Portal:Africa



Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will reach 3.8 billion people by 2099. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, corruption, colonialism, the Cold War, and neocolonialism. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context. Africa has a large quantity of natural resources resources, including diamonds, sugar, salt, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium, copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum, natural gas, cocoa beans, and.
Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian. It is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and a number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western Sahara, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, the northern tip of Mauritania, and the entire territories of Morocco and Tunisia, which in turn are located above the tropic of Cancer, in the northern temperate zone. In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia, southern Botswana, great parts of South Africa, the entire territories of Lesotho and Eswatini and the southern tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn, in the southern temperate zone.
Africa is highly biodiverse; it is the continent with the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. However, Africa is also heavily affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water scarcity, and pollution. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate change impacts Africa. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as the continent most vulnerable to climate change.
The history of Africa is long, complex, and varied, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical community. In African societies the oral word is revered, and they have generally recorded their history via oral tradition, which has led anthropologists to term them "oral civilisations", contrasted with "literate civilisations" which pride the written word. During the colonial period, oral sources were deprecated by most historians, who claimed Africa had no history. African historiography became organized at the academic level in the mid-20th century, and saw a movement towards utilising oral sources in a multidisciplinary approach, culminating in the General History of Africa, edited by specialists from across the continent. (Full article...)
Selected article –
The Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état was a coup d'état staged by Jean-Bédel Bokassa, commander-in-chief of the Central African Republic (CAR) army, and his officers against the government of President David Dacko on 31 December 1965 and 1 January 1966. Dacko, Bokassa's cousin, took over the country in 1960, and Bokassa, an officer in the French army, joined the CAR army in 1962. By 1965, the country was in turmoil—plagued by corruption and slow economic growth, while its borders were breached by rebels from neighboring countries. Dacko obtained financial aid from the People's Republic of China, but despite this support, the country's problems persisted. Bokassa made plans to take over the government; Dacko was made aware of this, and attempted to counter by forming the gendarmerie headed by Jean Izamo, who quickly became Dacko's closest adviser.
With the aid of Captain Alexandre Banza, Bokassa started the coup New Year's Eve night in 1965. First, Bokassa and his men captured Izamo, locking him in a cellar at Camp de Roux. Bokassa's men then occupied the capital, Bangui, and overpowered the gendarmerie and other resistance. After midnight, Dacko headed back to the capital, where he was promptly arrested, forced to resign from office and then imprisoned at Camp Kassaï. According to official reports, eight people were killed during the takeover. By the end of January 1966, Izamo was tortured to death, but Dacko's life was spared because of a request from the French government, which Bokassa was trying to satisfy. Bokassa justified the coup by claiming he had to save the country from falling under the influence of communism, and cut off diplomatic relations with China. In the early days of his government, Bokassa dissolved the National Assembly, abolished the Constitution and issued a number of decrees, banning begging, female circumcision, and polygamy, among other things. Bokassa initially struggled to obtain international recognition for the new government. However, after a successful meeting with the president of Chad, Bokassa obtained recognition of the regime from other African nations, and eventually from France, the former colonial power. (Full article...)
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Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... that weightlifter Oun Yao-ling was asked to compete in the South African Games, but the invitation was swiftly rescinded once the organisers learned that he was Chinese, not white?
- ... that Bea Hines, the first African-American woman to become a reporter at the Miami Herald, was sent to report on a riot on her first day at work?
- ... that actress Dorothy Van Engle starred in the 1935 movie Murder in Harlem with a "proto-feminist role" that was then a primary source of positive representation for African Americans in film?
- ... that archaeologists found that Updown Girl, who was buried in England in the 7th century, had a mixture of West African and European DNA?
- ... that South African politician Speedy Mashilo was kidnapped for seven hours?
- ... that American doctor Cory Synhorst SerVaas believed that high-lysine corn could help end hunger in Africa, end famine, and stop protein deficiency despite only being fed to livestock and poultry?
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Selected biography –
Anton Wilhelm Amo or Anthony William Amo (c. 1703 – c. 1759) was a Nzema philosopher from Axim, Dutch Gold Coast (now Ghana). Amo was a professor at the universities of Halle and Jena in Germany after studying there. He was brought to Germany by the Dutch West India Company in 1707 and was presented as a gift to Dukes Augustus William and Ludwig Rudolf of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, being treated as a member of the family by their father Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. In 2020, Oxford University Press published a translation (into English) of his Latin works from the early 1730s. (Full article...)
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Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. It borders Nigeria to the west, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea. The highest point is Mount Cameroon in the southwest, and the largest cities are Douala, Yaoundé, and Garoua. Cameroon is home to over 200 different ethnic and linguistic groups.
Compared with other African countries, Cameroon enjoys relative political and social stability. This has permitted the development of agriculture, roads, railways, and large petroleum and timber industries. Nevertheless, large numbers of Cameroonians live in poverty as subsistence farmers. Power lies firmly in the hands of the president, Paul Biya, and his Cameroon People's Democratic Movement party, and corruption is widespread. The Anglophone community has grown increasingly alienated from the government, and Anglophone politicians have called for greater decentralisation and even the secession of the former British-governed territories. (Read more...)
Selected city –

Cabinda, also known as Chioua, is a city and a municipality located in the Cabinda Province, an exclave of Angola. Angolan sovereignty over Cabinda is disputed by the secessionist Republic of Cabinda. The city of Cabinda had a population of 550,000 and the municipality a population of 624,646, at the 2014 Census. The residents of the city are known as Cabindas or Fiotes. Cabinda, due to its proximity to rich oil reserves, serves as one of Angola's main oil ports. (Full article...)
In the news
- 14 March 2025 – South Africa–European Union relations
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announces that the European Union will invest €4.7 billion (US$5 billion) in aid and development projects in South Africa after the United States ended most of its USAID programs. (DW) (Reuters)
- 14 March 2025 – South Africa–United States relations
- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declares South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool a persona non grata for his criticism of Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign. (Al Jazeera)
- 13 March 2025 – War against the Islamic State
- Puntland forces claim to have killed a senior foreign ISIL commander responsible for orchestrating drone attacks using explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicles in the Lugta-Huraanhur and Togga Raq-Raq valleys of the Cal Miskaad Mountains in Puntland's Bari Region. (Garowe Online) (Hiiraan Online)
- 12 March 2025 – Somali Civil War
- Somali security forces end the 24-hour siege at a hotel in Beledweyne, Hiran, Somalia, with at least fifteen civilians and all six Al-Shabaab attackers killed. (BBC) (AP)
- Following the attack, over 100 Somali parliament members urge President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to resign, citing leadership failures amid worsening security and governance crises. (Idil News) (Garowe Online)
- 12 March 2025 – Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict
- Angola confirms that peace talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Rwandan-backed March 23 Movement will begin on 18 March, after the DRC previously insisted on solely negotiating with Rwanda. (DW)
Updated: 10:05, 15 March 2025
General images -
Africa topics
More did you know –

- ...that the 1459 Fra Mauro map (pictured) reports that "a junk from India" rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1420, around 70 years before the navigations of Vasco da Gama?
- ...that the 1998 Sudan famine was caused by human rights abuses in the midst of the Second Sudanese Civil War?
- ...that a smokie is a West African delicacy made by blowtorching the carcass of a sheep or goat without removing its fleece?
- ...that Anne-Marie Nzié, a Cameroonian bikutsi singer, dedicated the song Liberté to President Paul Biya and his party, the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement?
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Major Religions in Africa
North Africa
West Africa
Central Africa
East Africa
Southern Africa
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