank | Country | GDP (nominal, Peak Year)
millions of USD | Peak Year |
|---|
| 1 | Nigeria | 568,496 | 2014 |
| 2 | South Africa | 416,879 | 2011 |
| 3 | Egypt | 332,484 | 2016 |
| 4 | Algeria | 213,810 | 2014 |
| 5 | Angola | 145,712 | 2014 |
| 6 | Morocco | 121,350 | 2019 |
| 7 | Kenya | 99,246 | 2019 |
| 8 | Ethiopia | 90,968 | 2019 |
| 9 | Libya | 79,759 | 2012 |
| 10 |  DR Congo | 68,606 | 1980 |
Although it has abundant
natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and
least-developed continent, 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, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from
guerrilla warfare to
genocide).
[98] 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.
[99]
Poverty, illiteracy,
malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the
World Bank[100] announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 81% of the
Sub-Saharan Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) per day in 2005, compared with 86% for India.
[101]
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,
[102] 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.
[103][104][105]
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 dept. 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.
[106]
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.
Tausch's global value comparison based on the
World Values Survey derived the following factor analytical scales: 1. The non-violent and law-abiding society 2. Democracy movement 3. Climate of personal non-violence 4. Trust in institutions 5. Happiness, good health 6. No redistributive religious fundamentalism 7. Accepting the market 8. Feminism 9. Involvement in politics 10. Optimism and engagement 11. No welfare mentality, acceptancy of the Calvinist work ethics. The spread in the performance of African countries with complete data, Tausch concluded "is really amazing". While one should be especially hopeful about the development of future democracy and the market economy in
Ghana, the article suggests pessimistic tendencies for
Egypt and
Algeria, and especially for Africa's leading economy,
South Africa. High
Human Inequality, as measured by the
UNDP's
Human Development Report's
Index of Human Inequality, further impairs the development of
Human Security. Tausch also maintains that the certain recent optimism, corresponding to economic and
human rights data, emerging from Africa, is reflected in the development of a
civil society.
In recent years, the
People's Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations and is Africa's largest trading partner. In 2007, Chinese companies invested a total of US$1 billion in Africa.
[78]
A Harvard University study led by professor
Calestous Juma showed that Africa could feed itself by making the transition from importer to self-sufficiency. "African agriculture is at the crossroads; we have come to the end of a century of policies that favoured Africa's export of raw materials and importation of food. Africa is starting to focus on agricultural innovation as its new engine for regional trade and prosperity."
[113]
During US President Barack Obama's visit to Africa in July 2013, he announced a
US$7 billion plan to further develop infrastructure and work more intensively with African heads of state. He also announced a new programme named Trade Africa, designed to boost trade within the continent as well as between Africa and the US.
[114]
Demographics
| Population of Africa 1955–2019 |
|
|
| Source: Worldometers[115] |
Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and consequently, it is relatively young. In some African states, more than half the population is under 25 years of age.
[116] The total number of people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in 1990.
[117] As of 2016, the population of Africa is estimated at 1.2 billion
[1]. 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.
[118] This increase in number of babies born in Africa compared to the rest of the world is expected to reach approximately 37% in the year 2050, an increase of 21% since 1990 alone.
[119]
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.
[120] 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. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.
[121]
The peoples of West Africa primarily speak
Niger–Congo languages, belonging mostly to its non-Bantu branches, though some
Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic speaking groups are also found. The Niger–Congo-speaking
Yoruba,
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.
The peoples of North Africa consist of three main indigenous groups: Berbers in the northwest, Egyptians in the northeast, and Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in the east. The
Arabs who arrived in the 7th century AD introduced the
Arabic language and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic
Phoenicians (who founded
Carthage) and
Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian
Alans, the Indo- European
Greeks,
Romans, and
Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Significant Berber communities remain within
Morocco and
Algeria in the 21st century, while, to a lesser extent, Berber speakers are also present in some regions of Tunisia and Libya.
[122] 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.
[citation needed]
Prior to the
decolonization movements of the post-
World War II era,
Europeans were represented in every part of Africa.
[123] 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),
[124] Kenya, Congo,
[125] Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola.
[126] Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone.
[127] Nevertheless,
white Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly
Zimbabwe,
Namibia,
Réunion, and the
Republic of South Africa.
[128] The country with the largest white African population is South Africa.
[129] Dutch and
British diasporas represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today.
[130]
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[78] have also developed in the larger coastal cities of
West and
East Africa, respectively.
[131]
Languages
Map showing the traditional language families represented in Africa:
Niger-Congo:
Central and Eastern Sudanese
Central Bantoid
Eastern Bantoid
Guinean
Western Bantoid
Nilo-Saharan:
By most estimates, well over a thousand
languages (
UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.
[132] Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most
multilingual continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well. There are four major
language families indigenous to Africa:
- The Afroasiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
- The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by ethnic groups in Chad, 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 number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people.[133] Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.
Following the end of
colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted
official languages that originated outside the continent, although several countries also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as
Swahili,
Yoruba,
Igbo and
Hausa). In numerous countries, English and French (
see African French) are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media.
Arabic,
Portuguese,
Afrikaans and Spanish are examples of languages that trace their origin to outside of Africa, and that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres. Italian is spoken by some in former
Italian colonies in Africa. German is spoken in
Namibia, as it was a former German protectorate.
Culture
Some aspects of traditional African cultures have become less practised in recent years as a result of neglect and suppression by colonial and post-colonial regimes. For example, African customs were discouraged, and African languages were prohibited in mission schools.
[134] Leopold II of Belgium attempted to "civilize" Africans by discouraging polygamy and witchcraft.
[134]
Obidoh Freeborn posits that colonialism is one element that has created the character of modern African art.
[135] 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."
[136] 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.
[136] 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."
[137] 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."
[138] On the other hand, Mhoze Chikowero believes that Africans deployed music, dance, spirituality, and other performative cultures to (re)asset themselves as active agents and indigenous intellectuals, to unmake their colonial marginalization and reshape their own destinies."
[139]
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.
Visual art and architecture
Music and dance
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,
hip hop, and
rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of
Afrobeat and
Highlife music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of
soukous, dominated by the
music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 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.
Sports
Religion
Africans profess a wide variety of 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.
[141][142] According to the
World Book Encyclopedia,
Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by
Christianity. According to
Encyclopædia Britannica, 45% of the population are
Christians, 40% are
Muslims, and 10% follow
traditional religions. A small number of Africans are
Hindu,
Buddhist,
Confucianist,
Baha'i, or
Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are
irreligious.
|
|
|
|
|
A map showing religious distribution in Africa
|
Territories and regions
The countries in this table are categorized according to the
scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.
| Arms | Flag |
|---|
| North Africa |
 | | Algeria | 2,381,740 | 34,178,188 | 2009 | 14 | Algiers |
 |  | Canary Islands (Spain)[148] | 7,492 | 2,154,905 | 2017 | 226 | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife |
 |  | Ceuta (Spain)[149] | 20 | 85,107 | 2017 | 3,575 | — |
 | | Egypt[150] | 1,001,450 | 82,868,000 | 2012 | 83 | Cairo |
 | | Libya | 1,759,540 | 6,310,434 | 2009 | 4 | Tripoli |
 |  | Madeira (Portugal)[151] | 797 | 245,000 | 2001 | 307 | Funchal |
 |  | Melilla (Spain)[152] | 12 | 85,116 | 2017 | 5,534 | — |
 | | Morocco | 446,550 | 35,740,000 | 2017 | 78 | Rabat |
 |  | Sudan | 1,861,484 | 30,894,000 | 2008 | 17 | Khartoum |
 |  | Tunisia | 163,610 | 10,486,339 | 2009 | 64 | Tunis |
 |  | Western Sahara[153] | 266,000 | 405,210 | 2009 | 2 | El Aaiún |
| East Africa |
 |  | Burundi | 27,830 | 8,988,091 | 2009 | 323 | Bujumbura |
 |  | Comoros | 2,170 | 752,438 | 2009 | 347 | Moroni |
 |  | Djibouti | 23,000 | 828,324 | 2015 | 22 | Djibouti |
 |  | Eritrea | 121,320 | 5,647,168 | 2009 | 47 | Asmara |
 | | Ethiopia | 1,127,127 | 84,320,987 | 2012 | 75 | Addis Ababa |
 | | Kenya | 582,650 | 39,002,772 | 2009 | 66 | Nairobi |
 |  | Madagascar | 587,040 | 20,653,556 | 2009 | 35 | Antananarivo |
 |  | Malawi | 118,480 | 14,268,711 | 2009 | 120 | Lilongwe |
 |  | Mauritius | 2,040 | 1,284,264 | 2009 | 630 | Port Louis |
 |  | Mayotte (France) | 374 | 223,765 | 2009 | 490 | Mamoudzou |
 |  | Mozambique | 801,590 | 21,669,278 | 2009 | 27 | Maputo |
 | | Réunion (France) | 2,512 | 743,981 | 2002 | 296 | Saint-Denis |
 |  | Rwanda | 26,338 | 10,473,282 | 2009 | 398 | Kigali |
 |  | Seychelles | 455 | 87,476 | 2009 | 192 | Victoria |
 |  | Somalia | 637,657 | 9,832,017 | 2009 | 15 | Mogadishu |
 |  | South Sudan | 619,745 | 8,260,490 | 2008 | 13 | Juba |
 |  | Tanzania | 945,087 | 44,929,002 | 2009 | 43 | Dodoma |
 |  | Uganda | 236,040 | 32,369,558 | 2009 | 137 | Kampala |
 |  | Zambia | 752,614 | 11,862,740 | 2009 | 16 | Lusaka |
 |  | Zimbabwe | 390,580 | 11,392,629 | 2009 | 29 | Harare |
| Central Africa |
 | | Angola | 1,246,700 | 12,799,293 | 2009 | 10 | Luanda |
 |  | Cameroon | 475,440 | 18,879,301 | 2009 | 40 | Yaoundé |
 |  | Central African Republic | 622,984 | 4,511,488 | 2009 | 7 | Bangui |
 |  | Chad | 1,284,000 | 10,329,208 | 2009 | 8 | N'Djamena |
 |  | Republic of the Congo | 342,000 | 4,012,809 | 2009 | 12 | Brazzaville |
 | | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 2,345,410 | 69,575,000 | 2012 | 30 | Kinshasa |
 |  | Equatorial Guinea | 28,051 | 633,441 | 2009 | 23 | Malabo |
 |  | Gabon | 267,667 | 1,514,993 | 2009 | 6 | Libreville |
 |  | São Tomé and Príncipe | 1,001 | 212,679 | 2009 | 212 | São Tomé |
| Southern Africa |
 |  | Botswana | 600,370 | 1,990,876 | 2009 | 3 | Gaborone |
 |  | Eswatini | 17,363 | 1,123,913 | 2009 | 65 | Mbabane |
 |  | Lesotho | 30,355 | 2,130,819 | 2009 | 70 | Maseru |
 |  | Namibia | 825,418 | 2,108,665 | 2009 | 3 | Windhoek |
 | | South Africa | 1,219,912 | 51,770,560 | 2011 | 42 | Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria[154] |
| West Africa |
 |  | Benin | 112,620 | 8,791,832 | 2009 | 78 | Porto-Novo |
 |  | Burkina Faso | 274,200 | 15,746,232 | 2009 | 57 | Ouagadougou |
 |  | Cape Verde | 4,033 | 429,474 | 2009 | 107 | Praia |
 |  | The Gambia | 11,300 | 1,782,893 | 2009 | 158 | Banjul |
 | | Ghana | 239,460 | 23,832,495 | 2009 | 100 | Accra |
 |  | Guinea | 245,857 | 10,057,975 | 2009 | 41 | Conakry |
 |  | Guinea-Bissau | 36,120 | 1,533,964 | 2009 | 43 | Bissau |
 |  | Ivory Coast | 322,460 | 20,617,068 | 2009 | 64 | Abidjan,[155] Yamoussoukro |
 |  | Liberia | 111,370 | 3,441,790 | 2009 | 31 | Monrovia |
 |  | Mali | 1,240,000 | 12,666,987 | 2009 | 10 | Bamako |
 |  | Mauritania | 1,030,700 | 3,129,486 | 2009 | 3 | Nouakchott |
 |  | Niger | 1,267,000 | 15,306,252 | 2009 | 12 | Niamey |
 | | Nigeria | 923,768 | 166,629,000 | 2012 | 180 | Abuja |
 |  | Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom) | 420 | 7,728 | 2012 | 13 | Jamestown |
 |  | Senegal | 196,190 | 13,711,597 | 2009 | 70 | Dakar |
 |  | Sierra Leone | 71,740 | 6,440,053 | 2009 | 90 | Freetown |
 |  | Togo | 56,785 | 6,019,877 | 2009 | 106 | Lomé |
| Africa Total | 30,368,609 | 1,001,320,281 | 2009 | 33 | |
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