An Ethiopian woman preparing Ethiopian coffee at a traditional ceremony. She roasts, crushes and brews the coffee on the spot.
The culture of Africa is varied and manifold, consisting of a
mixture of countries with various tribes that each have their own unique
characteristic from the continent of Africa. It is a product of the diverse populations that today inhabit the continent of Africa and the African Diaspora. African culture is expressed in its arts and crafts, folklore and religion, clothing, cuisine, music and languages.
Expressions of culture are abundant within Africa, with large amounts
of cultural diversity being found not only across different countries
but also within single countries. Even though African cultures are
widely diverse, it is also, when closely studied, seen to have many
similarities. For example, the morals they uphold, their love and
respect for their culture as well as the strong respect they hold for
the aged and the important i.e. Kings and Chiefs.
Africa
has influenced and been influenced by other continents. This can be
portrayed in the willingness to adapt to the ever-changing modern world
rather than staying rooted to their static culture. The Westernized few,
persuaded by European culture and Christianity, first denied African
traditional culture, but with the increase of African nationalism,
a cultural recovery occurred. The governments of most African nations
encourage national dance and music groups, museums, and to a lower
degree, artists and writers.
Africa is divided into a great number of ethnic cultures.[2][3][4]
The continent's cultural regeneration has also been an integral aspect
of post-independence nation-building on the continent, with a
recognition of the need to harness the cultural resources of Africa to
enrich the process of education, requiring the creation of an enabling
environment in a number of ways. In recent times, the call for a much
greater emphasis on the cultural dimension in all aspects of development
has become increasingly vocal.[5]
During the Roman colonization of North Africa,(parts of Algeria, Libya,
Egypt and the whole of Tunisia) provinces such as Tripolitania became
major producers of food for the republic and the empire, this generated
much wealth in these places for their 400 years of occupation.[6] During colonialism in Africa,
Europeans possessed attitudes of superiority and a sense of mission.
The French were able to accept an African as French if that person gave
up their African culture and adopted French ways. Knowledge of the
Portuguese language and culture and abandonment of traditional African
ways defined one as civilized.[7]Kenyan
social commentator Mwiti Mugambi argues that the future of Africa can
only be forged from accepting and mending the sociocultural present. For
Mugambi, colonial cultural hangovers, pervasive Western cultural
inundation, and aid-giving arm-twisting donors are, he argues, here to
stay and no amount of looking into Africa's past will make them go away.
However, Maulana Karenga states:
Our culture provides us with an
ethos we must honor in both thought and practice. By ethos, we mean a
people's self-understanding as well as its self-presentation in the
world through its thought and practice in the other six areas of
culture. It is above all a cultural challenge. For culture is here
defined as the totality of thought and practice by which a people
creates itself, celebrates, sustains and develops itself and introduces
itself to history and humanity
— Maulana Karenga, African Culture and the Ongoing Quest for Excellence[8]
African arts and crafts
SUDAN basket -tray, Tabar of weaved natural plant fiber, colored in different colors
Africa has a rich tradition of arts and crafts. African arts and crafts find expression in a variety of woodcarvings, brass and leather art works. African arts and crafts also include sculpture, paintings, pottery, ceremonial and religiousheadgear and dress. Maulana Karenga
states that in African art, the object was not as important as the soul
force behind the creation of the object. He also states that All art
must be revolutionary and in being revolutionary it must be collective,
committing, and functional.[citation needed]
Certain African cultures have always placed emphasis on personal appearance and jewelry has remained an important personal accessory. Many pieces of such jewelry are made of cowry shells and similar materials. Similarly, masks
are made with elaborate designs and are an important part of some
cultures in Africa. Masks are used in various ceremonies depicting
ancestors and spirits, mythological characters and deities.
In many traditional arts and craft traditions in Africa, certain
themes significant to those particular cultures recur, including a
couple, a woman with a child, a male with a weapon or animal, and an
outsider or a stranger. Couples may represent ancestors, community
founder, married couple or twins. The couple theme rarely exhibits
intimacy of men and women. The mother with the child or children reveals
intense desire of the women to have children. The theme is also
representative of mother mars and the people as her children. The man
with the weapon or animal theme symbolizes honor and power. A stranger
may be from some other tribe or someone from a different country, and
more distorted portrayal of the stranger indicates proportionately
greater gap from the stranger.
Like all human cultures, African folklore and religion represents a variety of social facets of the various cultures in Africa.[citation needed]
Like almost all civilizations and cultures, flood myths have been
circulating in different parts of Africa. Culture and religion share
space and are deeply intertwined in African cultures. In Ethiopia,
Christianity and Islam form the core aspects of Ethiopian culture and
inform dietary customs as well as rituals and rites.[9] According to a Pygmy
myth, Chameleon, hearing a strange noise in a tree, cut open its trunk
and water came out in a great flood that spread all over the land.
Kenyan boys and girls performing a traditional folklore dance.
Folktales also play an important role in many African cultures.
Stories reflect a group cultural identity and preserving the stories of
Africa will help preserve an entire culture. Storytelling affirms pride
and identity in a culture. In Africa, stories are created by and for the
ethnic group telling them. Different ethnic groups in Africa have
different rituals or ceremonies for storytelling, which creates a sense
of belonging to a cultural group. To outsiders hearing an ethnic group's
stories, it provides an insight into the community's beliefs, views,
and customs. For people within the community, it allows them to
encompass their group's uniqueness. They show the human desires and
fears of a group, such as love, marriage, and death. Folktales are also
seen as a tool for education and entertainment. They provide a way for
children to understand the material and social environment. Every story
has a moral to teach people, such as goodwill prevail over evil. For
entertainment, stories are set in fantastic, non-human worlds. Often,
the main character of the story would be a talking animal or something
unnatural would happen to a human character. Even though folktales are
for entertainment, they bring a sense of belonging and pride to
communities in Africa.[10]
There are different types of African stories: animal tales and
day-to-day tales. Animal tales more oriented towards entertainment, but
still have morals and lessons to them. Animal tales are normally
divided into trickster tales and ogre tales. In the animal tales, a
certain animal would always have the same character or role in each
story so the audience does not have to worry about characterization. The
Hare was always the trickster, clever and cunning, while the Hyena was
always being tricked by the Hare. Ogres are always cruel, greedy
monsters. The messengers in all the stories were the Birds. Day-to-Day
tales are the most serious tales, never including humor, that explained
the everyday life and struggles of an African community. These tales
take on matters such as famine, escape from death, courtship, and family
matters, using a song form when the climax of the story was being told.
African stories all have a certain structure to them. Villagers
would gather around a common meeting place at the end of the day to
listen and tell their stories. Storytellers had certain commands to
start and end the stories, "Ugai Itha" to get the audience's attention
and begin the story, and "Rukirika" to signal the end of a tale. Each
scene of a story is depicted with two characters at a time, so the
audience does not get overwhelmed. In each story, victims are able to
overcome their predators and take justice out on the culprit. Certain
tools were used in African folktales. For example, idiophones, such as
drums, were used to make the sounds of different animals. Repetition
and call-back techniques in the form of prose or poem were also used to
get the audience involved in the stories.[11][12]
Women's traditional clothes in Ethiopia are made from cloth called shemma and are used to make habesha kemis.
The latter garment is basically cotton cloth, about 90 cm wide, woven
in long strips which are then sewn together. Sometimes shiny threads are
woven into the fabric for an elegant effect. Men wear pants and a knee-length shirt with a white collar,
and perhaps a sweater. Men often wear knee-high socks, while women
might not wear socks at all. Men as well as women wear shawls, the netela.
Maasai wearing traditional clothes named Matavuvale while performing Adumu, a traditional dance
Zulus wear a variety of attire, both traditional for ceremonial or
culturally celebratory occasions, and modern westernised clothing for
everyday use. Traditional male clothing is usually light, consisting of a
two-part apron (similar to a loincloth) used to cover the genitals and
buttocks. The front piece is called the umutsha (pronounced Zulu pronunciation: [umtifash]), and is usually made of springbok or other animal hide twisted into different bands which cover the genitals. The rear piece, called the ibheshu[ibeːʃu], is made of a single piece of springbok or cattle
hide, and its length is usually used as an indicator of age and social
position; longer amabheshu (plural of ibheshu) are worn by older men.
Married men will usually also wear a headband, called the umqhele[umǃʰɛle], which is usually also made of springbok hide, or leopard hide by men of higher social status, such as chiefs. Zulu men will also wear cow tails as bracelets and anklets called imishokobezi[imiʃoɠoɓɛːzi] during ceremonies and rituals, such as weddings or dances.
In the Muslim parts of Africa, daily attire also often reflects Islamic tradition.[citation needed]
The various cuisines of Africa use a combination of locally available fruits, cereal grains and vegetables, as well as milk and meat products. In some parts of the continent, the traditional diet features a preponderance of milk, curd and whey
products. In much of tropical Africa, however, cow's milk is rare and
cannot be produced locally (owing to various diseases that affect
livestock). The continent's diverse demographic makeup is reflected in
the many different eating and drinking habits, dishes, and preparation
techniques of its manifold populations.[13]
In Central Africa, the basic ingredients are plantains and cassava. Fufu-like
starchy foods (usually made from fermented cassava roots) are served
with grilled meat and sauces. A variety of local ingredients are used
while preparing other dishes like spinach stew, cooked with tomato, peppers, chillis, onions, and peanut butter. Cassava plants are also consumed as cooked greens. Groundnut (peanut) stew is also prepared, containing chicken, okra, ginger, and other spices. Another favorite is Bambara, a porridge of rice, peanut butter, and sugar. Beef and chicken are favorite meat dishes, but game meat preparations containing crocodile, monkey, antelope and warthog are also served occasionally.
The cuisine of the African Great Lakes
region varies from area to area. In the inland savannah, the
traditional cuisine of cattle-keeping peoples is distinctive in that
meat products are generally absent. Cattle, sheep and goats were regarded as a form of currency
and a store of wealth, and are not generally consumed as food. In some
areas, traditional peoples consume the milk and blood of cattle, but
rarely the meat. Elsewhere, other peoples are farmers who grow a variety
of grains and vegetables. Maize (corn) is the basis of ugali, the East African version of West Africa's fufu. Ugali is a starch dish eaten with meats or stews. In Uganda, steamed, green bananas called matoke provide the starch filler of many meals.
In the Horn of Africa, the main traditional dishes in Ethiopian cuisine and Eritrean cuisine are tsebhis (stews) served with injera[14] (flatbread made from teff,[14]wheat, or sorghum), and hilbet (paste made from legumes, mainly lentil, faba beans). Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine (especially in the northern half) are very similar, given the shared history of the two countries. The related Somali cuisine consists of an exotic fusion of diverse culinary influences. Varieties of bariis (rice), the most popular probably being basmati, usually serve as the main dish. Xalwo (halwo) or halva is a popular confection served during special occasions such as Eid celebrations or wedding receptions.[15] After meals, homes are traditionally perfumed using frankincense (lubaan) or incense (cuunsi), which is prepared inside an incense burner referred to as a dabqaad. All food is served halal.
Potjiekos is a traditional Afrikaner stew made with meat and vegetables and cooked over coals in cast-iron pots.
The roots of North African cuisine
can be traced back to the ancient empires of North Africa, particularly
in Egypt where many of the country's dishes and culinary traditions
date back to ancient Egypt. Over several centuries traders, travelers,
invaders, migrants and immigrants all have influenced the cuisine of
North Africa. Most of the North African countries today have several
similar dishes, sometimes almost the same dish with a different name
(the Moroccan tangia and the Tunisian coucha are both essentially the same dish: a meat stew prepared in an urn
and cooked overnight in a public oven), sometimes with a slight change
in ingredients and cooking style. To add to the confusion, two
completely different dishes may also share the same name (for example, a
"tajine" dish is a slow-cooked stew in Morocco, whereas the Tunisian
"tajine" is a baked omelette/quiche-like
dish). There are noticeable differences between the cooking styles of
different nations – there's the sophisticated, full-bodied flavours of Moroccan palace cookery, the fiery dishes of Tunisian cuisine, and the humbler, simpler cuisines of Egypt and Algeria.[16]
The cooking of Southern Africa is sometimes called 'rainbow
cuisine', as the food in this region is a blend of many culinary
traditions, including those of the Khoisan, Bantu, European and Asian
populations. Basic ingredients include seafood, meat products
(including wild game), poultry, as well as grains, fresh fruits and
vegetables. Fruits include apples, grapes, mangoes, bananas and papayas, avocado, oranges, peaches and apricots. Desserts may simply be fruit. However, there are some more western style puddings, such as the Angolan Cocada amarela, which was inspired by Portuguese cuisine. Meat products include lamb, as well as game like venison, ostrich, and impala. The seafood includes a wide variety such as crayfish, prawns, tuna, mussels, oysters, calamari, mackerel, and lobster. There are also several types of traditional and modern alcoholic beverages including many European-style beers.
A typical West African meal is heavy with starchy items, meat, spices, and flavors. A wide array of staples are eaten across the region, including those of Fufu, Banku and Kenkey (originating from Ghana), Foutou, Couscous, Tô, and Garri, which are served alongside soups and stews. Fufu is often made from starchy root vegetables such as yams, cocoyams, or cassava,
but also from cereal grains like millet, sorghum or plantains. The
staple grain or starch varies region to region and ethnic group to
ethnic group, although corn has gained significant ground as it is
cheap, swells to greater volumes and creates a beautiful white final
product that is greatly desired. Banku and Kenkey are maize dough
staples, and Gari is made from dried grated cassavas. Rice-dishes are
also widely eaten in the region, especially in the dry Sahel belt inland. Examples of these include Benachin from The Gambia and Jollof rice, a pan-West African rice dish similar to Arab kabsah.
Traditional Sub-Saharan African music is as diverse as the region's
various populations. The common perception of Sub-Saharan African music
is that it is rhythmic music centered on the drums, and indeed, a large
part of Sub-Saharan music, mainly among speakers of Niger–Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages,
is rhythmic and centered on the drum. Sub-Saharan music is
polyrhythmic, usually consisting of multiple rhythms in one composition.
Dance involves moving multiple body parts. These aspects of Sub-Saharan
music were transferred to the new world by enslaved Sub-Saharan
Africans and can be seen in its influence on music forms as Samba, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Rock & Roll, Salsa, and Rap music.[17]
Other African musical traditions also involve strings, horns, and
very little poly-rhythms. Music from the eastern Sahel and along the
Nile, among the Nilo-Saharan, made extensive use of strings and horns in ancient times. Dancing involve swaying body movements and footwork. Among the Khoisans extensive use of string instruments with emphasis on footwork.[18]
The main ethnolinguistic divisions in Africa are Afro-Asiatic (North Africa, Horn of Africa), Niger–Congo (including speakers from the Bantu branch) in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, Nilo-Saharan in parts of the Sahara and the Sahel and parts of Eastern Africa, and Khoisan (indigenous minorities of Southern Africa).[23]
The continent of Africa speaks hundreds of languages, and if dialects
spoken by various ethnic groups are also included, the number is much
higher. These languages and dialects do not have the same importance:
some are spoken by only few hundred people, others are spoken by
millions. Among the most prominent languages spoken are Arabic, Swahili and Hausa.
Very few countries of Africa use any single language and for this
reason, several official languages coexist, African and European. Some
Africans speak various European languages such as English, Spanish,
French, Portuguese, Italian, German and Dutch.
Africa's average population is the youngest amongst all the continents;[5][6] the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4.[7]Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its largest by population. Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans and the Hominidaeclade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest hominids and their ancestors as well as later ones that have been dated to around 7 million years ago, including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster—the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human), found in Ethiopia, date to circa 200,000 years ago.[8] Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.[9]
Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of then-known northern Africa to the west of the Nile river, and in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean (Ancient Libya).[10][11] This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of modern Berbers; see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with the Phoenician word ʿafar meaning "dust",[12] but a 1981 hypothesis[13] has asserted that it stems from the Berber word ifri (plural ifran) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.[14] The same word[14] may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, a Berber tribe originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane) in northwestern Libya.[15]
According to the Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–165 AD), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea
the boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand
the real extent of the continent, the idea of "Africa" expanded with
their knowledge.
Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":
The 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for Epher, grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
Massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, meaning "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka
is the energetic double of every person and the "opening of the Ka"
refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the
birthplace."[17]
Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposed[18] linking the Latin word with africus "south wind", which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally "rainy wind".
Robert R. Stieglitz of Rutgers University in 1984 proposed: "The name Africa, derived from the Latin *Aphir-ic-a, is cognate to Hebrew Ophir."[19]
Ibn Khallikan and some other historians claim that the name of Africa came from a Himyarite king called Afrikin ibn Kais ibn Saifi also called "Afrikus son of Abrahah" who subdued Ifriqiya.[20][21][22]
The size of the Sahara
has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly
fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic
conditions.[35] At the end of the Ice ages,
estimated to have been around 10,500 BC, the Sahara had again become a
green fertile valley, and its African populations returned from the
interior and coastal highlands in Sub-Saharan Africa, with rock art paintings depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in Tassili n'Ajjer dating back perhaps 10 millennia.[36]
However, the warming and drying climate meant that by 5000 BC, the
Sahara region was becoming increasingly dry and hostile. Around 3500 BC,
due to a tilt in the earth's orbit, the Sahara experienced a period of
rapid desertification.[37] The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the Second Cataract
where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major
climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in
Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.
The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture
and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is
speculated that by 6000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa.[38] In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia.
Around 4000 BC, the Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace.[39] This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification.
This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements
and helped to cause migrations of farming communities to the more
tropical climate of West Africa.[39]
By the first millennium BC, ironworking had been introduced in Northern Africa and quickly spread across the Sahara into the northern parts of sub-Saharan Africa,[40]
and by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa.
Ironworking was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of
East and West Africa, although other regions didn't begin ironworking
until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date.[39]
At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt.[41]
One of the world's earliest and longest-lasting civilizations, the
Egyptian state continued, with varying levels of influence over other
areas, until 343 BC.[42][43] Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day Libya and Nubia, and, according to Martin Bernal, as far north as Crete.[44]
Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. The first Roman emperor native to North Africa was Septimius Severus, born in Leptis Magna in present-day Libya—his mother was Italian Roman and his father was Punic.[49]
Christianity spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia;[50] by AD 340 at the latest, it had become the state religion of the Aksumite Empire. Syro-Greek missionaries, who arrived by way of the Red Sea, were responsible for this theological development.[51]
In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic Caliphate
expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while, the
local Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the
Umayyad capital Damascus fell in the 8th century, the Islamic centre of
the Mediterranean shifted from Syria to Qayrawan
in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for
mystics, scholars, jurists, and philosophers. During the
above-mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly
through trade routes and migration.[52]
The intricate 9th-century bronzes from Igbo-Ukwu, in Nigeria displayed a level of technical accomplishment that was notably more advanced than European bronze casting of the same period.[53]
Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities[54]
characterized by many different sorts of political organization and
rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the
San people of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the Bantu-speakingpeoples of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in the Horn of Africa; the large Sahelian kingdoms; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the Akan; Edo, Yoruba, and Igbo people in West Africa; and the Swahili coastal trading towns of Southeast Africa.
By the ninth century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest Hausa
states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western
regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were Ghana, Gao, and the Kanem-Bornu Empire. Ghana declined in the eleventh century, but was succeeded by the Mali Empire which consolidated much of western Sudan in the thirteenth century. Kanem accepted Islam in the eleventh century.
In the forested regions of the West African coast, independent kingdoms grew with little influence from the Muslim north. The Kingdom of Nri was established around the ninth century and was one of the first. It is also one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day Nigeria and was ruled by the Eze Nri. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate bronzes, found at the town of Igbo-Ukwu. The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the ninth century.[55]
The Kingdom of Ife, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly oba ('king' or 'ruler' in the Yoruba language), called the Ooni of Ife.
Ife was noted as a major religious and cultural centre in West Africa,
and for its unique naturalistic tradition of bronze sculpture. The Ife
model of government was adapted at the Oyo Empire, where its obas or kings, called the Alaafins of Oyo, once controlled a large number of other Yoruba and non-Yoruba city-states and kingdoms; the FonKingdom of Dahomey was one of the non-Yoruba domains under Oyo control.
The Almoravids were a Berber dynasty from the Sahara that spread over a wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century.[56] The Banu Hilal and Banu Ma'qil were a collection of ArabBedouin tribes from the Arabian Peninsula who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their migration resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were Arabized,[57] and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam.[58]
Ruins of Great Zimbabwe (flourished eleventh to fifteenth centuries)
Following the breakup of Mali, a local leader named Sonni Ali (1464–1492) founded the Songhai Empire in the region of middle Niger and the western Sudan and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized Timbuktu in 1468 and Jenne in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor Askia Mohammad I
(1493–1528) made Islam the official religion, built mosques, and
brought to Gao Muslim scholars, including al-Maghili (d.1504), the
founder of an important tradition of Sudanic African Muslim scholarship.[59] By the eleventh century, some Hausa states – such as Kano, jigawa, Katsina, and Gobir – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans,
and the manufacture of goods. Until the fifteenth century, these small
states were on the periphery of the major Sudanic empires of the era,
paying tribute to Songhai to the west and Kanem-Borno to the east.
1803 Cedid Atlas, showing a map of the African continent from the perspective of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans controlled much of Northern Africa between the 14th and 19th centuries, and had vassal arrangements with a number of Saharan states.
Arab–Swahili slave traders and their captives along the Ruvuma River (in today's Tanzania and Mozambique) as witnessed by David Livingstone
Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.[61][62]
Between the 7th and 20th centuries, the Arab slave trade (also known as
"slavery in the east") took 18 million slaves from Africa via
trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th
centuries, the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million
slaves to the New World.[63][64][65] In addition, more than 1 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries.[66]
In West Africa,
the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic
economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading,
prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's
increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states
to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.[67]
Slave being inspected, from Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to
British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping
King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.[68] The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire)
adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey
concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil, cocoa, timber and gold, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade. The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars.[69]
Areas of Africa under the sovereignty or influence of the colonial powers in 1913, along with modern borders.
Belgium
Germany
Spain
France
United Kingdom
Italy
Portugal
independent
In the late 19th century, the European imperial powers engaged in a major territorial scramble and occupied most of the continent, creating many colonial territories, and leaving only two fully independent states: Ethiopia (known to Europeans as "Abyssinia"), and Liberia. Egypt and Sudan
were never formally incorporated into any European colonial empire;
however, after the British occupation of 1882, Egypt was effectively
under British administration until 1922.
Berlin Conference
The Berlin Conference held in 1884–85 was an important event in the political future of African ethnic groups. It was convened by King Leopold II of Belgium,
and attended by the European powers that laid claim to African
territories. The Berlin Conference sought to end the European powers'
Scramble for Africa, by agreeing on political division and spheres of
influence. They set up the political divisions of the continent, by
spheres of interest, that exist in Africa today.
Independence struggles
Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence. Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya, a former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France.[70]Ghana followed suit the next year (March 1957),[71]
becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be granted
independence. Most of the rest of the continent became independent over
the next decade.
Today, Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which have
borders that were drawn during the era of European colonialism. Since
colonialism, African states have frequently been hampered by
instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis, and many have instead cycled through a series of coups, producing military dictatorships.
Great instability was mainly the result of marginalization of ethnic groups, and graft under these leaders. For political gain,
many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts, some of which had been
exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the military
was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain
order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the 1970s and early
1980s. During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Africa
had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations.
Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the
European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through
armed conflicts.
Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as the policies of the International Monetary Fund,[citation needed]
also played a role in instability. When a country became independent
for the first time, it was often expected to align with one of the two superpowers. Many countries in Northern Africa
received Soviet military aid, while others in Central and Southern
Africa were supported by the United States, France or both. The 1970s
saw an escalation of Cold War intrigues, as newly independent Angola and Mozambique
aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, and the West and South Africa
sought to contain Soviet influence by supporting friendly regimes or
insurgency movements. In Rhodesia, Soviet and Chinese-backed leftist guerrillas of the Zimbabwe Patriotic Front waged a brutal guerrilla war against the country's white government. There was a major famine in Ethiopia, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. Some claimed that Marxist economic policies made the situation worse.[72][73][74] The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the Second Congo War; this conflict and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.5 million people.[75] Since 2003 there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur which has become a humanitarian disaster. Another notable tragic event is the 1994 Rwandan Genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were murdered. AIDS in post-colonial Africa has also been a prevalent issue.
In the 21st century, however, the number of armed conflicts in Africa has steadily declined. For instance, the civil war in Angola
came to an end in 2002 after nearly 30 years. This coincided with many
countries abandoning communist-style command economies and opening up
for market reforms. The improved stability and economic reforms have led
to a great increase in foreign investment into many African nations,
mainly from China,[76]
which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly
ending decades of stagnation and decline. Several African economies are
among the world's fastest growing as of 2016. A significant part of this
growth, which is sometimes referred to as Africa Rising, can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.[77]Migration from African nations has increased dramatically in the last decade.[78]
Geology and geography
Satellite photo of Africa. The Sahara Desert in the north can be clearly seen.
A composite satellite image of Africa (centre) with North America (left) and Eurasia (right), to scale
Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from
the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal), 163 km (101 mi) wide.[79] (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)[80]
The coastline is 26,000 km (16,000 mi) long, and the absence of
deep indentations of the shore is illustrated by the fact that Europe,
which covers only 10,400,000 km2 (4,000,000 sq mi) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (20,000 mi).[81] From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa (34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 mi).[82]Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 mi) to Ras Hafun, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection that neighbours Cape Guardafui, the tip of the Horn of Africa.[81]
Africa's largest country is Algeria, and its smallest country is Seychelles, an archipelago off the east coast.[83] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.
The African Plate is a major tectonic plate straddling the equator as well as the prime meridian. It includes much of the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges. Between 60 million years ago and 10 million years ago, the Somali Plate began rifting from the African Plate along the East African Rift.[85]
Since the continent of Africa consists of crust from both the African
and the Somali plates, some literature refers to the African Plate as
the Nubian Plate to distinguish it from the continent as a whole.[86]
Geologically, Africa includes the Arabian Peninsula; the Zagros Mountains of Iran and the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey mark where the African Plate collided with Eurasia. The Afrotropic ecozone and the Saharo-Arabian desert to its north unite the region biogeographically, and the Afro-Asiaticlanguage family unites the north linguistically.
Climate
Africa map of Köppen climate classification
The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert, or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plains and dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence, where vegetation patterns such as sahel and steppe dominate. Africa is the hottest continent on earth and 60% of the entire land surface consists of drylands and deserts.[87] The record for the highest-ever recorded temperature, in Libya in 1922 (58 °C (136 °F)), was discredited in 2013.[88][89]
Africa has over 3,000 protected areas,
with 198 marine protected areas, 50 biosphere reserves, and 80 wetlands
reserves. Significant habitat destruction, increases in human
population and poaching are reducing Africa's biological diversity and arable land.
Human encroachment, civil unrest and the introduction of non-native
species threaten biodiversity in Africa. This has been exacerbated by
administrative problems, inadequate personnel and funding problems.[87]
Deforestation is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).[90]
According to the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center, 31%
of Africa's pasture lands and 19% of its forests and woodlands are
classified as degraded, and Africa is losing over four million hectares
of forest per year, which is twice the average deforestation rate for
the rest of the world.[87] Some sources claim that approximately 90% of the original, virgin forests in West Africa have been destroyed.[91] Over 90% of Madagascar's original forests have been destroyed since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago.[92] About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from soil degradation.[93]
Politics
There are clear signs of increased networking among African organizations and states. For example, in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire), rather than rich, non-African countries intervening, neighbouring African countries became involved (see also Second Congo War). Since the conflict began in 1998, the estimated death toll has reached 5 million.
The African Union
Member states of the African Union
The African Union (AU) is a 55-member federation consisting of all of Africa's states. The union was formed, with Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as its headquarters, on 26 June 2001. The union was officially established on 9 July 2002[94] as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In July 2004, the African Union's Pan-African Parliament (PAP) was relocated to Midrand, in South Africa, but the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
remained in Addis Ababa. There is a policy in effect to decentralize
the African Federation's institutions so that they are shared by all the
states.
The African Union, not to be confused with the AU Commission, is formed by the Constitutive Act of the African Union, which aims to transform the African Economic Community,
a federated commonwealth, into a state under established international
conventions. The African Union has a parliamentary government, known as
the African Union Government,
consisting of legislative, judicial and executive organs. It is led by
the African Union President and Head of State, who is also the President
of the Pan-African Parliament.
A person becomes AU President by being elected to the PAP, and
subsequently gaining majority support in the PAP. The powers and
authority of the President of the African Parliament derive from the
Constitutive Act and the Protocol of the Pan-African Parliament,
as well as the inheritance of presidential authority stipulated by
African treaties and by international treaties, including those
subordinating the Secretary General of the OAU
Secretariat (AU Commission) to the PAP. The government of the AU
consists of all-union (federal), regional, state, and municipal
authorities, as well as hundreds of institutions, that together manage
the day-to-day affairs of the institution.
Political associations such as the African Union offer hope for
greater co-operation and peace between the continent's many countries.
Extensive human rights abuses still occur in several parts of Africa,
often under the oversight of the state. Most of such violations occur
for political reasons, often as a side effect of civil war. Countries
where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times
include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Côte d'Ivoire.
Euler diagram showing the relationships between various multinational African entities v • d • e
Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition
and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health,
affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African
continent. In August 2008, the World Bank[97]
announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international
poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00).
80.5% of the Sub-Saharan Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) per day in 2005, compared with 85.7% for India.[98]
Sub-Saharan Africa is the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty ($1.25 per day); some 50% of the population living in poverty
in 1981 (200 million people), a figure that rose to 58% in 1996 before
dropping to 50% in 2005 (380 million people). The average poor person in
sub-Saharan Africa is estimated to live on only 70 cents per day, and
was poorer in 2003 than in 1973,[99]
indicating increasing poverty in some areas. Some of it is attributed
to unsuccessful economic liberalization programmes spearheaded by
foreign companies and governments, but other studies have cited bad
domestic government policies more than external factors.[100][101][102]
From 1995 to 2005, Africa's rate of economic growth increased,
averaging 5% in 2005. Some countries experienced still higher growth
rates, notably Angola, Sudan and Equatorial Guinea, all of which had recently begun extracting their petroleum reserves or had expanded their oil extraction capacity. The continent is believed to hold 90% of the world's cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite,[103] 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium.[104] The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world's coltan, a mineral used in the production of tantalum capacitors for electronic devices such as cell phones. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world's diamond reserves.[105]Guinea is the world's largest exporter of bauxite.[106]
As the growth in Africa has been driven mainly by services and not
manufacturing or agriculture, it has been growth without jobs and
without reduction in poverty levels. In fact, the food security crisis of 2008 which took place on the heels of the global financial crisis pushed 100 million people into food insecurity.[107]
In recent years, the People's Republic of China
has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations and is
Africa's largest trading partner. In 2007, Chinese companies invested a
total of US$1 billion in Africa.[76]
A Harvard University study led by professor Calestous Juma
showed that Africa could feed itself by making the transition from
importer to self-sufficiency. "African agriculture is at the crossroads;
we have come to the end of a century of policies that favoured Africa's
export of raw materials and importation of food. Africa is starting to
focus on agricultural innovation as its new engine for regional trade
and prosperity."[108]
During US President Barack Obama's visit to Africa in July 2013, he announced a US$7
billion plan to further develop infrastructure and work more
intensively with African heads of state. He also announced a new
programme named Trade Africa, designed to boost trade within the
continent as well as between Africa and the US.[109]
Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and
consequently, it is relatively young. In some African states, more than
half the population is under 25 years of age.[110] The total number of people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in 1990.[111] As of 2016, the population of Africa is estimated at 1.2 billion[1].
Africa's total population surpassing other continents is fairly recent;
African population surpassed Europe in the 1990s, while the Americas
was overtaken sometime around the year 2000; Africa's rapid population
growth is expected to overtake the only two nations currently larger
than its population, at roughly the same time – India and China's 1.4
billion people each will swap ranking around the year 2022.[112]
Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger–Congo family) are the majority in southern, central and southeast Africa. The Bantu-speaking peoples from the Sahel progressively expanded over most of Sub-Saharan Africa.[113] But there are also several Nilotic groups in South Sudan and East Africa, the mixed Swahili people on the Swahili Coast, and a few remaining indigenous Khoisan ("San" or "Bushmen") and Pygmy peoples
in southern and central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking Africans
also predominate in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, and are found in parts
of southern Cameroon. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San", closely related to, but distinct from "Hottentots")
have long been present. The San are physically distinct from other
Africans and are the indigenous people of southern Africa. Pygmies are
the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central Africa.[114]
The peoples of West Africa primarily speak Niger–Congo languages, belonging mostly to its non-Bantu branches, though some Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic speaking groups are also found. The Niger–Congo-speaking Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, Akan and Wolof ethnic groups are the largest and most influential. In the central Sahara, Mandinka or Mande groups are most significant. Chadic-speaking groups, including the Hausa, are found in more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara, and Nilo-Saharan communities, such as the Songhai, Kanuri and Zarma, are found in the eastern parts of West Africa bordering Central Africa.
The peoples of North Africa consist of three main indigenous
groups: Berbers in the northwest, Egyptians in the northeast, and
Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in the east. The Arabs who arrived in the 7th century AD introduced the Arabic language and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians (who founded Carthage) and Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian Alans, the Indo- European Greeks, Romans, and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Significant Berber communities remain within Morocco and Algeria in the 21st century, while, to a lesser extent, Berber speakers are also present in some regions of Tunisia and Libya.[115] The Berber-speaking Tuareg and other often-nomadic
peoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North
Africa. In Mauritania, there is a small but near-extinct Berber
community in the north and Niger–Congo-speaking peoples in the south,
though in both regions Arabic and Arab culture predominates. In Sudan,
although Arabic and Arab culture predominate, it is mostly inhabited by
groups that originally spoke Nilo-Saharan, such as the Nubians, Fur,
Masalit and Zaghawa, who, over the centuries, have variously intermixed
with migrants from the Arabian peninsula. Small communities of
Afro-Asiatic-speaking Beja nomads can also be found in Egypt and Sudan.[citation needed]
Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era, Europeans were represented in every part of Africa.[116]
Decolonization during the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass
emigration of white settlers – especially from Algeria and Morocco (1.6
million pieds-noirs in North Africa),[117] Kenya, Congo,[118] Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola.[119] Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone.[120] Nevertheless, white Africans remain an important minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia, Réunion, and the Republic of South Africa.[121] The country with the largest white African population is South Africa.[122]Dutch and Britishdiasporas represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today.[123]
European colonization also brought sizable groups of Asians, particularly from the Indian subcontinent, to British colonies. Large Indian communities
are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya,
Tanzania, and some other southern and southeast African countries. The
large Indian community in Uganda was expelled by the dictator Idi Amin
in 1972, though many have since returned. The islands in the Indian
Ocean are also populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often
mixed with Africans and Europeans. The Malagasy people of Madagascar are an Austronesian people,
but those along the coast are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian
and European origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also important
components in the group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds
(people with origins in two or more races and continents). During the
20th century, small but economically important communities of Lebanese and Chinese[76] have also developed in the larger coastal cities of West and East Africa, respectively.[124]
Languages
Map showing the traditional language families represented in Africa:
By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa.[125] Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most multilingual
continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently
speak not only multiple African languages, but one or more European ones
as well. There are four major language families indigenous to Africa:
The Niger-Congo
language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of number
of languages, it is the largest language family in Africa and perhaps
the largest in the world.
The Khoisan languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000 people.[126] Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.
Following the end of colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official languages
that originated outside the continent, although several countries also
granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa). In numerous countries, English and French (see African French) are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Spanish
are examples of languages that trace their origin to outside of Africa,
and that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and
private spheres. Italian is spoken by some in former Italian colonies in Africa. German is spoken in Namibia, as it was a former German protectorate.
Some aspects of traditional African cultures have become less
practised in recent years as a result of neglect and suppression by
colonial and post-colonial regimes. For example, African customs were
discouraged, and African languages were prohibited in mission schools.[127] Leopold II of Belgium attempted to "civilize" Africans by discouraging polygamy and witchcraft.[127]
Obidoh Freeborn posits that colonialism is one element that has created the character of modern African art.[128]
According to authors Douglas Fraser and Herbert M. Cole, "The
precipitous alterations in the power structure wrought by colonialism
were quickly followed by drastic iconographic changes in the art." [129]
Fraser and Cole assert that, in Igboland, some art objects "lack the
vigor and careful craftsmanship of the earlier art objects that served
traditional functions.[129]
Author Chika Okeke-Agulu states that "the racist infrastructure of
British imperial enterprise forced upon the political and cultural
guardians of empire a denial and suppression of an emergent sovereign
Africa and modernist art." [130]
In Soweto, the West Rand Administrative Board established a Cultural
Section to collect, read, and review scripts before performances could
occur.[131][self-published source]
Editors F. Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi comment that the current
identity of African literature had its genesis in the "traumatic
encounter between Africa and Europe." [132]
On the other hand, Mhoze Chikowero believes that Africans deployed
music, dance, spirituality, and other performative cultures to (re)asset
themselves as active agents and indigenous intellectuals, to unmake
their colonial marginalization and reshape their own destinies." [133]
There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalue African traditional cultures, under such movements as the African Renaissance, led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism, led by a group of scholars, including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of Vodou and other forms of spirituality.
Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular West Africa, was transmitted through the Atlantic slave trade to modern samba, blues, jazz, reggae, hip hop, and rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of Afrobeat and Highlife
music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral
singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre
of soukous, dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by
oral traditions, and they are distinct from the music and dance styles
of North Africa and Southern Africa. Arab influences are visible in North African music and dance and, in Southern Africa, Western influences are apparent due to colonization.
The countries in this table are categorized according to the scheme for geographic subregions
used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in
cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly
indicated.
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