The continent's cultural wealth easily matches its natural attractions. Yet the images of today's Africa that dominate my mind are of starving, dying children, of endless lines of refugees, of unending wars, of collapsed states, hijacked elections, and ethnic conflicts, all brought to me through the courtesy of news media. At one point in recent history, just three years ago, there was some form of conflict in 26 of the sub-Saharan Africa's 48 countries. African countries have a population of 689 million people, roughly 13 percent of the world's total population, living on about 15 percent of the Earth. About half of the population is young, below the age of 15.
Birth rates are extremely high, and death rates are falling as a result of improved medical care.
But Africans share only 1.3 percent of the world's actual wealth. And, according to the Central Intelligence Agency, Africa is home to two-thirds of the world's population risking starvation. The C.I.A. also says that Africa has 62 percent of the world's AIDS cases and 40 percent of its refugees. There are more than 600 ethnic or tribal groups in Africa and only 53 countries. Boundaries of most of the nations today were created in the late 19th century by colonial rulers.