document_title: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

question_text: what is the central idea of the poem the rime of ancient mariner

text: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: The mariner's tale begins with his ship departing on its journey. Despite initial good fortune, the ship is driven south by a storm and eventually reaches Antarctic waters. An albatross appears and leads them out of the ice jam where they are stuck, but even as the albatross is praised by the ship's crew, the mariner shoots the bird:

text:
With my cross-bow,
I shot the albatross.

text: The crew is angry with the mariner, believing the albatross brought the south wind that led them out of the Antarctic. However, the sailors change their minds when the weather becomes warmer and the mist disappears:

text:
'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay,
That bring the fog and mist.

text: They soon find that they made a grave mistake in supporting this crime, as it arouses the wrath of spirits who then pursue the ship "from the land of mist and snow"; the south wind that had initially led them from the land of ice now sends the ship into uncharted waters near the equator, where it is becalmed.

text:
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot – Oh Christ!
That ever this should be.
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs,
Upon the slimy sea.

text: The sailors change their minds again and blame the mariner for the torment of their thirst. In anger, the crew forces the mariner to wear the dead albatross about his neck, perhaps to illustrate the burden he must suffer from killing it, or perhaps as a sign of regret:

text:
Ah! Well a-day! What evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the albatross
About my neck was hung.

text: Eventually, the ship encounters a ghostly hulk. On board are Death (a skeleton) and the "Night-mare Life-in-Death", a deathly-pale woman, who are playing dice for the souls of the crew. With a roll of the dice, Death wins the lives of the crew members and Life-in-Death the life of the mariner, a prize she considers more valuable. Her name is a clue to the mariner's fate: he will endure a fate worse than death as punishment for his killing of the albatross.

text: One by one, all of the crew members die, but the mariner lives on, seeing for seven days and nights the curse in the eyes of the crew's corpses, whose last expressions remain upon their faces. Eventually, this stage of the mariner's curse is lifted after he appreciates the sea creatures swimming in the water. Despite his cursing them as "slimy things" earlier in the poem, he suddenly sees their true beauty and blesses them ("a spring of love gush'd from my heart, and I bless'd them unaware"); suddenly, as he manages to pray, the albatross falls from his neck and his guilt is partially expiated. The bodies of the crew, possessed by good spirits, rise again and help steer the ship. In a trance, the mariner hears two spirits discussing his voyage and penance, and learns that the ship is being powered preternaturally:

text:
The air is cut away before,
And closes from behind.

text: Finally the mariner comes in sight of his homeland, but is initially uncertain as to whether or not he is hallucinating.

text:
Oh! Dream of joy! Is this indeed
The light-house top I see?
Is this the hill? Is this the kirk?
Is this mine own countree?

We drifted o'er the harbour-bar,
And I with sobs did pray—
O let me be awake, my God!
Or let me sleep alway.

text: The rotten remains of the ship sink in a whirlpool, leaving only the mariner behind. A hermit on the mainland had seen the approaching ship and had come to meet it with a pilot and his boy, in a boat. When they pull him from the water, they think he is dead, but when he opens his mouth, the pilot has a fit. The hermit prays, and the mariner picks up the oars to row. The pilot's boy goes crazy and laughs, thinking the mariner is the devil, and cries, "The Devil knows how to row". As penance for shooting the albatross, the mariner, driven by guilt, is forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and over, and teaching a lesson to those he meets:

text:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

text: After relaying the story, the mariner leaves, and the wedding guest returns home, and wakes the next morning "a sadder and a wiser man".

text: The poem received mixed reviews from critics, and Coleridge was once told by the publisher that most of the book's sales were to sailors who thought it was a naval songbook. Coleridge made several modifications to the poem over the years. In the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, published in 1800, he replaced many of the archaic words.

text: Inspiration for the poem[edit]

text:
"Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung."

text: The poem may have been inspired by James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772–1775) of the South Seas and the Pacific Ocean; Coleridge's tutor, William Wales, was the astronomer on Cook's flagship and had a strong relationship with Cook. On this second voyage Cook crossed three times into the Antarctic Circle to determine whether the fabled great southern continent existed.[1] Critics have also suggested that the poem may have been inspired by the voyage of Thomas James into the Arctic.[2]

text: According to William Wordsworth, the poem was inspired while Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Wordsworth's sister Dorothy were on a walking tour through the Quantock Hills in Somerset.[3] The discussion had turned to a book that Wordsworth was reading, A Voyage Round The World by Way of the Great South Sea (1726) by Captain George Shelvocke. In the book, a melancholy sailor, Simon Hatley, shoots a black albatross:

text: We all observed, that we had not the sight of one fish of any kind, since we were come to the Southward of the streights of le Mair, nor one sea-bird, except a disconsolate black Albatross, who accompanied us for several days ... till Hattley, (my second Captain) observing, in one of his melancholy fits, that this bird was always hovering near us, imagin'd, from his colour, that it might be some ill omen ... He, after some fruitless attempts, at length, shot the Albatross, not doubting we should have a fair wind after it.

text: As they discussed Shelvocke's book, Wordsworth proffers the following developmental critique to Coleridge, which importantly contains a reference to tutelary spirits: "Suppose you represent him as having killed one of these birds on entering the south sea, and the tutelary spirits of these regions take upon them to avenge the crime."[3] By the time the trio finished their walk, the poem had taken shape.

text: Bernard Martin argues in The Ancient Mariner and the Authentic Narrative that Coleridge was also influenced by the life of Anglican clergyman John Newton, who had a near-death experience aboard a slave ship.[citation needed]

text: The poem may also have been inspired by the legends of the Wandering Jew, who was forced to wander the earth until Judgement Day for a terrible crime, found in Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer, M.G. Lewis' The Monk (a novel Coleridge reviewed) and the Flying Dutchman.[4][5]

text: It is claimed that the harbour at Watchet in Somerset was the primary inspiration for the poem, although some time before, John Cruikshank, a local acquaintance of Coleridge’s, had related a dream about a skeleton ship manned by spectral sailors.[6] In September 2003, a commemorative statue, by Alan B Herriot of Penicuik, Scotland, was unveiled at Watchet harbour.[7]

text: Coleridge's comments[edit]

text: In Biographia Literaria, Coleridge wrote:

text: The thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one, incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural, and the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions, as would naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real. And real in this sense they have been to every human being who, from whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life...In this idea originated the plan of the 'Lyrical Ballads'; in which it was agreed, that my endeavours should be directed to persons and characters supernatural, or at least Romantic; yet so as to transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. ... With this view I wrote the 'Ancient Mariner'.[8]

text: In Table Talk, Coleridge wrote:

text: Mrs Barbauld once told me that she admired The Ancient Mariner very much, but that there were two faults in it -- it was improbable, and had no moral. As for the probability, I owned that that might admit some question; but as to the want of a moral, I told her that in my own judgement the poem had too much; and that the only, or chief fault, if I might say so, was the obtrusion of the moral sentiment so openly on the reader as a principle or cause of action in a work of such pure imagination. It ought to have had no more moral than the Arabian Nights' tale of the merchant's sitting down to eat dates by the side of a well, and throwing the shells aside, and lo! a genie starts up, and says he must kill the aforesaid merchant, because one of the date shells had, it seems, put out the eye of the genie's son.[9]

text: Wordsworth's comments[edit]

text: Wordsworth wrote to Joseph Cottle in 1799:

text: From what I can gather it seems that the Ancient Mariner has upon the whole been an injury to the volume, I mean that the old words and the strangeness of it have deterred readers from going on. If the volume should come to a second Edition I would put in its place some little things which would be more likely to suit the common taste.

text: However, when Lyrical Ballads was reprinted, Wordsworth included it despite Coleridge's objections, writing:

text: The Poem of my Friend has indeed great defects; first, that the principal person has no distinct character, either in his profession of Mariner, or as a human being who having been long under the control of supernatural impressions might be supposed himself to partake of something supernatural; secondly, that he does not act, but is continually acted upon; thirdly, that the events having no necessary connection do not produce each other; and lastly, that the imagery is somewhat too laboriously accumulated. Yet the Poem contains many delicate touches of passion, and indeed the passion is every where true to nature, a great number of the stanzas present beautiful images, and are expressed with unusual felicity of language; and the versification, though the metre is itself unfit for long poems, is harmonious and artfully varied, exhibiting the utmost powers of that metre, and every variety of which it is capable. It therefore appeared to me that these several merits (the first of which, namely that of the passion, is of the highest kind) gave to the Poem a value which is not often possessed by better Poems.

text: Early criticisms[edit]

text: Upon its release, the poem was criticized for being obscure and difficult to read. The use of archaic spelling of words was seen as not in keeping with Wordsworth's claims of using common language. Criticism was renewed again in 1815–16, when Coleridge added marginal notes to the poem that were also written in an archaic style. These notes or glosses, placed next to the text of the poem, ostensibly interpret the verses much like marginal notes found in the Bible. There were many opinions on why Coleridge inserted the gloss.[10] Charles Lamb, who had deeply admired the original for its attention to "Human Feeling", claimed that the gloss distanced the audience from the narrative, weakening the poem's effects. The entire poem was first published in the collection of Lyrical Ballads. Another version of the poem was published in the 1817 collection entitled Sibylline Leaves[11] (see 1817 in poetry).

text: Interpretations[edit]

text: On a surface level the poem explores a violation of nature and the resulting psychological effects on the mariner and on all those who hear him. According to Jerome McGann the poem is like a salvation story. The poem's structure is multi-layered text based on Coleridge's interest in Higher Criticism. "Like the Iliad or Paradise Lost or any great historical product, the Rime is a work of transhistorical rather than so-called universal significance. This verbal distinction is important because it calls attention to a real one. Like The Divine Comedy or any other poem, the Rime is not valued or used always or everywhere or by everyone in the same way or for the same reasons."[12]

text: George Whalley, in his 1946–47 essay, "The Mariner and the Albatross", suggests that the Ancient Mariner is an autobiographical portrait of Coleridge himself, comparing the mariner's loneliness with Coleridge's own feelings of loneliness expressed in his letters and journals.[13]

text: In popular culture[edit]

text: In addition to being referred to in several other notable works, due to the popularity of the poem the phrase "albatross around one's neck" has become an English language idiom referring to "a heavy burden of guilt that becomes an obstacle to success".[14]

text: The phrase "Water, water, every where, | Nor any drop to drink" has appeared widely in popular culture, but usually given in a more natural modern phrasing as "Water, water, everywhere | But not a drop to drink"; some such appearances have, in turn, played on the frequency with which these lines are misquoted.[15]

text: The poem is referenced in the script of the 1939 film The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.[16]

text: The Iron Maiden song "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" from their fifth studio album Powerslave, was inspired by and based on the poem.[17]

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Andrew C. F. David, ‘Cook, James (1728–1779)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008:'On 26 January 1774 he crossed into the Antarctic Circle for the third time (having done so a second time the previous month) and four days later, at 71°10' S, 106°54' W, achieved his farthest south.'
Jump up ^ Cooke, Alan (2000). "Thomas James". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved 5 March 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b Keach, William (ed.): "The Complete Poems / Samuel Taylor Coleridge", pages 498–99. Penguin, 1997.
Jump up ^ Fulmer, O. Bryan (October 1969). "The Ancient Mariner and the Wandering Jew". Studies in Philology. 66 (5): 797–815. JSTOR 4173656.  (pay site)
Jump up ^ John Clute and John Grant, eds. (1999). The encyclopedia of fantasy. Macmillan. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-312-19869-5. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link) Excerpt available at Google Books.
Jump up ^ "Samuel Taylor Coleridge". poetryfoundation.org. 11 December 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
Jump up ^ "Coleridge and Watchet – Watchet Museum". watchetmuseum.co.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
Jump up ^ Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. "Chapter XIV". Biographia Literaria. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
Jump up ^ TableTalks, p. 106 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 April 2014. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
Jump up ^ Duncan Wu, A Companion to Romanticism, Blackwell Publishing, 1998, p 137. ISBN 0-631-21877-7
Jump up ^ "GradeSaver: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Study Guide – About The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
Jump up ^ McGann, Jerome J. The Beauty of Inflections: Clarendon Press, 1985.
Jump up ^ Whalley, George (July 1947). "The Mariner and the Albatross". The University of Toronto Quarterly. 16: 381–398. doi:10.3138/utq.16.4.381.  Reprinted in Kathleen Coburn, eds. (1967). Coleridge: A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice-Hall. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)
Jump up ^ "albatross around one's neck". Houghton Mifflin. 1997.
Jump up ^ "Ten literary quotes we all get wrong". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
Jump up ^ [1]
Jump up ^ [2]


document_title: Currencies of the European Union

question_text: what is the name given to the common currency to the european union

root

text: Currencies of the European Union

text: Euro[edit]

text: The euro is the result of the European Union's project for economic and monetary union which came fully into being on 1 January 2002 and it is now the currency used by the majority of European Union's member states, with all but two bound to adopt it. It is the currency used by the institutions of the European Union and in the failed European Constitution it was to be included with the symbols of Europe as the formal currency of the European Union. The euro is also widely used by other states outside the EU.

tag: p

text: Except for the two states with opt outs, all current and future members of the EU are obliged to adopt the Euro as their currency, thus replacing their current ones.[2] The relationship between euro and non-euro states has been on debate both during the UK's membership (as a large opt-out state) and in light of withdrawal from the EU and how that impacts the balance of power between those in and out of the euro; namely avoiding a eurozone caucus out-voting non-euro states. The UK had called for the EU treaties to recognise the EU as a "multicurrency union", which sparked concerns about undermining euro adoption in remaining countries.[1] [3][4][5]

text: Current currencies[edit]

text: The following are official and unofficial currencies used within the borders of the European Union;

text:
Currency
Region
Symbol
ISO
Peg
Notes

Bulgarian lev
 Bulgaria
лв
BGN
Currency board

British pound sterling
Gibraltar pound
 United Kingdom
 Gibraltar
£
GBP
GIP
Floating
Pegged to pound sterling

Croatian kuna
 Croatia
kn
HRK
Floating

Czech koruna
 Czech Republic
Kč
CZK
Floating

Danish krone
 Denmark
kr
DKK
ERM II

Euro

 Eurozone[show]

 Austria
 Belgium
 Cyprus
 Estonia
 Finland
 France
 Germany
 Greece
 Ireland
 Italy
 Latvia
 Lithuania
 Luxembourg
 Malta
 Netherlands
 Portugal
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
 Spain

€
EUR
Floating
Also used by EU institutions

Hungarian forint
 Hungary
Ft
HUF
Floating

Polish złoty
 Poland
zł
PLN
Floating

Romanian leu
 Romania
Leu
RON
Floating

Swedish krona
 Sweden
kr
SEK
Floating

Swiss franc
 Campione d'Italia (Italy)[6]
 Büsingen am Hochrhein (Germany)[7]
Fr.
CHF
Floating
Swiss franc is issued by Switzerland.

Turkish lira
 Northern Cyprus (Cyprus)[8]
TL
TRY
Floating
Turkish lira is issued by Turkey

tag: table

text: Historic currencies[edit]

text:
Currency
State
Symbol
ISO
Completely Yielded
on
Rate to
euro
Notes

Austrian schilling
 Austria
S or öS
(ATS)
1999/2002
13.7603

Belgian franc
 Belgium
fr.
(BEF)
1999/2002
40.3399
Interchangeable with Luxembourgian franc (BLEU)

Cypriot pound
 Cyprus
£
(CYP)
2008
0.585274

Dutch guilder
 Netherlands
ƒ or fl.
(NLG)
1999/2002
2.20371

Estonian kroon
 Estonia
Kr
(EEK)
2011
15.6466

Finnish markka
 Finland
mk
(FIM)
1999/2002
5.94573

French franc
 France
₣, F or FF
(FRF)
1999/2002
6.55957
Linked to Monegasque franc,[9] both valid in France, Andorra and Monaco.

German mark
 Germany
DM
(DEM)
1999/2002
1.95583

Greek drachma
 Greece
Δρχ., Δρ. or ₯
(GRD)
2001/2002
340.75

Irish pound
 Ireland
£
(IEP)
1999/2002
0.787564

Italian lira
 Italy
₤, L. or LIT
(ITL)
1999/2002
1,936.27
Linked to Sammarinese & Vatican lira,[10] all valid in Italy, San Marino and the Vatican City.

Latvian lats
 Latvia
Ls
(LVL)
2014
0.702804

Lithuanian litas
 Lithuania
Lt
(LTL)
2015
3.4528

Luxembourgian franc
 Luxembourg
fr. or F
(LUF)
1999/2002
40.3399
Interchangeable with Belgian franc (BLEU).

Maltese lira
 Malta
₤ or Lm
(MTL)
2008
0.4293

Portuguese escudo
 Portugal

S

‖

{\displaystyle \mathrm {S} \!\!\!\Vert }

 or $
(PTE)
1999/2002
200.482

Slovak koruna
 Slovakia
Sk
(SKK)
2009
30.126

Slovenian tolar
 Slovenia
SIT
(SIT)
2007
239.64

Spanish peseta
 Spain
₧
(ESP)
1999/2002
166.386

European Currency Unit
Accounting only
₠, ECU or XEU
(XEU)
1999/2002
1
Accounting currency alongside national currencies until the euro introduction.


document_title: New Mexico whiptail

question_text: what type of reproduction do whiptail lizards use

text: New Mexico whiptail

text: Description[edit]

text: The New Mexico whiptail grows from 16.5 to 23 cm (6.5 to 9.1 in) in length, and is typically overall brown or black in color with seven pale yellow stripes from head to tail. Light colored spots often occur between the stripes. They have a white or pale blue underside, with a blue or blue-green colored throat. They are slender bodied, with a long tail.

text: Behavior[edit]

text: Like most other whiptail lizards, the New Mexico whiptail is diurnal and insectivorous. They are wary, energetic, and fast moving, darting for cover if approached. They are found in a wide variety of semi-arid habitats, including grassland, rocky areas, shrubland, or mountainside woodlands. Reproduction occurs through parthenogenesis, with up to four unfertilized eggs being laid in mid summer, and hatching approximately eight weeks later.

text: The New Mexico whiptail lizard is a crossbreed of a western whiptail, which lives in the desert, and the little striped whiptail, which favours grasslands. The lizard is a female-only species that reproduces by producing an egg through parthenogenesis. Despite reproducing asexually, and being an all-female species, the whiptail still engages in mating behavior with other females of its own species, giving rise to the common nickname "lesbian lizards". A common theory is that this behavior stimulates ovulation, as those that do not "mate" do not lay eggs.[3]


document_title: Africa

question_text: who created the borders of africa's countries

question_tokens: who created the borders of africa 's countries

text: Africa

text: Etymology

text: Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of Africa, which in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean (Ancient Libya).[10][11] This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe; see Terence for discussion. The name is usually connected with Hebrew or Phoenician ʿafar 'dust', but a 1981 hypothesis[12] has asserted that it stems from the Berber ifri (plural ifran) "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.[13] The same word[13] 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.[14]

text: Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province of Africa Proconsularis, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya.[15] 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 kingdom of Ifriqiya, located in modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name.

text: According to the Romans, Africa lay 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 AD), 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.

text: Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":

text:
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."[16]
Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposed[17] 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."[18]

tag: ul

text: History

text: Prehistory

text: Africa is considered by most paleoanthropologists to be the oldest inhabited territory on Earth, with the human species originating from the continent.[19][20] During the mid-20th century, anthropologists discovered many fossils and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago (BP=before present). Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have evolved into modern man, such as Australopithecus afarensis (radiometrically dated to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP,[21] Paranthropus boisei (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP)[22] and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered.[3]

text: After the evolution of Homo sapiens sapiens approximately 150,000 to 100,000 years BP in Africa, the continent was mainly populated by groups of hunter-gatherers.[23][24][25] 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,[26][27] the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco,[28] or the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.[29]

text: 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.[30]

text: The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions.[31] 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 Sub-Saharan Africa, with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia.[32] However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 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.[33] The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.

text: The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa.[34] In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia.

text: Around 4000 BC, the Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace.[35] This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification. This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and helped to cause migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa.[35]

text: By the first millennium BC, ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly spread across the Sahara into the northern parts of sub-Saharan Africa,[36] and by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions didn't begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date.[35]

text: Early civilizations

text: At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt.[37] One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC.[38][39] Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day Libya and Nubia, and, according to Martin Bernal, as far north as Crete.[40]

text: An independent centre of civilization with trading links to Phoenicia was established by Phoenicians from Tyre on the north-west African coast at Carthage.[41][42][43]

text: European exploration of Africa began with Ancient Greeks and Romans.[citation needed] In 332 BC, Alexander the Great was welcomed as a liberator in Persian-occupied Egypt. He founded Alexandria in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty after his death.[44]

text: Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. The first Roman emperor native to North Africa was Septimius Severus, born in Leptis Magna in present-day Libya—his mother was Italian Roman and his father was Punic.[45]

text: Christianity spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia;[46] by AD 340 at the latest, it had become the state religion of the Aksumite Empire. Syro-Greek missionaries, who arrived by way of the Red Sea, were responsible for this theological development.[47]

text: In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic Caliphate expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while, the local Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Umayyad capital Damascus fell in the 8th century, the Islamic centre of the Mediterranean shifted from Syria to Qayrawan in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists, and philosophers. During the above-mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration.[48]

text: Ninth to eighteenth centuries

text: Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities[50] characterized by many different sorts of political organization and rule. 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-speaking 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.

text: By the ninth 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.

text: In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri was established around the ninth century and was one of the first. It is also one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeria and was ruled by the Eze Nri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the ninth century.[51]

text: 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 at the Oyo Empire, where its obas or kings, called the Alaafins of Oyo, once controlled a large number of other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms; the Fon Kingdom of Dahomey was one of the non-Yoruba domains under Oyo control.

text: The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century.[52] 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 Arabized,[53] and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.[54]

text: 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.[55] 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.

text: Mansa Musa ruled the Mali Empire in the 14th century.[56]

text: Height of slave trade

text: Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.[57][58] Between the 7th and 20th centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World.[59][60][61] More than 1 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries.[62]

text: 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.[63]

text: 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.[64] 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.[65]

text: Colonialism and the "Scramble for Africa"

text: In the late 19th century, the European imperial powers engaged in a major territorial scramble and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial territories, and leaving only two fully independent states: Ethiopia (known to Europeans as "Abyssinia"), and Liberia. Egypt and Sudan were never formally incorporated into any European colonial empire; however, after the British occupation of 1882, Egypt was effectively under British administration until 1922.

text: Berlin Conference

text: The Berlin Conference held in 1884–85 was an important event in the political future of African ethnic groups. It was convened by King Leopold II of Belgium, and attended by the European powers that laid claim to African territories. The Berlin Conference sought to end the European powers' Scramble for Africa, by agreeing on political division and spheres of influence. They set up the political divisions of the continent, by spheres of interest, that exist in Africa today.

text: Independence struggles

text: Imperial rule by Europeans would continue 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.[66] Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957),[67] becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted independence. Most of the rest of the continent became independent over the next decade.

text: 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 recognized 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 through a system of racial segregation known as apartheid until 1994.

text: Post-colonial Africa

text: Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which have borders that were drawn during the era of European colonialism. Since colonialism, 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, and many have instead cycled through a series of coups, producing military dictatorships.

text: Great instability was mainly the result of marginalization of ethnic groups, and graft under these leaders. For political gain, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts, some of which had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the 1970s and early 1980s. During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Africa had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations. Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.

text: Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as the policies of the International Monetary Fund,[citation needed] also played a role in 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 others in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the United States, France or both. The 1970s saw an escalation of Cold War intrigues, as newly independent Angola and Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, and the West and South Africa sought to contain Soviet influence by supporting friendly regimes or insurgency movements. In Rhodesia, Soviet and Chinese-backed leftist guerrillas of the Zimbabwe Patriotic Front waged a brutal guerrilla war against the country's white government. There was a major famine in Ethiopia, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. Some claimed that Marxist economic policies made the situation worse.[68][69][70] The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the Second Congo War; this conflict and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.5 million people.[71] Since 2003 there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur which has become a humanitarian disaster. Another notable tragic event is the 1994 Rwandan Genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were murdered. AIDS in post-colonial Africa has also been a prevalent issue.

text: In the 21st century, however, the number of armed conflicts in Africa has steadily declined. For instance, the civil war in Angola came to an end in 2002 after nearly 30 years. This has coincided with many countries abandoning communist-style command economies and opening up for market reforms. The improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations, mainly from China,[72] which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly ending decades of stagnation and decline. Several African economies are among the world's fastest growing as of 2016. A significant part of this growth, which is sometimes referred to as Africa Rising, can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.[73]

text: Geology and geography

text: 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.[74] (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)[75]

text: 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);[76] 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 of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 mi).[77] 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).[77]

text: Africa's largest country is Algeria, and its smallest country is Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.[78] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.

text: African plate

text:
Africa

Type
Major

Approximate area
61,300,000 km2 (23,700,000 sq mi)[79]

Features
Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea

text: The African Plate is a major tectonic plate straddling the equator as well as the prime meridian. It includes much of the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges. Between 60 million years ago and 10 million years ago, the Somali Plate began rifting from the African Plate along the East African Rift.[80] Since the continent of Africa consists of crust from both the African and the Somali plates, some literature refers to the African Plate as the Nubian Plate to distinguish it from the continent as a whole.[81]

text: Geologically, Africa includes the Arabian Peninsula; the Zagros Mountains of Iran and the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey mark where the African Plate collided with Eurasia. The Afrotropic ecozone and the Saharo-Arabian desert to its north unite the region biogeographically, and the Afro-Asiatic language family unites the north linguistically.

text: Climate

text: 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.[82] The record for the highest-ever recorded temperature, in Libya in 1922 (58 °C (136 °F)), was discredited in 2013.[83][84]

text: Fauna

text: 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.

text: Ecology and biodiversity

text: 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.[82]

text: Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).[85] 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.[82] Some sources claim that approximately 90% of the original, virgin forests in West Africa have been destroyed.[86] Over 90% of Madagascar's original forests have been destroyed since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago.[87] About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from soil degradation.[88]

text: Politics

text: There are clear signs of increased networking among African organizations and states. For example, in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also Second Congo War). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 5 million.

text: The African Union

text: The African Union (AU) is a 55-member federation consisting of all of Africa's 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[89] 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. There is a policy in effect to decentralize the African Federation's institutions so that they are shared by all the states.

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

text: Political associations such as the African Union offer 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 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 Côte d'Ivoire.

text: Economy

text:
Rank
Country
GDP (PPP, Peak Year)
millions of USD
Peak Year

1
 Egypt
1,292,745
2018

2
 Nigeria
1,168,399
2018

3
 South Africa
794,706
2018

4
 Algeria
666,960
2018

5
 Morocco
314,742
2018

6
 Ethiopia
222,258
2018

7
 Angola
198,821
2018

8
 Sudan
198,356
2018

9
 Libya
187,842
2010

10
 Tanzania
176,465
2018

text:
Rank
Country
GDP (nominal, Peak Year)
millions of USD
Peak Year

1
 Nigeria
568,496
2014

2
 South Africa
416,879
2011

3
 Egypt
332,484
2016

4
 Algeria
213,810
2014

5
 Angola
126,730
2014

6
 Morocco
120,997
2018

7
 Kenya
88,271
2018

8
 Ethiopia
85,664
2018

9
 Libya
79,759
2012

10
 Sudan
75,410
2011

text: Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and most underdeveloped continent, 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, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrilla warfare to genocide).[90] According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 24 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African.[91]

text: Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank[92] announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 80.5% of the Sub-Saharan Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) per day in 2005, compared with 85.7% for India.[93]

text: 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,[94] indicating increasing poverty in some areas. Some of it is attributed to unsuccessful economic liberalization programmes spearheaded by foreign companies and governments, but other studies have cited bad domestic government policies more than external factors.[95][96][97]

text: 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 begun extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded their oil extraction capacity. 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,[98] 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium.[99] 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.[100] Guinea is the world's largest exporter of bauxite.[101] 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.[102]

text: In recent years, the People's Republic of 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.[72]

text: 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."[103]

text: During US President Barack Obama's visit to Africa in July 2013, he announced a US$7 billion plan to further develop infrastructure and work more intensively with African heads of state. He also announced a new programme named Trade Africa, designed to boost trade within the continent as well as between Africa and the US.[104]

text: Demographics

text: Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and consequently, it is relatively young. In some African states, more than half the population is under 25 years of age.[105] The total number of people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in 1990.[106] As of 2016, the population of Africa is estimated at 1.2 billion[1]. 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; Africa's rapid population growth is expected to overtake the only two nations currently larger than its population, at roughly the same time – India and China's 1.4 billion people each will swap ranking around the year 2022.[107]

text: 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.[108] 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. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.[109]

text: 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.

text: 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.[110] 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.[citation needed]

text: 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.

text: Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era, Europeans were represented in every part of Africa.[111] 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),[112] Kenya, Congo,[113] Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola.[114] Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone.[115] Nevertheless, white Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia, Réunion, and the Republic of South Africa.[116] The country with the largest white African population is South Africa.[117] Dutch and British diasporas represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today.[118]

text: European colonization 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 and Chinese[72] have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.[119]

text: Languages

text: By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.[120] 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. There are four major language families indigenous to Africa:

text:
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 language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. 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 the largest in the world.
The Khoisan languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people.[121] Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.

text: 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.

text: Culture

text: 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.[122] Leopold II of Belgium attempted to "civilize" Africans by discouraging polygamy and witchcraft.[122]

text: Obidoh Freeborn posits that colonialism is one element that has created the character of modern African art.[123] 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." [124] 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.[124] 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." [125] In Soweto, the West Rand Administrative Board established a Cultural Section to collect, read, and review scripts before performances could occur.[126][self-published source] 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." [127] On the other hand, Mhoze Chikowero believes that Africans deployed music, dance, spirituality, and other performative cultures to (re)asset themselves as active agents and indigenous intellectuals, to unmake their colonial marginalization and reshape their own destinies." [128]

text: 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 decriminalization of Vodou and other forms of spirituality.

text: Visual art and architecture

text: African art and architecture reflect the diversity of African cultures. The region's oldest known beads were made from Nassarius shells and worn as personal ornaments 72,000 years ago.[129] The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest structure for 4,000 years, until the completion of Lincoln Cathedral around the year 1300. The stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe are also noteworthy for their architecture, as are the monolithic churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia, such as the Church of Saint George.

text: Music and dance

text: 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 samba, blues, jazz, reggae, hip hop, and rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of Afrobeat and Highlife music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions, and they are distinct from the music and dance styles of North Africa and Southern Africa. Arab influences are visible in North African music and dance and, in Southern Africa, Western influences are apparent due to colonization.

text: Sports

text: Fifty-four African countries have football (soccer) 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, Senegal, Ghana, and Algeria have advanced to the knockout stage of recent FIFA World Cups. South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to do so.

text: 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 has also hosted the 2002 Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament. Rugby is a popular sport in South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

text: Religion

text: Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs, and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by since they are often a sensitive a topic for governments with mixed religious populations.[130][131] According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, 45% of the population are Christians, 40% are Muslims, and 10% follow traditional religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianist, Baha'i, or Jewish. There is also a minority of people in Africa who are irreligious.

text:
The Holy Trinity Cathedral, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Great Mosque of Kairouan, founded in 670, is the oldest mosque in North Africa;[132] it is located in Kairouan, Tunisia

Vodun altar in Abomey, Benin

National Church of Nigeria, Abuja

A map showing religious distribution in Africa

text: Territories and regions

text: The countries in this table are categorized 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.

text:
Regions of Africa:
  Northern Africa
  Western Africa
  Central Africa
  Eastern Africa
  Southern Africa
  Horn of Africa

Physical map of Africa

Political map of Africa

text:
Arms
Flag
Name of region[133] and
territory, with flag
Area
(km²)
Population[134]
Year
Density
(per km²)
Capital

Northern Africa

Algeria
2,381,740
34,178,188
2009
14
Algiers

Canary Islands (Spain)[135]
7,492
2,154,905
2017
226
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Ceuta (Spain)[136]
20
85,107
2017
3,575
—

Egypt[137]
1,001,450
82,868,000
2012
83
Cairo

Libya
1,759,540
6,310,434
2009
4
Tripoli

Madeira (Portugal)[138]
797
245,000
2001
307
Funchal

Melilla (Spain)[139]
12
85,116
2017
5,534
—

Morocco
446,550
34,859,364
2009
78
Rabat

Sudan
1,861,484
30,894,000
2008
17
Khartoum

Tunisia
163,610
10,486,339
2009
64
Tunis

Western Sahara[140]
266,000
405,210
2009
2
El Aaiún

Eastern Africa

Burundi
27,830
8,988,091
2009
323
Bujumbura

British Indian Ocean Territory – Chagos Archipelago
(United Kingdom)
56.13
3,000
2012
53.4
Diego Garcia

Comoros
2,170
752,438
2009
347
Moroni

Djibouti
23,000
828,324
2015
22
Djibouti

Eritrea
121,320
5,647,168
2009
47
Asmara

Ethiopia
1,127,127
84,320,987
2012
75
Addis Ababa

Kenya
582,650
39,002,772
2009
66
Nairobi

Madagascar
587,040
20,653,556
2009
35
Antananarivo

Malawi
118,480
14,268,711
2009
120
Lilongwe

Mauritius
2,040
1,284,264
2009
630
Port Louis

Mayotte (France)
374
223,765
2009
490
Mamoudzou

Mozambique
801,590
21,669,278
2009
27
Maputo

Réunion (France)
2,512
743,981
2002
296
Saint-Denis

Rwanda
26,338
10,473,282
2009
398
Kigali

Seychelles
455
87,476
2009
192
Victoria

Somalia
637,657
9,832,017
2009
15
Mogadishu

South Sudan
619,745
8,260,490
2008
13
Juba

Tanzania
945,087
44,929,002
2009
43
Dodoma

Uganda
236,040
32,369,558
2009
137
Kampala

Zambia
752,614
11,862,740
2009
16
Lusaka

Zimbabwe
390,580
11,392,629
2009
29
Harare

Central Africa

Angola
1,246,700
12,799,293
2009
10
Luanda

Cameroon
475,440
18,879,301
2009
40
Yaoundé

Central African Republic
622,984
4,511,488
2009
7
Bangui

Chad
1,284,000
10,329,208
2009
8
N'Djamena

Republic of the Congo
342,000
4,012,809
2009
12
Brazzaville

Democratic Republic of the Congo
2,345,410
69,575,000
2012
30
Kinshasa

Equatorial Guinea
28,051
633,441
2009
23
Malabo

Gabon
267,667
1,514,993
2009
6
Libreville

São Tomé and Príncipe
1,001
212,679
2009
212
São Tomé

Southern Africa

Botswana
600,370
1,990,876
2009
3
Gaborone

Lesotho
30,355
2,130,819
2009
70
Maseru

Namibia
825,418
2,108,665
2009
3
Windhoek

South Africa
1,219,912
51,770,560
2011
42
Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Pretoria[141]

Swaziland
17,363
1,123,913
2009
65
Mbabane

Western Africa

Benin
112,620
8,791,832
2009
78
Porto-Novo

Burkina Faso
274,200
15,746,232
2009
57
Ouagadougou

Cape Verde
4,033
429,474
2009
107
Praia

The Gambia
11,300
1,782,893
2009
158
Banjul

Ghana
239,460
23,832,495
2009
100
Accra

Guinea
245,857
10,057,975
2009
41
Conakry

Guinea-Bissau
36,120
1,533,964
2009
43
Bissau

Ivory Coast
322,460
20,617,068
2009
64
Abidjan,[142] Yamoussoukro

Liberia
111,370
3,441,790
2009
31
Monrovia

Mali
1,240,000
12,666,987
2009
10
Bamako

Mauritania
1,030,700
3,129,486
2009
3
Nouakchott

Niger
1,267,000
15,306,252
2009
12
Niamey

Nigeria
923,768
166,629,000
2012
180
Abuja

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)
420
7,728
2012
13
Jamestown

Senegal
196,190
13,711,597
2009
70
Dakar

Sierra Leone
71,740
6,440,053
2009
90
Freetown

Togo
56,785
6,019,877
2009
106
Lomé

Africa Total
30,368,609
1,001,320,281
2009
33