I | INTRODUCTION |
Thatch House in Kenya
Circular thatch houses are common in many parts of Africa. Here, the inhabitants of Amboseli, a village in Kenya, are putting the finishing touches on a new dwelling. To build these houses, thatch must be attached in layers to a frame made of wood. The floor inside is made of dried mud.
Hutchison Library
Africa, second largest of Earth’s seven continents, covering 23 percent of the world’s total land area and containing 13 percent of the world’s population. Africa straddles the equator and most of its area lies within the tropics. It is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, the Indian Ocean and Red Sea on the east, and the Mediterranean Sea on the north. In the northeastern corner of the continent, Africa is connected with Asia by the Sinai Peninsula.
Africa is a land of great diversity. If you were to trek across the continent, you would pass through lush, green forests and wander vast, grassy plains. You would cross barren deserts, climb tall mountains, and ford some of the mightiest rivers on Earth. You would meet diverse people with a wide range of cultures and backgrounds and hear hundreds of different languages. You would pass through small villages where daily life remains largely the same as it has been for hundreds of years, as well as sprawling cities with skyscrapers, modern economies, and a mix of international cultural influences.
Africa is the birthplace of the human race. Here, early humans evolved from apes between 8 million and 5 million years ago. Modern human beings evolved between 130,000 and 90,000 years ago, and subsequently spread out of Africa. Ancient Egypt, one of the world’s first great civilizations, arose in northeastern Africa more than 5,000 years ago. Over time many other cultures and states rose and fell in Africa, and by 500 years ago there were prosperous cities, markets, and centers of learning scattered across the continent.
During the last 500 years, however, Africa became increasingly dominated by European traders and colonizers. European traders sent millions of Africans to work as slaves on colonial plantations in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. Europeans also sought Africa’s wealth of raw materials to fuel their industries. In the late 19th century, European powers seized and colonized virtually all of Africa.
Countries of Africa
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Indian Ocean to the east, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the African continent is divided into over fifty countries. After World War II many African territories began to fight for their independence from European colonization. The borders of many modern African nations reflect the colonial boundaries.
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Through slow reform or violent struggle, most of Africa won independence in the 1950s and 1960s. Independent Africa inherited from colonization a weak position in the global economy, underdeveloped communication and transportation systems, and arbitrarily drawn national boundaries. The citizens of these new nations generally had little in terms of history or culture to bind them together.
There are 53 different African countries, including the 47 nations of the mainland and the 6 surrounding island nations. The continent is commonly divided along the lines of the Sahara, the world’s largest desert, which cuts a huge swath through the northern half of the continent. The countries north of the Sahara make up the region of North Africa, while the region south of the desert is known as sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is sometimes referred to as “Black Africa,” but this designation is not very helpful, given the ethnic diversity of the entire continent. North Africa consists of the countries of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. Sub-Saharan Africa is generally subdivided into the regions of West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and southern Africa. For the purposes of this article, West Africa consists of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Togo. East Africa consists of Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. Central Africa consists of Angola, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, and Zambia. Southern Africa consists of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. The island nations located off the coast of Africa are Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe in the Atlantic Ocean; and Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean.
II | NATURAL ENVIRONMENT |
Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, lies in northeastern Tanzania near the border of Kenya. The mountain has two volcanic peaks, spaced 11 km (7 mi) apart, with the higher of the two rising 5,895 m (19,341 ft). Farmers cultivate coffee beans and plantains on Kilimanjaro’s lower slopes.
Renee Lynn/Photo Researchers, Inc.
The great diversity of the African environment makes it difficult to generalize about the continent. While much of the continent consists of vast plains with little relief, there are also towering volcanic peaks and the largest rift valley system in the world. The climate ranges from the year-round heat and humidity of equatorial regions to the dryness of the world’s largest desert to mountaintop conditions cold enough to support glaciers. It contains regions of biological significance due to their biodiversity and huge numbers of species found nowhere else.
The African environment has long been mistakenly seen as hostile, foreboding, and tragically in decline. Popular descriptions of Africa such as “the dark continent,” images of untamed wilderness in nature publications, and sensationalized press coverage of disasters such as droughts and famines have shaped these perceptions of Africa. Geographers’ accounts of Africa used to attribute the underdevelopment of the continent to its unfavorable environment—its oppressive climate, infertile soil, polluted water, and exotic diseases.
These days have begun to wane. Increased scientific research on the African environment has done much to dispel old misconceptions and to provide insights into the physical processes that give shape to the landscape. The relationship of African societies to the environment is also much better understood. Yet much remains to be done before this huge and complex continent is well known and appreciated, especially by the general public.
