Africa



Africa is the world's, after. At about 30,221,532 (11,668,545 ) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the 's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area. With more than 900,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's. The continent is surrounded by the to the north, the  and the  to the northeast, the  to the southeast, and the  to the west. There are 46 countries including, and 53 including all the island groups.

Africa, particularly central, is widely regarded within the to be the origin of s and the  tree, as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest , as well as later ones that have been dated to around 7 million years ago – including ,  and  – with the earliest humans being dated to ca. 200,000 years ago, according to this view.

Africa straddles the and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern  to southern temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular and  as well as s or mountain  systems, there is no natural moderating effect on the climate except near the coasts.

Etymology
was the name of several peoples who dwelt in near the provincial capital,. The continent inherited its name from, modern-day. The Roman suffix "-ca" denotes "country or land".

Other etymologies that have been postulated for the ancient name 'Africa':


 * the 1st century Jewish historian (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for, grandson of  according to Gen. 25:4.
 * the word aprica, meaning "sunny";
 * the word aphrike, meaning "without cold." This was proposed by historian  (1488–1554), who suggested the Greek word phrike (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the  prefix, thus indicating a land free of cold and horror.

Geography


Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the main mass of the Earth's exposed surface. Separated from by the, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the  (transected by the ), 163 km (101 miles) wide. (, 's east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.) From the most northerly point,  in  (37°21' N), to the most southerly point,  in  (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 miles); from, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, to  in , 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 miles). The coastline is 26,000 km (16,100 miles) long, and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km² (4,010,000 square miles) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (19,800 miles).

Africa's largest country is, and its smallest country is the , an off the east coast. The smallest nation on the continental mainland is.

According to the ancient, Africa lay to the west of , while "Asia" was used to refer to and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer (85–165 AD), indicating  along the  and making the  and the  the boundary between  and Africa. As ans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge.

Climate, fauna, and flora
The climate of Africa ranges from to  on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily or, while its central and southern areas contain both  s and very dense   regions. In between, there is a convergence where vegetation patterns such as, and dominate.

Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of freedom" of populations and diversity, with wild populations of large s (such as s, s, and s) and s (such as, , s, s, and s) ranging freely on primarily open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of jungle creatures (including s and s) and (including s and s).

History


Africa is considered by most s to be the on earth, with the    from the continent. During the middle of the twentieth century, discovered many s and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago. Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have d into modern man, such as ' ( to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years ), ' (c. 2.3–1.4 million BC) and  (c. 600,000–1.9 million BC) have been discovered.

The, dated to about 25,000 years ago, shows in. Throughout humanity's, Africa (like all other continents) had no s, and was instead inhabited by groups of such as the  and.

At the end of the s, estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had become a green fertile valley again, and its African populations returned from the interior and coastal highlands in. However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 BC the Sahara region was becoming increasingly drier. The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and. Since then dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa, especially in in the last 200 years.

The domestication of cattle in Africa precedes agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gathering cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC cattle were already domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals including the pack ass, and a small screw horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia.

Agriculturally, the first cases of domestication of plants for agricultural purposes occurred in the region circa 5000 BC, when  and African  began to be cultivated. Around this time, and in the same region, the small became domesticated.

According to the Oxford Atlas of World History, in the year 4000 BC the climate of the Sahara started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink rather significantly and caused increasing. 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.

By 3000 BC agriculture arose independently in both the tropical portions of, where African and oil palms were domesticated, and in , where  and  became domesticated. No animals were independently domesticated in these regions, although domestication did spread there from the and  regions. Agricultural crops were also adopted from other regions around this time as pearl, , , , and  began to be grown agriculturally in both West Africa and the Sahel Region while finger millet, ,  and  took hold in Ethiopia.

The international phenomenon known as the began to affect western North Africa. Named for the distinctively shaped ceramics found in graves, the Beaker culture is associated with the emergence of a warrior mentality. North African rock art of this period depicts animals but also places a new emphasis on the human figure, equipped with weapons and adornments. People from the settled along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea to become the proto-Canaanites who dominated the lowlands between the Jordan River, the Mediterranean and the Sinai Desert.

By the 1st millennium BC ing had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly began spreading across the Sahara into the northern parts of sub-saharan Africa and by 500 BC metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa, possibly after being introduced by the. Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in areas of East and West Africa, though other regions didn't begin ironworking until the early centuries AD. Some copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia and Ethiopia have been excavated in West Africa dating from around 500 BC, suggesting that trade networks had been established by this time.

Early civilisations and trade
About 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Africa with the rise of literacy in the -ruled civilisation of, which continued, with varying levels of influence over other areas, until 343 BC. Prominent s at different times include, the , the n kingdoms, the empires of the (, , , and ), , and the.

After the Sahara had become a desert it did not present an impenetrable barrier for travellers between north and south. Even prior to the introduction of the the use of oxen for desert crossing was common, and trade routes followed  that were strung across the desert. The camel was first brought to Egypt by the after 525 BC, although large herds did not become common enough in North Africa to establish the  until the eighth century AD. The   were the first to exploit this.

Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities characterised by different sorts of political organisation and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the -speaking people of central and southern Africa and heavily-structured clan groups in the, the Sahelian Kingdoms, and autonomous city-states such as the  coastal trading towns of the n coast, whose trade network extended as far as.

In 1418, the fifth expedition by Chinese admiral reached Africa's east coast. The two later Zheng He voyages, the last in 1432, also sailed to East Africa. The Chinese travelled at least as far as Malindi in Kenya. In 1482, the established the first of many trading stations along the coast of Ghana at. The chief commodities dealt in were slaves, gold, ivory and spices. The European discovery of the Americas in 1492 was followed by a great development of the, which, before the Portuguese era, had been an overland trade almost exclusively, and never confined to any one continent.

In, the decline of the 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, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the 's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. The largest powers of West Africa: the, the , and the , adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of, , and , forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.

Pre-colonial exploration
In the mid-nineteenth century, European explorers became interested in exploring the heart of the continent and opening the area for trade, mining and other commercial exploitation. In addition, there was a desire to convert the inhabitants to. The central area of Africa was still largely unknown to Europeans at this time. explored the continent between 1852 and his death in 1873; amongst other claims to fame, he was the first European to see the. A prime goal for explorers was to locate the source of the. Expeditions by and  (1857–1858) and Speke and  (1863) located  and. The latter was eventually proven as the main source of the Nile. With subsequent expeditions by and, Africa was well explored by the end of the century and this was to lead the way for the  which followed.

Colonialism and the "scramble for Africa"
In the late nineteenth century, the European powers engaged in a major  and occupied most of the continent, creating many  nation states, and leaving only two independent nations:, an independent state partly settled by s; and   (known to Europeans as "Abyssinia"). Colonial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of, when all colonial states gradually obtained formal independence.

had a destabilising effect on a number of ethnic groups that is still being felt in African politics. Before 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, although the appears to be a natural geographic boundary, there were groups that otherwise shared a,  or other similarity living on both sides. The division of the land between and  along the river isolated these groups from each other. Those who lived in Saharan or 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 (now ) and, systems of second-class citizenship were often set up in order to give Europeans  far in excess of their numbers. In the, personal property of King , the native population was submitted to inhumane treatment, and a near slavery status assorted with forced labor. However, the lines were not always drawn strictly across racial lines. In, citizens who were descendants of American slaves had a political system for over 100 years that gave ex-slaves and natives to the area roughly equal despite the fact the ex-slaves were outnumbered ten to one in the general population. The inspiration for this system was the, which had balanced the power of free and slave states despite the much-larger population of the former.

Europeans often altered the local 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 are now and, two ethnic groups s and s had merged into one culture by the time German colonists had taken control of the region in the nineteenth century. No longer divided by ethnicity as intermingling, intermarriage, and merging of cultural practices over the centuries had long since erased visible signs of a culture divide, instituted a policy of racial categorization upon taking control of the region, as racially based categorization and philosophies were a fixture of the European culture of that time. The term Hutu originally referred to the agricultural-based -speaking peoples that moved into present day Rwanda and Burundi from the West, and the term Tutsi referred to Northeastern cattle-based peoples that migrated into the region later. The terms described a person's economic class; 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 racialized system; European-like features such as fairer skin, ample height, narrow noses were seen as more ideally, and belonged to those people closest to Tutsi in ancestry, who were thus given power amongst the colonised peoples. Identity cards were issued based on this philosophy.

was the first country in Africa to gain Independence, doing so in 1956. The decades-long struggle for independence from France was led by, founder of the Republic of Tunisia.

Post-colonial Africa
Today, Africa contains 53 independent and sovereign countries, most of which still have the borders drawn during the era of European colonialism.

Since colonialism, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and. The vast majority of African nations are s that operate under some form of the of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain governments, and many have instead cycled through a series of, producing s. A number of Africa's post-colonial political leaders were military generals who 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. For, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts that had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the 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 s. Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.

conflicts between the and the, as well as the policies of the , 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 s. Many countries in received Soviet military aid, while many in Central and Southern Africa were supported by the,  or both. The 1970s saw an escalation, as newly independent and  aligned themselves with the  and the West and  sought to contain Soviet influence by funding insurgency movements. Some countries were ruled by parties that sought to impose Soviet policies resulting in atrocities such as the.

AIDS has also been a prevalent issue in post-colonial Africa. See article.

Politics
The (AU) is a federation consisting of all of Africa's states except. The union was formed, with as its headquarters, on. In July 2004, the African Union's (PAP) was relocated to, in South Africa, but the  remained in. There is a policy in effect to decentralise the African Federation's institutions so that they are shared by all the states.

The African Union, not to be confused with the AU Commission, is formed by an which aims to transform the, a federated commonwealth, into a state, under established international conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary government, known as the, consisting of legislative, judicial and executive organs, and led by the African Union President and Head of State, who is also the President of the. A person becomes AU President by being elected to the PAP, and subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP.

President is the Head of State and Chief of Government of the African Union, by virtue of the fact that she is the President of the Pan African Parliament. She was elected by Parliament in its inaugural session in March 2004, for a term of five years. The PAP consists of 265 legislators, five from each constituent state of the African Union. Over 21% of the members are female.

The powers and authority of the President of the African Parliament derive from the, and the , as well as the inheritance of presidential authority stipulated by African treaties and by international treaties, including those subordinating the Secretary General of the 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.

Failed state policies, inequitable global trade practices, and climatic conditions (especially draught) have resulted in many widespread s, and significant portions of Africa remain with distribution systems unable to disseminate enough food or water for the population to survive. What had before colonialism been the source for 90% of the world's gold has become the poorest continent on earth, its former riches enjoyed by those on other continents. The spread of is also rampant, especially the spread of the  (HIV) and the associated  (AIDS), which has become a deadly  on the continent.

There are clear signs of increased networking among African organisations and states. In the civil war in the (former ), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also ). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 4 million. Political associations such as the 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, , , , , and.

Economy
Although being a continent with plenty of s, Africa remains the world's and most  continent, due largely to the effects of the, , failed central planning, the international trade regime and geopolitics; as well as widespread  violations, the negative effects of ,  and conflict (ranging from  to  to  to ). According to the ' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African nations.

Some areas, notably and, have experienced economic success. The latter has a wealth of s, being the world's leading producers of both and s, and a well-established legal system. South Africa also has access to financial capital, numerous markets, skilled labor, and first world infrastructure in much of the country and the opening of the.

Over a quarter of Botswana's budget (also a major diamond producer) goes toward improving the infrastructure of, the nation's capital, largest city, and one of the world's fastest growing cities. Other African countries are making comparable progress, such as, , and.

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.

From 1995 to 2005, economic growth picked up, averaging 5% in 2005. However, some countries experienced much higher growth (10+%) in particular,, and , all three of which have recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves.

Demographics
The last 40 years have seen a rapid increase in population; hence, this population is relatively young. In some African states half or more of the population is under 25 years old.

Speakers of (part of the Niger-Congo family) are the majority in southern, central and East Africa proper. But there are also several groups in East Africa, and a few remaining  Khoisan ( or ) and  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 of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San", closely related to, but distinct from "") 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 comprise two main groups;  and -speaking peoples in the west, and  in the east. The s who arrived in the seventh century introduced the and  to North Africa. The Semitic ns, the European, and  settled in North Africa as well. Berbers still make up the majority in, while they are a significant minority within. They are also present in and. The and other often-nomadic peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. are a -speaking group (though many also speak Arabic), who developed an ancient civilisation in northeast Africa.

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

Some n and n groups (like the and, collectively known as "") speak. The and  peoples speak  languages, but some Somali clans trace their founding to legendary Arab founders. and 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 and the Kenyan, received Arab Muslim and n settlers and merchants throughout the  and in antiquity.

Beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans such as the and  began to establish s and  along the coasts of western and southern Africa. Eventually, a large number of Dutch augmented by French s and settled in what is today. Their descendants, the s and the s, are the largest European-descended groups in Africa today. In the nineteenth century, a second phase of colonisation brought a large number of French and settlers to Africa. The Portuguese settled mainly in Angola, but also in Mozambique. The French settled in large numbers in where they became known collectively as , 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, and in the highlands of what is now. Germans settled in what is now and, 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 and. Decolonisation during the 1960s often resulted in the mass emigration of European-descended settlers out of Africa – especially from Algeria, Angola, Kenya and Rhodesia. However, in South Africa and Namibia, the white minority remained politically dominant after independence from Europe, and a significant population of Europeans remained in these two countries even after was finally instituted at the end of the. South Africa has also become the preferred destination of white Anglo-Zimbabweans, and of migrants from all over southern Africa.

European colonisation also brought sizeable groups of s, particularly people from the, to British colonies. Large are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and East African countries. The large Indian community in was expelled by the dictator  in 1972, though many have since returned. The islands in the are also populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and Europeans. The of  are a, 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 s (people with origins in two or more races and continents).

Languages


By most estimates, Africa contains well over a thousand s (some have estimated over two thousand), most of African origin and a few of European origin. Africa is the most continent in the world; it is not rare to find individuals there who fluently speak not only several African languages, but one or two European ones as well. There are four major native to Africa.
 * The languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout, North Africa, the Sahel, and.
 * The language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are mainly spoken in, , , , , and northern.
 * The 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  spoken in much of sub-Saharan Africa.
 * The languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 120,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are . The  and  peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.

Following, nearly all African countries adopted s that originated outside the continent, although several countries nowadays also use various languages of native origin (such as ) as their official language. In numerous countries, and  (see ) are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. ,, and  are other examples of originally non-African languages that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres.

Culture
African culture is characterised by a vastly diverse patchwork of social values, ranging from extreme to extreme, sometimes in tribes existing side by side.

Modern African culture is characterised by conflicted responses to and. Increasingly, beginning in the late 1990s, Africans are reasserting their identity. In especially the rejection of the label  or an has resulted in an upsurge of demands for special protection of indigenous  languages and culture in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia. The re-emergence of since the fall of  has heightened calls for a renewed sense of African identity. In South Africa, intellectuals from settler communities of European descent increasingly identify as African for cultural rather than geographical or racial reasons. Famously, some have undergone ritual ceremonies to become members of the or other community.

Much of the traditional African cultures have become impoverished as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and neo-colonial regimes. There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalourise African traditional cultures, under such movements as the led by,  led by an influential group of scholars including , as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of  and other forms of spirituality. In recent years African traditional culture has become synonymous with rural poverty and subsistence farming.

Urban culture in Africa, now associated with Western values, is a great contrast from traditional African urban culture which was once rich and enviable even by modern Western standards. African cities such as, , , , and others had served as the world's most affluent urban and industrial centers, clean, well-laid out, and full of universities, libraries, and temples.

The main and most enduring cultural fault-line in Africa is the divide between traditional and. The divide is not, and never was based on economic competition, but rather on the colonial racial policy that identified pastoralists as constituting a different race from agriculturalists, and enforcing a form of between the two cultures beginning in the 1880s and lasting until the 1960s. Although European colonial powers were largely industrial, many of the administrators and philosophers, whose writings provided rationale for colonialism, applied quasi-scientific eugenics policies and racist politics on Africans in experiments of misguided social engineering.

Most of the racial recategorisation of Africans to fit European stereotypes was contradictory and incoherent. However, because their legalism and laws that emanated from these policies were backed by police force, the scientific establishment and economic power, Africans reacted by either conforming to the new rules, or rejecting them in favour of Pan-Africanism. All across Africa communities and individuals were measured by colonial eugenics boards and reassigned identities and ethnicities based on. The schools taught that in general Africans who resembled Europeans in some physical or cultural aspect were superior to other Africans and deserved more privileges. This caused animosity, incited by other Europeans – and communists – who identified Africans according to dubious classes also modeled on European concerns.

The easiest way to divide Africans was along economic lines. Pastoralists, agriculturalists, hunter-gatherers and Westernised Africans, all formed distinctly identifiable cultures each of which came to play a different and disfiguring role in Africa's modern politics. The Westernised Africans, specifically ese and Sudanese Nubians from urban centers such as Dakar and Khartoum, were used to serve as the bulk of colonial troops against the rural Africans. Pastoralists were radicalised by the wholesale confiscation of grazing lands in favour of plantations. Agriculturalists came into conflict for land and water with pastoralists after the traditional sharing arrangements had been destroyed by colonial policies.

In addition, a growing body of speculative anthropology and made false claims about the superiority and inferiority of Africans with different cultural and economic backgrounds. The vast majority of the scholarship on Africa was extraneous and catered to the demand for exotic and outlandish representations of Africa. The enforcement of the government decrees and policies tended to produce effects that confirmed the prejudices of the European colonialists.

and reflect the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing examples of art from Africa are 75,000 year old s made from  shells that were found in. The in  was the  for 4,000 years until the completion of  around 1300. The stone ruins of are also noteworthy for their architecture, and the complex of es at, Ethiopia, of which the  is representative, is regarded as another marvel of engineering.

Music and dance
The 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 to modern, , , , , and. The 1950's through the 1970's saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of and  music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of, dominated by the. Recent developments include the emergence of, in particular a form from blended with traditional , and , a South African variant of. music, also found in South Africa, is idiosyncratic being composed mostly of traditional, while more recent immigrant communities have introduced the music of their homes to the continent.

Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions and they are distinct from the music and dance styles of and. influences are visible in North African music and dance and in Southern Africa western influences are apparent due to.

Many African languages are s, in which pitch level determines the meaning. This also finds expression in African musical melodies and rhythms. A variety of musical instruments are used, including s (most widely used), s,, , , and.

African dances are important mode of communication and dancers use gestures, s, s, and a number of visual devices. With and, modern African dance and music exhibit influences assimilated from several other cultures.

Legends of Africa
Africa has a wealth of history which is largely unrecorded. Many s, s and s abound.

Sports
53 African countries have teams in the, while Cameroon,  Nigeria, Senegal, and Ghana have advanced to the knockout stage of recent s. South Africa will host the , and will be the first African country to do so.

is also popular in some African nations, with and  holding  status and  also being a significant force in. The three countries jointly hosted the.

A number of African nations, especially Ethiopia, Kenya, and Morocco, have fielded world-class such as  and.

hosted and won the and also won the.

Religion
Different Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs and it is difficult to conclude accurate statistics about religious demography in Africa as a whole. Estimations from World Book Encyclopedia claim that there are 150 million African Muslims and 130 million African Christians, while Encyclopedia Britannica estimates that approximately 46.5% of all Africans are Christians and another 40.5% are Muslims with roughly 11.8% of Africans following indigenous. A small number of Africans are or, or have beliefs from the. Examples of are the,  peoples and the  of Eastern Uganda.

The indigenous Sub-Saharan African religions tend to revolve around and. A common thread in traditional belief systems was the division of the into "helpful" and "harmful". Helpful are usually deemed to include ancestor spirits that help their descendants, and powerful spirits that protect entire communities from natural disaster or attacks from enemies; whereas harmful spirits include the s of murdered victims who were buried without the proper, and spirits used by hostile spirit  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 of  in the  marked the first known complex religious system on the continent. Around the ninth century, (in present-day ) was founded by the Phoenicians, and went on to become a major cosmopolitan center where  from neighboring Egypt,  and the  were worshipped. Today, many Jewish peoples also live in North Africa, particularly in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

The founding of the is traditionally dated to the mid-first century, while the  and the  officially date from the fourth century. These are thus some of the first established churches in the world. At first, Christian Orthodoxy made gains in modern-day Sudan and other neighbouring regions. However, after the spread of Islam, growth was slow and restricted to the highlands.

Many Sub-Saharan Africans were converted to during the colonial period. In the last decades of the twentieth century, various sects of rapidly grew. A number of Roman Catholic African bishops were mentioned as possible candidates in 2005, the most prominent of those being Nigerian. African Christians appear to be more socially conservative than their co-religionists in much of the industrialized world, which has quite recently led to tension within such as the  and.

The es have experienced significant growth in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Islam entered Africa as Arab Muslims conquered North Africa between 640 and 710, beginning with Egypt. They settled in Mogadishu, Melinde, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Sofala, following the sea trade down the coast of, 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. During colonial times, Christianity had success in converting those who followed traditional religions but had very little success in converting Muslims, who took advantage of the urbanization and increase in trade to settle in new areas and spread their faith. As a result, in sub-Saharan Africa probably doubled between 1869 and 1914.

Islam continued this tremendous growth into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Today, backed by gulf oil cash, Muslims have increased success in proselytizing, with a growth rate, by some estimates, that is twice as fast as Christianity in Africa.

Territories and regions
The countries in this table are categorised according to the used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.