BOUNDARIES- West: Atlantic ocean, North: Mediterranean sea, East: Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters of the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
CLIMATE - the hot desert climate of the Sahara Desert, the hot semi-arid climate of the Sahel and the tropical climate of Central and Western Africa. Southern Africa has a transition to semi-tropical or temperate climates , and more semi-arid regions.
One range is the Atlas mountains that extends from southwestern Morocco along the Mediterranean coastline to eastern Tunisia. Its highest peak is Mount Toubkal in west Morocco. The highest mountain in Africa is Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Its height is approximately 19,340 feet.
The largest desert in the world is the Sahara found in northern Africa. This immense landform is nearly the size of the United States. A smaller desert, the Kalahari (sometimes called the Namib Desert) is located in South Africa.
The African Savannas are vast grasslands found in mid and southern Africa. They are wide open plains with a few scattered isolated trees. It is here that the great cats of the continent, such as the lions, stalk their prey.
The world's second largest rainforest is located in the Congo river basin in the central and west side of Africa. The rainforest is home to half of the continent's wildlife including gorillas and chimpanzees. There are other much smaller rainforest located on the west coast of Africa.
The Nile river, which is the longest river in the world, makes it through the Sahara to the sea. The Congo River carries immense amounts of water in order to drain the rain drenched equatorial regions of the continent (the only other river in the world to carry more water is the Amazon). Other major rivers include the Niger in Western Africa and the Zambezi, Orange, and Limpopo rivers of the south.
Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa. It is part of the Nile river system. It is a fresh water lake approximately 150 miles by 250 miles (240 by 400 km). Other notable African lakes include Lake Albert, Lake Chad and Lake Tanganyika.
Commonly found on the savannas of Africa, the baobab is a large tree, growing up to 95 feet tall and living for thousands of years This tree only grows leaves and flowers during the wet season. The baobab stores up moisture in its trunk during the rainy season to survive the long dry season. The indigenous people use all parts of the baobab tree. The bark is used to make cloth; medicine is made from the leaves and the fruit is also edible.
Aloes are a succulent with thick, fleshy leaves. Large striking flowers bloom on long stems during the dry winter months in South Africa. Of all the aloe plants, aloe vera is the most commonly cultivated. Aloe vera grows to 12 inches tall in full sun. Like many native African plants, aloes are not frost tolerant and will not survive standing water. The gelatinous substance inside the aloe vera leaves has been used for centuries to sooth burns and abrasions of the skin.
These flowers bloom in late winter and early spring and can be any color from white to yellow, blue and red. These flowers grow from corms, which have been eaten by the indigenous peoples of South Africa. These flowers are difficult to grow in other regions because the corm must be kept dry through its dormant summer season. Babiana pygmaea grow in full sun and, during the growing season, benefit from deep watering once a week.
Africa boasts over 1,100 species of mammals, including herd animals like wildebeest, buffalo and impala, as well as zebras, giraffes and elephants. There are over 60 species of carnivores, including lions, cheetahs, hyenas and leopards. Africa is also the home to the four great ape species, including the western and eastern gorillas, the common chimpanzee and the bonobo.
Religion is an important part of millions of people's lives across the world. Thousands of African people are converted to Christianity every day and in Nigeria about 20 new religious sects or groups come into being every month. Other people from countries in Africa have different religions like Islam, Hinduism and some traditional ones like Judaism
Not only is Africa the second most populous continent in the world with over one billion people, but it is also home to the highest linguistic diversity in the world, with over 1500 different languages. The principle languages on the continent include Arabic, French and English. Arabic was ranked the 5th most spoken language in the world by research group Ethnologue, with over 240 million speakers worldwide. In Africa, there are more than 100 million speakers, with Egypt accounting for more than 54 million. It is also the most widespread official language on the continent, incluing in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. English reached the 3rd spot as the most spoken language in the world, with over 330 million speakers. It is known as the ‘lingua franca’ of the world.
Not only is Africa the second most populous continent in the world with over one billion people, but it is also home to the highest linguistic diversity in the world, with over 1500 different languages. The principle languages on the continent include Arabic, French and English. Arabic was ranked the 5th most spoken language in the world by research group Ethnologue, with over 240 million speakers worldwide. In Africa, there are more than 100 million speakers, with Egypt accounting for more than 54 million. It is also the most widespread official language on the continent, incluing in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. English reached the 3rd spot as the most spoken language in the world, with over 330 million speakers. It is known as the ‘lingua franca’ of the world, widely used for international business, and is the language of the scientific and medical fields, which use English as a basis for much of the terminology. In Africa, majority of native English speakers are from South Africa, and the language is most spoken in Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. African languages form part of four language groups, namely Afro-Asiatic covering Northern Africa, Central Sahara and the Horn of Africa, Nilo-Saharian covering Central and Eastern Africa, Niger-Congo covering Central, Southern and Eastern Africa and Khoisan, covering the western part of Southern Africa.
This is a list of African cuisines. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. 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.
African children play a large variety of games, some of which are played the world over, such as 'hide and seek' and 'leap frog'. Unlike in the West, children’s toys in Africa are often home-made rather than shop-bought. For example, boys may play with hoops from the rims of tyres. Girls might skip with ropes or play with home-made wooden dolls. And of course, African children love ball games such as football, basketball and volleyball.
Football is the most popular sport throughout Africa. Watch a football match and chances are you'll see an African football star, such as Yaya Touré and Didier Drogba from Ivory Coast, or Michael Essien from Ghana. Everywhere in Africa youngsters can be found kicking a football, many dreaming of becoming one of the great players.
African literature, the body of traditional oral and written literatures in Afro-Asiatic and African languages together with works written by Africans in European languages. Traditional written literature, is most characteristic of those sub-Saharan cultures that have participated in the cultures of the Mediterranean. In particular, there are written literatures in both Hausa and Arabic, created by the scholars of what is now northern Nigeria, and the Somali people have produced a traditional written literature