Portal:Africa
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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 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest among all 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 reach 3.8 billion people by 2099. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, corruption, colonialism, the Cold War, and neocolonialism. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. Africa has a large quantity of natural resources and food resources, including diamonds, sugar, salt, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, natural gas, cocoa beans, and.
Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian. It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and a number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, the northern tip of Mauritania, and the entire territories of Morocco, Ceuta, Melilla, and Tunisia, which in turn are located above the tropic of Cancer, in the northern temperate zone. In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia, southern Botswana, great parts of South Africa, the entire territories of Lesotho and Eswatini and the southern tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn, in the southern temperate zone.
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, Africa also is heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and pollution. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as the continent most vulnerable to climate change.
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. During the colonial period, oral sources were deprecated by European historians, which gave them the impression Africa had no recorded history. African historiography became organized at the academic level in the mid-20th century, and saw a movement towards utilising oral sources in a multidisciplinary approach, culminating in the General History of Africa, edited by specialists from across the continent. (Full article...)
Selected article –
The Tsodilo Hills (Tswana: Lefelo la Tsodilo) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in Botswana, Southern Africa. It gained its WHS listing in 2001 because of its unique religious and spiritual significance to local peoples, as well as its unique record of human settlement over many millennia. UNESCO estimates there are over 4500 rock paintings at the site. The site consists of a few main hills known as the Child Hill, Female Hill, and Male Hill. (Full article...)
Featured pictures –
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Idi Amin Credit: Edmund S. Valtman
Idi Amin (c. 1925 – 16 August 2003) was President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. While President, Amin committed acts of violence against the people of his country; an estimated 300,000, possibly 500,000 civilians may have been killed under his regime. In this caricature by Edmund S. Valtman, Amin is depicted as a bloated, powerful figure in military dress covered with medals and insignia, holding a scepter, and crowned by a small head with heavy features. -
Banknote: Swakopmund Bookshop (courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History)The South West African mark was a temporary currency issued in South West Africa between 1916 and 1918 as part of the South West Africa campaign. Issued after the conquest of German South West Africa by South Africa, notes were denominated in marks and pfennig, as with the withdrawn German South West African Mark. Many institutions issued banknotes; this two-mark note was issued by the Swakopmund Bookshop. The South-West African mark was replaced in 1918 by the South African pound. -
Photograph credit: Charles James SharpThe roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) is a species of savanna antelope found in western, central and southern Africa. Named for its reddish-brown coat, it has a black face with white patches around the eyes and the mouth, and a short erect mane of greyish brown hair extending from the back of the neck to the rump. This roan antelope, of the subspecies H. e. koba, was photographed in Senegal; the subspecies's range extends from Senegal to Benin in western Africa. -
A Nodding Pincushion Flower Bud Photo credit: Mila Zinkova
Leucospermum (Pincushion or Pincushion Protea) is a genus of about 50 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, native to Zimbabwe and South Africa, where they occupy a variety of habitats, including scrub, forest, and mountain slopes. -
Photograph: Sathyan VelumaniThe Larabanga Mosque was built in the Sudanese architectural style in the village of Larabanga, Ghana. It is the oldest mosque in the country and one of the oldest in West Africa, and has been called the "Mecca of West Africa". It has undergone restoration several times since it was founded. The World Monuments Fund has contributed substantially to its restoration, and lists it as one of the 100 most endangered sites. -
Photograph credit: Charles J. SharpThe sable antelope (Hippotragus niger) is an antelope which inhabits wooded savanna in eastern and southern Africa, from the south of Kenya to South Africa, with a separate population in Angola. The species is sexually dimorphic, with the male heavier and about one-fifth taller than the female. It has a compact and robust build, characterized by a thick neck and tough skin, and both sexes have ringed horns which arch backward. The sable antelope has four subspecies.
This picture shows an adult male common sable antelope (H. n. niger) in the Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa. -
Photo: William WarbyPortrait of a Maasai woman, with shaved head, stretched earlobes, and beaded adornments, typical of the Maasai culture. The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are among the best known of African ethnic groups, due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa. Their primary language Maa (ɔl Maa) is a member of the Nilo-Saharan language family that is related to Dinka and Nuer. -
Bareina Credit: Ferdinand Reus
Bareina is a Bedouin village and rural commune in the Trarza region of south-western Mauritania. As of 2000 it had a population of 14,987. This photo is a view of the village just minutes before rain started. -
Photograph: Muhammad Mahdi KarimAdansonia digitata is a sub-Saharan African species of baobab tree. The genus, scientifically known as Adansonia, consists of nine species native to Madagascar, Africa, Arabia and Australia, and can reach heights of 5 to 30 m (16 to 98 ft) with trunk diameters of 7 to 11 m (23 to 36 ft). -
Photograph credit: Alexander SavinDallol is a cinder-cone volcano in the Danakil Depression, northeast of the Erta Ale Range in Ethiopia. The area lies up to 120 m (390 ft) below sea level, and has been repeatedly flooded in the past when waters from the Red Sea have inundated it. The Danakil Depression is one of the hottest places on Earth, and the evaporation of seawater after these flooding episodes produced thick deposits of salt, as seen in this landscape. The deposits at Dallol include significant quantities of the carbonate, sulfate and chloride salts of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Hot springs discharge brine to form the blueish ponds, and small, temporary geysers produce cones of salt. -
Photo: NASAA composite satellite image of the geography of Africa, the Earth's second-largest continent, and its adjacent islands. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea and from much of Asia by the Red Sea, Africa is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez. For geopolitical purposes, the Sinai Peninsula – east of the Suez Canal – is often considered part of Africa, although geographically it belongs in Asia. Africa can be divided into a number of geographic zones: The Atlas Mountains in the north, the Sahara, the coastal plains, and the inner plateaus. -
Photograph: Poco a pocoPanoramic view of the Amphitheatre of El Jem, an archeological site in the city of El Djem, Tunisia. The amphitheatre, one of the best-preserved Roman ruins and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, was built around 238 AD, when modern Tunisia belonged to the Roman province of Africa. It is the third-biggest amphitheatre in the world, with axes of 148 m (486 ft) and 122 m (400 ft) and a seating capacity of 35,000, unique in Africa. -
Apartheid in Durban, South Africa Credit: User:GuinnogApartheid (meaning separateness in Afrikaans, cognate to English apart and hood) was a system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948, and was dismantled in a series of negotiations from 1990 to 1993, culminating in democratic elections in 1994. Apartheid was designed to form a legal framework for continued economic and political dominance by people of European descent. -
Dar es Salaam Credit: Muhammad Mahdi Karim
Dar es Salaam is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: Kinondoni to the north, Ilala in the center of the region, and Temeke to the south. The Dar es Salaam Region had a population of 2,497,940 as of the official 2002 census. Though Dar es Salaam lost its official status as capital city to Dodoma in 1974, it remains the center of the permanent central government bureaucracy and continues to serve as the capital for the Dar es Salaam Region. -
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The government is an absolute monarchy, the last of its kind in Africa, and the country has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986. One of the country's important cultural events is Umhlanga, the reed-dance festival, held in August or September each year. This photograph shows Princess Sikhanyiso Dlamini, the eldest daughter of Mswati III, at the 2006 festival. -
Banknote design credit: Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Bank; photographed by Andrew ShivaThe rupie was the unit of currency of German East Africa between 1890 and 1916. During World War I, the colony was cut off from Germany as a result of a wartime blockade and the colonial government needed to create an emergency issue of banknotes. Paper made from linen or jute was initially used, but because of wartime shortages, the notes were later printed on commercial paper in a variety of colours, wrapping paper, and in one instance, wallpaper. This five-rupie banknote was issued in 1915, and is now part of the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.
Other denominations:
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-00000015-QINU`"' -
Photo credit: LaitcheThe Rose Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) is a plant indigenous to various parts of southern Africa, and in particular South Africa. This specific species has great importance in the perfume industry. Its cultivars have a wide variety of smells, including rose, citrus, mint, coconut and nutmeg, as well as various fruits. -
Caricature of Cecil John Rhodes, after he announced plans for a telegraph line from Cape Town to Cairo. Photo credit: Punch
The Cape to Cairo Railway is an uncompleted project to cross Africa from south to north by rail. The plan was initiated at the end of the 19th century, largely under the vision of Cecil Rhodes, in the attempt to connect adjacent African possessions of the British Empire through a continuous line from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt. While most sections of the Cape to Cairo railway are in operation, a major part is missing between Sudan and Uganda. -
Ancient Egypt Photo credit: Jeff Dahl
Ancient Egypt was a civilization in northeastern Africa concentrated along the middle to lower reaches of the Nile River, reaching its greatest extent in the second millennium BC, during the New Kingdom. It stretched from the Nile Delta in the north as far south as Jebel Barkal at the Fourth Cataract of the Nile, in modern-day Sudan.
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Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the lenient sentencing of two Europeans convicted in 1918 after the death of a black man in the East Africa Protectorate led to inquiries from the British Colonial Office?
- ... that in 1888, Edward P. Duplex became the first African American to be elected a mayor in California?
- ... that a 1939 thesis by Nathaniel Fadipe, The Sociology of the Yoruba, was the first sociological study by a black African?
- ... that Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction From Africa and the African Diaspora was partly inspired by The 1619 Project?
- ... that the growth of Christianity in 20th-century Africa has been termed the "fourth great age of Christian expansion"?
- ... that the Shady Rest Golf and Country Club was the home of John Shippen, the first African American to compete in the U.S. Open?
Categories
Selected biography –
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Sydney Brenner CH FRS FMedSci MAE (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to work on the genetic code, and other areas of molecular biology while working in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He established the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism for the investigation of developmental biology, and founded the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, California, United States. (Full article...)
Selected country –
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Lesotho, officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Formerly Basutoland, it is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name Lesotho roughly translates into "the land of the people who speak Sesotho".
Lesotho covers 30,355 square kilometres (11,720 sq mi). The most notable geographic fact about Lesotho, apart from its status as an enclave, is that it is the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) in elevation. Its lowest point is 1,400 meters (4,593 ft), and over 80% of the country lies above 1,800 metres (5,900 ft).
The Lesotho Government is a constitutional monarchy. The Prime Minister is the head of government and has executive authority. The king serves a largely ceremonial function; he no longer possesses any executive authority and is proscribed from actively participating in political initiatives. (Read more...)
Selected city –
Khartoum or Khartum (/kɑːrˈtuːm/ kar-TOOM; Arabic: الخرطوم, romanized: al-Khurṭūm, pronounced [al.xur.tˤuːm]) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 6,344,348, Khartoum's metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan.
Khartoum is located at the confluence of the White Nile – flowing north from Lake Victoria – and the Blue Nile, flowing west from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. Divided by these two parts of the Nile, the Khartoum metropolitan area is a tripartite metropolis consisting of Khartoum proper and linked by bridges to Khartoum North (الخرطوم بحري al-Kharṭūm Baḥrī) and Omdurman (أم درمان Umm Durmān) to the west. The place where the two Niles meet is known as al-Mogran or al-Muqran (المقرن; English: "The Confluence"). (Full article...)
In the news
- 12 February 2024 –
- Two boats collide on the Congo River near Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; with the death toll remains unclear. (AP)
- 11 February 2024 – 2023 Africa Cup of Nations
- In association football, hosts Ivory Coast win their third Africa Cup of Nations by defeating Nigeria 2–1 in the final. Sébastien Haller scores the winning goal in the 81st minute. (The Guardian)
- 10 February 2024 – Somali civil war
- Four Emirati soldiers and a Bahraini military officer are killed, while ten other people are injured, when a soldier opens fire at a military base in Mogadishu, Somalia, before being killed in the ensuing shootout. Al-Shabaab claims responsibility. (AP)
- 10 February 2024 –
- A Eurocopter EC130 helicopter crashes near Nipton, California, United States, killing all the six people on board, including Nigerian banker Herbert Wigwe. (CBS News)
- 10 February 2024 – 2023–2024 Senegalese protests
- Violent protests occur in Senegal following an announcement by President Macky Sall that presidential elections have been delayed from February 25 to December 15. (Sky News)
- 9 February 2024 –
- At least 18 people are killed during a collision between a bus and a truck on a road in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (AP)
Updated: 16:33, 14 February 2024
General images -
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Kenyan boys and girls performing a traditional folklore dance (from Culture of Africa) -
Evolution of the Fatimid Caliphate (from History of Africa) -
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Potjiekos is a traditional Afrikaner stew made with meat and vegetables and cooked over coals in cast-iron pots. (from Culture of Africa) -
9th-century bronze staff head in form of a coiled snake, Igbo-Ukwu, Nigeria (from History of Africa) -
DISPLAY OF AFRICAN CULTURAL APPAREL (SMOCK) (from Culture of Africa) -
Ruby, Egyptian singer performing (from Culture of Africa) -
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Traditional male dancers from Northern Nigeria (from Culture of Africa) -
The Almoravid empire in the 12th century. (from History of Africa) -
An Ethiopian woman preparing Ethiopian coffee at a traditional ceremony. She roasts, crushes, and brews the coffee on the spot. (from Culture of Africa) -
Carthaginian Empire in 323 BC (from History of Africa) -
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Areas controlled by European powers in 1939. British (red) and Belgian (marroon) colonies fought with the Allies. Italian (light green) with the Axis. French colonies (dark blue) fought alongside the Allies until the Fall of France in June 1940. Vichy was in control until the Free French prevailed in late 1942. Portuguese (dark green) and Spanish (yellow) colonies remained neutral. (from History of Africa) -
Nok sculpture (from History of Africa) -
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The Kingdom of Aksum in the 6th century AD. (from History of Africa) -
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Map of the western Sahel and Sudan (northern West Africa) c. 1200. (Songhai is Gao)
Kingdoms in this era were centred around cities and cores, with variations of influence radiating out from these points, meaning there weren't fixed borders. (from History of Africa) -
Pre-Neolithic and Neolithic migration events in Africa. (from History of Africa) -
Maasai wearing traditional clothes named Matavuvale while performing Adumu, a traditional dance (from Culture of Africa) -
Sudan basket-tray, tabar of weaved natural plant fiber, in different colors (from Culture of Africa) -
Fufu (right) is a staple meal in West Africa and Central Africa. It is usually served with some peanut soup. (from Culture of Africa) -
traditional pearl using for differents pearl in the religion. (from Culture of Africa) -
The Kilwa Sultanate in 1310 (from History of Africa) -
Tingatinga is one of the most widely represented forms of paintings in Tanzania, Kenya and neighbouring countries (from Culture of Africa) -
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The Mali Empire in 1337 CE, with major gold fields, of Bambuk, Bure, Lobi (tended by the Gan and later Lobi people), and Akan, and trade routes, outlined. The desert should extend further south to Koumbi. The Mossi Kingdoms are located north of Lobi. (from History of Africa) -
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Map of ancient Egypt, showing major cities and sites of the Dynastic period (c. 3150 BC to 30 BC) (from History of Africa) -
Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, one of the most iconic singers in African history (from Culture of Africa) -
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1 = 2000–1500 BC origin
2 = c. 1500 BC first dispersal
2.a = Eastern Bantu
2.b = Western Bantu
3 = 1000–500 BC Urewe nucleus of Eastern Bantu
4–7 = southward advance
9 = 500–1 BC Congo nucleus
10 = AD 1–1000 last phase (from History of Africa) -
Order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011 -
Ancient Kano City Walls, Nigeria (from Culture of Africa) -
A terra-cotta head sculpture (1100-1500) of the Yoruba, showing extraordinary naturalism. This head represents the oni or king of Ife. (from Culture of Africa) -
The Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt (from Culture of Africa) -
The Ghana Empire at its greatest extent (from History of Africa) -
Gateway to the Castle of Good Hope in South Africa (from Culture of Africa) -
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A Yombe sculpture (Louvre, Paris) (from Culture of Africa) -
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Africa topics
More did you know –
- ... that the British Museum's oldest African-American object is the Akan Drum (pictured) that was used to "dance the slaves"?
- ... that L.C. Lecesne rose to prominence as an activist against slavery after the British Government compensated him for his illegal exile from Jamaica?
- ... that despite receiving a budget allocation in 2003, the public sports stadium in Gibeon, Namibia, hadn't been repaired as of December 2007?
- ... that Thomas Edward Wilkinson was made Bishop of Zululand after his predecessor in South Africa, John Colenso, was excommunicated?
Related portals
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Major Religions in Africa
North Africa
West Africa
Central Africa
East Africa
Southern Africa
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