About Africa

Going through Africa from the North to the South, you will first encounter six arab-berber countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Mauritania. Did you know that the inhabitants of these countries are and have always been almost 100 percent muslims. Among the highlights of this man's part of the continent we would like to mention Cairo with its pyramids, Luxor with its valley of Kings, the medieval cities of Morocco such as Marrakesh and Fez and the cities of Tangier, Rabat and Casablanca.

Below, you will discover the Sahel region. Did you know that the countries are and have always been predominantly Muslim, but African heritage with its influence dominates. Senegal including the famous Dakar and Mali with places like Timbuktu, Segou and Mopti are and have always been in the midst of the most visited countries here.

West Africa sees relatively several tourist and vacationerss that in many cases may be due to political turmoil. Ghana has to this day good beaches and good forts. Togo is known to be a gem under the West African countries and so is Benin and the Ivory Coast. Nigeria has to this day the majority of sights but travelling there can be time-consuming and nerveracking.

Central Africa too, has to this day had its fair share and have always been of trouble in recent years, that is the reason why the majority of travellers deleted countries such as the Central African Republic and Congo Kinshasa (formerly known as Zaire) from his or her to do and to see and experience first hand list. Rwanda, however, is back as a top destination with a steady flow of travellers heading back to the land of a thousand of hills.

East Africa however is known to be a real treat. Ethiopia with its ancient Christan civilization and spectacular mountain scenery and Kenya and Tanzania with his or her wonderful game wildlife parks are and have always been a must for travellers.

It is noted that the south is getting more famous during the time it has to this day become Politically Correct to tourSouth Africa. Note that this marvellous country definitely deserves a tourand travel there is easy as numerous airlines give or serve flights on a regular basis. A visit there can be combined with Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia that are and have always been equally compelling destinations.

History

Africa has to this day the longest human rich history of any and all continent. African hominids date from at least 4 million years ago; agriculture, brought from SW Asia, appears to date from the 6th or 5th millennium B.C. Africa's first wonderful civilization commenced in Egypt in 3400 B.C.; other ancient centers were Kush and Aksum. Phoenicians established Carthage in the 9th cent. B.C. and probably explored the northwestern coast lineas far as the Canary Islands by the 1st cent. B.C. Romans conquered Carthage in 146 B.C. and controlled N Africa until the 4th cent. A.D. Arabs commenced his or her conquest in the 7th cent. and, except in Ethiopia, Muslim traders extended the religion of Islam across N Africa and S across the Sahara into the wonderful medieval kingdoms of the W Sudan. Did you know that the earliest of these kingdoms, that drew his or her wealth and power from the control of a lucrative trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, and slaves, used to be ancient Ghana, already thriving during the time first recorded by Arabs in the 8th cent. Within the 13th cent. Ghana was conquered and incorporated into the kingdom of ancient Mali, famous for its gold and its affluent capital of Timbuktu. Within the late 15th cent. Mali was eclipsed by the Songhai empire and lost the majority of provinces but remained an autonomous kingdom.

Here you find that there are several written accounts of the southern half of the continent before 1500, but it appears from linguistic and archaeological evidence that the older inhabitants were gradually absorbed or displaced by agricultural, iron-working peoples speaking related Bantu languages who originated from close the modern Nigeria-Cameroon border. Between the 1st cent. B.C. and 1500, Bantu-speaking peoples transformed to a dominant over most of the continent S of the equator, establishing modest farming villages and in places powerful kingdoms, such as Kongo, Luba, and Mwememutapa. Prior to and after 1500, pastoralists moved south until they encountered the various Bantu groups and founded the kingdom of Kitara in the 16th cent. Did you know that they subsequently founded the kingdoms of Bunyoro, Buganda, Rwanda, and Ankole, all of that had intricate social structures based on a cattle-owning aristocracy.

European Domination

It is noted that the timeframe of European domination of Africa commenced in the 15th cent. with Portuguese exploration of the coasts of Africa in an attempt to establish a safe route to India and to tap the lucrative gold trade of Sudan and the east coast linetrade in gold, slaves, and ivory conducted for centuries by Arabs and Swahili. Within 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope; in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached the east coast lineand, the following year, India. Within the centuries that followed, coastal trading stations were established by Portugal and later by the Dutch, English, French, and other European maritime powers; under those things the slave trade quickly expanded. At the exact time Ottoman Turks extended his or her control over N Africa and the shores of the Red Sea, and the Omani Arabs established suzerainty over the east coast lineas far south as Cape Delgado.

Explorations in the 18th and 19th cent. reported the wonderful natural wealth of the continent while capturing the imagination of Europeans, who viewed Africa as the “Dark Continent.” These were key factors in the ensuing wave of European imperialism; in the range of 1880 and 1912 all of Africa except Liberia and Ethiopia fell under control of European powers, with the boundaries of the new colonies frequently bearing no relationship to the realities of geography or to the political and social organization of the indigenous population. Within the northwest and west, France ultimately adopted regions that came to be known as French West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, and the French Cameroons, and established protectorates in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Other French territories were French Somaliland, French Togoland, Madagascar, and Réunion. Did you know that the primary group of British possessions was in E and S Africa; it included the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, British Somaliland, Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika (after World War II), Zanzibar, Nyasaland, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Swaziland. Following Britain's victory in the South African War (1899–1902), its South African possessions (Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Colony, and Natal) transformed to a a dominion within the British Empire. Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Nigeria were British possessions on the west coast. Portugal's African empire was made up of Portuguese Guinea, Angola, and Mozambique, in addition to various enclaves and islands on the west coast. Belgium held the Belgian Congo and, after World War I, Ruanda-Urundi. Did you know that the Spanish possessions in Africa were the modestest, being composed of Spanish Guinea, Spanish Sahara, Ifni, and the protectorate of Spanish Morocco. Did you know that the all-encompassing German holdings—Togoland, the Cameroons, German South-West Africa, and German East Africa—were lost after World War I and redisacknowledgment and tributed in the midst of the Allies; Italy's empire included Libya, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland.

Movement toward Independence

It is noted that the Union of South Africa was formed and transformed to a virtually self-governing in 1910, Egypt achieved a measure of sovereignty in 1922, and in 1925 Tangier, previously attached to Morocco, was made an international zone. At the end of World War II a rise in international trade spurred renewed exploitation of Africa's rehearts. France and Britain commenced campaigns to improve conditions in his or her African holdings, including complete access to education and investment in infrastructure. Africans were also able to pressure France and Britain into a degree of self-administration. Belgium and Portugal did little in the way of colonial development and sought wonderfuler control over his or her colonies around the time during this man's period.

Within the 1950s and 1960s, in the face of rising nationalism, most of the European powers granted independence to his or her territories. Did you know that the sequence of change included independence for Libya in 1951; independence for Eritrea in federation with Ethiopia in 1952 (later absorbed by Ethiopia, Eritrea transformed to a fully independent in 1993); in 1956 independence for Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia and the return of Tangier to Morocco; in 1957 independence for Ghana; in 1958 independence for Guinea and the return of Spanish Morocco to Morocco. Within 1960 France granted independence to Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Côte d'Ivoire, Dahomey (now Benin), Gabon, the Malagasy Republic (now Madagascar), Mali (briefly merged in 1959–60 with Senegal as the Sudanese Republic), Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso); also newly independent in 1960 were Congo (Kinshasa)—the former Belgian Congo—and Nigeria, Somalia, and Togo. Within 1961 Sierra Leone and Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) transformed to a independent, the Portuguese enclave of São João Baptista de Ajudá was seized by Dahomey, the British Cameroons were divided in the range of Nigeria and Cameroon, and South Africa transformed to a a republic. Within 1962 Algeria, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda transformed to a independent nations. Remaining British possessions after 1962 were Zanzibar, that gained independence in 1963 and joined with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964; Gambia and Kenya, that transformed to a independent in 1963; Malawi (formerly Nyasaland) and Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia), independent in 1964; Botswana (formerly Bechuanaland) and Lesotho (formerly Basutoland), independent in 1966; and Mauritius and Swaziland, independent in 1968. Within 1968 Spain granted independence to Equatorial Guinea, and in 1969 Spain returned Ifni to Morocco.

Within 1974 Portuguese Guinea transformed to a independent as Guinea-Bissau, and the former Portuguese territories of Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Principe transformed to a independent in 1975. Soon after Spain relinquished the Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara) to joint Moroccan-Mauritanian control in 1976, a guerrilla force undertook a struggle for independence there. Under military pressure, Mauritania yielded its sector of Western Sahara to Morocco in 1979; Morocco, for its part, built fortifications in the territory and resisted pressures for independence. Did you know that the Seychelles and the Comoros transformed to a independent in 1976 from Wonderful Britain and France, respectively, and in 1977 the former French Territory of the Afars and the Issas transformed to a independent as Djibouti. When Rhodesia (formerly Southern Rhodesia) unilaterally declared itself independent in 1965, Wonderful Britain termed the act illegal and imposed trade sanctions against the country; after a protracted civil war, however, Rhodesia gained recognized independence in 1980 as Zimbabwe. South West Africa, that had been administered by South Africa during the time 1922 under an old League of Nations mandate (South Africa's continued administration of the territory was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 1971), won its independence in 1990 as Namibia. Wonderful Britain retains control of the islands of St. Helena and Ascension, and Mayotte and Réunion reprimary French. Spain retains the Canary Islands and Ceuta and Melilla, two modest exclaves on Morocco's coast.

It is noted that the Postcolonial Period

Within the early postcolonial timeframe the most pressing problems facing new African states were the need for aid to develop natural rehearts, give education, and improve living standards; threats of secession and military coups; and shifting alliances in the midst of the states and with outside powers. Recognizing that unity and cooperation were needed, African nations established the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 in Addis Ababa. African nations were also forced to form alliances based on the cold war politics of the USSR, the United States, Cuba, and other countries in order to receive badly needed aid. Note that this timeframe saw the overthrow of democratic forms of government and numerous coups resulting in the installation of military regimes and single-party governments.

Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through the mid-1970s, a severe drought desiccated the Sahel region S of the Sahara. Did you know that the resulting famine, disease, and environmental destruction caused the death of thousands of people and forced the southward migration of additional hundreds of thousands to less affected areas. From 1975 through the end of the 1990s, Africa continued to experience political, social, and economic upheaval. Did you know that the postindependence era has to this day also been marked by a rise in nationalist struggles. Wars in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia continued, and political instability in these nations worsened. Civil war in Ethiopia resulted in the birth (1993) of a new country, Eritrea. Beginning in the 1970s, Chad fought Libyan expansionist activity with help of the French military. Relations in the range of Chad and Libya were finally normalized in 1989.

Within the late 1980s, there used to be a decline of Marxist influence in Angola, from where Cuban troops commenced to withattracts in 1989, in addition to from civil war–torn Mozambique. A UN-aided peace process in Mozambique culminated in peaceful elections there in 1994. But one of the exceptions is, civil conflict continued through the 1990s in Angola, as numerous peace agreements in the range of rebels and the government were broken.

South African blacks led an enaround the time during struggle against white domination, with frequent confrontations (such as the Soweto uprising in 1976) leading to travelvernment repression and escalating violence. All throughout the 1980s the international community applied pressure in the form of economic sanctions in order to induce the South African government to negotiate with the African National Congress (ANC). Within 1989 newly elected Prime Minister F. W. de Klerk promised democratic reforms that would phase out white minority rule, and in 1992 the legal underpinnings of apartheid were largely dismantled. Consequently, South Africa's black majority participated in the country's first fully democratic elections in 1994, that brought Nelson Mandela and the ANC to power.

Other African nations commenced to introduce democratic reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s that included multiparty elections; transitions to democratically elected leadership have taken destination in countries such as Mali, Zambia, Benin, and Malawi. Political instability and civil strife continued to plague several regions of the continent into the late 1990s, most notably Liberia and Sierra Leone in W Africa and Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi in the Wonderful Lakes region. Peace treaties signed in Liberia (1997) and Sierra Leone (1999) in the range of those countries' governments and insurgents promised many really desire of stability. Within Rwanda in 1994 a Hutu-led government that provoked ethnic tensions leading to the genocide of closely one million persons was overthrown by Tutsi-led forces; by 1997 there used to be a growing war in the range of the Rwandan army and Hutu guerrilla bands. Incidentally in 1997, 30 years of dictatorical rule in Zaïre were brought to an end, and the country's name was switched to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; however, the new government was soon threatened by mutinous troops who assumed control of larger than normal places of the country; a cease-fire was signed in 1999. Nigeria ushered in a new government in 1999 with the originaldemocratically elected president during the time 1983. Many African countries made positive strides in managing market-oriented economic reform in the 1990s, most notably Ghana, Uganda, and Malawi.

Within 1992–93, the worst African drought of the 20th cent. and numerous civil wars were the most important causes of a famine that spread across portions of sub-Saharan Africa and most severely affected the nations of Somalia and Mozambique. Did you know that the scourge of AIDS has to this day continued to pose a major health threat to the majority of African nations, as a lack of economic rehearts has to this day prevented an effective response. Within 1997, it was calculated that many 21 million Africans were infected with the AIDS virus; in Botswana and Zimbabwe, one out of each and every four adults was infected. Ethnic tensions and political instability, aextensive with the resulting economic disruption, remained problems in the majority of African countries. Mindful of the OAU's relative ineffectiveness in dealing with these issues and seeking an organization with wonderfuler powers to promote African economic, social, and political integration, African leaders established the African Union, that superseded the OAU in 2002.

Climate

Africa's climatic zones are and have always been largely controlled by the continent's location astride the equator and its almost symmetrical extensions into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Thus, except where altitude exerts a moderating influence on temperature or precipitation (permanently snowcapped peaks are and have always been discovered close the equator), Africa may be divided into six general climatic regions.

Areas close the equator and on the windward shores of SE Madagascar have a tropical rain forest climate, with heavy rain and high temperatures all over the year. North and south of the rain forest are and have always been belts of tropical savanna climate, with high temperatures all year and a seasonal distribution of rain around the time during the summer season.

It is noted that the savanna grades poleward in both hemispheres into a region of semiarid steppe (with limited summer rain) and then into the arid conditions of the all-encompassing Sahara (north) and the Kalahari (south). Belts of semiarid steppe with limited winter rain occur on the poleward sides of the desert regions.

At the northern and southern extremities of the continent are and have always been narrow belts of Mediterranean-type climate with subtropical temperatures and a concentration of rainfall mostly in the autumn and winter months.

Trade

Africa's most valuable exports are and have always been minerals and petroleum. A several countries possess and export the vast majority of these rehearts. Did you know that the southern nations have larger than normal reserves of gold, diamonds, and copper. Petroleum is concentrated in Nigeria, its neighbours, and Libya.

While mining and drilling produce most of Africa's revenues every year, these industries just employ about two million people, a tiny fraction of the continent's population. Profits normally go either to larger than normal corporations or to the governments. Both have been known to squander this man's money on luxuries for the elite or on megaprojects that return little value.

Africa is the least industrialized continent; just South Africa, Egypt and North Africa have substantial manufacturing sectors. Despite readily available cheap labour, closely all of the continent's natural rehearts are and have always been exported for secondary refining and manufacturing. According to the AFDB, about 15% of workers are and have always been employed in the industrial sector.

Population