Africa is the second largest continent in the world and the second most populous after Asia. With an area of 30,224,050 km² including adjacent islands, this continent covers 20.3% of the total land area of the Earth.
With 800 million people in 54 countries, the continent is home to one-seventh of the world's population.
Derived from Latin, Africa terra - land of Afri (plural of Afer) - to denote the northern part of the continent, currently part of Tunisia, seat of the Roman province of Africa.
The origin of the word Afer is probably from the Phoenician language, afar meaning dust; or of the Afridi tribe, who inhabited the northern part of the continent near Carthage; or from the Greek aphrike meaning without cold; or from the Latin aprica meaning bright.
Most of the countries on this continent are former colonies, with the exception of South Africa, Ethiopia and Liberia. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a former colony of Belgium, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, a former British colony.
Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo and Madagascar, former French colonies. Togo, Cameroon, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Namibia were former German colonies. Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, former Italian colonies.
Guinea Bissau, Angola, Malawi and Mozambique are former Italian colonies. And Western Sahara which is a former Spanish colony. One third, namely 15 of the 47 countries are landlocked.
Territories in Africa that are territorial territories of other countries:
- Azores (Portugal)
- Canary Islands (Spain)
- Ceuta and Melilla (Spain / claimed by Morocco)
- Madeira (Portugal)
- Mayotte (France)
- Reunion (France)
- Saint Helena (United Kingdom)
Current territory contradicted:
- Western Sahara (claimed by Morocco)
It is among the poorest inhabited continents: The Human Development Report 2003 of the United Nations (with 75 countries) lists positions 151 (Gambia) to 175 (Sierra Leone) with African countries.
Its people follow different religions, with Christianity and Islam being the two most widespread. About 40% are Christian and another 40% are Muslim. Approximately 20% adhere to indigenous African religions. A small number also embraced Judaism, such as the Beta Israel and Lemba tribes.
According to most estimates, the continent has more than a thousand languages. There are four major language groups originating from this continent, namely:
Afro-Asiatic is a language group consisting of about 240 languages and 285 million speakers widely distributed throughout North Africa, East, Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
Nile-Saharan consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. The Nile-Saharan language is spoken mostly in Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and northern Tanzania.
Niger-Congo covers most of the sub-Saharan continent and is probably the largest language group in the world in terms of the number of languages. A large number of these are Bantu languages spoken throughout much of the sub-Saharan continent.
Khoisan consists of about 50 languages and is spoken in southern Africa by about 120,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San tribes are considered the original inhabitants of this region.