Seven Facts About Africa - by The A-Team
Africa is the second biggest continent in the world, has 56 countries and is also considered to be the birthplace of the human race in most scientific communities. However, Africa is considered a continent full of poor, third world countries, despite its rich cultural ties,art and resources to the world. If you had members of your people enslaved in multiple countries separated via colonization and language barriers,you would be a little messed up too.
Facts:
1.A VERY common mistake is to call Africa a country,when it really is a continent.
2. Africa has 1 Billion inhabitants which accounts for 14.72% of the population of the world.
3. Most scientists believe that the human race began in Africa,due to evidence found in there.(“Lucy” was the first complete fossils found of humans and she was found in the Awash Valley in Ethiopia in 1974.She estimated to have lived around 3.2 million years ago.) Meet Lucy.
4.A huge number of languages are spoken throughout Africa but they are divided to 4 groups.Some of these languages were spread due to the colonization of Africa.
-Khoisan(which has 30 languages)
-Nilo-Saharian(which has 140 languages)
-Afro-Asiatic(which has 200 languages)
-Niger-Saharian(which has a whopping number of 1000 languages)
Click here for a more in depth look at the languages spoken in each countries and the language groups
5.After World War II countries in Africa began to break away from the european countries that had colonized them.Some countries in Africa are still colonized mainly by the Spanish.The latest to break away has been South Sudan in July of last year.
Here’s a link to show the list and order of the decolonization of Africa.
6.The Countries that colonized Africa are Great Britain,Germany,France,Italy,Spain,Portugal,Belgium and Holland
7.Some of the countries in Africa are still under control(via monarchy or colonization),While it’s good that most of Africa has been freed from being ruled it is sad to see that there are still changes to be made.
Quote to think on:
‘I dream of the realization of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses.”-Nelson Mandela
Want to know more about Nelson Mandela?
Conclusion:
Africa has been characterized as a poor continent that doesn’t have resources but Africa has been the starting ground for the human race,has many resources and has a range of people who are interesting and diverse and do deserve to treated as such rather than just known for its stereotypes.
