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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 , Swahili , English , French , Portuguese , Afrikaans , Hausa , Yoruba , Dioula , Lingala , Peul , Wolof.
Time Zones UTC-1 ( Cape Verde )
UTC +4 ( Mauritius )
More cities Cairo , Lagos , Pretoria - Johannesburg , Kinshasa , Abidjan , Casablanca , Algiers , Dakar , Tunis.
Africa portal

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.

Summary

/ / 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

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? "

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

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

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

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 .

Its a href = "% C3% C B4te_ (g% C3% A9ographie)" title = "Coast (geography)"> ribs straight, are 26 000 km long and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is characterized by the fact that Europe, which covers 10.4 million square kilometers - about one third of the surface of Africa - has a coastline longer , 32 000 km .

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. Further south, the heat is tempered 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.


Physical Map of Africa
Satellite photo of Africa
States of East Africa
Names of countries and territories, with flag Area
(Km )
Population
(Estimate 2010)
Population Density
(Per km )
Capital
Flag of Burundi Burundi 27 830 9 863 120 354,4 Bujumbura
Flag: Comoros Comoros 2 170 773 410 356,4 Moroni
Flag of Djibouti Djibouti 23 000 740 530 32,2 Djibouti
Flag of Eritrea.svg Eritrea 121 320 5 792 980 47,7 Asmara
Flag of Ethiopia Ethiopia 1 127 127 88 013 490 78,1 Addis Ababa
Flag of Kenya Kenya 582 650 40 046 570 68,7 Nairobi
Flag of Madagascar.svg Madagascar 587 040 21 281 840 36,3 Antananarivo
Flag of Malawi Malawi 118 480 15 447 500 130,4 Lilongwe
Flag: Mauritius Mauritius 2 040 1 294 100 634,4 Port Louis
Flag of Mozambique Mozambique 801 590 22 061 450 27,5 Maputo
Flag of Rwanda Rwanda 26 338 11 055 980 419,8 Kigali
Flag of Seychelles Seychelles 455 88 340 194,2 Victoria
Flag: Somalia Somalia 637 657 10 112 450 15,9 Mogadishu
Tanzania Tanzania 945 087 41 892 900 44,3 Dodoma
Flag of Uganda Uganda 236 040 33 398 680 141,5 Kampala
Flag of Zambia Zambia 752 614 13 460 310 17,9 Lusaka
Flag of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe 390 580 11 651 860 29,8 Harare
Central African States
Names of countries and territories, with flag Area
(Km )
Population
(Estimate 2010)
Population Density
(Per km )
Capital
Flag of Angola Angola 1 246 700 13 068 160 10,5 Luanda
Flag of Cameroon Cameroon 475 440 19 294 150 40,6 Yaounde
Flag: Central Central African Republic 622 984 4 844 930 7,8 Bangui
Flag of Chad Chad 1 284 000 10 543 460 8,2 N'Djamena
Republic of Congo Republic of Congo 342 000 4 125 920 12,1 Brazzaville
Flag: Republic of Congo DR Congo 2 345 410 70 916 440 30,1 Kinshasa
Flag of Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea 28 051 650 700 23,2 Malabo
Flag of Gabon Gabon 267 667 1 545 260 5,8 Libreville
Flag of Sao Tome and Principe Sao Tome and Principe 1 001 175 810 175,6 Sao Tome
States of North Africa
Names of countries and territories, with flag Area
(Km )
Population
(Estimate 2010)
Population Density
(Per km )
Capital
Flag: Algeria Algeria 2 381 741 34 586 180 14,5 Algiers
Flag: Egypt Egypt 1 001 450 80 471 870 80,4 Cairo
Flag of Libya Libya 1 759 540 6 461 450 3,7 Tripoli
Flag: Morocco Morocco 446 550 (710 050 with the Western Sahara ) 31 627 430 70,8 Rabat
Western Sahara (territory claimed by Morocco) 266 000 491 520 1,8 Laayoune de facto
Flag: Sudan Sudan 2 505 810 43 939 600 17,5 Khartoum
Flag of Tunisia Tunisia 163 610 10 589 030 64,7 Tunis
Southern African States
Names of countries and territories, with flag Area
(Km )
Population
(Estimate 2010)
Population Density
(Per km )
Capital
Flag of Botswana Botswana 600 370 2 029 310 3,4 Gaborone
Flag of Lesotho.svg Lesotho 30 355 1 919 550 63,2 Maseru
Flag of Namibia Namibia 825 418 2 128 470 2,6 Windhoek
Flag: South Africa South Africa 1 219 912 49 109 110 40,3 Pretoria
Flag: Swaziland Swaziland 17 363 1 354 050 78 Mbabane
States of West Africa
Names of countries and territories, with flag Area
(Km )
Population
(Estimate 2010)
Population Density
(Per km )
Capital
Flag of Benin Benin 112 620 9 056 010 80,4 Porto-Novo
Flag of Burkina Faso Burkina Faso 274 200 16 241 810 59,2 Ouagadougou
Flag of Cape Verde Cape Verde 4 033 508 660 126,1 Praia
Flag of Cte d'Ivoire Cte d'Ivoire 322 460 21 058 800 65,3 Abidjan , Yamoussoukro
Flag of Gambia Gambia 11 300 1 824 160 161,4 Banjul
Flag of Ghana Ghana 239 460 24 339 840 101,6 Accra
Flag of Guinea Guinea 245 857 10 324 030 42 Conakry
Flag of Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau 36 120 1 565 130 43,3 Bissau
Flag of Liberia.svg Liberia 111 370 3 685 080 33,1 Monrovia
Flag of Mali Mali 1 240 000 13 796 350 11,1 Bamako
Flag of Mauritania Mauritania 1 030 700 3 205 060 3,1 Nouakchott
Flag of Niger Niger 1 267 000 15 878 270 12,5 Niamey
Flag of Nigeria Nigeria 923 768 152 217 340 164,8 Abuja
Flag of Senegal Senegal 196 190 12 323 250 62,8 Dakar
Flag: Sierra Leone Sierra Leone 71 740 5 245 700 73,1 Freetown
Flag of Togo.svg Togo 56 785 6 587 240 116 Lome
European dependencies in Africa
Names of countries and territories, with flag Area
(Km )
Population
Population Density
(Per km )
Capital
Canary Canary Islands ( Spain ) 7 492 2 118 520 282,8 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
/ceuta Ceuta ( Spain ) 20 80 570 4028, 5 -
Flag: Scattered Islands Scattered islands ( France ) 44 0 0 Saint-Denis
Madeira (Portugal) Madeira ( Portugal ) 797 247 400 310,4 Funchal
Flag: France Mayotte ( France ) 374 186 450 498,5 Mamoudzou
/melilla Melilla ( Spain ) 12 73 460 6121, 7
Flag: France Reunion ( France ) 2 512 802 000 319,3 Saint-Denis
Flag: Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha ( UK ) 410 7 670 18,7 Jamestown

Population trends

Africa is the continent whose population percentage has increased since the early twentieth century and whose rate of natural increase , with 2.8% in 2008 is highest . Estimated at 133 million in 1900 or 8.1% of world population , it is passed in 1950 to 221,000,000 or 8.8% of the population and then to 767 million in 1999 or 12.8% of the population and could be 1 766 million in 2050 or 19.8% of the population .

.

The AIDS became the leading cause of death in Africa in the late twentieth century . It was still the case in 2007 , where UNAIDS estimated at 22 million the number of people infected in Africa . The malnutrition (deficiency of vitamins or calories), the famine , water shortages or poor water quality, the epidemics are other important causes.

Cultures and religions

Traditional culture

Main articles: African art and African Theatre.

African culture is not monolithic, there are several African cultures. Saharan African traditional culture is based on oral transmission, often accompanied by music. The griot singer and messenger of the community, in charge of keeping the memory and tradition of the people, has long been the cornerstone of African society. His words were often accompanied by instruments, and he was responsible for managing conflicts in the community .

Contemporary culture

Since that time so-called "independence" the intellectuals and African artists have engaged in a broad reflection on identity and modernity. The equation between authenticity and modernity is resolved differently depending on the chosen directions. There was of course the movement of Negritude , founded among others by Leopold Sedar Senghor and Aim Csaire , based on the negation of the colonial assimilationism and the union of black cultures throughout the world. This movement found expression in the World Festival of Negro Arts, organized by the Senegalese president Leopold Sedar Senghor in 1964. It was followed in 1969 by the Panafrican Festival in Algiers, which proposed a new vision of African culture, trying to overcome racial and ethnocentric conceptions in favor of an African culture united under the banner of revolution or rejection of neocolonialism.

Today, despite the difficult political or economic force some of them to emigrate to Europe or the United States, many African artists and thinkers have acquired an international reputation. Examples include Fela Anikulapo Kuti , Dele Sosimi , Manu Dibango , Lokua Kanza, Papa Wemba, Werra Son, Alpha Blondy, King Kester Emeneya Youssou N'Dour , Cesaria Evora , Cheb Khaled , Ali Farka Toure , Toumani Diabate , or Tinariwen in the field of music, but also four Nobel Prize with John Maxwell Coetzee , Nadine Gordimer , Naguib Mahfouz and Wole Soyinka ; for artists Eric Adjetey Anang and Kane Kwei workshop in Ghana, Frederick Bruly Bouabre in Cte d'Ivoire or Ousmane Sow in Senegal for film Ousmane Sembene , Youssef Chahine (Grand Jury Prize at Berlin Film Festival) or Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina (Golden Palm at Cannes) ...

Literature

Main article: African literature.

Cinema

Main article: African Cinema.
The success of video-clubs ( Dakar )

Given the small amount of production, it is often seen as a whole, although there are obviously a multitude of "African cinema". Note also that for a long time it came to a cinema outside because economic conditions are rarely met for a true industry to exist, many filmmakers were expatriates, France, Belgium or elsewhere. In recent years, with the democratization of video (and therefore lighter shoots and economic), what happens in a number of countries with emerging filmmakers from the inside.

This is particularly the case in Nigeria. The Nigerian film is considered the third in the world according to the quantity of films produced by The Sunday Telegraph . The films produced by the national film industry (known as the Nollywood ) turned in two weeks and cost an average of 11 000 euros. In the absence of a network of cinema , movies are then distributed directly to video (3 euros per DVD).

Parallel to this production target audiences in their countries, some African filmmakers are better known (and accepted) internationally. These include the Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako , the Malian Souleymane Ciss and Cheick Oumar Sissoko , Burkina Faso's Idrissa Ouedraogo and Senegal's Ousmane Sembene.

While paying tribute to Sembene died during the year, the twentieth edition of FESPACO , held in February-March 2007 in Ouagadougou , shows However, the rise of a new generation of filmmakers, which relate in particular the three winners of the festival, the Nigerian Newton Aduaka for Ezra, Cameroonian Jean-Pierre Bekolo with bleeding and the Chadian Mahamat-Saleh Haroun , director of Daratt. The protagonists of recent films are often teenagers or young adults, which is the average age of the African continent. War, violence and their consequences are topics frequently discussed, as well as immigration and diaspora.

Languages

Language families in Africa
Official Languages
Main article: African languages.

Linguists identify approximately 2,000 languages on the African continent (about a third of world languages), grouped into four major families, excluding the languages of ethnic non-African.

The Afro-Asiatic family (or Hamito-Semitic, consisting of 353 languages spoken in Africa of which 299, totaling 340 million speakers ) is not uniquely African. It also extends to the Arabian Peninsula and covers only the northern part of West Africa. It includes the Berber , the language of the original inhabitants of North Africa and the Arabic language which is the first african in number of speakers.

The family Nilo-Saharan (197 languages and 35 million speakers) covers part of the Sahara , the upper basin of the Nile and some highlands of East Africa. It is composed of twelve groups of languages which only two are located in West Africa : the Songhai ( Mali , Niger , Burkina Faso , Benin ) and Kanuri ( Niger , Nigeria , Cameroon and Chad around the lake of the same name ).

The family Khoisan (22 languages and 360 000 speakers ) is the smallest language family of Africa. It focuses on Namibia and shines on Angola , the Botswana and South Africa. "In the past, the Khoisan languages were spoken in much of Southern Africa and Eastern. They have been gradually squeezed out of many places by the Bantu languages (then) European. "

The Niger Congo family has nearly 1500 languages , making it the largest language family in the world (22% of the languages of the world and 71% of African languages). It covers most of the territory west Africa and for the vast majority of the population of the region. It counts among its members a group - Bantu - which alone covers almost all of sub-equatorial Africa with the exception of the area khoisan.On retoruve in this family the Swahili language (sometimes called Kiswahili)

Many experts believe that the original home of the Bantu is located south of the Benue (on the border of Cameroon and Nigeria ). Ago year 4000, the Bantu began a long migration to the Central Africa , probably driven by the aridity of the climate and the development of agriculture and the livestock they reject. This colonization takes nearly three millennia. The Bantu reach the southern continent as the sixteenth century , seventeenth century fleeing the Maasai from the upper Nile Valley. The many similarities between languages Bantu and their remarkable geographical area makes it a specific language often distinguished from the rest of Niger-Congo family.

other language families on the continent:

The French currently plays an important role in Africa, serving more and more common language or mother tongue (in Gabon , Cte d'Ivoire , Congo , Cameroon and Benin in particular) in many countries, and use s' intensifies.

Between 1992 and 2002 the number of learners and the French Sub-Saharan Africa and Indian Ocean has increased by 60.37% from 22,337,000 to 34,563,000 people. One can observe a similar trend in the Maghreb. However, figures provided by the IOF for the Maghreb were combined with those of the Middle East , the exact calculation for Maghreb countries is therefore not possible but there is an increase from 10,470,000 to 18,000,000 of learners for this set, even though French is not an official language ( Algeria ). We must also consider the number of French speakers in each country to get an idea of the importance played by the French in Africa. Already, there are more French in Africa than in Europe .

The African Academy of Languages was established in 2001 to manage the linguistic heritage .

Religions

Main article: African Religions.
The Great Mosque of Kairouan is the oldest mosque in North Africa

Historically, African tribal religions dominated regions of East Africa, Central Africa , Southern Africa and the coastal region of West Africa.

Animism has fewer practitioners today than before the arrival of Europeans, but it is still important in some countries, including Benin and Togo. There are many Africans that incorporate some elements of animism into their Christian or Muslim.

Africa is very marked by the arrival of Islam who settled in North Africa (the Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia is the oldest mosque in North Africa , founded in 670 by the General Arab Ibn Nafi Oqba, it dates in its present state of the ninth century ), and later in the interior of West Africa and the coast of East Africa.

An Orthodox Christianity exists in Ethiopia , Eritrea and Egypt since the late antiquity. The Ethiopia is the second oldest Christian nation in the world after Armenia, by tracing this tradition since 330. Elsewhere in Africa, Christianity is represented through its traditions Catholic and Protestant established by missionaries during the colonial Europeans.

Sports

Many international athletes are of African origin: footballers such as George Weah ( Golden Ball France Football 1995), Samuel Eto'o triple winner of the Champions League, Salif Keita , Sana Cassam , Noureddine Naybet , Roger Milla , El Hadji Diouf of Senegal Didier Drogba , Emmanuel Adebayor and Michael Essien Abedi Pele, Shabani Nonda, Tresor LuaLua all have evolved or are evolving in the elite of world football. Kenenisa Bekele , and meanwhile shone in athletics. The football and athletic sports are most popular. Countries that are former British colonies also practice cricket , rugby as it is practiced primarily in South Africa. The FIFA World Cup 2010 held in South Africa , becoming the first African country to host this global event.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Africa.
Least developed countries

The exploitation of raw materials is by far the largest export to Africa but Africa's share in world exports fell 4.5% in 1990 to 1.1% in 2008 and that of foreign direct investment of 5.8% in 1990 to 1% in 2008, according to a statement from the FAO .

The African debt

Main article: Third World Debt.

The debt is an essential part of the budget of the economy of most African countries. The debt service is for example the years 1992-1997, 35% of the budget of Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire, 40% of that of Kenya and Zambia, 46% of that of Tanzania (in the same time the share of social services is less than 15% of the budget, 4% in Cameroon) . An essential part of the external debt consists of debt known as multilateral, that is to say to the international financial institutions where the representation of these countries has virtually no weight.

According to the Committee for the Cancellation of Third World debt , debt "is a consequence of specific geopolitical choice. Above it is a powerful mechanism of subordination of the South "

We can distinguish three major phases in the development of this debt:

  • First in the years 1960-70, "the World Bank encourages developing countries to borrow in the hope appears to fund the modernization of their export unit and connect to the global market. debt is still bearable for the South as these loans still allow them to produce more, export more and therefore to recover foreign exchange for payments and new investment. "
  • At the end of 1979, the United States initiate a turn Liberal , Paul Volcker , head of the Federal Reserve decides a surge in interest rates in the U.S. to attract capital. The order of 4-5% in the 1970s, they pass at least 16-18% or more during the height of the crisis, because the risk premium becomes enormous. Therefore, the South must pay three times more interest. It's the debt crisis.
  • Once a country is forced to stop its payments, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to lend the money at high rates provided that the country agrees to undertake the policy decided by experts: the politics of economic State debt goes under IMF control. The recommended measures are listed in a structural adjustment plan (SAP), which is the same liberal framework: abandonment of subsidies on products and services essentials: bread, rice, milk, sugar, fuel ... ; Fiscal austerity and spending cuts, usually drastic drop in social spending "unproductive" (health, education, subsidies for basic products), devaluation of local currency, high interest rates to attract foreign capital with high earnings; agricultural production oriented entirely towards exports (coffee, cotton, cocoa, groundnuts, tea etc). to earn foreign exchange, thus reducing food crops and deforestation to make new surfaces; full market opening by removing barriers ; liberalization of the economy, including surrender of control of capital movements and the abolition of exchange controls, taxation, exacerbating inequality with the principle of value added tax (VAT) and the preservation capital income, privatization of public enterprises massive, so a withdrawal of state production sectors competitive.

According to figures from CADTM in 2009, the balance of financial flows showed that, following the debt crisis, countries in the developing repaid until 2009 the equivalent of 102 times what they were in 1970, At the same time their debt was multiplied by 48.

Repayment of external debt between 1986 and 2007 corresponds to the equivalent of 7.5 Marshall Plans injected into the North . Thus, according to the CADTM , "through debt, the transfer of wealth from the people of the South to the Northern ruling classes with the complicity of those in the South is at work before our eyes. "

Public external debt of Africa is 130 billion in 2009 .

On June 10, 2009, two groups of French and Belgian organizations in calling for a report on " Vulture Funds "the establishment of a true international court debt. These associations underline that these hedge funds' buying up the debts of poor countries at an extremely low price in order to compel them by judicial means to repay them at high prices, are raking in huge capital gains on the backs of the people of Congo from Zambia , Peru, Argentina and Nicaragua " .

They point the finger at the responsibilities of rich countries, especially considering that "Justices French , English or American have routinely due to vulture funds against poor countries "and that" money that the France and the rich countries have spent on relief Debt is seen confiscated from private funds instead of financing social expenditure, as announced " .

The place of Africa in the globalization of trade

Africa is a continent totally neglected in the globalization: its contribution to world trade is very low, and in permanent decline , 8% in 1990 to 2% today , and its exports comprise 80% of oil , the minerals and agricultural products .

Natural Resources

Africa has deposits of minerals ( metals ) of precious stones , of reserves of gold and zinc. Resources ( oil , natural gas , coal ) are used mainly by large multinationals. They are often criticized as contributing to the impoverishment of populations indigenous. In recent years there has been exploitation of new natural resources, particularly by Asian countries (including China and India ) or lack of oil in place: the agricultural land is purchased, and the surfaces involved are very important for a continent that suffers from malnutrition and starvation routine. Some speak of recolonization of Africa in this regard .

Tourism

The Great Mosque of Kairouan , the oldest in North Africa and one of the most prestigious in Africa, is a jewel of Islamic architecture, Kairouan , Tunisia
The Hassan II Mosque , the largest mosque in Africa, Casablanca , Morocco
Pyramids in Egypt
Our Lady of Africa and the statue Lavigerie, Algiers , Algeria

Famous places and monuments:

Mass tourism is more about North Africa Sub-Saharan Africa References

  1. Sayre, April Pulley. (1999) Africa, Twenty-First Century Books. (ISBN)
  2. Notes

    Bibliography

    Filmography

    • The Africa and its futures, filmed by Pierre Kipr conference at the University of All Knowledge in 2000, the Film Department for Scientific Research, Glen roudaut, Vanves, 2001, 1h 08 '
    • Continent Africa: the maps below, a documentary directed by Alain Jomier Frederick Lernoud and Natasha Nisic, Arte France, 2008, 2h 40 '

    Related articles

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