Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. At c. 30,244,050 km2 (11,677,240 mi2) including the islands, it covers 20.3% of the total land area on Earth, and with over 800 million human inhabitants it accounts for around one seventh of Earth's human population.
The ancient Romans used the name Africa terra — "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular) — for the northern part of the continent, corresponding to modern-day Tunisia. The origin of Afer may be the Phoenician `afar, dust; the Afridi tribe, who dwelt in Northern Africa around the area of Carthage; Greek aphrike, without cold; or Latin aprica, sunny.
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2 Geography 3 History 4 Politics 5 Demographics 6 Culture 7 Religion 8 Countries 9 List of countries/dependencies by population density 10 See also 11 External link |
Africa is home to the oldest inhabited territory on earth, and it is believed the human race originated from what is now this continent.
For most of humanity's history, Africa (and all other continents) had no nation states, and was instead inhabited by many small, loosely associated tribal groups, kingdomss, and families; while Egypt was probably the first nation state ever formed, much of sub-Saharan Africa remained effectively nation-state-less until quite recently. In the 14th century European explorers arrived in Africa. By bargaining with some local tribal leaders, Europeans were able to capture millions of Africans, and export them for labour around the world in what became known as the global slave trade. In the early 19th century the European imperial powers staged a massive "scramble for Africa" and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial states. This occupation continued until the conclusion of the Second World War, after which all colonial states were gradually granted formal independence. Today, Africa is home to over 50 independent countries, many of which still have borders drawn during the era of European colonialism.
Africa is composed of 56 nations, the vast majority of which are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule.
Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. Until recently, few nations in Africa were able to sustain democratic governments, instead cycling through a series of brutal coups and military dictatorships.
Many of Africa's post-colonial political leaders were very poorly educated or igornant on matters of governance, which led to great instability. Others were corrupt and dictatorial, outlawing opposition immediately upon assuming office, and supressing the European-made constitutions and parliaments.
As well, many used the positions of power to re-ignite old tribal conflicts which had been suppressed under colonial rule. In many countries, the military was percieved as being the only group that could effectively maintain order and ruled most nations in Africa during the 70's and early 80's.
During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s Africa had over 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations.
Cold War conflicts between The United States and the Soviet Union also played a role in the 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 recieved Soviet military aide, while many in Central and Souther Africa were supported by America or France.
Border and territorial disputes have also been common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.
Failed government policies and political corruption have also resulted in many widespread famines, and significant portions of Africa remain with distribution systems unable to distribute enough food or water for the population to survive. The spread of dangerous diseases is also rampant, especially the deadly HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Despite numerous hardships, there have been some signs the continent has hope for the future. Democratic governments seem to be spreading, though are not yet the majority. As well, many nations have at least nominally recognized basic human rights for all citizens, and have created reasonably independent judiciaries.
As well, under pressure from international financial institutions like the IMF, many African governments have been able to turn their economies around, so that they have started to show positive growth according to conventional economic measurements after decades of negative or zero growth. It remains to be seen if such developments will be able to survive long term, however.
There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations and states. In the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, about half-a-dozen neighbouring African countries got involved. The death toll, estimated by some to 3.5 million over five years, is very high. This might play a role similar to that of World War II for Europe, after which the people in the neighbouring countries decide 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.
The species homo sapiens sapiens is now believed to have originated in Africa and migrated into the outlying continents about 80,000 years ago. After this African diaspora, humans developed into what are considered the different human races, although it is also contended that not enough isolated evolution in different geographical areas was possible for the species to become polytypic.
During the years following the migration, some cultural changes, changes of group identities, and some genetic changes, such as skin color, clearly happened. Racism can sometimes arise because non-Africans sometimes view themselves as being culturally and genetically different from Africans. It is currently debated as to whether people can be meaningfully classified by a few superficial physical characteristics such as skin colour. Some argue that the very classification itself can lead to humans segregating themselves along racial lines, a phenomenon known in folklore psychology as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For example, it is a fact that the human population of sub-saharan Africa (south of the Sahara desert) in its vast majority has black skin. Although it is often possible to differentiate non-Africans from Africans based on skin color, it is also argued that even though groups of people in other parts of the world would each be classified as African if an attempt were made to find genetic sub-groupings of our species, their paler skin colour misleadingly suggests that they are not African.
Since colonisation, the nations of Zimbabwe and South Africa maintain small, but significant groups, returned to Africa after a few ten thousand years absence, identifying themselves as white and Asian. Similiarly, most people in Madagascar (including the first people to arrive on the long-uninhabited island) are descended from people who came from Indonesia. See race and racism for a more detailed discussion of these issues.
Most northern countries, from Egypt to Morocco, have people who largely associate themselves as part of the Arabic culture. To the south of the Sahara, there are many distinct cultural areas, sometimes quite small; a large part of those can be associated to the linguistic group Bantu.
Africa is home to a wide variety of different religious groups. Christianity and Islam have a significant presence in many countries, while others retain regionally unique tribal beliefs and customs.
Egypt as a whole has been included, even though some of Egypt is located in Asia.
Unlike the figures in the country articles, the figures in this table are based on areas including inland water bodies (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) and may therefore be lower here.
Map
Geography
Main Article: Geography of AfricaHistory
Main Article: History of Africa
Map showing European claimants to the African continentPolitics
Demographics
Culture
Religion
Countries
Central Africa
Northern Africa (Some countries are included as part of the Middle East in some definitions of that term)
Western Africa
List of countries/dependencies by population density
Saint Helena, being closest to Africa, has been included.
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