SFDH Logo (tiny)

The Society of Folk Dance Historians (SFDH)

Africa

[ Home | About | Encyclopedia |
| Publications | Members ]

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Africa

BACKGROUND

Information: A continent.

Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent (behind Asia in both categories). The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

Africa hosts a large diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages. Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world's poorest and most underdeveloped continent,

Slavery had 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.

Languages: By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO 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 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.

Religions: Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs, and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by since they are often a sensitive topic for governments with mixed religious populations. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity.


COUNTRIES AND REGIONS

  1. Algeria
  2. Angola
  3. Benin
  4. Botswana
  5. Burkina Faso
  6. Burundi
  7. Cameroon
  8. Cape Verde (Island)
  9. Central African Republic
  10. Ceuta
  11. Chad
  12. Comoros (Islands)
  13. Democratic Republic of the Congo
  14. Djibouti
  15. Egypt
  16. Equatorial Guinea
  17. Eritrea
  18. Ethiopia
  19. Gabon
  20. Ghana
  21. Guinea
  22. Guinea-Bissau
  23. Ivory Coast
  24. Kenya
  25. Lesotho
  26. Liberia
  27. Libya
  28. Madagascar (Island)
  29. Madeira
  30. Malawi
  31. Mali
  32. Maruitania
  33. Mauritis
  34. Mayotte
  35. Melila
  36. Morocco
  37. Mozambique
  38. Nambia
  39. Niger
  40. Nigeri
  41. Republic of theCongo
  42. Réunion
  43. Rwanda
  44. Saint Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha (Islands)
  45. Sāo Tomé and Principe (Islands)
  46. Senegal
  47. Seychelles (Islands)
  48. Sierra Leone
  49. Somalia
  50. South Africa
  51. South Sudan
  52. Sudan
  53. Swaziland
  54. Tanzania
  55. The Gambia
  56. Toto
  57. Tunisia
  58. Uganda
  59. Western Saharah
  60. Zambia
  61. Zimbabwe

DOCUMENTS


This page © 2018 by Ron Houston.
Please do not copy any part of this page without including this copyright notice.
Please do not copy small portions out of context.
Please do not copy large portions without permission from Ron Houston.