Portal:Africa



Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will exceed 3.8 billion people by 2100. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, corruption, colonialism, the Cold War, and neocolonialism. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context, and Africa has a large quantity of natural resources.
Africa is highly biodiverse; it is the continent with the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. However, Africa is also heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and pollution. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as the continent most vulnerable to climate change.
The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community. In African societies the oral word is revered, and they have generally recorded their history via oral tradition, which has led anthropologists to term them "oral civilisations", contrasted with "literate civilisations" which pride the written word. African culture is rich and diverse both within and between the continent's regions, encompassing art, cuisine, music and dance, religion, and dress.
Africa, particularly Eastern Africa, is widely accepted to be the place of origin of humans and the Hominidae clade, also known as the great apes. The earliest hominids and their ancestors have been dated to around 7 million years ago, and Homo sapiens (modern human) are believed to have originated in Africa 350,000 to 260,000 years ago. In the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE Ancient Egypt, Kerma, Punt, and the Tichitt Tradition emerged in North, East and West Africa, while from 3000 BCE to 500 CE the Bantu expansion swept from modern-day Cameroon through Central, East, and Southern Africa, displacing or absorbing groups such as the Khoisan and Pygmies. Some African empires include Wagadu, Mali, Songhai, Sokoto, Ife, Benin, Asante, the Fatimids, Almoravids, Almohads, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Kongo, Mwene Muji, Luba, Lunda, Kitara, Aksum, Ethiopia, Adal, Ajuran, Kilwa, Sakalava, Imerina, Maravi, Mutapa, Rozvi, Mthwakazi, and Zulu. Despite the predominance of states, many societies were heterarchical and stateless. Slave trades created various diasporas, especially in the Americas. From the late 19th century to early 20th century, driven by the Second Industrial Revolution, most of Africa was rapidly conquered and colonised by European nations, save for Ethiopia and Liberia. European rule had significant impacts on Africa's societies, and colonies were maintained for the purpose of economic exploitation and extraction of natural resources. Most present states emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II, and established the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, the predecessor to the African Union. The nascent countries decided to keep their colonial borders, with traditional power structures used in governance to varying degrees. (Full article...)
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Apedemak or Apademak (originally, due to the absence of the /p/ phoneme in Meroitic, it was probably pronounced 'abademak' (Father king) ) was a major deity in the ancient Nubian and Kushite pantheon. Often depicted as a figure with a male human torso and a lion head, and at the temple of Naqa with a snakes body and a lion's head, Apedemak was a war god worshiped by the Meroitic peoples inhabiting Kush. He is often considered the equivalent of Maahes the lion-headed war god of Egypt, despite a claim of the two not being counterparts. As a war god, Apedemak came to symbolize martial power, military conquest, and empire. Apedemak is also closely associated with Amun, the state-sponsored Egyptian deity during the preceding Napatan period, and is assumed to hold an equal level of importance. (Full article...)
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Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... that in 2022, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America was a finalist for both an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and an Audie Award for Multi-voiced Performance?
- ... that Their Highest Potential shows the positive side of segregated schools, as written by a student who was taught in one?
- ... that opera singer Charles Holland spent much of his career in Europe as opportunities in classical music for African Americans were limited?
- ... that the bronze statue atop Thomas Eyre Macklin's 1907 South African War Memorial in Newcastle became known as the "Dirty Angel"?
- ... that activist Gerlin Bean co-founded the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent in 1978, an event described as "a watershed in the history of Black women's rights activism"?
- ... that Malaysian businessman Lim Kok Wing was depicted as "King of Africa"?
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Selected biography –
Didier Yves Drogba Tébily (French pronunciation: [didje iv dʁɔɡba tebili]; born 11 March 1978) is an Ivorian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the all-time top scorer and former captain of the Ivory Coast national team. He is known for his career at Chelsea, where he is the club’s top goalscorer as a foreign player and is currently the club's fourth highest goalscorer of all time. In 2012, Drogba was named Chelsea's greatest ever player in a poll of 20,000 fans conducted by Chelsea Magazine. In 2020, he was named in the Chelsea team of the 2010–2020 decade. Widely regarded as one of the greatest African players of all time, he was known for his pace, aerial abilities, and powerful and accurate strikes. Drogba was named African Footballer of the Year twice (2006 and 2009).
After playing in youth teams, Drogba made his debut into football at the age of 21 for Ligue 2 club Le Mans. After finishing the 2002–03 season with 17 goals in 34 appearances for Ligue 1 side Guingamp, he moved to Olympique de Marseille, where he finished as the third highest goalscorer in the 2003–04 season with 19 goals and helped the club reach the 2004 UEFA Cup Final. (Full article...)
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Mauritania (Arabic: موريتانيا Mūrītāniyā), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Moroccan-annexed territory of Western Sahara on the northwest. It is named after the ancient Berber kingdom of Mauretania. The capital and largest city is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast.
Approximately three-fourths of Mauritania is desert or semidesert. As a result of extended, severe drought, the desert has been expanding since the mid-1960s. A majority of the population still depends on agriculture and livestock for a livelihood, even though most of the nomads and many subsistence farmers were forced into the cities by recurrent droughts in the 1970s and 1980s. Mauritania has extensive deposits of iron ore, which account for almost 50% of total exports. The nation's coastal waters are among the richest fishing areas in the world, but overexploitation by foreigners threatens this key source of revenue. (Read more...)
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Fes (/fɛs/; Arabic: فاس, romanized: fās) or Fez (/fɛz/) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fez-Meknes administrative region. It is one of the largest cities in Morocco, with a population of 1.256 million, according to the 2024 census. Located to the northwest of the Atlas Mountains, it is surrounded by hills and the old city is centered around the Fez River (Oued Fes) flowing from west to east. Fez has been called the "Mecca of the West" and the "Athens of Africa". It is also considered the spiritual and cultural capital of Morocco.
Founded under Idrisid rule during the 8th–9th centuries CE, Fez initially consisted of two autonomous and competing settlements. Successive waves of mainly Arab immigrants from Ifriqiya (Tunisia) and al-Andalus (Spain/Portugal) in the early 9th century gave the nascent city its Arab character. After the downfall of the Idrisid dynasty, other empires came and went until the 11th century when the Almoravid Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin united the two settlements into what is today's Fes el-Bali (lit. 'Old Fes') quarter, a.k.a. Medina of Fez. Under Almoravid rule, the city gained a reputation for religious scholarship and mercantile activity. (Full article...)
In the news
- 7 April 2025 – Herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria
- The National Emergency Management Agency reports that at least 52 people have been killed and over 2,000 others have been displaced from their homes in recent days in tit for tat attacks by rival herders over control of arable land in Plateau State, Nigeria. (Reuters)
- 6 April 2025 – Somali Civil War
- At least eight civilians are injured after Al-Shabaab militants launch mortar shells for the second consecutive day targeting Aden Adde International Airport and the heavily fortified Halane compound in Mogadishu. Following the attack, Turkish Airlines and Egyptair cancel scheduled flights. (Garowe Online) (Hiiraan Online) (Garowe Online)
- 6 April 2025 –
- Around thirty people are killed from overnight heavy flooding caused by torrential rains and water overflowing from the banks of the Ndjili River in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Al Jazeera)
- 5 April 2025 – Somali Civil War
- Colonel Nur Farey, the senior Somali military commander of the 14th brigade, is assassinated by a man believed to be an al-Shabaab militant in Addow Dibille near Afgoye, Lower Shabelle, Somalia. (Hiiraan Online)
- 5 April 2025 – South Sudan–United States relations, Immigration policy of the second Donald Trump administration
- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces the revocation of all visas of South Sudanese passport holders, citing "the failure of South Sudan's transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner." (BBC)
- 4 April 2025 – M23 campaign
- The Congolese media reports that M23 rebels retreating from Walikale have arrived in Kibua in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Critical Threats)
Updated: 17:05, 7 April 2025
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Africa topics
More did you know –

- ... that the British Museum's oldest African-American object is the Akan Drum (pictured) that was used to "dance the slaves"?
- ... that L.C. Lecesne rose to prominence as an activist against slavery after the British Government compensated him for his illegal exile from Jamaica?
- ... that despite receiving a budget allocation in 2003, the public sports stadium in Gibeon, Namibia, hadn't been repaired as of December 2007?
- ... that Thomas Edward Wilkinson was made Bishop of Zululand after his predecessor in South Africa, John Colenso, was excommunicated?
Related portals
Major Religions in Africa
North Africa
West Africa
Central Africa
East Africa
Southern Africa
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