 There are 54 countries and one “non-self governing territory”, the Western Sahara, in

Africa.
 All of Africa was colonized by foreign powers during the “scramble for Africa”, except
Ethiopia and Liberia.
 Before colonial rule Africa comprised up to 10,000 different states and autonomous
groups with distinct languages and customs.
 The Pharaonic civilization of ancient Egypt is one of the world’s oldest and longest-
lasting civilizations.
 African continent is the world’s oldest populated area.
 Arabic is spoken by 170 million people on the continent, followed in popularity by
English (130 million), Swahili (100), French (115), Berber (50), Hausa (50), Portuguese
(20) and Spanish (10).
 Over 25% all languages are spoken only in Africa with over 2,000 recognised languages
spoken on the continent.
 Africa is the second most populous continent with about 1.1 billion people or 16% of the
world’s population. Over 50% of Africans are under the age of 25.
 The continent’s population will more than double to 2.3 billion people by 2050.
 Africa is the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped continent with a continental GDP
that accounts for just 2.4% of global GDP.
 Almost 40% of adults in Africa are illiterate – two-thirds are women. Adult literacy rates
are below 50% in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal,
Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
 Over 25 million people are HIV-positive on the continent and over 17 million have died
of the disease already.
 The Second Congo War claimed over 5.4 million lives and is the deadliest worldwide
conflict since World War II.
 There are fewer people with internet connections in Africa than there are in just New
York City.
 Approximately 90% of all cases of malaria worldwide occur in Africa, accounting for
24% of all child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa.

 Africa is the world’s second largest continent covering about over 30 million square
kilometers
 The Sahara is the largest desert in the world and is bigger than the continental USA.
 Africa is the world’s hottest continent with deserts and drylands covering 60% of land
surface area (e.g. Kalahari, Sahara and Namib).
 Africa is the world’s second driest continent (after Australia).
 Africa has approximately 30% of the earth’s remaining mineral resources.
 Nigeria is fourth largest oil exporter in the world, and Africa’s biggest oil producer with
about 2.2 million barrels produced every day. Top 10 oil producers in order of total
exports: Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of
Congo, Gabon, South Africa.
 The continent has the largest reserves of precious metals with over 40% of the gold
reserves, over 60% of the cobalt, and 90% of the platinum reserves.

 China is Africa’s top trade partner with Sino-African trade volumes now nearing $200
billion per year.
 China’s direct investment in Africa exceeds $50 billion. Just look at the “Forum on China
Africa Cooperation”.
 Neocolonialism is a real threat with over 1 million Chinese citizens on the African
continent. Angola alone has a population of over 350,000 Chinese.

 Over 55% of Africa’s labour force working in food production with vast areas of arable
and pastoral lands supporting agricultural economies.
 Over 90% of soils are unsuitable for agriculture and only 0.25% has moderate to low
potential for sustainable farming.
 Rainfall variability is very high – from 0 mm/year in the Sahara to 9,500 mm/year near
Mount Cameroon.
 Over 240 million Africans suffer from chronic undernourishment.

 Water scarcity impacts the lives of over 300 million Africans, of

whom approximately 75% of Africans rely on groundwater as their primary source of
drinking water. Global warming is aggravating the situation.
 Limited groundwater represents only 15% of the continent’s total renewable water
resources. New discoveries of groundwater reserves in large sedimentary basins in Libya,
Algeria and Chad may slack Africa’s growing thirst for the next few decades…
 Productivity of about 65% of the continent’s agricultural lands has declined
significantly with vast tracts of land have been degraded by erosion, poor land
management practices, mining and pollution over the last 50 years.
 Some landscapes are estimated to lose over 50 metric tonnes of soil per hectare per
year due to neglect and desertification.
 Over 30% of Africa’s pastural land and almost 20% of all forests and woodlands are
classified as moderately- or heavily-degraded.

 Deforestation rates in Africa are twice the average for the rest of the world with more
than four million hectares of primary forest disappearing every year. Countries like
Kenya, malawi and Zambia have 1-5% of the primary forests remaining. Forests used to
cover over 20% of Africa’s 30 million square kilometers with almost all currently being
destroyed and degraded by commercial and subsistence logging, as well as land
conversion to plantations, agriculture, mines, roads and settlements.
 Some 60% of the tropical forests in the Congo Basin are considered commercially
exploitable.
 Six of the top ten countries with the largest annual net loss of forested area are in Africa.
 Primary forests shrink by on average 40,000 square kilometres (or 0.6% of total
remaining forest cover) each year with most significant losses in heavily-forested
countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon.

 Over 1,270 large dams have been built along the continent’s many rivers.
 Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and the second-largest freshwater lake in the
world.
 Africa has the most extensive biomass burning in the world, yet only emits about 4% of
the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions.
 Africa has eight of the 11 major biomes and the largest-remaining populations of lion,
elephant, rhinoceros, cheetah, hyena, leopard and hundreds of other species.

 Megafauna like giraffe, zebra, gorilla, hippopotamus, chimpanzee and wildebeest are
unique to the continent and only found here.
 Lake Malawi has more fish species than any other freshwater system on earth.
 The Nile River is the longest river in the world with a total length of 6,650 kilometres.
 Africa has over 85% of the world’s elephants and over 99% of the remaining lions are on
the African continent.
 Eight of Conservation International’s 34 biodiversity hotspots are in Africa.
 The Serengeti (Tanzania) hosts the world’s largest wildlife migration on Earth with over
750,000 zebra marching ahead of 1.2 million wildebeest as they cross this amazing
landscape.
 Thera are over 3,000 protected areas in Africa, including 198 Marine Protected Areas, 50
Biosphere Reserves, 129 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and 80 RAMSAR “Wetlands
of International Importance”.
 Africa is home to the world’s largest living land animal, the African elephant, which can
weigh up to 7 tons.
  Africa has over 25% of the world’s bird species.

Interesting Africa Facts - People of Africa

 The African continent has the second largest population in the world, at about one billion
people.
 Well over one thousand languages are spoken by the people of Africa. Some estimates
put this number closer to two thousand.
 The largest religion in Africa is Islam, followed by Christianity.
 The African population is approximately 14.72% of the world's population (as of 2009).
 The oldest human remains ever discovered were found in Ethiopia. They are
approximately 200,000 years old.

Interesting Africa Facts - Africa Landforms

 The longest river in the world, the Nile (4,132 miles), is located in Africa.
 Africa has the world's largest desert, the Sahara, which is almost the size of the United
States.
 Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in Africa; it is 355 feet high and one mile wide.
 Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain on the continent. It towers over 19,300 feet,
which is so tall that glaciers can be found at its summit even though the mountain is near
the equator.
 Madagascar is the largest island in Africa and the fourth largest island in the world. It is
in the Indian Ocean off the East coast of Africa.
 A plateau called Witwatersrand in South Africa has produced half of the gold ever mined
on Earth.
Interesting Africa Facts - The continent

 Africa is the second largest continent on earth, approximately 11.7 million square miles.
 Africa straddles the equator and is the only continent to extend from the northern
temperate zone to the southern temperate zone.
 Africa is the hottest continent on earth.
 Sudan is Africa's largest country (968,000 square miles).
 Africa covers 6 percent of the earth's total surface and 20.4 percent of the total land area.
 Cairo is the continents largest city.
 Long before humans were around (the early Mesozoic Era) Africa was joined to the other
continents in a massive continent called Pangaea. Over millions of years this huge
continent broke apart shaping the world landscape as we know it today.
 It is widely believed the African continent got its name from the ancient Romans. Upon
defeating the ancient northern African city of Carthage, the Romans founded a province
there they named Africa; named after the Afri tribe that inhabited the area.
 Dallol in Northern Ethiopia has the world's hottest average temperature. The average
temperature in this locality is 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33.89 degrees Celsius).

Interesting Africa Facts - Animals

 Africa is full of dangerous animals that account for thousands of human deaths per year.
Mosquitos which can transmit numerous dangerous diseases such as malaria kill the most
people. Other deadly animals include the hippopotamus, the deadliest mammal, and the
Puff Adder, the most dangerous snake.
 Interesting Africa Facts - Animals

 The worlds largest land animal is the African elephant.

 The worlds tallest animal, the giraffe, lives in Africa.
 The fastest land animal in the world, the cheetah, lives in Africa.
 Africa is home to the worlds largest reptile, the Nile crocodile.
 The gorilla, which can be found in the continents jungles, is the worlds largest primate.
 The world's largest frog, the goliath frog (also called the goliath bullfrog) lives in Africa.
They can be found in the central African countries of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.
They can grow to lengths of over 1 foot (30.5 centimeters).
 Twenty five percent of the earth's bird species live in Africa.

Africa is the world's hottest continent, and the world's second driest continent.[21]
 Africa is the second-largest continent in the world, making up approximately 22% of the
Earth’s total land area and 6% of Earth's total surface.[21]
 Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, with over 1.1 billion people, or
about 16% of the world’s population. Asia is the most populous continent, with over 4.4 billion
people, or 59% of the world's population. [21]
 Africa is the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped continent. The average poor person in
sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to live on just $.70 a day.[12][21]
 Of the 40% of Africans who are illiterate, 2/3 are women.[21]
 Over half of the population of Africa is under 25 years old, which makes it the youngest
population in the world.[21]
 In Africa, over 25 million people have HIV and over 17 million have died of the disease
already.[21]
 More people in New York City have Internet connections than people in all of Africa. [21]
 Of all the malaria cases in the world, 90% occur in Africa.[21]
 Deforestation rates in Africa are twice the average for the rest of the world. Kenya and
Zambia only have about 1-5% of the primary forests remaining.[21]
 Africa has over 25% of the world’s bird species.[21]
 Over one thousand languages are spoken in Africa, and some scholars place this number
closer to two thousand.[19]
 All of Africa, except for Ethiopia and Liberia, were colonized by foreign powers during the
 Africa has 54 sovereign countries, the most of any continent.[19]
 Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world.
[11]

 Egypt is the most popular tourist destination in Africa, attracting around 10 million visitors
per year.[11]
 While Egypt is most well known for its pyramids, the Republic of Sudan actually has 223 of
its own pyramids, double the number of pyramids in Egypt.[11]
 Four of the five fastest land animals reside in Africa: the cheetah, the wildebeest, the lion, and
the Thomson’s gazelle. All of these animals can run at speeds above 50 miles per hour, with the
cheetah reaching a top speed of about 70 miles per hour.[11]
 In Africa, women and children walk an average of 3.7 miles a day just to get the water they
need to survive.[15]

 George Lucas filmed various parts of Star Wars in the Tunisian Sahara Desert. However, the
movie sets are slowly being engulfed by moving sand dunes.[2]
 Charles Darwin was the first to suggest that humans first emerged in Africa. However,
prejudicial attitudes toward the continent made many people in the Western world highly
resistant to the idea until well into the twentieth century.[20]
 Africa is home to the world’s largest living land animal, the African elephant, which can
weigh between 6 and 7 tons.[11]
 In 1974, scientists discovered the oldest known human ancestor in Ethiopia. The 3.2-million
year old skeleton was named "Lucy" after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,"
which was playing in the expedition camp.[22]
 Most etymologists believe the name "Africa" derived from Afri, the title for a group of people
who dwelt in North Africa near Carthage around the third century B.C., and -ca, the Roman
suffix for “country” or “land.”[9]
 Between the 7th and 20th centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East)
captured and exported 18 million slaves from Africa.[10]
 Ancient Greeks and Romans originally used the term “Africa” to apply only to the northern
region of the continent. In Latin, the word Africa means “sunny,” and the word Aphrike in Greek
means “without cold.”[11]
 Ethiopia is featured prominently in several ancient Greek dramas and poems. The Greek poet
Homer mentions Ethiopians in both the Iliad and the Odyssey as a “blameless race” and
“amongst the noblest of men.”[11]
 Islam is currently the largest religion in Africa, with Christianity following closely behind.
These two religions make up 85% of the continent’s population, while just 15% of the population
are nonreligious or follow traditional African religions.[12]
 While Africa is the second largest of the earth’s seven continents, it has the shortest coastline,
due to very few jutting edges and bays in its landscape.[3]
 The deadliest animal in all of Africa is the hippo.[3]
 Barbary pirates captured over 1 million Europeans and sold them as slaves in North Africa
between the 16th and 19th centuries.[6]
 The Second Congo War (1998-2003) claimed over 5.4 million lives. It is the deadliest
worldwide conflict since WWII.[21]
 In developing countries in Africa, women typically work 12 to 13 hours per week more than
men.[1]
 Tigers only live in Asia, not in Africa.[14]
 The United States, China, India, New Zealand, Argentina and Europe could all fit within
Africa.[3]
 In South Africa, people can attach flamethrowers to their cars to prevent car jacking. [4]
 The world’s largest frog, the Goliath frog, is found in Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.[18]
 Ethiopia is the only country in Africa with its own alphabet, Ethiopic. It has a whopping 345
letters.[8]
 Benin, in West Africa, holds the the record for the country with the most twin births, at 27.0
twins per 1,000 births. The world average is 13.6 twins per 1,000 births.[13]
 Nearly half of all the gold ever mined in history has come from Witwatersrand, South Africa.
[5]

 The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest in the
world after Antarctica and the Arctic. Located in North Africa, it is slightly larger than the
continental USA.

 The ancient Egyptian city of Kahun was the first planned city in the world.[19]
 Women in sub-Saharan Africa are over 230 times more likely to die during childbirth or
pregnancy than women in North America.[17]
 Approximately 589 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live without electricity, which
means that 80 percent of the population relies on energy sources such as wood, charcoal and
dung in order to cook.[17]
 Common English words with African origins include, aardvark, banjo, chigger, chimpanzee,
cola, coffee, gumbo, jamboree, jazz, jumbo, impala, safari, tango, voodoo, yam, zebra, and
zombie.[7]
 The oldest known mathematical object is the Lebombo bone, which was discovered in the
Lebombo Mountains of Swaziland. It dates to approximately 35,000 B.C.[9]
 Scholars describe West African city of Timbuktu as "the Paris of the Medieval World"
because of its ancient intellectual culture. It is the home of thousands of medieval manuscripts,
including poetry by women, legal reflections, and innovative scientific discussions.[19]
 The world's largest reptile, the Nile crocodile makes it home in Africa.[20]
 Approximately one in three people living in sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished.[17]
 Built by North Korean propaganda artists, the African Renaissance Monument stands taller
than the Statue of Liberty and is built to last until 3200 A.D. Unfortunately, the statue's depiction
of a near-naked man holding a woman with an exposed breast caused controversy among the
92% Muslim population.[16]

 The deadliest animal in all of Africa is the hippo.[3]

 Barbary pirates captured over 1 million Europeans and sold them as slaves in North Africa
between the 16th and 19th centuries.[6]
 The Second Congo War (1998-2003) claimed over 5.4 million lives. It is the deadliest
worldwide conflict since WWII.[21]
 In developing countries in Africa, women typically work 12 to 13 hours per week more than
men.[1]