Africa | Article about Africa by The Free Dictionary Africa | Article about Africa by The Free Dictionary Related to Africa: Asia , Gambia , North Africa , South America Africa (ăf`rĭkə), second largest continent (2009 est. pop. 1,010,000,000), c.11,677,240 sq mi (30,244,050 sq km) including adjacent islands. Broad to the north (c.4,600 mi/7,400 km wide), Africa straddles the equator and stretches c.5,000 mi (8,050 km) from Cape Blanc (Tunisia) in the north to Cape Agulhas (South Africa) in the south. It is connected with Asia by the Sinai Peninsula (from which it is separated by the Suez Canal) and is bounded on the N by the Mediterranean Sea, on the W and S by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the E and S by the Indian Ocean. The largest offshore island is Madagascar; other islands include St.

Helena and Ascension in the S Atlantic Ocean; São Tomé, Príncipe, Annobón, and Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea; the Cape Verde, Canary, and Madeira islands in the N Atlantic Ocean; and Mauritius, Réunion, Zanzibar, Pemba, and the Comoros and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Geology and Geography Most of Africa is a series of stable, ancient plateau surfaces, low in the north and west and higher (rising to more than 6,000 ft/1,830 m) in the south and east. The plateau is composed mainly of metamorphic rock that has been overlaid in places by sedimentary rock. The escarpment of the plateau is often in close proximity to the coast, thus leaving the continent with a generally narrow coastal plain; in addition, the escarpment forms barriers of falls and rapids in the lower courses of rivers that impede their use as transportation routes into the interior.

Northern Africa is underlain by folded sedimentary rock and is, geologically, more closely related to Europe than to the rest of the continent of Africa; the Atlas Mts., which occupy most of the region, are a part of the Alpine mountain system of southern Europe. The entire African continent is surrounded by a narrow continental shelf. The lowest point on the continent is 509 ft (155 m) below sea level in Lake Assal in Djibouti; the highest point is Mt. Uhuru (Kibo; 19,340 ft/5,895 m), a peak of Kilimanjaro in NE Tanzania. From north to south the principal mountain ranges of Africa are the Atlas Mts. (rising to more than 13,000 ft/3,960 m), the Ethiopian Highlands (rising to more than 15,000 ft/4,570 m), the Ruwenzori Mts. (rising to more than 16,000 ft/4,880 m), and the Drakensberg Range (rising to more than 11,000 ft/3,350 m).

The continent's largest rivers are the Nile (the world's longest river), the Congo, the Niger, the Zambezi, the Orange, the Limpopo, and the Senegal. The largest lakes are Victoria (the world's second largest freshwater lake), Tanganyika, Albert, Turkana, and Nyasa (or Malawi), all in E Africa; shallow Lake Chad, the largest in W Africa, shrinks considerably during dry periods. The lakes and major rivers (most of which are navigable in stretches above the escarpment of the plateau) form an important inland transportation system. Geologically, recent major earth disturbances have been confined to areas of NW and E Africa. Geologists have long noted the excellent fit (in shape and geology) between the coast of Africa at the Gulf of Guinea and the Brazilian coast of South America, and they have evidence that Africa formed the center of a large ancestral supercontinent known as Pangaea. Pangaea began to break apart in the Jurassic period to form Gondwanaland, which included Africa, the other southern continents, and India.

South America was separated from Africa c.76 million years ago, when the floor of the S Atlantic Ocean was opened up by seafloor spreading; Madagascar was separated from it c.65 million years ago; and Arabia was separated from it c.20 million years ago, when the Red Sea was formed. There is also evidence of one-time connections between NW Africa and E North America, N Africa and Europe, Madagascar and India, and SE Africa and Antarctica. Similar large-scale earth movements (see plate tectonics plate tectonics, theory that unifies many of the features and characteristics of continental drift and seafloor spreading into a coherent model and has revolutionized geologists' understanding of continents, ocean basins, mountains, and earth history. ..... Click the link for more information. ) are also believed responsible for the formation of the Great Rift Valley Great Rift Valley, geological fault system of SW Asia and E Africa. It extends c.3,000 mi (4,830 km) from N Syria to central Mozambique. The northernmost extension runs S through Syria and Lebanon, the Jordan valley, the Dead Sea, and the Gulf of Aqaba. ..... Click the link for more information.

of E Africa, which is the continent's most spectacular land feature. From c.40 to c.60 mi (60–100 km) wide, it extends in Africa c.1,800 mi (2,900 km), from the northern end of the Jordan Rift Valley in SW Asia to near the mouth of the Zambezi River; the eastern branch of the rift valley is occupied in sections by Lakes Nyasa and Turkana, and the western branch, curving N from Lake Nyasa, is occupied by Lakes Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward, and Albert. The lava flows of the recent and subrecent epochs in the Ethiopian Highlands, and volcanoes farther south, are associated with the rift; among the principal volcanoes are Kilimanjaro, Kenya, Elgon, Meru, and the Virunga range with Mt. Karisimbi, Nyiragongo, and Nyamuragira (Nyamulagira). A less spectacular rift, the Cameroon Rift, is associated with volcanic activity in W Africa and trends NE from St. Helena Island to São Tomé, Príncipe, and Bioko to near the Tibesti Massif in the Sahara.

Climate Africa's climatic zones are 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 found near the equator), Africa may be divided into six general climatic regions. Areas near the equator and on the windward shores of SE Madagascar have a tropical rain forest climate, with heavy rain and high temperatures throughout the year. North and south of the rain forest are belts of tropical savanna climate, with high temperatures all year and a seasonal distribution of rain during the summer season. 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 extensive 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 narrow belts of Mediterranean-type climate with subtropical temperatures and a concentration of rainfall mostly in the autumn and winter months.

African Peoples African peoples, who account for over 12% of the world's population, are distributed among 55 countries and are further distinguishable in terms of linguistic (see African languages African languages, geographic rather than linguistic classification of languages spoken on the African continent. Historically the term refers to the languages of sub-Saharan Africa, which do not belong to a single family, but are divided among several distinct linguistic stocks. ..... Click the link for more information. ) and cultural groups, which number around 1,000. The Sahara forms a great ethnic divide. North of it, mostly Arabs predominate along the coast and Berbers (including the Tuareg) and Tibbu in the interior regions. Sub-Saharan Africa is occupied by a diverse variety of peoples including, among others, the Amhara, Mossi Mossi , African people, numbering about 2.5 million, mostly in Burkina Faso. From c.A.D. 1000 the Mossi were organized into several kingdoms, one of which has continued to the present day. ..... Click the link for more information. , Fulani Fulani , people of W Africa, numbering approximately 14 million.

They are of mixed sub-Saharan African and Berber origin. First recorded as living in the Senegambia region, they are now scattered throughout the area of the Sudan from Senegal to Cameroon. ..... Click the link for more information. , Yoruba Yoruba , people of SW Nigeria and Benin, numbering about 20 million. Today many of the large cities in Nigeria (including Lagos, Ibadan, and Abeokuta) are in Yorubaland. ..... Click the link for more information. , Igbo Igbo or Ibo , one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, deriving mainly from SE Nigeria, numbering around 15 million. Originally settled in many autonomous villages, the Igbo nevertheless had a sense of cultural unity and the ability to unite for political action. ..... Click the link for more information. , Kongo (see Kongo, kingdom of Kongo, kingdom of , former state of W central Africa, founded in the 14th cent. In the 15th cent. the kingdom stretched from the Congo River in the north to the Loje River in the south and from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to beyond the Kwango River in the east. ..... Click the link for more information.

), Zulu (see Zululand Zululand , historic region and home of the Zulus, c.10,000 sq mi (25,900 sq km), NE KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Zululand is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the east, by Mozambique on the north, and by Swaziland on the west. ..... Click the link for more information. ), Akan Akan , people of W Africa, primarily in Ghana, where they number over 7.5 million, Côte d'Ivoire, and Togo. They speak languages of the Twi branch of the Kwa subfamily. ..... Click the link for more information. , Oromo Oromo or Galla , traditionally pastoral tribes who live in W and S Ethiopia and N Kenya. They number more than 25 million. About half are Muslim, about a third Ethiopian Orthodox, and about a sixth Protestant. ..... Click the link for more information. , Masai Masai or Maasai , a largely nomadic pastoral people of E Africa, chiefly in Kenya and Tanzania. Cattle and sheep form the basis of the economy that they have maintained in resistance to cultural change.

The Masai live off the milk, blood, and meat of their livestock. ..... Click the link for more information. , and Hausa Hausa or Haussa , black African ethnic group, numbering about 23 million, chiefly in N Nigeria and S Niger. The Hausa are almost exclusively Muslim and practice agriculture. ..... Click the link for more information. . Europeans are concentrated in areas with subtropical climates or tropical climates modified by altitude; in the south are persons of Dutch and British descent, and in the northwest are persons of French, Italian, and Spanish descent. Lebanese make up an important minority community throughout W Africa, as do Indians in many coastal towns of S and E Africa. There are also significant Arab populations both in E Africa and more recently in W Africa. As a whole, Africa is sparsely populated; the highest densities are found in Nigeria, the Ethiopian highlands, the Nile valley, and around the Great Lakes (which include Victoria and Tanganyika).

The principal cities of Africa are usually the national capitals and the major ports, and they usually contain a disproportionately large percentage of the national populations; Cairo, Lagos (Nigeria), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Alexandria (Egypt), and Casablanca (Morocco) are the largest cities of Africa. Economy Most of Africa's population is rural, but, except for cash crops, such as cacao and peanuts, agricultural production is low by world standards; Africa produces three quarters of the world's cocoa beans and about one third of its peanuts. Rare and precious minerals (including much of the world's diamonds) are abundant in the continent's ancient crystalline rocks, which are found mostly to the south and east of a line from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sinai Peninsula; extensive oil, gas, and phosphate deposits occur in sedimentary rocks to the north and west of this general line. Manufacturing is concentrated in the Republic of South Africa and in N Africa (especially Egypt and Algeria). Despite Africa's enormous potential for hydroelectric power production, only a small percentage of it has been developed.

Africa's fairly regular coastline affords few natural harbors, and the shallowness of coastal waters makes it difficult for large ships to approach the shore; deepwater ports, protected by breakwaters, have been built offshore to facilitate commerce and trade. Major fishing grounds are found over the wider sections of the continental shelf as off NW, SW, and S Africa and NW Madagascar. Outline of History Early History to 1500 Africa has the longest human history of any continent. African hominins 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 great civilization began 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 as 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 began their 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 great medieval kingdoms of the W Sudan. The earliest of these kingdoms, which drew their wealth and power from the control of a lucrative trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, and slaves, was ancient Ghana, already thriving when first recorded by Arabs in the 8th cent. In the 13th cent. Ghana was conquered and incorporated into the kingdom of ancient Mali, famous for its gold and its wealthy capital of Timbuktu. In the late 15th cent. Mali was eclipsed by the Songhai empire and lost many provinces but remained an autonomous kingdom. There are few 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 Bantu languages, group of African languages forming a subdivision of the Benue-Niger division of the Niger-Congo branch of the Niger-Kordofanian language family (see African languages). ..... Click the link for more information. who originated from near the modern Nigeria-Cameroon border. Between the 1st cent.

B.C. and 1500, Bantu-speaking peoples became dominant over most of the continent S of the equator, establishing small 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. They subsequently founded the kingdoms of Bunyoro, Buganda, Rwanda, and Ankole, all of which had elaborate social structures based on a cattle-owning aristocracy. European Domination The period of European domination of Africa began 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 trade in gold, slaves, and ivory conducted for centuries by Arabs and Swahili. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope; in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached the east coast and, the following year, India.

In the centuries that followed, coastal trading stations were established by Portugal and later by the Dutch, English, French, and other European maritime powers; under them the slave trade rapidly expanded. At the same time Ottoman Turks extended their control over N Africa and the shores of the Red Sea, and the Omani Arabs established suzerainty over the east coast as far south as Cape Delgado. Explorations in the 18th and 19th cent. reported the great 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; between 1880 and 1912 all of Africa except Liberia and Ethiopia fell under control of European powers, with the boundaries of the new colonies often bearing no relationship to the realities of geography or to the political and social organization of the indigenous population. In the northwest and west, France ultimately acquired 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.

The main group of British possessions was in E and S Africa; it included the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, British Somaliland, Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika (after World War I), 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) became 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. The Spanish possessions in Africa were the smallest, being composed of Spanish Guinea, Spanish Sahara, Ifni, and the protectorate of Spanish Morocco.

The extensive German holdings—Togoland, the Cameroons, German South-West Africa, and German East Africa—were lost after World War I and redistributed among the Allies; Italy's empire included Libya, Eritrea, and Italian Somaliland. Movement toward Independence The Union of South Africa was formed and became 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 resources. France and Britain began campaigns to improve conditions in their African holdings, including 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 greater control over their colonies during this period. In the 1950s and 1960s, in the face of rising nationalism, most of the European powers granted independence to their territories.

The sequence of change included independence for Libya in 1951; independence for Eritrea in federation with Ethiopia in 1952 (later absorbed by Ethiopia, Eritrea became 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. In 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.

In 1961 Sierra Leone and Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) became independent, the Portuguese enclave of São João Baptista de Ajudá was seized by Dahomey, the British Cameroons were divided between Nigeria and Cameroon, and South Africa became a republic. In 1962 Algeria, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda became independent nations. Remaining British possessions after 1962 were Zanzibar, which gained independence in 1963 and joined with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964; Gambia and Kenya, which became 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. In 1968 Spain granted independence to Equatorial Guinea, and in 1969 Spain returned Ifni to Morocco.

In 1974 Portuguese Guinea became independent as Guinea-Bissau, and the former Portuguese territories of Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Principe became independent in 1975. 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 rebel 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 its independence. A cease-fire (1991) ended the fighting but did not lead to a final resolution. The Seychelles and the Comoros became independent in 1976 from Great Britain and France, respectively, and in 1977 the former French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became independent as Djibouti.

When Rhodesia (formerly Southern Rhodesia) unilaterally declared itself independent in 1965, Great 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, which had been administered by South Africa since 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. Great Britain retains control of the islands of St. Helena and Ascension, and Mayotte and Réunion remain French. Spain retains the Canary Islands and Ceuta and Melilla, two small exclaves on Morocco's coast. The Postcolonial Period In the early postcolonial period the most pressing problems facing new African states were the need for aid to develop natural resources, provide education, and improve living standards; threats of secession and military coups; and shifting alliances among the states and with outside powers.

Recognizing that unity and cooperation were needed, African nations established the Organization of African Unity Organization of African Unity (OAU), former international organization, established 1963 at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by 37 independent African nations to promote unity and development; defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of members; eradicate all forms of colonialism; ..... Click the link for more information. (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. This period 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. 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 into the 21st cent., Africa continued to experience political, social, and economic upheaval.

The postindependence era has also been marked by a rise in nationalist struggles. Wars in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia continued, and political instability in these nations continued. Civil war in Ethiopia resulted in the birth (1993) of a new country, Eritrea; in 1998–2000 the two nations fought a bloody border war. Beginning in the 1970s, Chad fought Libyan expansionist activity with help of the French military. Relations between Chad and Libya were finally normalized in 1989. Chad remained beset, however, by regional and ethnic fighting, with rebels receiving support from Sudan in the early 21st cent. while Chad supported Sudanese rebels. The conflict between N and S Sudan largely ended with a peace agreement in 2005, and in 2011 South Sudan voted to become an independent nation. Other conflicts within Sudan, most notably in Darfur but also elsewhere, continued to fester. In the late 1980s, there was a decline of Marxist influence in Angola, from where Cuban troops began to withdraw in 1989, as well as from civil war–torn Mozambique.

A UN-aided peace process in Mozambique culminated in peaceful elections there in 1994, but civil conflict continued until 2002 in Angola, as numerous peace agreements between rebels and the government were broken. South African blacks led an enduring struggle against white domination, with frequent confrontations (such as the Soweto uprising in 1976) leading to government repression and escalating violence. 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). In 1989 newly elected Prime Minister F. W. de Klerk de Klerk, F. W. (Frederik Willem de Klerk) , 1936–, South African statesman, president of South Africa (1989–94). Holding ministerial posts from 1978, he became (1989) acting president when P. W. Botha resigned. ..... Click the link for more information.

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, which brought Nelson Mandela Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla , 1918–2013, South African statesman. He earned a degree (B.A., 1943) after being expelled from the University College of Fort Hare (for taking part in a student protest) and finishing his studies with the Univ. ..... Click the link for more information. and the ANC to power. Other African nations began to introduce democratic reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s that included multiparty elections; transitions to democratically elected leadership have taken place 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 Great Lakes region.

Peace treaties signed in Liberia (1997) and Sierra Leone (1999) between those countries' governments and insurgents promised some hope of stability. In Rwanda in 1994 a Hutu-led government that provoked ethnic tensions leading to the genocide of nearly one million persons was overthrown by Tutsi-led forces; by 1997 there was a growing war between the Rwandan army and Hutu guerrilla bands. Also in 1997, 30 years of dictatorical rule in Zaïre were brought to an end, and the country's name was changed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The new government was soon threatened, however, by mutinous troops who assumed control of large areas of the country; a cease-fire was signed in 1999, but unrest continued in parts of Congo in subsequent years. Nigeria ushered in a new government in 1999 with the first democratically elected president since 1983. Several African countries made positive strides in managing market-oriented economic reform in the 1990s, most notably Ghana, Uganda, and Malawi.

In 1992–93, the worst African drought of the 20th cent. and numerous civil wars were the primary causes of a famine that spread across portions of sub-Saharan Africa and most severely affected the nations of Somalia and Mozambique. The scourge of AIDS has continued to pose a major health threat to many African nations, as a lack of economic resources often has prevented an effective response. Warfare, poverty, and hunger continue to present significant challenges in Africa, where ethnic tensions and political instability, along with the resulting economic disruption, still afflict many countries. Mindful of the OAU's relative ineffectiveness in dealing with these issues and seeking an organization with greater powers to promote African economic, social, and political integration, African leaders established the African Union African Union (AU), international organization established in 2002 by the nations of the former Organization of African Unity (OAU). The AU is the successor organization to the OAU, with greater powers to promote African economic, social, and political integration, and a ..... Click the link for more information. (AU), which superseded the OAU in 2002.

The AU has proved somewhat more effective than OAU, but has had difficulty in successively confronting and resolving serious political crises (and sometimes civil war) in Somalia, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and other nations. Bibliography See P. Curtin, Precolonial African History (1974); R. Hallet, Africa since 1875 (1974); W. A. Hance, The Geography of Modern Africa (rev. ed. 1975); J. D. Fage and R. Oliver, ed., The Cambridge History of Africa (8 vol., 1975–85); A. E. Afigb et al., The Making of Modern Africa (1986); UNESCO staff, The UNESCO General History of Africa (8 vol., 1988); T. Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa (1991); H. L. Wesseling, Divide and Rule: The Partition of Africa, 1880–1914 (1991, tr. 1996); R. Oliver, The African Experience (1992); J.

Reader, Africa: A Biography of the Continent (1998); K. A. Appiah and H. L. Gates, Jr., ed., The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (2000). Africa There is great disagreement among scholars as to the origin of the word “Africa.” Two hypotheses are worthy of attention: one of them explains the word’s origin from the Phoenician root f-r-k, which, with the insertion of certain vowels, means “that which has broken away”—that is, indicating the breaking away of a new city (Carthage is the city in question) from the parent state (the French historian P. Avezac, the French ethnographer H. Duveyrier, and others hold this view); the second hypothesis derives the word “Africa” from the name of one of the ancient Berber tribes—the Avrig or the Afarik (this view is held by the French historian P. Gaffarel and others). Next to Eurasia, Africa is the largest continent. Its area is 29.2 million sq km (with its islands, 30.3 million sq km—about one-fifth of the land area of the earth).

Its population is 328 million people (1967). Africa is nearly bisected by the equator; its outlying areas reach subtropical latitudes. The extreme northern cape, Ben Sekka, lies at 37°20’N lat., the extreme southern cape, Agulhas, lies at 34°52’S lat. Africa is nearly 8,000 km from north to south. Its width is 7,500 km in the north (Cape Almadies to Ras Hafun) and about 3,100 km in the south. Africa is washed by the Mediterranean and Red seas and the Indian and Atlantic oceans. The narrow (120 km) Suez Isthmus, cut by the canal of the same name, joins Africa to Asia. Africa is separated from Europe by the Strait of Gibraltar (minimum width 13 km). The coasts of Africa are weakly incised and frequently mountainous. The coastline is about 30,500 km long; over one-fifth of the area of the continent is 1,000 to 1,500 km away from the oceans and seas.

The large bays are the Gulf of Guinea and the Gulf of Sidra (Syrtis Major). There are few convenient inlets. The largest peninsula is Somaliland. The following islands belong to Africa: in the east, Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, Mascarene Islands, the Ami-rantes, the Seychelles, Pemba, Mafia, Zanzibar, and Socotra; in the west, Madeira, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Anno-bón, Sāo Tomé, Principe, Fernando Póo, and the remote islands of Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha. Basic features of orography. The African topography is dominated by plains, plateaus, and highlands lying at elevations of 200 to 500 m above sea level (39 percent of total area) and 500 to 1,000 m above sea level (28.1 percent of total area). Lowlands account for only 9.8 percent of the total area, principally along littoral margins of the continent.

Africa yields only to the Antarctic continent and Eurasia in average height above sea level (750 m). Almost all of Africa north of the equator is occupied by the plains and plateaus of the Sahara and the Sudan, among which tower, in the center of the Sahara, the Ahaggar and Tibesti highlands (Mount Emi Koussi, elevation 3,415 m), and, in the Sudan, the Darfur plateau (Mount Marrah, 3,088 m). The Atlas Mountains (Mount Toubkal, 4,165 m) rise above the Sahara plains in the northwest, and the Etbai Range (Mount Oda, 2,259 m) extends along the Red Sea on the east. The plains of the Sudan are bordered on the south by the northern Guiñean elevation (Mount Bintimani, 1,948 m) and by the Zande highlands; the Sudan plains are overshadowed on the east by the Ethiopian highlands (Mount Ras Dashan, 4,620 m).

These highlands terminate abruptly in the Danakil (in Russian, Afar) depression, which is Africa’s deepest depression (Lake Assal, 150 m). Beyond the Zande highlands lies the Congo Basin, bordered on the west by the southern Guiñean elevation, on the south by the Lunda-Katanga highlands, and on the east by the East African highlands dominated by Africa’s highest peaks, Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) and Mount Ruwen-zori (5,109 m). Southern Africa contains the high Kalahari plains, rimmed on the west by the Namaqualand, Damaraland, and Kaoko highlands, and on the east by the Drakensberg Mountains (Mount Thabantshonyana, 3,482 m). The Cape Mountains, of medium elevation, stretch along the southern margin of the continent. The prevalence of mountainous topography on the continent is due to the continent’s platform structure.

Elevations lower than 1,000 m (Low Africa) predominate in the northwestern portion of Africa, with a deep-seated basement and a broadly developed sedimentary mantle; in southwestern Africa, where an ancient basement rises in outcroppings at many sites, typical elevations range above 1,000 m (High Africa). The big depressions (Kalahari, Congo, Chad, and other depressions and basins) and the elevations separating them or bordering them correspond to downwarps and protrusions of the African platform. The eastern limits of Africa are the most elevated and fragmented; within the confines of the activated portion of the platform (Ethiopian highlands, East African highlands) extends a complicated system of East African faults. Much of the elevated regions of High Africa is occupied by foundation plains and foundation block mountains enclosing troughs of the grabens of East Africa (including Ruwenzori) and Katanga. In Low Africa, foundation ridges and massifs extend along the shoreline of the Gulf of Guinea and emerge in the Sahara (in the Ahaggar and Tibesti mountainous areas and on the Etbai range).

Lava plateaus and lava cones are widely disseminated on the Ethiopian mountains and in East Africa (Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and elsewhere), crown the peaks of the Ahaggar and Tibesti, and are found in the Sudan (Mount Marrah), Cameroon (Mount Cameroun, Adamawa mountains), and cover the Drakensberg Mountains in Lesotho. Bedded denudation plains and plateaus occupy the greater part of the area in Low Africa (Sahara, Sudan); in High Africa, those features are confined to the deposits of the Karroo syneclise, and form the Drakensberg Mountains and the Veld plateau adjacent to it on the west and the Northern Karroo lying to the south of the Orange River. Accumulation plains are encountered primarily in Low Africa: in the middle course of the Niger River, in the Lake Chad basin and in the White Nile basin, and in the drainage basin of the Congo; in High Africa, accumulation plains occupy the Kalahari depression. Folded block mountains include the Cape Mountains and the inner districts of the Atlas Mountains. The northern ridges of the Atlas range are Africa’s only young folded mountains; they are from the Neocene-Paleogene age.

Surfaces belonging to the Neocenic cycle of denudation and accumulation, disjointed by the present-day Congo cycle, predominate in the African topographical relief. Above these tower outliers of earlier surfaces exposed to the action of more ancient cycles (going as far back as the Gondwana cycle). L. A. M IKHAILOVA Geological structure and mineral resources. Almost all of the African continent, with the exception of the Atlas Mountains in the northwest and the Cape Mountains in the extreme south, forms an ancient platform that also includes the Arabian peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the Seychelles Islands. The basement of this African-Arabian platform, made up of mostly folded and metamorphosed pre-Cambrian rocks, protrudes to the surface in many parts of the African continent, from the Anti-Atlas Mountains in the northwest and western Arabia in the northeast to the Transvaal in the south. Rocks belonging to all age subdivisions of the pre-Cambrian period, from the lower Archean period (of over 3 billion years ago) to the recent Proterozoic, have been identified in the composition of the platform basement.

The consolidation of most of the African continent was completed by the middle of the Proterozoic period ( 1.9 to 1.7 billion years ago); only peripheral (Mauretania-Senegal, Arabia) and some internal (Ugarta-Atakora, west Congolese, Namaqualand-Kibara) geosynclinal systems developed in the late Proterozoic. By the beginning of the Paleozoic period the entire area of the present platform had already been stabilized (according to recent data, the sediments appearing on geological maps south of the Sahara as Cambrian are actually late Proterozoic). On areas of early consolidation, the deposits dating from the late Proterozoic, and in some sites even the early or middle Proterozoic (massifs of Transvaal, Zimbabwe, and elsewhere), are already assigned to the platform mantle. Rocks of the early pre-Cambrian basement are represented by various crystalline schists, gneisses, and metamorphosed igneous formations and by substituted granites over significant areas.

Subordinate to them are iron ore deposits of sedimentary-metamorphic origin, gold (in association with granites), and chromites (in ultrabasic rock species). Major accumulations of gold and uraniferous ores are found in coarsely fragmented rocks of the basement of the sedimentary mantle in southern Africa. Younger and weakly metamorphosed rocks of the upper Proterozoic in intraplat-form folded belts (Katanga, Zambia, South West Africa, and elsewhere) enclose deposited strata of tin, tungsten (in or near granites), copper, lead, zinc, and uranium-bearing ores. The Phanerozoic sedimentary mantle is developed above the pre-Cambrian basement primarily in the western and central portions of North Africa (Sahara platform), the large basins and troughs of Equatorial Africa and South Africa (Congo, Okavango, Kalahari, Karroo), the Mozambique trough on the eastern shoreline and between the continent proper and the island of Madagascar, and also the strip of Atlantic coastline extending from Mauretania to Angola.

The marine early and middle Paleozoic deposits which collected in folds are disseminated mainly in the region of the Sahara platform, where they contain major deposits of petroleum and natural gas (Algeria, Libya), and also in the Atlas and Cape geosynclines. Formations belonging to the upper Paleozoic and Triassic are almost everywhere of the continental type; in Equatorial Africa and South Africa these formations begin with glacial deposits (strata belonging to the upper Carboniferous and the lower Permian), which are outliers of the cover glaciation of a large portion of the continent, and extend farther as lower Permian coal-bearing deposits with which are associated the principal coal resources of Africa (Republic of South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, and elsewhere). The coal-bearing strata in North Africa are the middle Carboniferous, above which are disseminated continental and lagoonal sediments of red coloration (dating to the Triassic with large strata of salts and gypsums). Dating to the start of the Jurassic are some major volcanic eruptions and lava flows and intrusions of basic (basaltic) magma; these are most widely disseminated in southern Africa but are also found in northwest Africa.

Most of Africa experienced uplifting during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous. Continental deposits built up in the inner basins; at the end of the Jurassic and beginning of the Cretaceous, intrusion of alkaline granites and carbonatites is evident, with occurrences of rare elements (such as niobium and tantalum) and also formation of kimberlite pipes with which diamond deposits are associated—these are indigenous and are redeposited in younger sediments and placers (Republic of South Africa, Angola, Zaïre, countries along the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea). Dating to the same era (end of the Jurassic and beginning of the Cretaceous) is the shaping of the present contours of Africa, associated with the subsidence of the bottoms of the Indian and Atlantic oceans along faults and also with the formation of a system of perioceanic troughs containing impressive deposits of offshore petroleum and natural gas (Nigeria, Gabon, Angola, and elsewhere). Madagascar separated from the continent at the close of the Paleozoic. The intense subsidence of the contemporary littoral areas of Tunisia, Libya, and the United Arab Republic (the Arab Republic of Egypt since Sept.

11, 1971), accompanied by the formation of petroliferous deposits in Cretaceous and Eocene sediments, occurred at the same time. Extensive transgression affected the Sahara platform in the middle and late Cretaceous era; seawater straits linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Guinea, and persisting until well into the Eocene, made their appearance. From the close of the Eocene and the beginning of the Oligocene, Africa (and primarily the eastern and southern regions of Africa) experienced vigorous and intense uplifting, accompanied by the formation of mountain relief and the appearance of the East African fault zone and the Great Rift Valley, which involves the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, Ethiopia, Lake Rudolf, Lake Albert, Lake Rukwa, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Nyasa, and other features. A flare-up of volcanic activity, continuing into the modern epoch in some isolated areas (Mount Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro, the voleanos of the Virunga region), stems from the same period.

The uplift processes and the volcanic activity were also manifested in the Ahaggar and Tibesti mountainous areas of the Sahara, in Cameroon (the Cameroun volcano), and in some regions on the Atlantic coastline (Cape Verde). The folded structure of the Atlas mountain range took shape at the close of the Miocene; the central portion receded in the Pliocene along faults to form the Alborán basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Africa possesses large reserves of iron ore (the total reserves are estimated to be in the neighborhood of 16 to 23 billion tons), manganese ores (about 400 million tons), chromites (500 to 700 million tons), bauxites (3.3 billion tons), copper (proved and probable reserves totaling about 48 million tons), cobalt (500,000 tons), phosphorites (26 billion tons), tin, antimony, lithium, uranium, asbestos, gold (Africa yields about 80 percent of the total amount of gold mined in the capitalist and developing countries), platinum and platinoids (about 60 percent of the amount mined), and diamonds (98 percent mined).

Vast reserves of petroleum (total reserves estimated at 5.6 billion tons) and natural gas were discovered on the African continent (mainly in Algeria, Libya, and Nigeria) after World War II. V. E. K HAIN Climate. The African climate is determined by the fact that the larger portion of the continent is located between the two tropics; the climate is characterized by high levels of overall solar radiation (180 to 200 kilocalories per sq cm a year). As a result, most of the continent records high temperatures. The continent is considered the world’s hottest. Average temperatures are in the 25–26°C range on the northern shores of the Gulf of Guinea and in the Congo Basin. Average summer temperatures are highest in the northern Sudan regions, in the Sahara (30–32°C, and as high as 38°C in the western part); the peak temperature recorded on the earth’s surface was 58°C at Azizia (Libya). Summertime temperatures at the subtropical latitudes range from 16° to 22°C.

Average winter temperatures are 16°C at latitudes 20°N and 20°S; the average is about 10°C in the subtropics. The warm Mozambique Current and Cape Agulhas Current wash the eastern shores of Africa southward of the equator and raise and smooth out the temperatures of the littoral areas; the cold Canaries Current and Benguela Current lower temperatures and increase the dryness of the western shores of Africa in the tropics. In the northern hemisphere, the continental nature of the climate of Africa is very pronounced because of the vast expanses of dry land and the proximity of Asia. In the southern hemisphere, abundant rainfall occurs on the windward slopes of the Drakensberg range and the island of Madagascar. The principal circulatory process over the African continent consists of transport of tropical air by trade winds emanating from high-pressure belts in the tropics and heading toward the low-pressure trough at the equator, where westerly winds prevail. The tropical air carried by the trade winds is confronted with equatorial intratropical convergence (ITC) in the northern and southern zones.

Large-wavelength disturbances developing into cyclonic depressions, which are in turn associated with thundershowers bringing heavy precipitation, often occur in those zones. Convectional rainfall is precipitated directly in the mass of equatorial air. Because of the large dimensions of dry land in Africa and consequent drastic seasonal changes in isobaric conditions in the northern and southern hemispheres, the low-pressure equatorial trough shifts very far above Africa either to the north or to the south of the equator. Therefore, trade-wind circulation above the continent is complicated by monsoon circulation flow, which is manifested particularly conspicuously on the northern shoreline of the Gulf of Guinea and above the eastern rim of the continent. The equatorial belt of westerly winds lies between 5°N and 18°N lat. in the summertime in the northern hemisphere, so that most of the annual rainfall is enjoyed by the northern shore of the Gulf of Guinea, the Sudan, and the western slopes of the Ethiopian highlands. The high-pressure area of the offshoot of the Azores maximum is established above northwestern Africa.

From it emanates maritime tropical air that rapidly warms up and does not deliver rain to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea or the Sahara, where the Sahara minimum forms. Winds from the eastern periphery of the Azores maximum blow along the western shoreline. There is almost no rainfall on the Sahara coastline because of cooling of the air carried by those winds over the Canaries Current and also because of the low position of the trade-wind inversion. The basic source of the scanty moisture of that area is provided by the hidden moisture carried by mists and dew. A southwesterly monsoon wind heading toward India visits northeast Africa north from 5°S lat., along the low-lying coastal areas of the Somali peninsula. Rainfall is enjoyed only by the interior mountainous regions of the peninsula. East Africa southward of the equator also enjoys very little precipitation, since the moisture-laden winds arriving from the western periphery of the maximum of the southern Indian Ocean blow mostly parallel to the coast and yield their precipitation only on the windward slopes of the plateau. The interior regions are arid, since continental tropical air flows to the Sahara minimum from the South African maximum, established in the winter in the southern hemisphere above southern Africa at tropical latitudes.

This air mass is carried by southeasterly winds into the subequatorial latitudes of southern Africa, where there is again no precipitation during the winter season. Winds blow from the eastern periphery of the South Atlantic maximum along the western shoreline of the continent in the tropics; the trade-wind inversion lies even lower here than at the western shores of tropical Africa north of the equator, since the Benguela Current is colder than the Canaries Current; and precipitation is infrequent. Cyclonic precipitation on the line of the intratropical front falls along the eastern rim of southern Africa during the winter (heavy snowfall occurs on the peaks of the Drakensberg range). In the wintertime, polar-front cyclonic rains fall in the northern hemisphere, on the windward slopes of the Atlas range, and on the northern shores of Libya and the United Arab Republic. The pressure rises above the Sahara (Sahara maximum), with arid conditions prevailing; circulation unfavorable for precipitation prevails along the Atlantic coastline. The eastern slopes of the Etbai range and of the Ethiopian highlands receive meager precipitation carried from the Red Sea by northeasterly winds blowing from the winter maximum located above the Arabian peninsula.

The belt of equatorial westerly winds shifts southward. The northern zone of intratropical convergence lies at 5°N lat. The Sudan, the Ethiopian highlands, the Somali peninsula, and the northern part of East Africa become filled with tropical air originating in the high-pressure region above the Sahara, Arabia, and India; because of this, they do not receive precipitation. East Africa southward of 5°S lat. receives its rainfall primarily on the eastern slopes of the plateau and also in the mountainous regions to the west, where monsoon streams from the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. In southern Africa, trade winds from the Indian Ocean make their way laden with abundant precipitation to the eastern slopes of Madagascar and the Drakensberg range all the way up to subtropical latitudes. The southern zone of intratropical convergence cuts across southern Africa from 6°S lat. on the west to the tropic of Capricorn on the east, and the South African minimum forms over the Kalahari desert. Summer rainfall delivered predominantly by equatorial air masses from the north strikes South Africa and the Kalahari at the subequa-torial latitudes.

Anticyclonal circulation forming part of the eastern periphery of the South Atlantic maximum acts along the western rim of southern Africa from 6°S lat. to the sub-tropics, and this circulation is particularly stable at tropical latitudes, where exceptional aridity is maintained. A persistently humid and hot equatorial type of climate is found on the shores of the Gulf of Guinea and in the Congo Basin on the basis of seasonal features of the circulation, temperature, and rainfall (from 5°-7°N lat. to 2°-3°S lat.). Here we find the most humid site in Africa, De-bundscha (in the foothills of Mount Cameroun, with an annual precipitation of 9,655 mm); annual precipitation in the remainder of the area is never below 1,500 mm. Southward and northward, the equatorial climate gradually converts to the subequatorial mode (equatorial monsoons) with humid summer and dry winter seasons. The duration of the winter dry season increases from two to ten months, with the annual rainfall declining from 1,800 mm to 300 mm. Southward of 18°S lat.

and northward of 20°N lat., the climate of Africa is tropical, and very arid and desert-like in the northern hemisphere. Annual precipitation in the Sahara region dwindles to 100 mm or less; the eastern Sahara is the most arid region of Africa (10 to 20 mm annual rainfall). Along the western shores, the climate is combined oceanic and arid, with high relative air humidity. Three sectors are distinguished in the tropical belt in the southern hemisphere: an oceanic arid sector in the west, a continental moderately arid and arid sector in the center, and a maritime trade-wind sector with a summertime precipitation maximum in the east. The limits of the African continent lie in subtropical climatic belts. In northern Africa the climate is Mediterranean: on the windward slopes of the Atlas Mountains it is typically Mediterranean, but it becomes arid and semiarid in the interior of the Atlas mountainous region and on the shorelines of Libya and the United Arab Republic.

In South Africa, a typically Mediterranean climate is observed on the southwestern windward slopes of the Cape Mountains, whereas a monsoon subtropical climate with a summertime rainfall maximum prevails on the southeastern rim of that area; the interior regions are semiarid and arid (see Table 1). Rivers and lakes. Africa as a whole is characterized by great annual drainage (5,390 cu km); this drainage is exceeded in volume only by that of Asia and South America. The river network is most dense in the equatorial climatic region; in deserts and on the sandy plains of the Kalahari there are almost no rivers. The continental watershed passes along the eastern elevated part of Africa: 36.05 percent of the area of Africa belongs to the basin of the Atlantic Ocean, about 18.48 percent to the basin of the Indian Ocean, and 14.88 percent to the basin of the Mediterranean Sea. Drainage is principally through five main rivers: the Congo, the Nile, the Niger, the Zambezi, and the Orange, the basins of which cover approximately one-third of the area of Africa.

Among these rivers the Congo is second only to the Amazon in volume of annual flow (1,230 cu km), while the Nile is the longest river on earth (6,671 km). Undrained basins and regions of internal drainage cover 30.5 percent of the area of Africa. The contemporary river network was formed at the end of the Neocene period and in the Anthropogenic period from intakes of young rivers of ancient systems of internal flow and from their outlet to the oceans. Traces of intakes are evident in the loop-shaped bends of large rivers (the Congo and the Niger) and in the alternation of flattened out and steep sections of riverbeds with numerous rapids and waterfalls (Livingstone and Stanley on the Congo River, Victoria on the Zambezi River; the highest waterfall in Africa is Tugela on the Tugela River in the Drakensberg Mountains, at an altitude of 853 m). As the aridity of the climate increased, ancient lakes, into which ancient rivers flowed, decreased in size or disappeared.

Such lakes existed in the Sahara (the Paleo-Saharan sea to the north of the bend of the Niger and others), in the Chad basin (the Paleo-Chad lake), and other areas. Most of the rivers are fed primarily by rainfall. Subsurface recharging predominates in semideserts and deserts. The distribution of surface drainage is extremely uneven. The maximum depth of flow (1,000–1,500 mm per year) is attained in regions of excess moisture and of outlets to the surface of crystalline rocks and lateritic crests (the northwest coast of the Gulf of Guinea, the eastern slopes of Madagascar); in the basin of the Congo the depth of flow is 500–600 mm, while to the north and south of the equator it decreases with the increased aridity of the climate (the northern and eastern part of Sudan, the Sahara, the Kalahari, and Namib). In subtropical latitudes, the flow increases to 200 mm (in the western Atlas Mountains). Almost all the rivers of Africa have considerable seasonal variation in flow. Flow occurs in most rivers primarily in the summer and fall.

Winter flow predominates in the outlying areas of the northwest and southwest, in areas with a Mediterranean climate. There is intermittent drainage in 37 percent of the area of Africa. The following types of rivers are evident in Africa: (1) the equatorial, fed only by rainfall and having an even flow throughout the year; (2) the Sudanese (most common), primarily rain-fed, with summer and fall flow; (3) the Sanaran, which includes temporary or intermittent water courses (in the Sahara these are called wadis); and (4) the Mediterranean, rain-fed and, to some extent, snow-fed, with sharply decreased or altogether curtailed summer flow. All the great rivers of Africa are transit rivers with complex modular flows. Almost all the large lakes of Africa lie in tectonic hollows on the East African plateau. They are long, narrow, and very deep. Lake Tanganyika is the second deepest lake (1,435 m) in the world after Baikal. The largest lake in Africa is Victoria (area, 68,000 sq km)—the second largest freshwater lake in the world (after Lake Superior in North America).

Lake Tana was formed as a lava stream dammed up a valley from below; it is the largest lake on the Ethiopian highlands. Relic lakes of internal drainage predominate in the arid regions of Africa. They are relatively shallow, with flat banks and salty water (the briny Lake Chad is excluded; it has underwater drainage into the Bodélé Depression). In northwestern parts of the Sahara and in the Atlas region, temporary salt lakes are called chotts or sebkhas; as a rule, they are related to foothill and intermontane hollows. Table 1. basic climatic indicators (upper row, temperature; lower row, rainfall) Zone

Question: At 51° 23' E, what is the easternmost point of the African continent?
Answer: Cape Hafun