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For other uses, see Africa (disambiguation).
A satellite composite image of Africa

Africa is the world's 2nd largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,300,000 km² (11,700,000 sq mi) including its adjacent islands, it covers 5.9% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.3% of the total land area. With over 840,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for more than 12% of the world's human population.

Etymology

World map showing Africa (geographically).

The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — "land of the Afri" (plural, or "Afer" singular) — for the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, corresponding to modern-day Tunisia.

The Afri were a tribe — possibly Berber — who dwelt in North Africa in the Carthage area. The origin of Afer may be connected with Phoenician `afar, dust (also found in most other Semitic languages); some other etymologies that have been postulated for the ancient name 'Africa' that are much more debatable include:


  • the Latin word aprica, meaning "sunny";
  • the Greek word aphrike, meaning "without cold" (see also List of traditional Greek place names). The historian Leo Africanus (1495-1554) attributed the origin to the Greek word phrike (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the negating prefix a-, so meaning a land free of cold and horror. However, the change of sound from ph to f in Greek is datable to about the 10th century, so this is unlikely to be the origin.

Ancient Africa extended into what is now known as Asia. There was no line drawn between the two continents until the geographer Ptolemy (85 - 165 AD), accepted Alexandria as Prime Meridian and made 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.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Africa

Africa in the Blue marble picture, with Antarctica to the south, and the Sahara and Arabian peninsula at the top of the globe.

Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the main mass of the Earth's surface. It includes within its remarkably regular outline an area, of c. 30,360,288 km² (11,722,173 mi²), including the islands.

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), 130 km (80 miles) wide. (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.) From the most northerly point, Cape Blanc (Ra’s al Abyad) in Tunisia (37°21′ N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51′15″ S), is a distance approximately of 8,000 km (5,000 miles); from Cape Verde, 17°33′22″ W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27′52″ E, the most easterly projection, is a distance (also approximately) of 7,400 km (4,600 miles). The length of coast-line is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is shown by the fact that Europe, which covers only 9,700,000 km² (3,760,000 square miles), has a coast-line of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).

The main structural lines of the continent show both the east-to-west direction characteristic, at least in the eastern hemisphere, of the more northern parts of the world, and the north-to-south direction seen in the southern peninsulas. Africa is thus composed of two segments at right angles, the northern running from east to west, the southern from north to south, the subordinate lines corresponding in the main to these two directions. In other words, your mom.

History

Main article: History of Africa

Map of Africa 1890

Africa is home to the oldest inhabited territory on earth, with the human race originating from this continent. During the mid 20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago. Fossil remains of several species of early ape-like humans thought to have evolved into modern day man, such as Australopithecus afarensis (radiometrically dated to 3.9-3.0 million years BC), Paranthropus boisei (2.3-1.4 million BC) and Homo ergaster (c. 600,000-1.9 million BC) has been discovered.

The Ishango Bone, dated to c. 25,000 years ago, shows tallies in mathematical notation. Throughout humanity's prehistory, Africa (like all other continents) had no nation states, and was instead inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers such as the Khoi and San (formerly known as bushmen).

Around 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Africa with the rise of literacy in Egypt, which continued with varying levels of influence over other areas until 343 BC. Other prominent civilizations include Ethiopia, the Nubian kingdom, Carthage, the kingdoms of the Sahel (Ghana, Mali, and Songhai) and Great Zimbabwe.

In 1482, the Portuguese established the first of many trading stations along the Guinea coast at Elmina. The chief commodities dealt in were slaves, gold, ivory and spices. The European discovery of America in 1492 was followed by a great development of the slave trade, which, before the Portuguese era, had been an overland trade almost exclusively, and never confined to any one continent.

But at the same time that slavery was ending in Europe, in the early 19th century the European imperial powers staged a massive "scramble for Africa" and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial nation states, and leaving only two independent nations: Liberia, the Black American colony, and Ethiopia. This occupation continued until after the conclusion of the Second World War, when all colonial states gradually obtained formal independence.

Today, Africa is home to over 50 independent countries, all but 2 of which still have the borders drawn up during the era of European colonialism.

Politics

Map showing European claimants to the African continent at the beginning of World War I

Precolonial Africa

Colonial Africa

Colonialism had a destabilizing effect on what had been a number of ethnic groups that is still being felt in African politics. Prior to European influence, national borders were not much of a concern, with Africans generally following the practice of other areas of the world, such as the Arabian peninsula, where a group's territory was congruent with its military or trade influence. The European insistence of drawing borders around territories to isolate them from those of other colonial powers often had the effect of separating otherwise contiguous political groups, or forcing traditional enemies to live side by side with no buffer between them. For example, the Congo River, although it appears to be a natural geographic boundary, had groups that otherwise shared a language, culture or other similarity who resided on both sides. The division of the land between Belgium and France along the river isolated these groups from each other. Those who lived in Saharan or Sub-Saharan Africa and traded across the continent for centuries often found themselves crossing "borders" that existed only on European maps.

In nations that had substantial European populations, for example Rhodesia and South Africa, systems of second-class citizenship were often set up in order to give Europeans political power far in excess of their numbers. However, the lines were not often drawn strictly across racial lines. In Liberia, the citizens who were descendants of American slaves managed to have a political system for over 100 years that gave ex-slaves and natives to the area roughly equal legislative power despite the fact the ex-slaves were outnumbered ten to one in the general population. The inspiration for this system was the United States Senate, which had balanced the power of free and slave states despite the much larger population of the former.

Europeans often changed the balance of power, created ethnic divides where they did not previously exist, and introduced a cultural dichotomy detrimental to the native inhabitants in the areas they controlled. For example, in what is now Rwanda and Burundi, two ethnic groups Hutus and Tutsis had merged into one culture by the time Belgian colonists had taken control of the region in the 19th century. No longer divided by ethnicity as intermingling, inter-marriage, and merging of cultural practices over the centuries had long since erased visible signs of a culture divide, the Belgians instituted a policy of racial categorization, upon taking control of the region, as racial based categorization and philosophies was a fixture of the European culture of that time. The term Hutu originally referred to the agricultural-based Bantu speaking tribes that moved into present day Rwandan and Burundi from the West, and the term Tutsi referred to North Eastern cattle-based tribes that migrated into the region later. The terms to the indigenous peoples eventually came to describe a person's economic class. Those individuals who owned roughly 10 or more cattle were considered Tutsi, and those with fewer were considered Hutu, regardless of ancestral history. This was not a strict line but a general rule of thumb, and one could move from Hutu to Tutsi and vice versa.

The Belgians introduced a racialised system. Those individuals who had characteristics the Europeans admired - fairer skin, ample height, narrow noses, etc. - were given power amongst the colonized peoples. The Belgians determined these features were more ideally Hamitic, Hamitic in turn being more ideally European and belonged to those people closest to Tutsi in ancestry. They instituted a policy of issuing identity cards based on this philosophy. Those closest to this ideal were proclaimed Tutsi and those not were proclaimed Hutu.

Post-colonial Africa

Since independence, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African nations are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. Few nations in Africa have been able to sustain democratic governments, instead cycling through a series of brutal coups and military dictatorships.

A number of Africa's post-colonial political leaders were poorly educated and ignorant on matters of governance; great instability, however, was mainly the result of marginalization of other ethnic groups and graft under these leaders.

As well, many used the positions of power to ignite ethnic conflicts that had been exacerbated, or even created, under colonial rule. In many countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain order and ruled most nations in Africa during the 70s and early 80s.

During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s Africa had over 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations.

Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union also played a role in the instability. When a country became independent for the first time, it was often expected to align with one of the two superpowers. Many countries in Northern Africa received Soviet military aid, while many in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the United States and/or France. The 1970s saw an escalation as newly independent Angola and Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet Union and the West and South Africa sought to contain Soviet influence.

Border and territorial disputes have also been common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.

Failed government policies and political corruption have also resulted in many widespread famines, and significant portions of Africa remain with distribution systems unable to disseminate enough food or water for the population to survive. The spread of disease is also rampant, especially the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the associated Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), which has become a deadly epidemic on the continent.

Despite numerous hardships, there have been some signs the continent has hope for the future. Democratic governments seem to be spreading, though are not yet the majority (National Geographic claims 13 African nations can be considered truly democratic). As well, many nations have at least nominally recognized basic human rights for all citizens, though in practice these are not always recognized, and have created reasonably independent judiciaries.

There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations and states. In the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, about half-a-dozen neighbouring African countries became involved (see also Second Congo War). The death toll has been estimated by some to be 3.5 million since the conflict began in 1998. This might play a role similar to that of World War II for Europe, after which the people in the neighbouring countries decide to integrate their societies in such a way that war between them becomes as unthinkable as a war between, say, France and Germany would be today.

Political associations such as the African Union are also offering hope for greater co-operation and peace between the continent's many countries.

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 times 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, and Côte d'Ivoire.

Modern Africa

Most western countries place limitations on aid to African nations, especially the United States. These limitations are often used to control the governments of these African nations; as a result, these nations are turning to non-traditional sources of financial aid. China has increasingly provided financial aid to Africa in order to secure contracts on natural resources, such as oil, gold, and diamonds. There usually is no political prescription. Countries the Chinese are investing in include: Central African Republic (plantations), Nigeria (oil & gas), Sierra Leone (tourism), Gabon (oil), Congo-Brazzaville (oil & wood-industry), Congo (copper & cobalt), Angola (railroad-system), Libya (oil), Sudan (oil), Uganda (coffee & fishing-industry), Kenya (communications-network), Rwanda (public works), Burundi (Nickel), Zimbabwe (infrastructure), South Africa (coal & gold).

Economy

Main article: Economy of Africa

Africa is the world's poorest inhabited continent: the United Nations' Human Development Report 2003 (of 175 countries) found that positions 151 (Gambia) to 175 (Sierra Leone) were taken up entirely by African nations.

It has had (and in some ways is still having) a shaky and uncertain transition from colonialism, with increases in corruption and despotism being major contributing factors to its poor economic situation. While rapid growth in China and now India, and moderate growth in Latin America, has lifted millions beyond subsistence living, Africa has gone backwards in terms of foreign trade, investment, and per capita income. This poverty has widespread effects, including lower life expectancy, violence, and instability - factors intertwined with the continent's poverty.

Major economic successes are Botswana and South Africa, which is developed to the extent that it has its own mature stock exchange. This is partly due to its wealth of natural resources, being the world's leading producer of both gold and diamonds, and partly due to its well-established legal system. South Africa also has access to financial capital, numerous markets and skilled labor. Other African countries are making comparable progress, such as Ghana, and some, like Egypt, have a longer history of commercial and economic success.

Nigeria sits on one of the largest proven oil reserves in the world and has the highest population among nations in Africa, with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. It is believed that with the country's rapidly expanding economy and increasing actions against corruption, Nigeria's status as Africa's economic powerhouse will soon be firmly established.

Demographics

Africans may be grouped according to whether they live north or south of the Sahara Desert; these groups are called North Africans and Sub-Saharan Africans, respectively. Afro-Asiatic speaking peoples predominate in North Africa, while Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by a number of populations grouped according to their language --Niger-Congo predominantly in West Africa, Nilo-Saharan in the Eastern highlands and Khoisan in the south.

Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger-Congo family) are the majority in southern, central and east Africa proper; but there are also several Nilotic groups in East Africa, 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 and southern Somalia. 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. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.

The peoples of North Africa comprise two main groups; Berber and Arabic-speaking peoples in the west, and Egyptians in the east. The Arabs who arrived in the 7th century introduced the Arabic language and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians, and the European Greeks and Romans settled in North Africa as well. Berbers still make up the majority in Morocco, while they are a significant minority within Algeria. They are also present in Tunisia and Libya. The Tuareg and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. Nubians are a Nilo-Saharan-speaking group (though many also speak Arabic), who developed an ancient civilization in Northeast Africa.

During the past century or so, small but economically important colonies of Lebanese and Chinese have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.

Some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively known as "Habesha") have Semitic (Sabaean) ancestry. The Somalis as a people originated in the Ethiopian Highlands, but most Somali clans can trace some Arab ancestry as well. Sudan and Mauritania are divided between a mostly Arabized north and a native African south (although the "Arabs" of Sudan clearly have a predominantly native African ancestry themselves). Some areas of East Africa, particularly the island of Zanzibar and the Kenyan island of Lamu, received Arab Muslim and Southwest Asian settlers and merchants throughout the Middle Ages and in antiquity.

Beginning in the 16th century, Europeans such as the Portuguese and Dutch began to establish trading posts and forts along the coasts of western and southern Africa. Eventually, a large number of Dutch, augmented by French Huguenots and Germans settled in what is today South Africa. Their descendants, the Afrikaners and the Coloureds, are the largest European-descended groups in Africa today. In the 19th century, a second phase of colonization brought a large number of French and British settlers to Africa. The Portuguese settled mainly in Angola, but also in Mozambique. The French settled in large numbers in Algeria where they became known collectively as pieds-noirs, and on a smaller scale in other areas of North and West Africa as well as in Madagascar. The British settled chiefly in South Africa as well as the colony of Rhodesia, and in the highlands of what is now Kenya. Germans settled in what is now Tanzania and Namibia, and there is still a population of German-speaking white Namibians. Smaller numbers of European soldiers, businessmen, and officials also established themselves in administrative centers such as Nairobi and Dakar. Decolonization during the 1960s often resulted in the mass emigration of European-descended settlers out of Africa — especially from Algeria, Angola, Kenya and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). However, in South Africa and Namibia, the white minority remained politically dominant after independence from Europe, and a significant population of white Africans remained in these two countries even after democracy was finally instituted at the end of the Cold War. South Africa has also become the preferred destination of white Anglo-Zimbabweans, and of migrants from all over southern Africa.

European colonization also brought sizeable groups of Asians, particularly people 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 east African countries. A fairly 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 a Malay 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 Coloureds (people with origins in two or more races and continents).

Languages

Map showing the distribution of African language families and some major African languages. Afro-Asiatic extends from the Sahel to Southwest Asia. Niger-Congo is divided to show the size of the Bantu sub-family.

Main article: African languages

By most estimates Africa contains well over a thousand languages. There are four major language families native to Africa.

  • The Afro-Asiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
  • The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are mainly spoken in Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania.
  • The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa and is probably the largest language family in the world in terms of different languages. A substantial number of them are the Bantu languages spoken in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
  • The Khoisan languages number about 50 and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 120 000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.

With a few notable exceptions in East Africa, nearly all African countries have adopted official languages that originated outside the continent and spread through colonialism or human migration. For example, in numerous countries English and French are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Malagasy are other examples of originally non-African languages that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres.

Culture

Africa has a number of overlapping cultures. The most conventional distinction is that between sub-Saharan Africa and the northern countries from Egypt to Morocco, who largely associate themselves with Arabic culture. In this comparison, the nations to the south of the Sahara are considered to consist of many cultural areas, in particular that of the Bantu linguistic group.

Divisions may also be made between Francophone Africa and the rest of Africa, in particular the former British colonies of southern and East Africa. Another cultural fault-line is that between those Africans living traditional lifestyles and those who are essentially modern. The traditionalists are sometimes subdivided into pastoralists and agriculturalists.

African art reflects the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing art from Africa are 6000-year old carvings found in Niger, while the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest architectural accomplishment for four thousand years until the creation of the Eiffel Tower. The Ethiopian complex of monolithic churches at Lalibela, of which the Church of St. George is representative, is regarded as another marvel of engineering.

The music of Africa is one of its most dynamic art forms. Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular west Africa, was transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern blues, jazz, reggae, rap, and rock and roll. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. A recent development of the 21st century is the emergence of African hip hop, in particular a form from Senegal is blended with traditional mbalax. Recently in South Africa, a form of music related to house music known under the name Kwaito has developed, although the country has been home to its own form of South African jazz for some time, while Afrikaans music is completely distinct and comprised mostly of traditional Boere musiek, and forms of Folk and Rock.

Religion

Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs, with Christianity and Islam being the most widespread. Approximately 40% of all Africans are Christians and another 40% Muslims. Roughly 20% of Africans primarily follow indigenous African religions. A small number of Africans also have beliefs from the Judaic tradition, such as the Beta Israel and Lemba tribes.

The indigenous African religions tend to revolve around animism and ancestor worship. A common thread in traditional belief systems was the division of the spiritual world into "helpful" and "harmful". Helpful spirits are usually deemed to include ancestor spirits that help their descendants, and powerful spirits that protected entire communities from natural disaster or attacks from enemies; whereas harmful spirits include the souls of murdered victims who were buried without the proper funeral rites, and spirits used by hostile spirit mediums to cause illness among their enemies. While the effect of these early forms of worship continues to have a profound influence, belief systems have evolved as they interact with other religions.

The formation of the Old Kingdom of Egypt in the third millennium BCE marked the first known complex religious system on the continent. Around the ninth century BCE, Carthage (in present-day Tunisia) was founded by the Phoenicians, and went on to become a major cosmopolitan center where deities from neighboring Egypt, Rome and the Etruscan city-states were worshipped.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church officially dates from the fourth century, and is thus one of the first established Christian churches anywhere. At first Christian Orthodoxy made gains in modern-day Sudan and other neighbouring regions; however following the spread of Islam, growth was slow and restricted to the highlands.

Islam entered Africa as Muslims conquered North Africa between 640 and 710, beginning with Egypt. They established Mogadishu, Melinde, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Sofala, following the sea trade down the coast of East Africa, and diffusing through the Sahara desert into the interior of Africa -- following in particular the paths of Muslim traders. Muslims were also among the Asian peoples who later settled in British-ruled Africa.

Many Africans were converted to West European forms of Christianity during the colonial period. In the last decades of the twentieth century, various sects of Charismatic Christianity rapidly grew. A number of Roman Catholic African bishops were even mentioned as possible papal candidates in 2005. African Christians appear to be more socially conservative than their co-religionists in much of the industrialized world, which has quite recently led to tensions within denominations such as the Anglican and Methodist Churches.

Territories

Regions of Africa. Blue: North Africa, green: West Africa, brown: Central Africa, orange: Horn of Africa, magenta: East Africa, red: Southern Africa.
Political Map of Africa.
Physical map of Africa.

Independent states

East Africa

East Africa proper

North East Africa (Horn of Africa)

Central Africa

North Africa

Southern Africa

West Africa

African Island Nations

Territories, possessions, départements

Disputed territories

Table of territories and regions

Name of territory,
with flag 		Area
(km²) 		Population
(1 July 2002 est.) 		Population density
(per km²) 		Capital
Eastern Africa[1]:
Burundi Burundi 27,830 6,373,002 229.0 Bujumbura
Comoros Comoros 2,170 614,382 283.1 Moroni
Djibouti Djibouti 23,000 472,810 20.6 Djibouti
Eritrea Eritrea 121,320 4,465,651 36.8 Asmara
Ethiopia Ethiopia 1,127,127 67,673,031 60.0 Addis Ababa
Kenya Kenya 582,650 31,138,735 53.4 Nairobi
Madagascar Madagascar 587,040 16,473,477 28.1 Antananarivo
Malawi Malawi 118,480 10,701,824 90.3 Lilongwe
Mauritius Mauritius 2,040 1,200,206 588.3 Port Louis
Mayotte Mayotte (France) 374 170,879 456.9 Mamoudzou
Mozambique Mozambique 801,590 19,607,519 24.5 Maputo
Réunion Réunion (France) 2,512 743,981 296.2 Saint-Denis
Rwanda Rwanda 26,338 7,398,074 280.9 Kigali
Seychelles Seychelles 455 80,098 176.0 Victoria
Somalia Somalia 637,657 7,753,310 12.2 Mogadishu
Tanzania Tanzania 945,087 37,187,939 39.3 Dodoma
Uganda Uganda 236,040 24,699,073 104.6 Kampala
Zambia Zambia 752,614 9,959,037 13.2 Lusaka
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe 390,580 11,376,676 29.1 Harare
Middle Africa:
Angola Angola 1,246,700 10,593,171 8.5 Luanda
Cameroon Cameroon 475,440 16,184,748 34.0 Yaoundé
Central African Republic Central African Republic 622,984 3,642,739 5.8 Bangui
Chad Chad 1,284,000 8,997,237 7.0 N'Djamena
Republic of the Congo Congo 342,000 2,958,448 8.7 Brazzaville
Democratic Republic of the Congo Democratic Republic of the Congo 2,345,410 55,225,478 23.5 Kinshasa
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea 28,051 498,144 17.8 Malabo
Gabon Gabon 267,667 1,233,353 4.6 Libreville
São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe 1,001 170,372 170.2 São Tomé
Northern Africa:
Algeria Algeria 2,381,740 32,277,942 13.6 Algiers
Egypt Egypt[2] 1,001,450 70,712,345 70.6 Cairo
Libya Libya 1,759,540 5,368,585 3.1 Tripoli
Morocco Morocco 446,550 31,167,783 69.8 Rabat
Sudan Sudan 2,505,810 37,090,298 14.8 Khartoum
Tunisia Tunisia 163,610 9,815,644 60.0 Tunis
Western Sahara Western Sahara (Morocco)[3] 266,000 256,177 1.0 El Aaiún
Southern Europe dependencies in Northern Africa:
Canary Islands (Spain)[4] 7,492 1,694,477 226.2 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Ceuta Ceuta (Spain)[5] 20 71,505 3,575.2 —
Madeira Islands (Portugal)[6] 797 245,000 307.4 Funchal
Melilla Melilla (Spain)[7] 12 66,411 5,534.2 —
Southern Africa:
Botswana Botswana 600,370 1,591,232 2.7 Gaborone
Lesotho Lesotho 30,355 2,207,954 72.7 Maseru
Namibia Namibia 825,418 1,820,916 2.2 Windhoek
South Africa South Africa 1,219,912 43,647,658 35.8 Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria[8]
Eswatini Swaziland 17,363 1,123,605 64.7 Mbabane
Western Africa:
Benin Benin 112,620 6,787,625 60.3 Porto-Novo
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso 274,200 12,603,185 46.0 Ouagadougou
Cape Verde Cape Verde 4,033 408,760 101.4 Praia
Ivory Coast Côte d'Ivoire 322,460 16,804,784 52.1 Abidjan, Yamoussoukro[9]
The Gambia Gambia 11,300 1,455,842 128.8 Banjul
Ghana Ghana 239,460 20,244,154 84.5 Accra
Guinea Guinea 245,857 7,775,065 31.6 Conakry
Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau 36,120 1,345,479 37.3 Bissau
Liberia Liberia 111,370 3,288,198 29.5 Monrovia
Mali Mali 1,240,000 11,340,480 9.1 Bamako
Mauritania Mauritania 1,030,700 2,828,858 2.7 Nouakchott
Niger Niger 1,267,000 10,639,744 8.4 Niamey
Nigeria Nigeria 923,768 129,934,911 140.7 Abuja
Saint Helena Saint Helena (UK) 410 7,317 17.8 Jamestown
Senegal Senegal 196,190 10,589,571 54.0 Dakar
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone 71,740 5,614,743 78.3 Freetown
Togo Togo 56,785 5,285,501 93.1 Lomé
Total 30,305,053 842,326,984 27.8

Notes:

  1. ^ Continental regions as per UN categorisations/map.
  2. ^ Egypt is generally considered a transcontinental country in Northern Africa (UN region) and Western Asia; population and area figures are for African portion only, west of the Suez Canal.
  3. ^ Western Sahara is claimed and mostly occupied by Morocco.
  4. ^ The Spanish Canary Islands, of which Las Palmas de Gran Canaria are Santa Cruz de Tenerife are co-capitals, are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their relative proximity to Morocco and Western Sahara; population and area figures are for 2001.
  5. ^ The Spanish exclave of Ceuta is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa; population and area figures are for 2001.
  6. ^ The Portuguese Madeira Islands are often considered part of Northern Africa due to their relative proximity to Morocco; population and area figures are for 2001.
  7. ^ The Spanish exclave of Melilla is surrounded on land by Morocco in Northern Africa; population and area figures are for 2001.
  8. ^ Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa, while Cape Town is its legislative seat, and Pretoria is the country's administrative seat.
  9. ^ Yamoussoukro is the official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while Abidjan is the de facto seat.

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