Africa
The cradle of humanity, a continent of vast diversity and ancient kingdoms.
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers around 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly a billion of the world population, Africa's population is the youngest among the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will exceed 3.8 billion people by 2100. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, behind Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to various factors including geography, climate, corruption, colonialism, the Cold War, and neocolonialism. Despite this low concentration of wealth, the African economy is home to many of the world's fastest-growing economies.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Continent
- Trade nodes
- Several
- including Safi
- Tunis
- Ivory Coast
- and Zanzibar
- Major powers
- Mali
- Songhai
- Ethiopia
- Kongo
- Morocco
- Terrain
- Desert
- Savannah
- Jungle
- Coastal
- Religions
- Sunni Islam
- Coptic Christianity
- Animism
- Catholicism (via colonization)
Lore & Background
The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community. In African societies the oral word is revered, and they have generally recorded their history via oral tradition, which has led anthropologists to term them 'oral civilisations', contrasted with 'literate civilisations' which pride the written word. Africa, particularly Eastern Africa, is widely accepted to be the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade.
The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, and Homo sapiens are believed to have originated in Africa 350,000 to 260,000 years ago. Throughout history the continent saw the rise and fall of many kingdoms and empires, such as Ancient Egypt, Makuria, the Fatimids, Mali, the Asante, Kongo, the Luba, Bunyoro, Great Zimbabwe, Imerina, and the Zulu. From the late-19th century to early 20th century, most of Africa was rapidly conquered and colonised by European nations, save for Ethiopia and Liberia.
Most present states emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II and established the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, the predecessor to the African Union.
Reader's Guide
Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Arabian plate and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Yemen have parts of their territories located on African geographical soil, mostly in the form of islands. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos.
It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states, eight cities and islands that are part of non-African states, and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. Algeria is the largest country by area, and Nigeria is largest by population. Nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa. Africa is highly biodiverse; it is the continent with the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.
However, it is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and pollution. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as the continent most vulnerable to climate change.
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