Africa

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Area	30,370,000 km2 (11,730,000 sq mi)  (2nd)
Population	1,393,676,444[1][2] (2021; 2nd)
Population density	46.1/km2 (119.4/sq mi) (2021)
GDP (PPP)	$10.77 trillion (2025 est; 4th)[3]
GDP (nominal)	$2.82 trillion (2025 est; 5th)[4]
GDP per capita	$1,920 (Nominal; 2025 est; 6th)[5]
Religions	Christianity (49%) Islam (42%) Traditional faiths (8%)[A] Others (1%)[6]
Demonym	African
Countries	54 recognised states, 2 partially recognised states, 4 dependent territories
Dependencies	External (4) Bouvet Island, Norway French Southern Territories Heard Island and McDonald Islands Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Internal (3+1 disputed) Mayotte and Réunion, France Southern Provinces, Morocco Zanzibar, Tanzania Socotra, Yemen
Languages	1250–3000 native languages
Time zones	UTC-1 to UTC+4
Largest cities	Largest urban areas: Cairo Lagos Kinshasa Johannesburg Luanda Khartoum Onitsha Durban Dar es Salaam Abidjan Alexandria Kigali Nairobi Algiers Cape Town Kano Dakar Casablanca Addis Ababa Kampala
^ A: African people often combine the practice of their traditional beliefs with the practice of Abrahamic religions.[7][8]

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.^[9] 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;^[10][11] the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4.^[12] Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will exceed 3.8 billion people by 2100.^[13] 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,^[14] corruption,^[14] colonialism, the Cold War,^[15][16] 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, and Africa has a large quantity of natural resources.

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. This count does not include Malta and Sicily, which are geologically part of the African continent. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.

Africa is highly biodiverse;^[17] 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 is also 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.^[18][19]

The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community.^[20] 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.^{[a][23]: 142–143} African culture is rich and diverse both within and between the continent's regions, encompassing art, cuisine, music and dance, religion, and dress.

Africa, particularly Eastern Africa, is widely accepted to be the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade, also known as the great apes. The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, and Homo sapiens (modern human) are believed to have originated in Africa 350,000 to 260,000 years ago.^[b] In the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE Ancient Egypt, Kerma, Punt, and the Tichitt Tradition emerged in North, East and West Africa, while from 3000 BCE to 500 CE the Bantu expansion swept from modern-day Cameroon through Central, East, and Southern Africa, displacing or absorbing groups such as the Khoisan and Pygmies. Some African empires include Wagadu, Mali, Songhai, Sokoto, Ife, Benin, Asante, the Fatimids, Almoravids, Almohads, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Kongo, Mwene Muji, Luba, Lunda, Kitara, Aksum, Ethiopia, Adal, Ajuran, Kilwa, Sakalava, Imerina, Maravi, Mutapa, Rozvi, Mthwakazi, and Zulu. Despite the predominance of states, many societies were heterarchical and stateless.^[c] Slave trades created various diasporas, especially in the Americas. From the late 19th century to early 20th century, driven by the Second Industrial Revolution, most of Africa was rapidly conquered and colonised by European nations, save for Ethiopia and Liberia.^[32] European rule had significant impacts on Africa's societies, and colonies were maintained for the purpose of economic exploitation and extraction of natural resources. 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.^[33] The nascent countries decided to keep their colonial borders, with traditional power structures used in governance to varying degrees.

Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of what was then known as northern Africa, located west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referring to all lands south of the Mediterranean, also known as Ancient Libya.^[34][35] This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers;^[36] see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician word ʿafar meaning "dust",^[37] but a 1981 hypothesis^[38] has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.^[39] The same word^[39] 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,^[40] as well as the city of Ifrane in Morocco.

Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province then named Africa Proconsularis, following the Roman victory over the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya.^[41] The Latin suffix -ica can sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g., in Celtica from Celtae, as used by Julius Caesar). The later Muslim region of Ifriqiya, following its conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire's Exarchatus Africae, also preserved a form of the name.

According to the Romans, Africa lies 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 CE), 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."^[42]
• Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposed^[43] 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 ['rich']."^[44]
• Ibn Khallikan and some other historians claim that the name of Africa came from a Himyarite king called Afrikin ibn Kais ibn Saifi ("Afrikus son of Abraham") who subdued Ifriqiya.^[45][46][47]
• Arabic afrīqā (feminine noun) and ifrīqiyā, now usually pronounced afrīqiyā (feminine) 'Africa', from 'afara [' = 'ain, not 'alif] 'to be dusty' from 'afar 'dust, powder' and 'afir 'dried, dried up by the sun, withered' and 'affara 'to dry in the sun on hot sand' or 'to sprinkle with dust'.^[48]
• Possibly Phoenician faraqa in the sense of 'colony, separation'.^[49]

The terms "North Africa" and "Sub-Saharan Africa" has been subject to recent criticism from some scholars due to its historical root in colonialist discourse which arbitrarily separated Africa into a white "northern" Africa and black "southern" Africa, overlooking common genetic links and regional diversity across the continent.^[50][51][52]

In accordance with African cosmology, African historical consciousness viewed historical change and continuity, order and purpose within the framework of man and his environment, the gods, and his ancestors, and he believed himself part of a holistic spiritual entity.^[53] In African societies, the historical process is largely a communal one, with eyewitness accounts, hearsay, reminiscences, and occasionally visions, dreams, and hallucinations crafted into narrative oral traditions which are performed and transmitted through generations.^{[54]: 12 : 48} In oral traditions time is sometimes mythical and social, and ancestors were considered historical actors.^{[d][55]: 43–53} Mind and memory shapes traditions, as events are condensed over time and crystallise into clichés.^[56]: 11 Oral tradition can be exoteric or esoteric. It speaks to people according to their understanding, unveiling itself in accordance with their aptitudes.^[57]: 168 In African epistemology, the epistemic subject "experiences the epistemic object in a sensuous, emotive, intuitive, abstractive understanding, rather than through abstraction alone, as is the case in Western epistemology" to arrive at a "complete knowledge", and as such oral traditions, music, proverbs, and the like were used in the preservation and transmission of knowledge.^[58]

Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the Human species originating from the continent.^[59] During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as seven million years ago ("Before Present"; BP). Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern humans, such as Australopithecus afarensis radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP,^[60] Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP)^[61] and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered.^[9]

After the evolution of Homo sapiens approximately 350,000 to 260,000 years BP in Africa, the continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers.^[62][63] These first modern humans left Africa and populated the rest of the globe during the Out of Africa II migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across Bab-el-Mandeb over the Red Sea,^[64][65] the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco,^[66][67] or the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.^[68]

Other migrations of modern humans within the African continent have been dated to that time, with evidence of early human settlement found in Southern Africa, Southeast Africa, North Africa, and the Sahara.^[69] 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 Africa, with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia.^[70] However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5,000 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.^[71] The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6,000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa.^[72]

In West Africa, a wet phase ushered in an expanding rainforest and wooded savanna from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9,000 and 5,000 BC, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Black-eyed peas and voandzeia (African groundnuts), were domesticated, followed by okra and kola nuts. Since most of the plants grew in the forest, the Niger–Congo speakers invented polished stone axes for clearing forest.^{[73]: 82–4} Pygmies are thought to have inhabited Central Africa for many millennia, splitting into eastern and western groups around 5,000 BP.^[74] Over 150,000 BP, there was an early dispersal of anatomically modern humans to Southern Africa, equated with the modern-day Khoisan who have preserved their traditional hunter-gatherer way of life.^[e][76]

From 3500 BC, nomes (ruled by nomarchs) coalesced to form the kingdoms of Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt in northeast Africa. Around 3100 BC Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt to unify Egypt under the 1st dynasty, with the process of consolidation and assimilation completed by the time of the 3rd dynasty who formed the Old Kingdom of Egypt in 2686 BC.^{[77]: 62–63} The Kingdom of Kerma emerged around this time to become the dominant force in Nubia, controlling territory as large as Egypt between the 1st and 4th cataracts of the Nile.^[78][79] The height of the Old Kingdom saw the construction of many great pyramids, though under the 6th dynasty power gradually decentralised to the nomarchs, culminating in the disintegration of the kingdom, exacerbated by drought and famine. Around 2055 BC, the 11th dynasty, based in Thebes, conquered the others to form the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, and the 12th dynasty expanded into Lower Nubia at the expense of Kerma.^{[77]: 68–71} Around 1700 BC, the Middle Kingdom fractured in two, and the Hyksos (a militaristic people from Palestine) invaded and conquered Lower Egypt, while Kerma coordinated invasions deep into Egypt to reach its greatest extent.^[80] In 1550 BC, the 18th dynasty expelled the Hyksos, and established the New Kingdom of Egypt. The New Kingdom conquered the Levant from the Canaanites, Mittani, Amorites, and Hittites, and extinguished Kerma, incorporating Nubia into the empire, and sending the Egyptian empire into its golden age.^[77]: 73 Internal struggles, drought, famine, and invasions by a confederation of seafaring peoples contributed to the New Kingdom's collapse in 1069 BC.^{[77]: 76–77}

The New Kingdom's collapse liberated the Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, which manoeuvred into power in Upper Egypt and conquered Lower Egypt in 754 BC to form the Kushite Empire. The Kushites ruled for a century and oversaw a revival in pyramid building, until they were driven out of Egypt by the Assyrians in 663 BC in reprisal for their expansion towards the Assyrian Empire.^[81] The Assyrians installed a puppet dynasty that later gained independence and once more unified Egypt, until it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire in 525 BC.^[77]: 77 Egypt briefly regained independence from the Achaemenids under the 28th dynasty from 404 to 343 BC. The conquest of Achaemenid Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 BC marked the beginning of Hellenistic rule and the installation of the Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.^[82]: 119 The Ptolemaics lost their holdings outside of Africa to the Seleucids in the Syrian Wars, expanded into Cyrenaica, and briefly occupied part of Kush in the 3rd century BC.^{[83]: 384–93} In the 1st century BC, Ptolemaic Egypt became entangled in a Roman civil war, leading to its conquest by the Romans in 30 BC.^[84] Kush persisted as a major regional power until, having been weakened from internal rebellion amid worsening climatic conditions, invasions by Aksum and the Noba caused their disintegration into Makuria, Alodia, and Nobatia around the 5th century AD.^[85]

In the Horn of Africa, there was the Land of Punt, a kingdom on the Red Sea which was a close trading partner of Ancient Egypt in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Rodolfo Fattovich equated it to the Gash Group in the Sudanese-Eritrean lowlands, and some scholars have hypothesised modern-day Somalia, while Kenneth Kitchen and Felix Chami locate it on Zanzibar Island.^{[86][87]: 680} In the Eritrean-Ethiopian Highlands, the kingdom of dʿmt rose c. 980 BC as the region was incorporated into global trading networks,^[88] and it exhibited Sabaean influences which most scholars attribute to a small migration of Sabaeans and their assimilation.^[89] Several scholars consider there to have been other contemporaneous states,^{[90][91]: 39–40} and dʿmt's collapse in the mid-1st century BC saw the region inhabited by small polities.^[92] Modern-day Somalia was inhabited by nomadic pastoralists, and along the Horn's coast there were many ancient Somali city-states that thrived off of the wider Red Sea trade, and enjoyed a lucrative monopoly on cinnamon from Ancient India due to their freedom from Roman interference.^{[93]: 24–5, 33} In the 1st century AD, the Kingdom of Aksum rose from a city-state to rule much of the northern Ethiopian-Eritrean Highlands and the Red Sea port of Adulis. Aksum was described as one of the four great powers by Persian prophet Mani in the 3rd century.^{[94][95]: 174} Aksum's king converted from traditional religion to Christianity in the 4th century, gradually followed by the population. In the 6th century, Aksum conquered South Arabia, though struggled to maintain control over it, and began to gradually lose its dominance over Red Sea trade to Persians and Arabs.^[94]

Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) was inhabited by Berber semi-nomadic pastoralists. In the 1st millennium BC, Phoenician migration and settlement came in search for precious metals in the Gulf of Tunis.^[96]: 442 This grew into Ancient Carthage after gaining independence from Phoenicia in the 6th century BC, and they built an extensive trading empire with a strict mercantile network.^[97] Carthage's collapse and conquest by Rome in the Punic Wars (3rd and 2nd centuries BC) saw Numidia and Mauretania become major powers in the Maghreb. Towards the end of the 2nd century BC Mauretania fought alongside Numidia's Jugurtha against the Romans in the Jugurthine War after he had usurped the Numidian throne from a Roman ally. Together they inflicted heavy casualties, with the war only ending inconclusively when Mauretania's Bocchus I sold out Jugurtha to the Romans. Around the turn of the millennium, both came under direct Roman rule.^{[96]: 460–2} While traditional religion predominated among Berbers, some people converted to Christianity. In the 5th century AD the Vandals conquered Roman Africa before the fall of Rome, though the province was reconquered by the Byzantines a century later. Large swathes of indigenous peoples regained self-governance in Masuna and its numerous successor polities in the Maghreb, including the kingdoms of Ouarsenis, Aurès, and Altava.^{[98]: 495–7, 500–8}

In the western Sahel the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of millet and of sorghum, and cattle pastoralism began c. 2500 BC. Extensive east-west belts of deserts, grasslands, and forests from north to south were crucial for the moulding of their respective societies and meant that symbiotic trade relations developed in response to the differing environments.^{[99][100]: 79–80} Beginning around 4000 BC, the Tichitt culture in modern-day Mauritania and Mali is the oldest known complexly organised society in West Africa,^[101] while others included the Kintampo culture in modern-day Ghana, the Nok culture in modern-day Nigeria, and the Daima culture around Lake Chad.^{[102]: 603–12} Towards the end of the 3rd century AD, a wet period in the Sahel created areas for human habitation and exploitation that had not been habitable for the best part of a millennium. The Ghana Empire (also called Wagadu) rose out of the Tichitt culture, growing wealthy following the introduction of the camel to the western Sahel, which revolutionised the trans-Saharan trade that linked their capital and Aoudaghost with Tahert and Sijilmasa in North Africa.^[103] Soninke tradition holds that the final founding of Wagadu occurred after Dinga did a deal with Bida [fr], a serpent deity who was guarding a well, to sacrifice one maiden a year in exchange for assurance regarding plenty of rainfall and gold supply.^[f][104] Based on large tumuli scattered across West Africa dating to this period, several scholars have speculated that there were further simultaneous and preceding states relative to Wagadu.^[105][101]

In the Grasslands of northwestern Cameroon, Bantu-speaking agriculturalists started to gradually migrate south sometime between 5000 BC and 3000 BC. Despite intensive research, the cause of the migrations, and that of the directions taken, is still unclear,^[g] however there is consensus that there were multiple dispersal events. Around 1500 BC, Bantu speakers reached central Cameroon. The 'Western Stream' likely followed the coast and the major rivers of the Congo system southwards to reach the southern fringe of the Congolian Rainforest around 500 BC (some may have used the sea to circumvent the rainforest). Their arrival coincided with the spread of iron metallurgy through Central Africa. Meanwhile, the 'Eastern Stream' travelled either the northern fringe of the rainforest or the Ubangi River eastwards, and reached just west of Lake Victoria around 500 BC. While there, Bantu speakers adopted iron metallurgy from Cushitic speakers already present, and coexisted with them.^{[107][106]: 23–5} Dispersal from the Great Lakes region occurred in two more streams. One went west to meet the Western Stream in the DR Congo and Angola, while the other went south and spread across Eastern and Southern Africa.^[106]: 26 Around the turn of the millennium, Bantu speakers reached central modern-day Tanzania and near Dar es Salaam, before rapidly moving southwards along the coast to reach modern-day Kwazulu Natal in South Africa around the 3rd century AD.^[107] Throughout this, Bantu speakers displaced, replaced, or intermarried with and absorbed hunter-gatherer and agricultural groups.^{[108][106]: 32 [109]: 636}

Pre-colonial Africa possessed as many as 10,000 different states and polities.^[111] 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 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 9th 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, which was ruled by the Eze Nri, was established around the ninth century, making it one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu.^[112]

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 by the Oyo Empire, whose obas, called the Alaafins of Oyo, controlled many other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms including the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey.

The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century.^[113] 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 arabised,^[114] and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.^[115]

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.^[116] 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.

Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.^[117][118] Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World.^{[119][120][121]} 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.^[122]

The Trans-Saharan slave trade contributed to a mass movement of Africans across North Africa and wider Near East over several millennia.^[123] Islamic caliphs with Sub-Saharan African ancestry include Abu al-Misk Kafur^[124] Al-Mustansir Billah^[125], Yaqub al-Mansur,^[126] Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman, Sultan of the Marinid dynasty^[127] and Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif.^[128]

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.^[129]

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.^[130] 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.^[131]

Imperial rule by Europeans continued 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.^[142] Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957),^[143] becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Over the next decade, waves of decolonisation took place across the continent, culminating in the 1960 Year of Africa and the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.^[33]

Portugal's overseas presence in sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe) lasted from the 16th century to 1975, after the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a military coup in Lisbon. Rhodesia unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, under the white minority government of Ian Smith, but was not internationally recognised as an independent state (as Zimbabwe) until 1980, when black nationalists gained power after a bitter guerrilla war. Although South Africa was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority, initially through qualified voting rights and from 1956 by a system of racial segregation known as apartheid, until 1994.

As of 2025, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries.^[144] Since independence, 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—per the criteria laid out by Lührmann et al. (2018), only Botswana and Mauritius have been consistently democratic for the entirety of their post-colonial history. Most African countries have experienced several coups or periods of military dictatorship. Between 1990 and 2018, though, the continent as a whole has trended towards more democratic governance.^[145]

Upon independence an overwhelming majority of Africans lived in extreme poverty. The continent suffered from the lack of infrastructural or industrial development under colonial rule, along with political instability. With limited financial resources or access to global markets, relatively stable countries such as Kenya still experienced only very slow economic development. Only a handful of African countries succeeded in obtaining rapid economic growth prior to 1990. Exceptions include Libya and Equatorial Guinea, both of which possess large oil reserves.

Instability throughout the continent after decolonisation resulted primarily from marginalisation of ethnic groups, and corruption. In pursuit of personal political gain, many leaders deliberately promoted ethnic conflicts, some of which had originated during the colonial period, such as from the grouping of multiple unrelated ethnic groups into a single colony, the splitting of a distinct ethnic group between multiple colonies, or existing conflicts being exacerbated by colonial rule (for instance, the preferential treatment given to ethnic Hutus over Tutsis in Rwanda during German and Belgian rule).

Faced with increasingly frequent and severe violence, military rule was widely accepted by the population of many countries as means to maintain order, and during the 1970s and 1980s a majority of African countries were controlled by military dictatorships. Territorial disputes between nations and rebellions by groups seeking independence were also common in independent African states. The most devastating of these was the Nigerian Civil War, fought between government forces and an Igbo separatist republic, which resulted in a famine that killed 1–2 million people. Two civil wars in Sudan, the first lasting from 1955 to 1972 and the second from 1983 to 2005, collectively killed around 3 million. Both were fought primarily on ethnic and religious lines.

Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union also contributed to instability. Both the Soviet Union and the United States offered considerable incentives to African political and military leaders who aligned themselves with the superpowers' foreign policy. As an example, during the Angolan Civil War, the Soviet and Cuban aligned MPLA and the American aligned UNITA received the vast majority of their military and political support from these countries. Many African countries became highly dependent on foreign aid. The sudden loss of both Soviet and American aid at the end of the Cold War and fall of the USSR resulted in severe economic and political turmoil in the countries most dependent on foreign support.

There was a major famine in Ethiopia between 1983 and 1985, killing up to 1.2 million people, which most historians attribute primarily to the forced relocation of farmworkers and seizure of grain by the communist Derg government, further exacerbated by the civil war.^{[146][147][148][149]} In 1994 a genocide in Rwanda resulted in up to 800,000 deaths, added to a severe refugee crisis and fueled the rise of militia groups in neighbouring countries. This contributed to the outbreak of the first and second Congo Wars, which were the most devastating military conflicts in modern Africa, with up to 5.5 million deaths,^[150] making it by far the deadliest conflict in modern African history and one of the costliest wars in human history.^[151]

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  An animated map shows the order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011.
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  Africa's wars and conflicts, 1980–96
  

    Major wars/conflicts (>100,000 casualties)

    Minor wars/conflicts

    Other conflicts
• 
  Political map of Africa in 2021

Various conflicts between various insurgent groups and governments continue. Since 2003, there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur (Sudan), which peaked in intensity from 2003 to 2005 with notable spikes in violence in 2007 and 2013–15, killing around 300,000 people total. The Boko Haram Insurgency primarily within Nigeria (with considerable fighting in Niger, Chad, and Cameroon as well) has killed around 350,000 people since 2009. Most African conflicts have been reduced to low-intensity conflicts as of 2022. However, the Tigray War from 2020 to 2022 killed an estimated 300,000–500,000 people, primarily due to famine.

Overall though, violence across Africa has greatly declined in the 21st century, with the end of civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Algeria in 2002, Liberia in 2003, and Sudan and Burundi in 2005. The Second Congo War, which involved 9 countries and several insurgent groups, ended in 2003. This decline in violence coincided with many countries abandoning communist-style command economies and opening up for market reforms, which over the course of the 1990s and 2000s promoted the establishment of permanent, peaceful trade between neighbouring countries (see Capitalist peace).

Improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations, mainly from China,^[152] which further spurred economic growth. Between 2000 and 2014, annual GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa averaged 5.02%, doubling its total GDP from $811 billion to $1.63 trillion (constant 2015 USD).^[153] North Africa experienced comparable growth rates.^[154] A significant part of this growth can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.^[155] While several individual countries have maintained high growth rates, since 2014 overall growth has considerably slowed, primarily as a result of falling commodity prices, continued lack of industrialisation, and epidemics of Ebola and COVID-19.^[156][157]

Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 163 km (101 mi) wide.^[158] Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa as well.^[159]

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 km² (4,000,000 sq mi) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (20,000 mi).^[160] 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).^[161] 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.^[160]

Africa's largest country is Algeria, and its smallest country is Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.^[162] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.

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.^[165] The record for the highest-ever recorded temperature, in Libya in 1922 (58 °C (136 °F)), was discredited in 2013.^[166][167]

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.^[165]

Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).^[173] 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.^[165] Some sources claim that approximately 90% of the original, virgin forests in West Africa have been destroyed.^[174] Over 90% of Madagascar's original forests have been destroyed since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago.^[175] About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from soil degradation.^[176]

Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of freedom" of wild animal populations and diversity, with wild populations of large carnivores (such as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as buffalo, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of "jungle" animals including snakes and primates and aquatic life such as crocodiles and amphibians. In addition, Africa has the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna.

The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as its headquarters, on 26 June 2001. The union was officially established on 9 July 2002^[179] as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In July 2004, the African Union's Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was relocated to Midrand, in South Africa, but the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights remained in Addis Ababa.

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, regional, state, and municipal authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage the day-to-day affairs of the institution.

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 Ivory Coast.

The countries in this table are categorised 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	Name of region[j] and territory, with flag	Area (km2)	Population[184]	Year	Density (per km2)	Capital	Name(s) in official language(s)	ISO 3166-1
North Africa
		Algeria	2,381,740	46,731,000	2022	17.7	Algiers	الجزائر (al-Jazāʾir)/Algérie	DZA
		Egypt[k]	1,001,450	82,868,000	2012	83	Cairo	مِصر (Miṣr)	EGY
		Libya	1,759,540	6,310,434	2009	4	Tripoli	ليبيا (Lībiyā)	LBY
		Morocco	446,550	35,740,000	2017	78	Rabat	المغرب (al-maḡrib)/ⵍⵎⵖⵔⵉⴱ (lmeɣrib)/Maroc	MAR
		Sudan	1,861,484	30,894,000	2008	17	Khartoum	Sudan/السودان (as-Sūdān)	SDN
		Tunisia	163,610	10,486,339	2009	64	Tunis	تونس (Tūnis)/Tunest/Tunisie	TUN
		Western Sahara[l]	266,000	405,210	2009	2	El Aaiún	الصحراء الغربية (aṣ-Ṣaḥrā' al-Gharbiyyah)/Taneẓroft Tutrimt/Sáhara Occidental	ESH
East Africa
		Burundi	27,830	8,988,091	2009	323	Gitega	Uburundi/Burundi/Burundi	BDI
		Comoros	2,170	752,438	2009	347	Moroni	Komori/Comores/جزر القمر (Juzur al-Qumur)	COM
		Djibouti	23,000	828,324	2015	22	Djibouti	Yibuuti/جيبوتي (Jībūtī)/Djibouti/Jabuuti	DJI
		Eritrea	121,320	5,647,168	2009	47	Asmara	Eritrea	ERI
		Ethiopia	1,127,127	84,320,987	2012	75	Addis Ababa	ኢትዮጵያ (Ītyōṗṗyā)/Itiyoophiyaa/ኢትዮጵያ/Itoophiyaa/Itoobiya/ኢትዮጵያ	ETH
		French Southern Territories (France)	439,781	100	2019	—	Saint Pierre	Terres australes et antarctiques françaises	FRA-TF
		Kenya	582,650	39,002,772	2009	66	Nairobi	Kenya	KEN
		Madagascar	587,040	20,653,556	2009	35	Antananarivo	Madagasikara/Madagascar	MDG
		Malawi	118,480	14,268,711	2009	120	Lilongwe	Malaŵi/Malaŵi	MWI
		Mauritius	2,040	1,284,264	2009	630	Port Louis	Mauritius/Maurice/Moris	MUS
		Mayotte (France)	374	223,765	2009	490	Mamoudzou	Mayotte/Maore/Maiôty	MYT
		Mozambique	801,590	21,669,278	2009	27	Maputo	Moçambique/Mozambiki/Msumbiji/Muzambhiki	MOZ
		Réunion (France)	2,512	743,981	2002	296	Saint Denis	La Réunion	FRA-RE
		Rwanda	26,338	10,473,282	2009	398	Kigali	Rwanda	RWA
		Seychelles	455	87,476	2009	192	Victoria	Seychelles/Sesel	SYC
		Somalia	637,657	9,832,017	2009	15	Mogadishu	𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖 (Soomaaliya) /الصومال (aṣ-Ṣūmāl)	SOM
		Somaliland	176,120	5,708,180	2021	25	Hargeisa	Soomaaliland/صوماليلاند (Ṣūmālīlānd)
		South Sudan	619,745	8,260,490	2008	13	Juba	South Sudan	SSD
		Tanzania	945,087	44,929,002	2009	43	Dodoma	Tanzania/Tanzania	TZA
		Uganda	236,040	32,369,558	2009	137	Kampala	Uganda/Yuganda	UGA
		Zambia	752,614	11,862,740	2009	16	Lusaka	Zambia	ZMB
		Zimbabwe	390,580	11,392,629	2009	29	Harare	Zimbabwe	ZWE
Central Africa
		Angola	1,246,700	12,799,293	2009	10	Luanda	Angola	AGO
		Cameroon	475,440	18,879,301	2009	40	Yaoundé	Cameroun/Kamerun	CMR
		Central African Republic	622,984	4,511,488	2009	7	Bangui	Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka/République centrafricaine	CAF
		Chad	1,284,000	10,329,208	2009	8	N'Djamena	تشاد (Tšād)/Tchad	TCD
		Republic of the Congo	342,000	4,012,809	2009	12	Brazzaville	Congo/Kôngo/Kongó	COG
		Democratic Republic of the Congo	2,345,410	69,575,000	2012	30	Kinshasa	République démocratique du Congo	COD
		Equatorial Guinea	28,051	633,441	2009	23	Ciudad de la Paz	Guinea Ecuatorial/Guinée Équatoriale/Guiné Equatorial	GNQ
		Gabon	267,667	1,514,993	2009	6	Libreville	Gabon	GAB
		São Tomé and Príncipe	1,001	212,679	2009	212	São Tomé	São Tomé e Príncipe	STP
Southern Africa
		Botswana	600,370	1,990,876	2009	3	Gaborone	Botswana/Botswana	BWA
		Eswatini	17,363	1,123,913	2009	65	Mbabane	eSwatini/Eswatini	SWZ
		Lesotho	30,355	2,130,819	2009	70	Maseru	Lesotho/Lesotho	LSO
		Namibia	825,418	2,108,665	2009	3	Windhoek	Namibia	NAM
		South Africa	1,219,912	51,770,560	2011	42	Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria[m]	yaseNingizimu Afrika/yoMzantsi-Afrika/Suid-Afrika/Afrika-Borwa/Aforika Borwa/Afrika Borwa/Afrika Dzonga/yeNingizimu Afrika/Afurika Tshipembe/yeSewula Afrika	ZAF
West Africa
		Benin	112,620	8,791,832	2009	78	Porto-Novo	Bénin	BEN
		Burkina Faso	274,200	15,746,232	2009	57	Ouagadougou	Burkina Faso	BFA
		Cape Verde	4,033	429,474	2009	107	Praia	Cabo Verde/Kabu Verdi	CPV
		The Gambia	11,300	1,782,893	2009	158	Banjul	The Gambia	GMB
		Ghana	239,460	23,832,495	2009	100	Accra	Ghana	GHA
		Guinea	245,857	10,057,975	2009	41	Conakry	Guinée	GIN
		Guinea-Bissau	36,120	1,533,964	2009	43	Bissau	Guiné-Bissau	GNB
		Ivory Coast	322,460	20,617,068	2009	64	Abidjan,[n] Yamoussoukro	Côte d'Ivoire	CIV
		Liberia	111,370	3,441,790	2009	31	Monrovia	Liberia	LBR
		Mali	1,240,000	12,666,987	2009	10	Bamako	Mali/Maali/مالي (Mālī)/𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Maali)/ߡߊߟߌ (Mali)	MLI
		Mauritania	1,030,700	3,129,486	2009	3	Nouakchott	موريتانيا (Mūrītānyā)	MRT
		Niger	1,267,000	15,306,252	2009	12	Niamey	Niger	NER
		Nigeria	923,768	166,629,000	2012	180	Abuja	Nigeria	NGA
		Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)	420	7,728	2012	13	Jamestown	Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	SHN
		Senegal	196,190	13,711,597	2009	70	Dakar	Sénégal	SEN
		Sierra Leone	71,740	6,440,053	2009	90	Freetown	Sierra Leone	SLE
		Togo	56,785	6,019,877	2009	106	Lomé	Togo	TGO
Africa Total			30,368,609	1,001,320,281	2009	33

This list contains nine territories that are administered as incorporated areas of a primarily non-African country but that belong geographically to the African continent.

Flag	Map	English short, formal names, and ISO	Ruling power	Status	Domestic short name(s) and formal name(s)	Capital	Population	Area	Currency
		Canary Islands Autonomous Region of the Canary Islands ES-CN	Spain	Autonomous community of Spain	Spanish: Islas Canarias	Santa Cruz and Las Palmas[185] Spanish: Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria	2,207,225	7,447 km2 (2,875 sq mi)	euro
		Ceuta Autonomous City of Ceuta ES-CE		Autonomous city of Spain	Spanish: Ceuta - Ciudad autónoma de Ceuta	Ceuta Spanish: Ceuta	84,843	28 km2 (11 sq mi)	euro
		Madeira Autonomous Region of Madeira PT-30	Portugal	Autonomous Region of Portugal	Portuguese: Madeira - Região Autónoma da Madeira	Funchal Portuguese: Funchal	267,785	828 km2 (320 sq mi)	euro
		Mayotte Mayotte Region YT	France	Overseas region and constituent part of the French Republic	French: Mayotte - Région Mayotte	Mamoudzou French: Mamoudzou	266,380	374 km2 (144 sq mi)	euro
		Melilla Autonomous City of Melilla ES-ML	Spain	Autonomous city of Spain	Spanish: Melilla - Ciudad autónoma de Melilla	Melilla Spanish: Melilla	84,714	20 km2 (8 sq mi)	euro
		Pelagie Islands	Italy	Archipelago of Italy	Italian: Isole Pelagie Sicilian: Ìsuli Pilaggî	Lampedusa e Linosa[o] Italian: Lampedusa e Linosa Sicilian: Lampidusa e Linusa[186]	6,304	21.4 km2 (8 sq mi)	euro
		Plazas de soberanía	Spain	Overseas territory of Spain	Spanish: Plazas de soberanía	N/A	74	0.59 km2 (0.23 sq mi)	euro
		Réunion Réunion Region RE	France	Overseas region and constituent part of the French Republic	French: Réunion - Région Réunion	Saint-Denis French: Saint-Denis	889,918	2,512 km2 (970 sq mi)	euro
		Socotra Archipelago	Yemen	Governorate of Yemen	Arabic: أرخبيل سقطرى (ʾArḫabīl Suquṭrā)	Hadibu Arabic: اديبو (Ḥādībū)	60,550	3,974.64 km2 (1,535 sq mi)	Yemeni rial

Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and least-developed continent (other than Antarctica), 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, low self-esteem, lack of access to foreign capital, legacies of colonialism, the slave trade, the Cold War, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrilla warfare to genocide).^[187] The continent's total nominal GDP remains behind that of several individual countries, including 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.^[188]

Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, inadequate water supply and sanitation, and poor health affect a large proportion of the people who reside on the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank^[189] announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). Eighty-one percent of the sub-Saharan African population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) per day in 2005, compared with 86% for India.^[190]

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,^[191] indicating increasing poverty in some areas. Some of it is attributed to unsuccessful economic liberalisation programmes spearheaded by foreign companies and governments, but other studies have cited bad domestic government policies more than external factors.^[192][193]

Africa is now^[when?] 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 debt. 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.^[194]

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^[when?] begun extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded their oil extraction capacity.

In a recently^[when?] published analysis based on World Values Survey data, the Austrian political scientist Arno Tausch maintained that several African countries, most notably Ghana, perform quite well on scales of mass support for democracy and the market economy.^[195]

The following table shows the projected nominal GDP and GDP per capita (at purchasing power parity) in 2025 by the IMF.^[196]

Rank	Country	GDP (nominal, in 2025) millions of USD	GDP per capita (PPP, in 2025) in international dollars
—	Africa	3,057,762	7,858
1	South Africa	426,383	16,050
2	Egypt	349,264	21,759
3	Algeria	288,013	18,509
4	Nigeria	285,003	9,488
5	Morocco	179,612	11,437
6	Kenya	136,014	7,556
7	Angola	115,167	10,217
8	Ghana	111,963	8,410
9	Ethiopia	109,492	4,420
10	Côte d'Ivoire	99,207	8,113
11	Tanzania	87,444	4,371
12	DR Congo	82,262	1,975
13	Uganda	64,993	3,904

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, 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.

The continent is believed to hold 90% of the world's cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite,^[197] 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium.^[198] The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world's coltan, a mineral used in the production of tantalum capacitors for electronic devices such as cell phones. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world's diamond reserves.^[199] Guinea is the world's largest exporter of bauxite.^[200] As the growth in Africa has been driven mainly by services and not manufacturing or agriculture, it has been growth without jobs and without reduction in poverty levels. In fact, the food security crisis of 2008, which took place on the heels of the global financial crisis, pushed 100 million people into food insecurity.^[201]

In recent years,^[when?] 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.^[152]

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."^[202]

The main source of electricity is hydropower, which contributes significantly to the current installed capacity for energy.^[203] The Kainji Dam is a typical hydropower resource generating electricity for all the large cities in Nigeria as well as their neighbouring country, Niger.^[204] Hence, the continuous investment in the last decade, which has increased the amount of power generated.^[203]

Water development and management are complex in Africa due to the multiplicity of trans-boundary water resources (rivers, lakes and aquifers).^[203] Around 75% of sub-Saharan Africa falls within 53 international river basin catchments that traverse multiple borders.^[205][203] This particular constraint can also be converted into an opportunity if the potential for trans-boundary cooperation is harnessed in the development of the area's water resources.^[203] A multi-sectoral analysis of the Zambezi River, for example, shows that riparian cooperation could lead to a 23% increase in firm energy production without any additional investments.^[205][203] A number of institutional and legal frameworks for transboundary cooperation exist, such as the Zambezi River Authority, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol, Volta River Authority and the Nile Basin Commission.^[203] However, additional efforts are required to further develop political will, as well as the financial capacities and institutional frameworks needed for win-win multilateral cooperative actions and optimal solutions for all riparians.^[203]

Africa is considered by anthropologists to be the most genetically diverse continent as a result of being the longest inhabited.^{[206][207][208]} Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and is consequently relatively young. In some African states, more than half the population is under 25 years of age.^[209] The total number of people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in 1990.^[210] As of 2021, the population of Africa is estimated at 1.4 billion.^[1][2] 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.^[211] 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; while in 1990 sub-Saharan Africa accounted for only 16% of the world's births.^[212]

The total fertility rate (children per woman) for Sub-Saharan Africa is 4.7 as of 2018, the highest in the world.^[213] All countries in sub-Saharan Africa had TFRs (average number of children) above replacement level in 2019 and accounted for 27.1% of global livebirths.^[214] In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 29% of global births.^[215]

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.^[216] 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.^{[citation needed]} Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.^[217]

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.^[218] 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.^[219]

In the Horn of Africa, some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as Habesha) speak languages from the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, while the Oromo and Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic.

Prior to the decolonisation movements of the post-World War II era, Europeans were represented in every part of Africa.^[220] 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),^[221] Kenya, Congo,^[222] Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola.^[223] Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone.^[224] Nevertheless, white Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia, Réunion, and South Africa.^[225] The country with the largest white African population is South Africa.^[226] Dutch and British diasporas represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today.^[227]

European colonisation 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^[152] have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.^[228]

Source: Maddison and others (University of Groningen)^[229]

Year[229]	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870	1913	1950	1973	1998	2018	2100 (projected)
Africa	16 500	33 000	46 000	55 000	61 000	74 208	90 466	124 697	228 342	387 645	759 954	1 321 000[230]	3 924 421[231]
World	230 820	268 273	437 818	555 828	603 410	1 041 092	1 270 014	1 791 020	2 524 531	3 913 482	5 907 680	7 500 000[232]	10 349 323[231]

Source: Maddison and others (University of Groningen)^[229]

Year[229]	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870	1913	1950	1973	1998	2020	2100 (projected)
Africa	7.1	12.3	10.5	9.9	10.1	7.1	7.1	7.0	9.0	9.9	12.9	18.2[230]	39.4[233]

While Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs, the majority of the people respect African religions or parts of them. However, in formal surveys or census, most people will identify with major religions that came from outside the continent, mainly through colonisation. There are several reasons for this, the main one being the colonial idea that African religious beliefs and practices are not good enough. 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.^[234][235] According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam and Christianity are the two largest religions in Africa. Islam is most prevalent in Northern Africa, and is the state religion of many North African countries, such as Algeria, where 99% of the population practices Islam.^[236] The majority of people in most governments in Southern, Southeast, and Central Africa, as well as in a sizable portion of the Horn of Africa and West Africa, identify as Christians. The Coptic Christians constitute a sizable minority in Egypt, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the largest church in Ethiopia, with 36 million and 51 million adherents.^[237] According to Encyclopædia Britannica, 45% of the population are Christians, 40% are Muslims, and 10% follow traditional religions.^{[citation needed]} A small number of Africans are Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianist, Baháʼí, or Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are irreligious.

By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.^[238] 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.^{[further explanation needed]} There are four major groups 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 languages consist of a group of several possibly related families,^[239] spoken by 30 million people between 100 languages. 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 form a group of three unrelated^[240] families and two isolates and number about fifty in total. They are mainly spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people.^[241] 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. In total, at least a fifth of Africans speak the former colonial languages.^{[242][243][244][p]} Moreover, in recent years some African countries have been considering removing their official former colonial languages, such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger which removed French as an official language in the 2020s in favour of native languages,^[245] while also renaming colonial street names.^[246][247]

More than 85% of individuals in Africa use traditional medicine as an alternative to often expensive allopathic medical health care and costly pharmaceutical products. The Organization of African Unity (OAU) Heads of State and Government declared the 2000s decade as the African Decade on African traditional medicine in an effort to promote The WHO African Region's adopted resolution for institutionalising traditional medicine in health care systems across the continent.^[248] Public policy makers in the region are challenged with consideration of the importance of traditional/indigenous health systems and whether their coexistence with the modern medical and health sub-sector would improve the equitability and accessibility of health care distribution, the health status of populations, and the social-economic development of nations within sub-Saharan Africa.^[249]

AIDS in post-colonial Africa is a prevalent issue. Although the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population,^[250] more than two-thirds of the total infected worldwide—some 35 million people—were Africans, of whom 15 million have already died.^[251] Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for an estimated 69 percent of all people living with HIV^[252] and 70 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011.^[253] In the countries of sub-Saharan Africa most affected, AIDS has raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49 by about twenty years.^[251] Furthermore, the life expectancy in many parts of Africa has declined, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as low as thirty-four years.^[254]

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.^[255] Leopold II of Belgium attempted to "civilize" Africans by discouraging polygamy and witchcraft.^[255]

Obidoh Freeborn posits that colonialism is one element that has created the character of modern African art.^[256] 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."^[257] 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."^[257] 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."^[258] 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."^[259] On the other hand, Mhoze Chikowero believes that Africans deployed music, dance, spirituality, and other performative cultures to (re)assert themselves as active agents and indigenous intellectuals, to unmake their colonial marginalisation and reshape their own destinies.^[260]

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 decriminalisation of Vodou and other forms of spirituality.

As of March 2023, 98 African properties are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Among these proprieties, 54 are cultural sites, 39 are natural sites and 5 are mixed sites. The List of World Heritage in Danger includes 15 African sites.^[261]

Fifty-four African countries have football teams in the Confederation of African Football. Egypt has won the African Cup seven times, and a record-making three times in a row. Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, and Algeria have advanced to the knockout stage of recent FIFA World Cups. Morocco, at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA Men's World Cup. South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to do so. The top clubs in each African football league play the CAF Champions League, while lower-ranked clubs compete in CAF Confederation Cup.

In recent years, the continent has progressed in terms of state-of-the-art basketball facilities, which have been built in cities such as Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg, Kigali, Luanda and Rades.^[293] The number of African basketball players who drafted into the U.S. NBA has experienced growth in the 2010s.^[294]

Cricket is popular in some African nations. South Africa and Zimbabwe have Test status, while Kenya is the leading non-test team and previously had One-Day International cricket (ODI) status (from 10 October 1997, until 30 January 2014). The three countries jointly hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Namibia is the other African country to have played in a World Cup. Morocco, in northern Africa, hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament.

Rugby is popular in several southern African nations. Namibia and Zimbabwe have appeared on multiple occasions at the Rugby World Cup, while South Africa is the most successful national team at the Rugby World Cup, having won the tournament on four occasions, in 1995, 2007, 2019, and 2023.^[295]

Traditional sports were strictly marginalised during the colonial era, and many are dying or have gone extinct under the pressure of modernisation, however lots remain popular despite not having formal governmental recognition or support.^{[296][297]: 193–194} Some examples are Senegalese wrestling, Dambe, Nguni stick-fighting, and Savika.

• Index of Africa-related articles
• Outline of Africa

• Brantlinger, Patrick (1985). "Victorians and Africans: The Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent" (PDF). Critical Inquiry. 12 (1): 166–203. doi:10.1086/448326. JSTOR 1343467. S2CID 161311164.
• Collins, Robert O.; Burns, James M. (2007). A History of Sub-Saharan Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68708-9.
• European Investment Bank (6 July 2022c). EIB Group Sustainability Report 2021. European Investment Bank. ISBN 978-92-861-5237-5.
• Malone, Jacqui (1996). Steppin' on the Blues: the Visible Rhythms of African American Dance. University of Illinois Press. OCLC 891842452.
• Robinson, Ronald; Gallagher, John; Denny, Alice (1978) [1961]. Africa and the Victorians: The official mind of imperialism (2 ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-31006-9. OL 17989466M.
• Shillington, Kevin (2005). History of Africa. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-59957-0.
• Southall, Roger; Melber, Henning (2009). A New Scramble For Africa?: Imperialism, Investment and Development. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
• Welsh-Asante, Kariamu (2009). African Dance. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-2427-8.

General information

• Africa web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries
• Africa at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Africa: Human Geography at the National Geographic Society
• African & Middle Eastern Reading Room from the United States Library of Congress
• Africa South of the Sahara from Stanford University
• Aluka digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa

History

• The Story of Africa from BBC World Service
• "Africa" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 320–358.