Africa

Author: Zhou Min, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-08-01
Features: Africa is the abbreviation of "Africa." The Greek word "Africa" means "sunny and hot." The equator crosses the middle of Africa, and three-quarters of the continent is vertically exposed to the sun. The average annual temperature in the tropical regions, which account for 95% of the continent, is above 20°C, with more than half of the regions being hot year-round, hence the name "Africa."
Location: Located in the southwestern part of the Eastern Hemisphere, spanning both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The northwestern part extends into the Western Hemisphere. It borders the Indian Ocean to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Europe across the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar to the north, and Asia through the narrow Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the northeast.
Scope: East to Cape Horn (51°24′E, 10°27′N), south to Cape Agulhas (20°02′E, 34°51′S), west to Cape Verde (17°33′W, 14°45′N), and north to Cape Blanc (Cape Verde) (9°50′E, 37°21′N).
Area: Approximately 30.2 million square kilometers (including nearby islands). It accounts for 20.2% of the world's total land area, second only to Asia, making it the second-largest continent in the world.
Population: 748 million. It accounts for 12.9% of the world's total population, second only to Asia, making it the second most populous continent. Africa ranks among the top in birth rates, death rates, and growth rates. Population distribution is highly uneven, with about 1,000 people per square kilometer along the Nile River coast and delta. Deserts such as the Sahara, Namib, and Kalahari, as well as arid grasslands and semi-deserts, have fewer than one person per square kilometer. Large uninhabited areas also exist.
Ethnicity: Africa is the most ethnically diverse region in the world. Most ethnic groups in Africa belong to the Black race, while others belong to the White or Yellow races.
Languages: There are about 800 languages in Africa, generally divided into four language families.
Religion: Most people in Africa follow primitive religions and Islam, while a small number follow Catholicism and Christianity.
Natural Geography: The coastline of the continent is 30,500 kilometers long. The coastline is relatively straight, with few bays and peninsulas. Africa is the least island-rich continent in the world. Except for Madagascar (the fourth-largest island in the world), most are small islands. The total area of the islands is about 620,000 square kilometers, accounting for less than 3% of the continent's total area. The African continent is wider in the north and narrower in the south, resembling an isosceles triangle. The north-south length is about 8,000 kilometers, and the east-west width is about 7,500 kilometers. Africa is a highland continent with relatively flat terrain, with only significant mountains in the northern and southern ends. The average elevation of the continent is 750 meters. More than 60% of the continent is covered by plateaus with elevations between 500 and 1,000 meters. About 5% of the continent is covered by mountains and plateaus with elevations above 2,000 meters. Plains below 200 meters are mostly distributed along the coast. The terrain is roughly divided by a line from the Congo River estuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the northern edge of the Ethiopian Plateau. The southeastern part is higher, while the northwestern part is lower. The southeastern part is known as "High Africa," with elevations mostly above 1,000 meters, including the Ethiopian Plateau (with elevations above 2,000 meters, known as the "Roof of Africa"), the East African Plateau, and the South African Plateau, which includes the Kalahari Basin in the South African Plateau. The northwestern part is known as "Low Africa," with elevations mostly below 500 meters, mostly consisting of low plateaus and basins, such as the Nile upstream basin, the Congo Basin, and the Chad Basin. The higher mountains in Africa are mostly located along the coastal areas of the plateaus. The Atlas Mountains are in the northwest, the Drakensberg Mountains are in the southeast, and the Kenya and Kilimanjaro Mountains are in the east. Mount Kilimanjaro is an active volcano with an elevation of 5,895 meters, the highest peak in Africa. The East African Rift Valley in Africa is the largest in the world. The eastern branch of the rift valley starts from the Shire River estuary, passes Lake Malawi, and runs north through the central part of the East African Plateau and the central part of the Ethiopian Plateau, across the Red Sea to the northern part of the Dead Sea, spanning about 6,400 kilometers. The western branch starts from the northwest of Lake Malawi, passes Lakes Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward, and Albert, and extends to the Albert-Nile Valley, spanning about 1,700 kilometers, with a width of dozens to 300 kilometers, forming a series of narrow and deep valleys and lakes. Lake Assal, with a surface level 156 meters below sea level, is the lowest point on African land. Africa has about one-third of its area covered by deserts, making it the continent with the largest desert area. The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world, covering 7.77 million square kilometers. The Namib and Kalahari deserts are also located in the southwest. Within and near the East African Rift Valley, there are a series of extinct and active volcanoes, some of which reach elevations above 5,000 meters. Central and western Africa also have many high volcanoes. The East African Rift Valley is also the region with the most frequent and intense earthquakes in Africa. About 68.2% of Africa's drainage basin flows out of the continent. The Atlantic drainage system consists of long and large rivers, such as the Nile, Congo, Niger, Senegal, Volta, Orange, and others. The Nile is the longest river in the world, spanning 6,671 kilometers. The Congo River has the second-largest drainage basin and flow rate in the world, after the Amazon River. The Indian Ocean drainage system includes the Zambezi, Limpopo, Jubba rivers, as well as short rivers along the eastern coast of Africa and rivers on Madagascar. The inland drainage system and areas without drainage cover about 9.58 million square kilometers, accounting for about 31.8% of the continent's total area. Among them, only the Chad Lake basin has a well-developed river system. The Okavango River basin and the Sahara Desert are very arid, with many intermittent rivers and dry valleys in the desert. The inland drainage system also includes small lakes in the East African Rift Valley, where rivers flow from surrounding highlands into lakes. These lakes have abundant rainfall and dense river networks, differing from other arid inland areas. Lakes in Africa are concentrated in the East African Plateau, with a few scattered in inland basins. Most plateau lakes are fault lakes, narrow and deep, arranged in a string-like pattern along the East African Rift Valley. Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and the second-largest freshwater lake in the world. Lake Tanganyika is the second-deepest lake in the world. Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Plateau is the highest lake in Africa, with an elevation of 1,830 meters. Lake Chad is the largest lake in the inland basin, with its area fluctuating frequently. Africa is known as the "Tropical Continent." Its climate is characterized by high temperatures, low rainfall, and dryness, with a symmetrical distribution from north to south. The equator crosses the center of the continent, and the climate generally decreases with increasing latitude. Areas with an average annual temperature above 20°C account for about 95% of the continent, with more than half of the regions being hot year-round, and nearly half of the regions having hot summers and warm winters. Dallol in the northeastern part of the Ethiopian Plateau has an average annual temperature of 34.5°C, one of the highest average temperatures in the world. Azizia in Libya, south of Tripoli, reached a high temperature of 57.8°C on September 13, 1922, the highest extreme temperature in Africa. Mount Kilimanjaro is near the equator, with snow on its summit year-round due to its high elevation. Africa's precipitation decreases from the equator to the north and south, with highly uneven distribution. Some areas receive almost no rainfall year-round, while others receive over 10,000 millimeters annually. One-third of the continent has an average annual precipitation of less than 200 millimeters. The southeastern part, the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, and the windward slopes of mountains receive more rainfall.
Natural Resources: Africa has a rich variety of mineral resources with large reserves. It is rich in oil and natural gas; iron, manganese, chromium, cobalt, nickel, vanadium, copper, lead, zinc, tin, and phosphates have significant reserves; gold and diamonds are world-famous; and the discovery of uranium veins has attracted global attention. Many mineral reserves rank among the top in the world. Africa has at least 40,000 plant species. Forests cover 21% of the continent's total area, with abundant production of teak, ebony, rosewood, copal, olive wood, cedar, oak, walnut, mahogany, and cork. Grasslands are vast, covering 27% of the continent, the largest in the world. Water resources for development are abundant. The coast is rich in sardines, tuna, mackerel, and whales.
Economy: Industry: Africa is the continent with the lowest level of economic development in the world. Most countries are economically underdeveloped. Mining and light industry are the main sectors of Africa's industry. The production of gold, diamonds, iron, manganese, phosphates, bauxite, copper, uranium, tin, and oil holds significant positions in the world. Light industry is mainly based on agricultural and livestock product processing and textiles. The timber industry has a certain foundation, with many sawmills. Heavy industry includes metallurgy, machinery, metal processing, chemicals, cement, marble mining, diamond cutting, and rubber products.
Agriculture: Agriculture plays an important role in the national economy of African countries and is the economic pillar of most countries. Africa has a variety of food crops, including wheat, rice, corn, millet, sorghum, potatoes, and others, as well as specialty crops such as cassava, bananas, dates, yams, and plantains. Africa's cash crops, especially tropical cash crops, hold important positions in the world. The production of cotton, sisal, peanuts, palm oil, cashews, sesame, coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, tobacco, natural rubber, and cloves is high. Frankincense, myrrh, karite fruit, cola, and alpha grass are unique to Africa. Livestock farming has developed rapidly, with a large number of livestock, but the commercialization of livestock products is low, and management is crude and backward. Fishery resources are abundant, but fishery production remains at a manual level. Freshwater fishing has developed rapidly in recent years. Africa is a relatively backward continent in terms of transportation, with no complete transportation system. Most transportation routes extend from coastal ports to the interior, remaining isolated from each other. Transportation is mainly by road, supplemented by rail and maritime transport. South Africa, the Maghreb, and other regions are relatively developed in transportation. The Sahara and Kalahari regions are blank areas without modern transportation routes. Currently, Africa has about 1.3 million kilometers of highways and 78,000 kilometers of railways. The navigable length of inland rivers is about 52,000 kilometers. The shipping industry plays an important role, and the aviation industry has developed rapidly.
Countries: Africa currently has 56 countries and regions. Geographically, it is divided into five regions: North Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. North Africa typically includes Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, the Azores, and the Madeira Islands. East Africa typically includes Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Seychelles. West Africa typically includes Mauritania, Western Sahara, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Liberia, C?te d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, and the Canary Islands. Central Africa typically includes Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, S?o Tomé and Príncipe. Southern Africa typically includes Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, and Saint Helena.