History UsefulNotes / Africa

->'''Capital & Largest Metropolitan Area''': Banjul
->'''Largest City''': Serekunda

The second largest continent in the world after {{UsefulNotes/Asia}} in both geographic size and population, Africa covers one-fifth of the Earth's land surface and contains 54 countries[[note]]56 if you include the separatist states of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Western Sahara and Somaliland, from Morocco and Somalia respectively. While 46 nations recognize the Western Sahara, the arguably more legitimate Somaliland has absolutely no recognition from anybody at all[[/note]], 8 dependencies, two thousand languages and upwards of a billion people. Its primary cultural divide is between the largely Arabic-speaking Muslim states north of the Sahara plus the country of Sudan (known collectively as North Africa), which have more in common with the rest of the UsefulNotes/ArabWorld than the rest of the continent, and "Black Africa" or sub-Saharan Africa further south. There are ''a lot'' of other divisions, though, including the differences between Southern Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa[[note]]Southern Africa is more Westernized than the rest of the continent, has more British, Dutch and German influences than the rest of Africa (which is more French and Portuguese influenced), is more temperate than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, has the largest number of Asians, coloureds (people of mixed Asian, African and European descent, mostly native to western South Africa) and whites in Africa, and is more developed and stable than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa along with having the world's largest platinum supply, though it still has its own problems, especially HIV/AIDS, income inequality and poverty[[/note]] and the transition zones just south of the Sahara: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahel Sahel]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan_(region) Sudan]] (which confusingly does not include the country of Sudan, where the people are for the most part culturally Arab but look "African" to outsiders).[[note]]This makes sense if you know Arabic; "Sudan" in Arabic means "Land of the Blacks", but historically this was purely a comment on skin color rather than identifying some "race" of people distinguished from Arabs. As there have always been dark-skinned Arabs--particularly in UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}} (which is strongly linked to the Horn of Africa)--the "Blacks" in question could also be Arab.[[/note]] Africa is sometimes also merged with UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} and UsefulNotes/{{Asia}} as Afro-Eurasia.

If you are curious about African-Americans, they are the American-born descendants of Africans brought over to the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates as slaves in the Atlantic slave trade, particularly West Africans, with most African-Americans being of Nigerian descent. They are not to be confused with Africans from the continent itself, though African-Americans did establish a country in West Africa, Liberia, with that country having its own unique ethnic group, Americo-Liberians, as a result, and they also founded Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Most Caribs are also descended from West Africans brought to the islands by Europeans in the same slave trade, with UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean having many aspects of West African culture in general as a result.

* SaltAndPepper

For Africa in fiction, see {{Afrofuturism}}, AncientAfrica, {{Bulungi}} and DarkestAfrica. See also AmoralAfrikaner, GreatWhiteHunter and MightyWhitey. And despite what you may have heard, [[AfricaIsACountry Africa is not a country]].

* AncientAfrica

Before the 4th millennium BCE, Africa was a very lush and green continent, a situation that remains today in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. In the north, however, there was a gradual desertification caused by an abrupt climate shift, which transformed the area into a sandy wasteland, barring some areas in the far north, where fertile valleys are barricaded from the desert by the Atlas Mountains, well as the banks of the Nile river. The Sahara geographically, culturally, and racially separated Africans since ancient times, with North Africa being primarily inhabited by the olive-skinned Egyptians and Berbers, while black-skinned Sub-Saharan Africans predominate areas to the south of the Great Desert. As a result of continual climate change and environmental neglect, desertification is still a phenomenon that can be observed in Africa today, thus pushing the Sahara further and further south.

Africa is ''much'' bigger than most people realize, largely because of the distortions formed by creating a flat map of the round Earth, which also has the unfortunate side effect of making UsefulNotes/{{Greenland}} look a lot bigger than it actually is (in reality, Greenland is over 250 km2 (96.53 sq mi) smaller than Africa's second-largest country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo). To get an idea of Africa's scale, it is comparable to the continents of UsefulNotes/{{Antarctica}}, Europe and UsefulNotes/{{Oceania}} ''combined''. Of course, this could also be attributed to the fact that Africa quite possibly constitutes the world's biggest HufflepuffHouse despite housing a billion plus people. Out of about 55 countries, only Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, Somalia, Madagascar, and South Africa are really known by the general Western public (and Madagascar has [[Franchise/{{Madagascar}} DreamWorks]] to thank for much of its recognition)…

The continent is often stereotyped as the land of [[PerpetualPoverty poor]], [[NeverLearnedToRead illiterate]], [[DelicateAndSickly sick]] blacks who [[DevelopingNationsLackCities live in hut villages]] and often [[CivilWar wage war]] against [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny repressive governments]] led by [[AxCrazy loony]] [[PresidentEvil presidents]] who [[ItsAllAboutMe have egos the length of seventh heaven]] and/or the land of starving children living among [[DarkestAfrica untamed wilderness]], who warrant [[CondescendingCompassion sympathy]] from [[MightyWhitey rich whites]] to [[WhiteMansBurden conque- er, "educate" them]], yet are always hindered by [[AfricanTerrorists Western-hating terrorists]] who would [[MadeASlave smuggle people in and out]] for [[MoneyDearBoy blood diamonds]] or [[TheFundamentalist declare religious utopia somewhere]]. Sadly, those kinds of stereotypes are exactly why most of Africa becomes so unknown to the West and why so little media can accurately depict its culture and peculiarities, or how, what and why the problems are affecting the continent the way it is, and whether it is because of excessive racism and xenophobia or just plain ignorance and lack of education about the continent can be left up to interpretation.

If you are curious about African-Americans, they are the American-born descendants of Africans brought over to the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates as slaves in the Atlantic slave trade, particularly West Africans, with most African-Americans being of Nigerian descent. They are not to be confused with Africans from the continent itself, though African-Americans did establish a country in West Africa, Liberia (which is notably one of the only two countries in the continent that weren't colonized by Europeans during the 19th century, the other being Ethiopia[[note]]though UsefulNotes/FascistItaly briefly took over Ethiopia in the 20th century[[/note]]), with that country having it's own unique ethnic group, Americo-Liberians, as a result, and they also founded Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Most Caribs are also descended from West Africans brought to the islands by Europeans in the same slave trade, with UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean having many aspects of West African culture in general as a result.

For Africa in fiction, see {{Afrofuturism}}, AncientAfrica, {{Bulungi}} and DarkestAfrica. See also AmoralAfrikaner, GreatWhiteHunter and MightyWhitey. And despite what you may have heard, [[AfricaIsACountry Africa is not a country]].[[note]](though the term was originally meant for just one province of UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire in the area between present-day Tunis and Tripoli, which was taken from an earlier Punic term that probably designated Carthage. The term was later expanded to include all of the continent, but the Siculo-Normans used it anyway to designate the same region conquered [[TheHighMiddleAges during the 12th century]], which was [[InNameOnly styled]] as "The Kingdom of Africa")[[/note]]

Africa is ''much'' bigger than most people realize, largely because of the distortions formed by creating a flat map of the round Earth, which also has the unfortunate side effect of making UsefulNotes/{{Greenland}} look a lot bigger than it actually is (in reality, Greenland is over 250 km2 (96.53 sq mi) smaller than Africa's second-largest country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo). To get an idea of Africa's scale, it is comparable to the continents of UsefulNotes/{{Antarctica}}, Europe and UsefulNotes/{{Oceania}} ''combined''. Of course, this could also be attributed to the fact that Africa quite possibly constitutes the world's biggest HufflepuffHouse despite housing a billion plus people. Out of about 55 countries, only Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, Somalia, Madagascar, and South Africa are really known by the general Western public (and Madagascar has [[WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}} DreamWorks]] to thank for much of its recognition)…

The second largest continent in the world after {{UsefulNotes/Asia}} in both geographic size and population, Africa covers one-fifth of the Earth's land surface and contains 54 countries[[note]]56 if you include the separatist states of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Western Sahara and Somaliland, from Morocco and Somalia respectively. While 46 nations recognize the Western Sahara, the arguably more legitimate Somaliland has absolutely no recognition from anybody at all[[/note]], 8 dependencies, two thousand languages and upwards of a billion people. Its primary cultural divide is between the largely Arabic-speaking Muslim states north of the Sahara plus the country of Sudan (known collectively as North Africa), which have more in common with the rest of the Arab world than the rest of the continent, and "Black Africa" or sub-Saharan Africa further south. There are ''a lot'' of other divisions, though, including the differences between Southern Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa[[note]]Southern Africa is more Westernized than the rest of the continent, has more British, Dutch and German influences than the rest of Africa (which is more French and Portuguese influenced), is more temperate than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, has the largest number of Asians, coloureds (people of mixed Asian, African and European descent, mostly native to western South Africa) and whites in Africa, and is more developed and stable than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa along with having the world's largest platinum supply, though it still has its own problems, especially HIV/AIDS, income inequality and poverty[[/note]] and the transition zones just south of the Sahara: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahel Sahel]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan_(region) Sudan]] (which confusingly does not include the country of Sudan, where the people are for the most part culturally Arab but look "African" to outsiders).[[note]]This makes sense if you know Arabic; "Sudan" in Arabic means "Land of the Blacks", but historically this was purely a comment on skin color rather than identifying some "race" of people distinguished from Arabs. As there have always been dark-skinned Arabs--particularly in UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}} (which is strongly linked to the Horn of Africa)--the "Blacks" in question could also be Arab.[[/note]] Africa is sometimes also merged with UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} and UsefulNotes/{{Asia}} as Afro-Eurasia.

The second largest continent in the world after Asia in both geographic size and population, Africa covers one-fifth of the Earth's land surface and contains 54 countries[[note]]56 if you include the separatist states of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/Western Sahara and Somaliland, from Morocco and Somalia respectively. While 46 nations recognize the Western Sahara, the arguably more legitimate Somaliland has absolutely no recognition from anybody at all[[/note]], 8 dependencies, two thousand languages and upwards of a billion people. Its primary cultural divide is between the largely Arabic-speaking Muslim states north of the Sahara plus the country of Sudan (known collectively as North Africa), which have more in common with the rest of the Arab world than the rest of the continent, and "Black Africa" or sub-Saharan Africa further south. There are ''a lot'' of other divisions, though, including the differences between Southern Africa and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa[[note]]Southern Africa is more Westernized than the rest of the continent, has more British, Dutch and German influences than the rest of Africa (which is more French and Portuguese influenced), is more temperate than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, has the largest number of Asians, coloureds (people of mixed Asian, African and European descent, mostly native to western South Africa) and whites in Africa, and is more developed and stable than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa along with having the world's largest platinum supply, though it still has its own problems, especially HIV/AIDS, income inequality and poverty[[/note]] and the transition zones just south of the Sahara: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahel Sahel]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan_(region) Sudan]] (which confusingly does not include the country of Sudan, where the people are for the most part culturally Arab but look "African" to outsiders).[[note]]This makes sense if you know Arabic; "Sudan" in Arabic means "Land of the Blacks", but historically this was purely a comment on skin color rather than identifying some "race" of people distinguished from Arabs. As there have always been dark-skinned Arabs--particularly in UsefulNotes/{{Yemen}} (which is strongly linked to the Horn of Africa)--the "Blacks" in question could also be Arab.[[/note]] Africa is sometimes also merged with UsefulNotes/{{Europe}} and UsefulNotes/{{Asia}} as Afro-Eurasia.

* CartoonPenguin

The continent is often stereotyped as the land of [[PerpetualPoverty poor]], [[NeverLearnedToRead illiterate]], [[IllGirl sick]] blacks who [[DevelopingNationsLackCities live in hut villages]] and often [[CivilWar wage war]] against [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny repressive governments]] led by [[AxCrazy loony]] [[PresidentEvil presidents]] who [[ItsAllAboutMe have egos the length of seventh heaven]] and/or the land of starving children living among [[DarkestAfrica untamed wilderness]], who warrant [[CondescendingCompassion sympathy]] from [[MightyWhitey rich whites]] to [[WhiteMansBurden conque- er, "educate" them]], yet are always hindered by [[AfricanTerrorists Western-hating terrorists]] who would [[MadeASlave smuggle people in and out]] for [[MoneyDearBoy blood diamonds]] or [[TheFundamentalist declare religious utopia somewhere]]. Sadly, those kinds of stereotypes are exactly why most of Africa becomes so unknown to the West and why so little media can accurately depict its culture and peculiarities, or how, what and why the problems are affecting the continent the way it is, and whether it is because of excessive racism and xenophobia or just plain ignorance and lack of education about the continent can be left up to interpretation.

* [[UsefulNotes/ModernEgypt Egypt]] (Transcontinental. Technically.[[note]]Geographically, the Sinai Peninsula is considered part of Asia because its connection to its Asian side is longer than its connection to its African side. Geologically, nearly all of Sinai is actually on the African Plate--somewhat amusingly, the geologic boundary between the African and Arabian plates tracks the border between Egypt and Israel quite closely, with Egypt on the African Plate and Israel on the Arabian. Socially and politically, hardly anybody lives in Sinai so you can more or less ignore it.[[/note]])

* AngryBlackMan

* [[UsefulNotes/ModernEgypt Egypt]] (Transcontinental)

* Myth/GuancheMythology

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy

* [[UsefulNotes/{{Reunion}} Réunion]] (owned by France)

* Myth/TuaregMythology

* Myth/TuaregMythology