For other uses, see.Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous, after. At about 30.3 million km 2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of total surface area and 20% of its land area. With1.3 billion people as of 2018, it accounts for about 16% of the world's. The continent is surrounded by the to the north, the and the to the northeast, the to the southeast and the to the west.

All across Africa, tribal communities maintain practices that have come to shape their respective cultures; traditions that have been passed down.

The continent includes and various. It contains , eight and two independent. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the.Africa.Africa's average population is the youngest amongst all the continents; the age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4.

Is Africa's largest country by area, and is its largest by population. Africa, particularly central, is widely accepted as the place of origin of and the , as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest and their ancestors as well as later ones that have been dated to around 7 million years ago, including, and —the earliest (modern human), found in, date to circa 200,000 years ago. Africa straddles the and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern to southern temperate zones.Africa hosts a large diversity of, cultures.

In the, European countries; most present states in Africa emerged from a process of in the 20th century. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the, which is headquartered in. An skeleton discovered 24 November 1974 in the of 'sAfrica is considered by most to be the on, with the originating from the continent. During the mid-20th century, discovered many and evidence of human occupation perhaps as early as 7 million years ago (BP=before present).

Fossil remains of several species of early apelike humans thought to have into modern man, such as ( to approximately 3.9–3.0 million years BP, (c. 2.3–1.4 million years BP) and (c.

1.9 million–600,000 years BP) have been discovered.After the evolution of approximately 350,000 to 260,000 years BP in Africa. The continent was mainly populated by groups of. These first modern humans left Africa and populated the rest of the globe during the migration dated to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting the continent either across over the, the in Moroccoor the in Egypt.Other migrations of modern humans within the African continent have been dated to that time, with evidence of early human settlement found in, and the.The size of the Sahara has historically been extremely variable, with its area rapidly fluctuating and at times disappearing depending on global climatic conditions. At the end of the, 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, with depicting a fertile Sahara and large populations discovered in dating back perhaps 10 millennia.

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.

The population trekked out of the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley below the where they made permanent or semi-permanent settlements. A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central.

Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in.The domestication of in Africa preceded and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the and a small screw-horned goat which was common from to.Around 4000 BC, the Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing.

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.By the first millennium BC, had been introduced in Northern Africa and around that time also became established in parts of sub-Saharan Africa either through independent invention there or diffusion from the north 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. Objects from, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that networks had been established by this date.

Early civilizations. Colossal statues of at, Egypt, date from around 1400 BC.At about 3300 BC, the historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the civilization of. 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.

Egyptian influence reached deep into modern-day and, and, according to Martin Bernal, as far north as Crete.An independent centre of with trading links to was established by from on the north-west African coast at.began with. In 332 BC, was welcomed as a liberator in. He founded in Egypt, which would become the prosperous capital of the after his death.Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system.

Occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast. The first native to North Africa was, born in in present-day Libya—his mother was Italian Roman and his father was.spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia; by AD 340 at the latest, it had become the of the., who arrived by way of the Red Sea, were responsible for this theological development.In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic 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 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.In West Africa, and in present-day figure prominently among the early urban centers, dated to 2,000 BC. About 500 stone settlements litter the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. Its inhabitants fished and grew millet.

It has been found Augustin Holl that the of the were likely responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to. Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent. (in present-day ) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC had become a large, thriving market town.Farther south, in central, around 1,000 BC, the developed on the. It was a highly centralized community.

The Nok people produced lifelike representations in, including human heads and human figures, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC they were smelting iron.

By 200 AD the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the kingdom of and those of the kingdom of are now believed to be continuations of the traditions of the earlier Nok culture. Ninth to eighteenth centuries. The intricate 9th-century bronzes from, in displayed a level of technical accomplishment that was notably more advanced than European bronze casting of the same period.Pre-colonial Africa possessed perhaps as many as 10,000 different states and polities characterized by many different sorts of political organization and rule. These included small family groups of hunter-gatherers such as the of southern Africa; larger, more structured groups such as the family clan groupings of the of central, southern, and eastern Africa; heavily structured clan groups in the; the large; and autonomous city-states and kingdoms such as those of the;, and in; and the coastal trading towns of.By the ninth century AD, a string of dynastic states, including the earliest states, stretched across the sub-Saharan savannah from the western regions to central Sudan. The most powerful of these states were, and the. Ghana declined in the eleventh century, but was succeeded by the 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 north. The was established around the ninth century and was one of the first. It is also one of the oldest kingdoms in present-day and was ruled by the. The Nri kingdom is famous for its elaborate, found at the town of.

The bronzes have been dated from as far back as the ninth century. Ashanti yam ceremony, nineteenth century byThe, historically the first of these Yoruba city-states or kingdoms, established government under a priestly ('king' or 'ruler' in the ), 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, 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 Kingdom of was one of the non-Yoruba domains under Oyo control.The were a dynasty from the that spread over a wide area of northwestern Africa and the Iberian peninsula during the eleventh century. The and were a collection of tribes from the who migrated westwards via Egypt between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. Their resulted in the fusion of the Arabs and Berbers, where the locals were, and Arab culture absorbed elements of the local culture, under the unifying framework of Islam. Ruins of (flourished eleventh to fifteenth centuries)Following the breakup of Mali, a local leader named (1464–1492) founded the in the region of middle and the western and took control of the trans-Saharan trade. Sonni Ali seized in 1468 and in 1473, building his regime on trade revenues and the cooperation of Muslim merchants. His successor (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.

By the eleventh century, some states – such as, and – had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing, 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. Arab–Swahili slave traders and their captives along the (in today's Tanzania and Mozambique) as witnessed byhad long been practiced in Africa. 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.

In addition, more than 1 million Europeans were captured by and sold as slaves in North Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries.In, 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, increasing legislation in Europe and America, and the increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Slave being inspected, from Captain Canot; or, Twenty Years of an African SlaverAction was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against 'the usurping King of ', deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the, the, and the ) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of 'legitimate commerce' in the form of, and, forming the bedrock of West Africa's modern export trade.

The Oyo Empire, unable to adapt, collapsed into civil wars. Colonialism and the 'Scramble for Africa'. 's longtime dictator, over $5 billion from his country.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,. The vast majority of African states are that operate under some form of the of rule.

However, few of them have been able to sustain governments on a permanent basis, and many have instead cycled through a series of, producing.Great instability was mainly the result of,. For, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts, some of which had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the 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. Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts. South African paratroops on a raid in Angola during theconflicts between the United States and the, as well as the policies of thealso 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.

Many countries in 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 and 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, Soviet and Chinese-backed leftist guerrillas of the waged a brutal against the country's white government. There was a, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. Some claimed that Marxist economic policies made the situation worse. The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the; this conflict and its aftermath has killed an estimated 5.5 million people. Since 2003 there has been an ongoing which has become a humanitarian disaster.

Another notable tragic event is the 1994 in which an estimated 800,000 people were murdered. Has also been a prevalent issue.In the 21st century, however, the number of armed conflicts in Africa has steadily declined. For instance, the 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, 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, can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.

From African nations has increased dramatically in the last decade. A composite satellite image of Africa (centre) with North America (left) and Eurasia (right), to scaleAfrica is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. Separated from Europe by the, it is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by the (transected by the ), 163 km (101 mi) wide.

(, 's east of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa, as well.)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 km 2 (4,000,000 sq mi) – about a third of the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km (20,000 mi). From the most northerly point, in (37°21' N), to the most southerly point, in South Africa (34°51'15' S), is a distance of approximately 8,000 km (5,000 mi)., 17°33'22' W, the westernmost point, is a distance of approximately 7,400 km (4,600 mi) to, 51°27'52' E, the most easterly projection that neighbours, the tip of the Horn of Africa.Africa's largest country is, and its smallest country is, an off the east coast. The smallest nation on the continental mainland is.African plate AfricaTypeApproximate area61,300,000 km 2 (23,700,000 sq mi)FeaturesAfrica, Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea.

Main article:The African Plate is a major straddling the as well as the. It includes much of the of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges. Between million years ago and million years ago, the began from the African Plate along the.

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.Geologically, Africa includes the; the of Iran and the of Turkey mark where the collided with Eurasia. The and the to its north unite the region biogeographically, and the unites the north linguistically.Climate.

Tropical beach in,Africa has over 3,000, 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.

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.is affecting Africa at twice the world rate, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. 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. Some sources claim that approximately 90% of the original, virgin forests in have been destroyed. Over 90% of 's original forests have been destroyed since the arrival of humans 2000 years ago. About 65% of Africa's agricultural land suffers from.

Main article:The (AU) is a 55-member federation consisting of all of Africa's states. The union was formed, with, as its headquarters, on 26 June 2001. The union was officially established on 9 July 2002 as a successor to the (OAU). In July 2004, the African Union's (PAP) was relocated to, in South Africa, but the 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, is formed by the, which aims to transform the, a federated commonwealth, into a state under established international conventions.

The African Union has a parliamentary government, known as the, 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. 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, as well as the inheritance of presidential authority stipulated by African treaties and by international treaties, including those subordinating the Secretary General of the 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,.

See also: RankCountry(PPP, Peak Year)millions ofPeak Year11,321,238465362728291019RankCountry(nominal, Peak Year)millions ofPeak Year15243342516178910Although it has abundant, Africa remains the world's poorest and continent, the result of a variety of causes that may include that have often committed serious, failed, high levels of, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from to ). Its total nominal GDP remains behind that of the United States, China, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and France. According to the ' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 24 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African., illiteracy, 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 announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 81% of the population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) per day in 2005, compared with 86% for India.Sub-Saharan Africa is the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty ($1.25 per day); some 50% of 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, 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.Africa is now at risk of being in debt once again, particularly in Sub-Saharan African countries. The last debt crisis in 2005 was resolved with help from the heavily indebted poor countries scheme (HIPC). The HIPC resulted in some positive and negative effects on the economy in Africa. About ten years after the 2005 debt crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa was resolved, Zambia fell back into dept. A small reason was due to the fall in copper prices in 2011, but the bigger reason was that a large amount of the money Zambia borrowed was wasted or pocketed by the elite.From 1995 to 2005, Africa's rate of economic growth increased, averaging 5% in 2005.

Some countries experienced still higher growth rates, notably, and, all of which had recently begun extracting their reserves or had expanded their capacity.In a recently published analysis based on data, the Austrian political scientist maintained that several African countries, most notably, perform quite well on scales of mass support for and the.Tausch's global value comparison based on the derived the following factor analytical scales: 1. The non-violent and law-abiding society 2. Democracy movement 3. Climate of personal non-violence 4. Trust in institutions 5. Happiness, good health 6.

No redistributive religious fundamentalism 7. Accepting the market 8.

Involvement in politics 10. Optimism and engagement 11.

No welfare mentality, acceptancy of the Calvinist work ethics. The spread in the performance of African countries with complete data, Tausch concluded 'is really amazing'. While one should be especially hopeful about the development of future democracy and the market economy in, the article suggests pessimistic tendencies for and, and especially for Africa's leading economy,.

High, as measured by the 's 's, further impairs the development of. Tausch also maintains that the certain recent optimism, corresponding to economic and data, emerging from Africa, is reflected in the development of a.The continent is believed to hold 90% of the world's, 90% of its, 50% of its, 98% of its, 70% of its, 64% of its and one-third of its. The (DRC) has 70% of the world's, a mineral used in the production of for electronic devices such as cell phones. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world's reserves. Is the world's largest exporter of. 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 levels. In fact, the which took place on the heels of the global financial crisis pushed 100 million people into food insecurity.In recent years, the has built increasingly stronger ties with African nations and is Africa's largest trading partner.

Lego ninjago skybound. But dark forces once more threaten NINJAGO Island as the Teapot of Tyrahn is rediscovered by the ghost of Clouse, Master Chen’s former right-hand man. He allows Nadakhan, an evil Djinn and captain of the infamous Misfortune’s Keep, to escape the teapot. After reassembling his pirate crew, Nadakhan returns to his home realm of Djinjago, to find it collapsing.

In 2007, Chinese companies invested a total of US$1 billion in Africa.A Harvard University study led by professor 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.' During US President Barack Obama's visit to Africa in July 2013, he announced a 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. Source: WorldometersAfrica'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.

The total number of people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in 1990. As of 2018, the population of Africa is estimated at 1.3 billion. Africa's total population surpassing other continents is fairly recent; African population surpassed Europe in the 1990s, while the 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. This increase in number of babies born in Africa compared to the rest of the world is expected to reach approximately 37% in the year 2050, an increase of 21% since 1990 alone.

Bushman man fromSpeakers of (part of the family) are the majority in southern, central. The Bantu-speaking peoples from progressively expanded over most of Sub-Saharan Africa. But there are also several groups in and East Africa, the mixed on the, and a few remaining Khoisan (' or 'Bushmen') and 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 of Southern Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also 'San', closely related to, but distinct from ') 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.The peoples of West Africa primarily speak, belonging mostly to its non-Bantu branches, though some and Afro-Asiatic speaking groups are also found.

The Niger–Congo-speaking, and ethnic groups are the largest and most influential. In the central Sahara, or groups are most significant. Chadic-speaking groups, including the, are found in more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara, and Nilo-Saharan communities, such as the, and, are found in the eastern parts of West Africa bordering.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 who arrived in the 7th century AD introduced the and Islam to North Africa.

The Semitic (who founded ) and, the Indo-Iranian, the Indo- European, and settled in North Africa as well. Significant Berber communities remain within and in the 21st century, while, to a lesser extent, Berber speakers are also present in some regions of Tunisia and Libya. The Berber-speaking and other often- 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.

From Northeast AfricaIn the, some Ethiopian and groups (like the and, collectively known as ) speak languages from the branch of the language family, while the and speak languages from the branch of Afro-Asiatic.Prior to the movements of the post- era, were represented in every part of Africa. Decolonization during the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass emigration of white settlers – especially from Algeria and Morocco (1.6 million in North Africa), Kenya, Congo, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola. Between 1975 and 1977, over a million colonials returned to Portugal alone. Nevertheless, remain an important minority in many African states, particularly, and the. The country with the largest white African population is South Africa. And represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the continent today.European colonization also brought sizable groups of, particularly from the, to British colonies.

Large are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and southeast African countries. The large was by the dictator 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 of are an, 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 (people with origins in two or more races and continents). During the 20th century, small but economically important communities of and have also developed in the larger coastal cities of and, respectively.

By most estimates, well over a thousand ( has estimated around two thousand) are spoken in Africa. Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most 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 indigenous to Africa:. The languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people widespread throughout the, the, and.

The language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by ethnic groups in, and northern. The language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of number of languages, it is the largest language family in Africa and perhaps one of the largest in the world. The languages number about fifty and are spoken in by approximately 400,000 people. Many of the Khoisan languages are.

The and peoples are considered the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.Following the end of, nearly all African countries adopted that originated outside the continent, although several countries also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages (such as, and ). In numerous countries, English and French ( see ) are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and the media., 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 in Africa. German is spoken in, as it was a former German protectorate.

The rock-hewn in, is a.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. Leopold II of Belgium attempted to 'civilize' Africans by discouraging polygamy and witchcraft.Obidoh Freeborn posits that colonialism is one element that has created the character of modern African art. 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.' 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. 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.' Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi comment that the current identity of African literature had its genesis in the 'traumatic encounter between Africa and Europe.' 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.'

There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalue African traditional cultures, under such movements as the, led by, led by a group of scholars, including, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through decriminalization of and other forms of spirituality.Visual art and architectureand reflect the diversity of African cultures. The region's oldest known were made from shells and worn as personal ornaments 72,000 years ago. The in was the for 4,000 years, until the completion of around the year 1300. The stone ruins of are also noteworthy for their architecture, as are the at, Ethiopia, such as the.Music and dance.

A musician fromEgypt has long been a cultural focus of, while remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in particular West Africa, was transmitted through the to modern,. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration of these various styles with the popularization of and music. Modern music of the continent includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of, dominated by the. Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are maintained by oral traditions, and they are distinct from the music and dance styles of. Influences are visible in North African music and dance and, in Southern Africa, are apparent due to.Sports.

TheFifty-four African countries have teams in the. Egypt has won the African Cup seven times, and a record-making three times in a row. Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, and Algeria have advanced to the knockout stage of recent. Hosted the, becoming the first African country to do so.is popular in some African nations. And have status, while is the leading non-test team and previously had (ODI) status (from, until ). The three countries jointly hosted the.

Is the other African country to have played in a World Cup. In northern Africa has also hosted the, but the national team has never qualified for a major tournament. Is a popular sport in South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. The size of Africa compared with distinctive territories from other parts of the world. Further reading. (2007). The History of Africa.

US: Routledge. (1970). The Prehistory of Africa. London: Thames and Hudson. Crowder, Michael (1978). The Story of Nigeria. London: Faber.

(1966). The African Past: Chronicles from Antiquity to Modern Times. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Gordon, April A.; Donald L. Gordon (1996). Understanding Contemporary Africa. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Khapoya, Vincent B. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Moore, Clark D., and Ann Dunbar (1968).

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There are an estimated 3,000 people groups in, depending on how you define a people group.The link below is not a cut and dry answer, as there is overlap inneighboring countries (e.g. The Batwa tribe live in Burundi,Rwanda, Congo, and perhaps other countries).previous answer (about there being 26 tribes in Africa,based on one incomplete Google search) was nonsense, so I deletedit.If we are looking for the most well known tribes, it wouldprobably be the Maasai (in East Africa) and the Zulu (in SouthAfrica). The pygmy people in central Africa (who have historicallybeen socially excluded and even killed because of their culturaldifferences) are probably quite well known, but not by their tribalnames:from: are many different 'Pygmy' peoples - for example, theBambuti, the Batwa, the Bayaka and the Bagyeli ('Ba -' means'people') - who live scattered over a huge area in central andwestern Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congo(Brazzaville), Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Rwanda,Burundi and Uganda. In many places they are recognised as being thefirst inhabitants of the region. The different Pygmy groups speakdifferent languages, mostly related to those of neighbouringnon-Pygmy peoples.

However there are a few words which are sharedbetween even widely separated Pygmy tribes, suggesting they mayhave shared a language in the past.Here are some of the tribe names from the country of Kenya (inEast Africa):From: however, is the main criteria for a tribe.