Africa is the second largest continent in the world with Asia being the largest. Africa contains many countries with warm sunshine, green trees, blooming flowers, ravishing landscapes, and some of the world's most beautiful animals. Africa is made up of large deserts, wild jungles, and boundless grasslands. Did you know that Africa covers one-fifth of the earth's land surface?
How Big is Africa?
Africa is over three times the size of the United States and has twice the people. From north to south, it stretches about 5,000 miles long. Africa is located south of Europe and the Middle East with its northern coast lying on the Mediterranean Sea. To the east of the continent lies the Indian Ocean and to the west lies the Atlantic Ocean. The equator passes through Africa just south of its middle.
Who Lives in Africa?
Three out of four people living in Africa are black, but there are also many Arabs, Asians, Europeans, and mixed races. But Africa is not without problems, and its people rank among the poorest in the world. Many of the people are starving; thus, there are thousands of deaths each year.
Countries in Africa
Nations in Europe once controlled most of Africa, but in the 1950s Africans started to win their independence and build new countries. Africa consists of two large areas made up of different lands and peoples.
North Africa
North Africa includes the world's largest desert, the Sahara Desert, and stretches north to the Mediterranean Sea. This desert takes up more than one-fourth of the area of Africa. Between the Sahara and the Mediterranean seashore lies a coastal section, which receives rainfall that helps crops grow. Many people live here, and this area includes the lands of Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt. Mostly Arab people, who speak Arabic and are Muslims, live in North Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa
The region south of the Sahara includes grasslands, rain forest, and deserts. Africa has long been known for its rain forest and jungles. The African rain forests lying along the equator are known as some of the wildest in the world. Not many people live here, but the sound of thousands of exotic birds can be heard drifting through the still air along with the sounds of monkeys.
Most of the sub-Saharan area of Africa is made up of grasslands and plains. The grasslands or savannas stretch for hundreds of miles. Here you might hear trumpeting elephants or see a giraffe's head through the treetops. You might even see a lion chasing a herd of zebras.
History
Over 5,000 years ago the Egyptians built a supreme nation along the banks of the Nile River. The empire of ancient Egypt spread deep into eastern Africa. Later, North Africa was under the rule of the Middle East and Europe. The Greeks began to build great cities there, and North Africa became part of the Roman Empire.
In the early 600s Arabian warriors conquered the area bringing their new religion Islam with them. The Arabs continued conquering the north, and kingdoms such as Ghana and Songhai gradually disappeared. Throughout the 1400s Europeans explored the western coast of Africa.
By the 1500s they were looking for hardy men and women to work their colonies in the Americas. They mastered a plan to send men to West Africa to kidnap black Africans as slaves. Between 1500 and 1850 close to 10 million Africans were brought to the Americas against their will to be used as slaves. They were sold to plantation owners and forced to live and work on their owner's estate. In the 1800s after the Civil War in America ended, most of the slaves were set free but nearly all of them relocated in America with only a few returning to Africa.
People
Hundreds of languages are spoken in Africa because the people belong to hundreds of tribes, each having their own language. Nearly three out of four Africans are herders or farmers. Most farmers are poor, have only small plots of land, and can grow just enough food to feed their families. Some farmers, however, do raise crops to sell for cash. Some Africans have homes or apartments in the cities, and many poor Africans from tiny villages often go into the cities in search of work. Only a small number of Africans can read or write because most children go to school for only two or three years and some children never even start school. Today, African governments are trying with the aid of other nations like the United States to build more schools and train more teachers and educational workers.
Africa Today
Hunger is still the biggest problem facing the young countries of Africa today. Although Africa is a beautiful land to look at, much of the land is not suitable for farming. Also, conflict between tribes still continues, causing fighting and wars. Although Africa still has a way to go, with the help of its people, government, and other nations, better farming methods, schools, roads, factories, and more can be introduced to Africa and produce better living conditions.
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