Location: located in the southwestern part of the Eastern Hemisphere. East of the Indian Ocean, west of the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Strait of Gibraltar and Europe, northeast of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal and neighboring Asia. The continent east to Cape Hafun (longitude 51 ° 24', latitude 10 ° 27' south, Somalia), south to Cape Eagles (longitude 20 ° 02', latitude 34 ° 51' south, South Africa), west to Cape Fend (longitude 17 ° 33' west, latitude 14 ° 45' north, Senegal), north to Cape Giran (longitude 9 ° 50' east, latitude 37 ° 21' north, Tunisia).
Area: about 30.2 million square kilometers (including nearby islands), accounting for about 20.2% of the world's land area, the world's second continent after Asia.
Population: about 780 million (2001), accounting for about 13% of the world's total population. The inhabitants are mainly black and white, with a complex racial composition. North of Sahara belongs mainly to the Semitic - containing the Mite language family of Arabs, accounting for about 21% of the population of Africa. There are also Berbers, Ethiopians and Somalis. South of Sahara are the two major systems, the Sudanese Blacks and the Bantu Blacks, which make up 32% and 30% of the African population respectively. The former are dark-skinned and are found mainly from Sahara south to the Gulf of Guinea coast; the latter are light-skinned and are found mainly in central and southern Africa. There are also a few yellow people, such as the Malayo-Polynesian Malagasy. Europe's white people less than 2% of the continent's population, mainly in southern Africa.
Language: Africa's language situation is more complex, scholars are divided. It is generally believed that the total number of African languages in the 800 kinds of up and down, belonging to the Sudanese language family, Niger - Kordofan (including the Bantu language family), Nile - Saharan language family, Asia - the African language family - (flash including the Bantu language family). (Semitic) and Khoisan, Bantu, Semitic-Hamitic, Malayo-Polynesian, and so on. In addition to their own languages, some countries speak the language of the original sovereign state or position it as an official language.
Religion:The inhabitants of the north of Africa are mostly practicing Islam, while the inhabitants of other regions are mostly enveloped in primitive religions, Protestant Christianity and Catholicism.
History:Africa is one of the origins of mankind, with a long history and rich cultural heritage. Here gave birth to the world's oldest civilization country - Egypt. After Egypt, northern Africa successively became an important area for the ancient civilizations of Carthage, Greece and Rome. In other parts of Africa, some early kingdoms were also formed, such as Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Lanaim - Bohol, Benin, Ife, Monomotapa, etc. In the 15th century, Africa began to become the first target of colonial expansion of the Western powers. According to some scholars, from the 15th to 19th centuries, the African continent lost more than 60 million people due to the slave trade to the Americas by Western colonial expansionists. Before World War II, there were only three independent countries in Africa: Ethiopia, Liberia and Egypt. After World War II, African national liberation movements took off, and there are now 53 independent countries in Africa. The most important organization in Africa is the Organization of African Unity established on May 25, 1963, in addition to the Arab Maghreb Union, the West African States Economic **** with the body, the Central African States Economic **** with the body, the Eastern and Southern Africa **** with the market and other political and economic cooperation organizations.
Region: Africa now has 58 countries and regions, geographically customarily divided into North Africa, East Africa, West fly, Central Africa and South Africa. Internationally, it is customary to divide Africa into Arab Africa (North Africa) and sub-Saharan Africa (also known as Black Africa).
Subsequently: most of Africa is located in the tropical latitudes, the "tropical continent". Climate has a high temperature, dry, rain distribution is extremely uneven and the distribution of climate zones north-south symmetry and other characteristics. The equator crosses the center, the average temperature of the whole continent (outside the high mountainous areas), the coolest month in 8 degrees Celsius or more, the hottest month in 40 degrees Celsius. Precipitation generally decreases from the equator to the north and south. Equatorial rain belt, some places as much as 10,000 millimeters of annual precipitation, is one of the world's highest precipitation; Sahara and the Namib Desert and more than 10 millimeters of annual precipitation in the following areas, or even several years of no rain, is the world's large area of the least amount of rainfall in the region. And the northern Sudanese steppe a transition from savannah to desert in the Sahel region often persistent drought and the threat of desertification.
Resources: Africa is rich in mineral resources, a variety of large reserves. Currently known major mineral reserves: is there 7.8 billion tons, 80 billion tons of hard coal, more than 30 billion tons of iron ore, chromite about 3 billion tons, bauxite 9 billion tons, 27 billion tons of phosphate, are the top of the states; diamond about 900 million carats, accounting for about 95% of the world's total reserves; copper (metal reserves) of about 50 million tons; gold reserves are estimated to account for about 2/3 of the world's total reserves, and other deposits such as manganese, Uranium, zinc, vanadium, cobalt, platinum, lithium, niobium, tin, germanium, asbestos, graphite and natural gas reserves are important in the world. Africa has at least 40,000 species of plants and 637 million hectares of forests, accounting for about 19% of the world's total forest area. It is rich in mahogany, ebony, rosewood, copal, ebony, camphor, quebracho, walnut, yellow lacquer wood, cork oak and other economic timber. Grassland area accounts for about 27% of the world's area, ranking first among all continents. Abundant hydroelectric resources, the estimated annual power generation can reach 2 trillion tons, accounting for about 21% of the world's developable hydroelectric resources. The northwest coast of Africa is rich in sardines, tuna, the southern coast is rich in mackerel, whales and sardines, are famous for fishing.