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Africa

Africa
Location map of Africa.
Area	30,202,704 km ² (20.3%)
Population	One billion inhabitants.
Density	33 inhabitants / km ²
Country	54
Dependencies	9
Main languages	Arabic , Tamazight , Swahili , English , French , Portuguese , Afrikaans , Hausa , Yoruba , Dioula , Lingala , Peul , Wolof , Soninke , Madagascar , Amharic.
Time Zones	UTC-1 ( Cape Verde ) UTC +4 ( Mauritius )
More cities	Cairo , Lagos , Pretoria - Johannesburg , Kinshasa , Abidjan , Casablanca , Algiers , Dakar , Tunis.
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Covering an area of 30,221,532 km ² including the islands, Africa is a continent covering 6% of the land surface and 20.3% of the land surface , it accounts for 16.14% of the world population. The continent is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Africa comprises 48 countries including Madagascar and 53 including all the islands .

Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate: temperate north and south, hot and desert along the tropics, hot and humid on the equator. Due to lack of precipitation regular and irrigation , as of glaciers or mountain systems aquifers , there is no way to control the natural environment other than the coasts.

Etymology

As of Hadrian (136), representing on the obverse Africa , carrying an elephant skin, holding a scorpion and a cornucopia, a modius wheat at his feet.

Mosaic of the Domus Africa Thysdrus

The etymology of this name has been subject to many assumptions.

According to the most likely, due to Michele Fruyt (e Journal of Philology 50, 1976: 221-238), Africa is related to another Latin term Africus (ventus) designating in Campania , the "rainy wind" from the region of Carthage , since the beginning, the Romans called it only "Africa" the northern part of the continent.

Etymologies earlier in the ^20th century are now only historical curiosities: Isidore of Seville drew the name of Latin aprica ("sun"); Leo Africanus invoked a word Greek -phrik fictitious ("without cold" ).

According to other researchers, the word Africa comes from the tribe of Banu Ifren (tribe Amazigh ) ^, ^, ^, , whose ancestor is also called Ifren Iforen or Ifuraces or Afer (a term also meaning "cave" or "cave" in the Berber language as Ibn Khaldun ^, ^,. Other researchers refer to the Banu Ifren as the inhabitants of the former Ifriquia and that the name derives from Africa to the appointment of the tribe of Banu Ifren ^,.

In addition, Banu Ifren would Ifuraces, Afar tribe gathers. The former lived Ifuraces Tripoli and are Zenetes Berbers that Corripus appointed in his book by Johanide Ifuraces ^,.

According to other arbitrary assumptions, the word "Africa" could come from the name " Afridi ", a tribe that lived in North Africa near Carthage ^History

Main article: History of Africa.

Ancient African

Site of large stelae of Axum , Ethiopia. World Heritage of UNESCO Imperial Africa

In West Africa, from the ^sixth century to the beginning of the next millennium, the great business and fertile land have encouraged the emergence of powerful kingdoms and empires such as the Nok civilization , the empire of Mali , the Oba of Benin , the kingdom of Kanem-Bornu , the Dahomey , the kingdom of Oyo , the Ashanti empire , the empire of Ghana , the Songhai Empire and the empire Djolof , Kongo Empire , Fulani Empire Macina , Bambara kingdom of Segou , Monomotapa Empire.

Bronzes of the ^9th century of the civilization of Igbo-Ukwu , Nigeria , now in British Museum

Ruins of Great Zimbabwe National Monument (11th-XV ^century)

The creation of the Mali Empire , also called Mande or Mande, is arguably one of the biggest events in the history of Africa. It took place in 1235, when Sundiata Keita or Sunjata Keita won with his army in battle Kirina. Sundiata then became king of kings or emperor, and is considered one of the greatest heroes of all Africa, although the oral transmission of history has undoubtedly contributed to giving the characteristics of a hero tale. He endowed his empire with a constitution, charter or Kurukan Fuga Mande charter in 1236, which is similar in some ways to a declaration of human rights. This charter, transmitted orally from generation to generation, says including the right to life, preserving the physical integrity, tolerance, respect for elders and wise men, the principle of educating all children, to involve the women in politics, the good treatment of slaves ... There is even mention of abolishing slavery, but it went into reality. The charter also provides economic rules, and about the war ^,.

To the east, the Ethiopian kingdom responds to the kingdom of Aksum , which develops its trade relations between Africa, the Middle East and India .

Finally in Southern Africa , initially occupied by peoples Khoisan and Bantu , the Great Zimbabwe , the center of the Empire Monomotapa appears from the ^fourth century BC. AD ..

Looser federations of city states such as Yoruba and Hausa also saw the day, but most of its power had their kingdoms fall with the installation of European ports in Guinea .

Islamization

From the ^seventh century , the armies of Arabs invaded and converted the North Africa to Islam. The caravan trade and the expansion of Islam struck up new relationships between the two Africa. Islamization took place both peaceful and military purposes. In Africa, it is often initially Islamized ethnicities, who propagate the religion.

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The slave trade

Official Medallion Society British anti-slavery. The inscription reads: "Am I not a man and a brother? "

Main article: Slavery , Slave Trade and Trafficking in Arabic.

The Black Africa had its first contacts with the Arab world to the ^seventh century , then with the Europeans in the ^fifteenth century. These opponents of established counters the Eastern trade , first to trade, then also for the slave trade to the origin of the African Diaspora.

The North Africa in Islamized, rose from the Islamic civilization in the Ottoman , except Morocco , which could halt the advance of the Ottoman River Moulouya (near Oujda ) during the reign of Saadi on countries.

Colonization

Main articles: Africa in the nineteenth century , colonialism and colonization.

In the nineteenth ^century , after the abolition of slavery , European states have settled in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa with their technological and despite the resistance of African peoples. The colonial divide Africa at the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885 . The exploitation of African natural and human resources under EU administration continued until the ^twentieth century. However, both countries will escape the partition of Africa:

on Liberia , founded by American Colonization Society in 1822 and has proclaimed its independence July 26, 1847 ;
of Ethiopia as a sovereign state since ancient times, she managed to repulse the attempt at colonization of the Italians that it defeats the Battle of Adowa on ¹ March 1896. This is the first decisive victory of an African country on the colonialists .

City Hall Annaba (ex Bone), Annaba , Algeria

The quest for political autonomy and independence

Main article: Decolonization of Africa.

African nationalist aspirations that led to independence spread out of 1910 to 1975 by country. Africa was until the 1990s exploited by the powers of the Cold War.

Contemporary Africa

Political map of Africa

Conflicts

Main article: African Union.

Many conflicts are present in Africa:

conflict known as "ethnic" whose causes are attributed to some of Boundary not taking little account of the history and social organization of various cultural components of Africa;
conflict called "political" because of irresponsible governments passing the interests of management ahead of local people despite their poverty;
conflicts "social policy" due to the extreme poverty;
civil wars break out of international issues for the control of raw materials whose marketing rarely enriches the local population.

Africa is the continent most ravaged by conflicts. According to Atlas Strategic , 2008, over 35 major conflicts recorded in the world, 13 are in Africa, where 15 out of 53 countries are involved in a "crisis of moderate to high". The leading supplier of weapons in value to the whole continent being between 1998 and 2005, France .

In a vicious circle, these conflicts lead to poverty and social conflict, which promotes the breakdown of other conflicts.

In an effort to preserve peace on the continent, the Organization of African Unity was established in 1963 , and then replaced in 2002 by the African Union . In 2008, about 88 000 peacekeepers of the UN deployed worldwide, 61,000 are in Africa for eight open or latent conflicts. For the UN, the African military bill 5.5 billion on a worldwide total of 7.2 billion.

Rwandan Genocide

Main article: Rwandan Genocide.

In 1994, the government Kigali encourages the systematic massacre of minority Tutsis. In two months, the militia Hutu kill nearly a million people.

Civil War in Darfur

Main article: Civil war in Darfur.

He is currently taking place in Darfur civil war for control of certain resources ( water , soil ...) and ethnic cleansing. There are already more than 300 000 deaths .

politico-military crisis in Cte d'Ivoire

Main article: Military-Political Crisis in Cte d'Ivoire.

In Cte d'Ivoire are competing forces of the Ivorian government and rebel forces for political change, this crisis has lasted 5 years ( 2002 - 2007 ).

War in Algeria

Main articles: War in Algeria and Algerian civil war.

The war in Algeria is conducted in 1954 to 1962 and leads to the independence of Algeria , a French colony from 1830 to 1848 , then part of the territory of the Republic and considered French department. In the 1990s, a violent civil war between the government and the Islamic opposition. Currently, the residual terrorism still exists in Algeria has nothing to do with the 1990s, a mutation was made and Algeria are dealing now with a globalized terrorism as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Statue showing the road to Algiers the capital of the Algerian resistance, " Bejaia , Algeria

The neo

That means the political attitude, imperious, a country facing one of its former colonies.

Main articles by country

Franafrique

Geography

Main article: Geography of Africa.

With an area of 30 million km of land area, Africa is the second largest continent. Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is attached to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (through the Suez Canal ) to 163 km . Since its northern extremity at Ras ben Sakka (37 21 'N) in Tunisia at its southern end at Cape Agulhas (34 51'15 "S) in South Africa , the continent extends about 8000 km, and from the Cape Verde (17 33'22 "W) at its farthest west, at Ras Hafun (51 27'52 "E) in Somalia , in the far-east, over 7 400 km .

His ribs , straight, are 26 000 km long, and the absence of deep indentations of its shoreline is characterized by the fact that Europe, which covers 10.4 million square kilometers - about one third of the surface Africa - has a coastline longer than 32 000 km . The largest country in Africa, for its size, the tenth in the world, is the Sudan , while the archipelago of Seychelles , off the east coast of Africa, is the smallest .

Africa relief

Climate

Africa has a wide variety of climates, from equatorial central to temperate warm North Africa and southern Africa. The northern plains are barren and very hot due to the great distance that separates them from the ocean. The temperature differences between summer and winter and between day and night are the most important. Farther south, the Marshal eur is mitigated by the moisture from the ocean and by the altitude, especially in the highlands of East Africa. The vegetation is denser. Finally, the extreme north and south both know a temperate climate, although cooler and wetter in the south.

Environment

Main articles: Afrotropique and Afrotheria.

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Regarding the environment, Africa is facing three major phenomena that are drought in the Sahelian and Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya), causing widespread hunger in these episodes lands, desertification due to over-farming and the population growth, deforestation caused by last extensive farming on burnt and many armed conflicts including the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Human geography

African

It would be futile to develop a classification of all existing states in Africa before European penetration. In 1914, due to the expansion of colonial empires, the continent had only two sovereign states, Abyssinia (Ethiopia or) and Liberia, which were added later Egypt (1922) and Union of South Africa (1931). Since the Second World War, the number of independent African States has increased steadily from 4 in 1945 to 27 in 1960, reaching 53 in 1993.

The borders of states in Africa are largely derived from colonization , which explains why they take little account of the realities of the people. The same grouping of countries into sub-regions is used in a more practical concern than historical truth. One generally distinguishes the North Africa , the African black (also called the sub-Saharan Africa ) and Southern Africa :

North Africa, bounded on the south by the Sahara , is inhabited by predominantly Arab and Berber
SSA is itself divided into three regions: West Africa , the East Africa , the Central Africa
Southern Africa enjoys a temperate climate and has the highest level of economic development.