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 countriesnote , 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 Africanote and the transition zones just south of the Sahara: the Sahel
and 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 Africa is sometimes also merged with Europe and Asia as Afro-Eurasia.
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 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 Antarctica, Europe and Oceania combined. Of course, this could also be attributed to the fact that Africa quite possibly constitutes the world's biggest Hufflepuff House 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 DreamWorks to thank for much of its recognition)…
The continent is often stereotyped as the land of poor, illiterate, sick blacks who live in hut villages and often wage war against repressive governments led by loony presidents who have egos the length of seventh heaven and/or the land of starving children living among untamed wilderness, who warrant sympathy from rich whites to conque- er, "educate" them, yet are always hindered by Western-hating terrorists who would smuggle people in and out for blood diamonds or 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 United States 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 Ethiopianote ), 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 The Caribbean having many aspects of West African culture in general as a result.
For Africa in fiction, see Afrofuturism, Ancient Africa, Bulungi and Darkest Africa. See also Amoral Afrikaner, Great White Hunter and Mighty Whitey. And despite what you may have heard, Africa is not a country.note
Countries
North Africa
- Egypt (Transcontinental)
Southern Africa
West Africa
- Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
East Africa
Central Africa
Unrecognized Countries
North Africa
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) (de facto independent country, claimed by Morocco)
East Africa
- Somaliland (de facto independent country, claimed by Somalia)
Dependencies
West Africa
- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (owned by the United Kingdom)
East Africa
- French Southern and Antarctic Lands (owned by France)
- Mayotte (de facto owned by France, claimed by Comoros)
- Réunion Island (owned by France)
Defunct countries, empires, and other entities
Useful Notes and other articles related to Africans and African Culture
Africa in General
- Aardvark Trunks
- Africa Is a Country
- African Chant
- African Mythology
- African Terrorists
- Afrobeat
- Afrofuturism
- Africans
- Ancient Africa
- Angry, Angry Hippos
- Angry Black Man Stereotype
- Arab World
- Arabic Language
- Bible Times
- Black and Nerdy
- Black Is Bigger in Bed
- Black Boss Lady
- Black Gal on White Guy Drama
- Bulungi
- Child Soldiers
- Clamshell Currency
- Cruel Elephant
- Darkest Africa
- Developing Nations Lack Cities
- The Dutch-Portuguese War
- Elephant Graveyard
- Forces with Firepower
- Egyptians with Eagle Fighters (Egyptian military)
- South Africans with Surface-to-Air Missiles (South African National Defense Force)
- French Language
- The Generalissimo
- Genial Giraffe
- Gentle Gorilla
- Gratuitous Foreign Language
- Great White Hunter
- Heinous Hyena
- Honorable Elephant
- Huggy, Huggy Hippos
- Hungry Jungle
- Islamic Dress
- Killer Gorilla
- King of Beasts
- Magical Negro
- Malicious Monitor Lizard
- Other Royal Families
- Panthera Awesome
- Portuguese Language
- President for Life
- Rhino Rampage
- Ruthless Modern Pirates
- Salt and Pepper
- Sassy Black Woman
- Scary Black Man
- Sea of Sand
- Soul Brotha
- Tuareg Mythology
- Where da White Women At?
- White Like Me
- World War II
North Africa
See Egypt, Libya and Morocco for everything solely related to those countries- Algerian Civil War
- All Muslims are Arab
- The Arab Spring
- Barbarous Barbary Bandits
- Barbary Coast Wars
- Bedouin Rescue Service
- Build Like an Egyptian
- Crossing the Desert
- Curse of the Pharaoh
- Deadly Dust Storm
- Desert Bandits
- Desert Warfare
- Egyptian Mythology
- Eye of Horus Means Egypt
- God-Emperor
- History of Modern Egypt
- Hollywood Mirage
- Kabyle Mythology
- Legion of Lost Souls
- Mummy
- Nepharious Pharaoh
- Ouroboros
- Philosopher's Stone
- Punic Wars
- Pyramid Power
- The River War
- Scarab Power
- Thirsty Desert
- Qurac
- War Elephants
- The War on Terror
Southern Africa
See South Africa for everything solely related to South Africa- Amoral Afrikaner
- Anglo-Zulu War
- Cartoon Penguin
- Castles
- Former Regime Personnel
- Mandela Effect
- Micro Monarchy
- Private Military Contractors
- The Second Boer War
West Africa
See Nigeria for everything solely related to Nigeria- 419 Scam
- Akan Mythology
- Fulani Mythology
- Gbe Mythology
- G.I.R.L.
- Hausa Mythology
- Ibibio Efik Mythology
- Igbo Mythology
- Ijaw Mythology
- Jukun Mythology
- Mande Mythology
- Nollywood
- Serer Mythology
- Songhai Mythology
- Yoruba Mythology
East Africa
See Kenya, Madagascar and Somalia for everything solely related to those countries- Alur Mythology
- Coffee
- Doofy Dodo
- Freddie Mercopy
- Great Lakes Bantu Mythology
- Maa Mythology
- Malagasy Mythology
- Swahili Mythology
- A Taste of the Lash
