AFRICA

in ancient Roman history, the first North African territory of Rome, at times roughly corresponding to modern Tunisia. It was acquired in 146 BC after the destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War. Initially, the province comprised the territory that had been subject to Carthage in 149 BC; this was an area of about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square km), divided from the kingdom of Numidia in the west by a ditch and embankment running southeast from Thabraca (modern Tabarqah) to Thaenae (modern Thinah). About 100 BC the province's boundary was extended farther westward, almost as far as the present Algerian-Tunisian border. The province grew in importance during the 1st century BC, when Julius Caesar and, later, the emperor Augustus founded a total of 19 colonies in it. Most notable among these was the new Carthage, which the Romans called Colonia Julia Carthago; it rapidly became the second city in the Western Roman Empire. Augustus extended Africa's borders southward as far as the Sahara and eastward to include Arae Philaenorum, at the southernmost point of the Gulf of Sidra. In the west he combined the old province of Africa Vetus ("Old Africa") with what Caesar had designated as Africa Nova ("New Africa")-the old kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania-so that the province's western boundary was the Ampsaga (modern Rhumel) River in modern northeastern Algeria. The province generally retained those dimensions until the late 2nd century AD, when a new province of Numidia, created in the western end of Africa, was formally constituted under the emperor Septimius Severus. A century later Diocletian, in his reorganization of the empire, formed two provinces, Byzacena and Tripolitania, from the southern and eastern parts of the old province. The original territory annexed by Rome was populated by indigenous Libyans who lived in small villages and had a relatively simple culture. In 122 BC, however, an abortive attempt by Gaius Sempronius Gracchus to colonize Africa aroused the interest of Roman farmers and investors. In the 1st century BC Roman colonization, coupled with Augustus' successful quieting of hostile nomadic movements in the area, created conditions that led to four centuries of prosperity. Between the 1st and 3rd century AD, private estates of considerable size appeared, many public buildings were erected, and an export industry in cereals, olives, fruit, and hides flourished. Substantial elements of the urban Libyan population became Romanized, and many communities received Roman citizenship long before it was extended to the whole empire (AD 212). Africans increasingly entered the imperial administration, and the area even produced an emperor, Septimius Severus (reigned AD 193-211). The province also claimed an important Christian church, which had more than 100 bishops by AD 256 and produced such luminaries as the Church Fathers Tertullian, Cyprian, and St. Augustine of Hippo. The numerous and magnificent Roman ruins at various sites in Tunisia and Libya bear witness to the region's prosperity under Roman rule. By the end of the 4th century, however, city life had decayed. The Germanic Vandals under Gaiseric reached the province in 430 and soon made Carthage their capital. Roman civilization in Africa entered a state of irreversible decline, despite the numerical inferiority of the Vandals and their subsequent destruction by the Byzantine general Belisarius in 533. When Arab invaders took Carthage in 697, the Roman province of Africa offered little resistance. second largest continent on Earth, embracing one-fifth of its land area. From north to south, the continent is divided almost equally by the Equator, but, because of the bulge formed by western Africa, the greater part of Africa's territory lies northward. The continent is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the confluence of the Atlantic and Indian oceans off the Cape of Good Hope. In the northeast, Africa was joined to Asia by the Sinai Peninsula until the construction of the Suez Canal. There are a number of islands associated with Africa; the largest of these, lying to the southeast, is Madagascar. Area 11,724,300 square miles (30,365,700 square km). Pop. (1994 est.) 683,021,000. the second largest continent, after Asia, covering about one-fifth of the total land surface of the Earth. The continent is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on the south by the mingling waters of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Africa's total land area is approximately 11,724,000 square miles (30,365,000 square kilometres), and the continent measures about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres) from north to south and about 4,600 miles from east to west. Its northern extremity is Al-Ghiran Point, near Al-Abyad Point (Cape Blanc), Tun.; its southern extremity is Cape Agulhas, S.Af.; its farthest point east is Xaafuun (Hafun) Point, near Cape Gwardafuy (Guardafui), Somalia; and its western extremity is Almadi Point (Pointe des Almadies), on Cape Verde (Cap Vert), Senegal. In the northeast, Africa was joined to Asia by the Sinai Peninsula until the construction of the Suez Canal. Paradoxically, the coastline of Africa-18,950 miles in length-is shorter than that of Europe, because there are few inlets and few large bays or gulfs. Off the coasts of Africa a number of islands are associated with the continent, of which Madagascar, one of the largest islands in the world, is the most significant. Other smaller islands include the Seychelles, Socotra, and other islands to the east; the Comoros, Mauritius, Runion, and other islands to the southeast; Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha to the southwest; Cape Verde, the Bijags Islands, Bioko, and So Tom and Prncipe to the west; and the Azores and the Madeira and Canary islands to the northwest. The continent is cut almost equally in two by the equator, so that most of Africa lies within the tropical region, bounded on the north by the tropic of Cancer and on the south by the tropic of Capricorn. Because of the bulge formed by western Africa, the greater part of Africa's territory lies north of the equator. Africa is crossed from north to south by the prime meridian (0 longitude), which passes a short distance to the east of Accra, Ghana. In antiquity, the Greeks are said to have called the continent Libya and the Romans to have called it Africa, perhaps from the Latin aprica ("sunny") or the Greek aphrike ("without cold"). The name Africa, however, was chiefly applied to the northern coast of the continent, which was, in effect, regarded as a southern extension of Europe. The Romans, who for a time ruled the North African coast, are also said to have called the area south of their settlements Afriga, or the Land of the Afrigs-the name of a Berber community south of Carthage. The whole of Africa can be considered as a vast plateau rising steeply from narrow coastal strips and consisting of ancient crystalline rocks. The plateau's surface is higher in the southeast and tilts downward toward the northeast. In general the plateau may be divided into a southeastern portion and a northwestern portion. The northwestern part, which includes the Sahara (desert) and that part of North Africa known as the Maghrib, has two mountainous regions-the Atlas Mountains in northwestern Africa, which are believed to be part of a system that extends into southern Europe, and the Ahaggar (Hoggar) Mountains in the Sahara. The southeastern part of the plateau includes the Ethiopian Plateau, the East African Plateau, and-in eastern South Africa, where the plateau edge falls downward in a scarp-the Drakensberg range. One of the most remarkable features in the geologic structure of Africa is the East African Rift System, which lies between 30 and 40 E. The rift itself begins northeast of the continent's limits and extends southward from the Ethiopian Red Sea coast to the Zambezi River basin. Africa contains an enormous wealth of mineral resources, including some of the world's largest reserves of fossil fuels, metallic ores, and gems and precious metals. This richness is matched by a great diversity of biological resources that includes the intensely lush equatorial rain forests of central Africa and the world-famous populations of wildlife of the eastern and southern portions of the continent. Although agriculture (primarily subsistence) still dominates the economies of most African countries, the exploitation of these resources has become the most significant economic activity in Africa in the 20th century. Climatic and other factors have exerted considerable influence on the patterns of human settlement in Africa. While some areas appear to have been inhabited more or less continuously since the dawn of humanity, enormous regions-notably the desert areas of northern and southwestern Africa-have been largely unoccupied for prolonged periods of time. Thus, although Africa is the second largest continent, it contains only about 10 percent of the world's population and can be said to be underpopulated. The greater part of the continent has long been inhabited by black peoples, but in historic times there also have occurred major immigrations from both Asia and Europe. Of all foreign settlements in Africa, that of the Arabs has made the greatest impact. The Islamic religion, which the Arabs carried with them, spread from North Africa into many areas south of the Sahara, so that many western African peoples are now largely Islamized. Davidson S.H.W. Nicol The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica This article treats the physical and human geography of Africa, followed by discussion of geographic features of special interest. For discussion of individual countries of the continent, see the articles Egypt; Madagascar; and Sudan, The. African regions are treated under the titles Central Africa, Eastern Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and Western Africa; these articles also contain the principal treatment of African historical and cultural development. For discussion of major cities of the continent, see the articles Alexandria, Cairo, Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Kinshasa. Related topics are discussed in the articles African arts; Egyptian arts; Islam; Islamic arts; and Islamic world. For further references, see also the Index. Additional reading General works Overviews of the continent may be found in R. Mansell Prothero (ed.), A Geography of Africa, rev. ed. (1973); John I. Clarke (ed.), An Advanced Geography of Africa (1975); William A. Hance, The Geography of Modern Africa, 2nd ed. (1975); Alan C.G. Best and Harm J. De Blij, African Survey (1977); R.J. Harrison Church et al., Africa and the Islands, 4th ed. (1977); A.T. Grove, Africa, 3rd ed. (1978), and The Changing Geography of Africa (1989); J.M. Pritchard, Africa, rev. 3rd ed. (1979, reissued 1986); Phyllis M. Martin and Patrick O'Meara (eds.), Africa, 2nd ed. (1986); Paul Bohannan and Philip Curtin, Africa and the Africans, 3rd ed. (1988); and Alan B. Mountjoy and David Hilling, Africa: Geography and Development (1988). Roland Oliver and Michael Crowder (eds.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa (1981), is also useful. Regine Van Chi-Bonnardel, The Atlas of Africa (1973), presents general physical and thematic maps, as well as maps and text for each country. Jocelyn Murray (ed.), Cultural Atlas of Africa (1981), includes maps and text on Africa's physical geography, culture, history, language, and social life. General treatments of European exploration in Africa are contained in Heinrich Schiffers, The Quest for Africa: Two Thousand Years of Exploration (1957; originally published in German, 1954); and Robert I. Rotberg (ed.), Africa and Its Explorers: Motives, Methods, and Impact (1970). Useful annuals that contain historical overviews of each African country and updated essays on the continent's political, social, and economic developments include The Middle East and North Africa; Africa South of the Sahara; and Africa Contemporary Record. Davidson S.H.W. Nicol The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Geologic history General discussions of African geology may be found in L. Cahen and N.J. Snelling, The Geochronology and Evolution of Africa (1984); and Adetoye Faniran, African Landforms (1986). Books and essays on specific aspects include Bernard Bessoles, Gologie de l'Afrique: le craton Ouest Africain (1977); Russell Black, "Precambrian of West Africa," Episodes, 4:3-8 (1980); M. Deynoux, J. Sougy, and R. Trompette, "Lower Palaeozoic Rocks of West Africa and the Western Part of Central Africa," in C.H. Holland (ed.), Lower Palaeozoic of North-western and West-central Africa (1985), pp. 337-495; A. Krner, "The Precambrian Geotectonic Evolution of Africa: Plate Accretion Versus Plate Destruction," Precambrian Research, 4(2):163-213; A. Krner et al., "Pan-African Crustal Evolution in the Nubian Segment of Northeast Africa," in A. Krner (ed.), Proterozoic Lithospheric Evolution (1987), pp. 235-257; A.J. Tankard et al., Crustal Evolution of Southern Africa: 3.8 Billion Years of Earth History (1982); J.R. Vail, "Outline of the Geochronology and Tectonic Units of the Basement Complex of Northeast Africa," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, 350(1660):127-141 (1976); and J.B. Wright (ed.), Geology and Mineral Resources of West Africa (1985). Alfred Krner The land Descriptions of Africa's physical geography can be found in the general works listed above and in M.F. Thomas and G.W. Whittington (eds.), Environment and Land Use in Africa (1969). William G. McGinnies, Bram J. Goldman, and Patricia Paylore (eds.), Deserts of the World (1968), includes detailed appraisals of research on the physiography, hydrology, soils, weather and climate, vegetation, and fauna of the Kalahari, Namib, and Sahara. A comprehensive account of the geomorphology of Africa is given in Lester C. King, The Morphology of the Earth, 2nd ed. (1967), pp. 241-309. Regional geographies include Jean Despois and Ren Raynal, Gographie de l'Afrique du nord-ouest (1967, reissued 1975); R.J. Harrison Church, West Africa: A Study of the Environment and of Man's Use of It, 8th ed. (1980); Reuben K. Udo, A Comprehensive Geography of West Africa (1978), and The Human Geography of Tropical Africa (1982); Jacques Denis, Pierre Vennetier, and Jules Wilmet, L'Afrique centrale et orientale (1971); John H. Wellington, Southern Africa, 2 vol. (1955); and A.J. Christopher, Southern Africa (1976).H.L. Shantz and C.F. Marbut, The Vegetation and Soils of Africa (1923, reprinted 1971), was the first systematic account of major soil groups. Far more modern and useful is the basic text by Zinaida Iu. Shokalskaia, Pochvenno geograficheskii ocherk Afriki (1948), also available in a German translation, Die Bden Afrikas (1953). R.P. Moss (ed.), The Soil Resources of Tropical Africa (1968); and Peter M. Ahn, West African Soils (1970), present discussions of the framework within which tropical soils may be described. B.W. Thompson, The Climate of Africa (1965), and Africa: The Climatic Background (1975), provide general information. Glenn T. Trewartha, The Earth's Problem Climates, 2nd ed. (1981), gives a more advanced account of the major climatic anomalies in Africa.The undoubted leading survey of African vegetation is F. White, Vegetation of Africa (1983), written to explain an accompanying map. The best comprehensive presentation of grasses remains J.M. Rattray, The Grass Cover of Africa (1960), also with a map. P.W. Richards, The Tropical Rain Forest: An Ecological Study (1952, reissued 1979), is a comprehensive classic, with a relevance well beyond its title. Brian Hopkins, Forest and Savanna (1965), is a detailed treatment of interactions in western Africa, including the effects of agriculture and pastoralism. Monica M. Cole, "The Savannas of Africa," part III in her The Savannas: Biogeography and Geobotany (1986), pp. 111-290, is also useful. H.L. Shantz and B.L. Turner, Photographic Documentation of Vegetational Changes in Africa Over a Third of a Century (1958), presents telling site-by-site comparisons made by two doyens of science in Africa.Good general treatments of African animal life are to be found in J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson, The Zoology of Tropical Africa (1969); D.F. Owen, Animal Ecology in Tropical Africa, 2nd ed. (1976); M.J. Delany and D.C.D. Happold, Ecology of African Mammals (1979); and Jonathan Kingdon, Island Africa: The Evolution of Africa's Rare Animals and Plants (1989). Two general nature histories, approaching fauna from somewhat different standpoints although complementary to one another, are Leslie Brown, Africa: A Natural History (1965); and Archie Carr et al., The Land and Wildlife of Africa, rev. ed. (1980), a Time-Life book. Books that provide authoritative surveys of the different forms of animal life include Jonathan Kingdon, East African Mammals: An Atlas of Evolution in Africa (1971- ), splendidly artistic and alive in treatment; Walter Leuthold, African Ungulates: A Comparative Review of Their Ethology and Behavioral Ecology (1977), discussing hoofed mammals; R.E. Moreau, The Bird Faunas of Africa and Its Islands (1966); C.W. Mackworth-Praed and C.H.B. Grant, Birds of Eastern and North Eastern Africa, 2 vol., 2nd ed. (1957-60, reprinted 1980), Birds of the Southern Third of Africa, 2 vol. (1962-63, reprinted 1981), and Birds of West Central and Western Africa, 2 vol. (1970-73, reprinted 1981); Geoffrey Fryer and T.D. Iles, The Cichlid Fishes of the Great Lakes of Africa: Their Biology and Evolution (1972); Michael Holden and William Reed, West African Freshwater Fish (1972); R.A. Jubb, Freshwater Fishes of Southern Africa (1967); Vivian F.M. Fitzsimons, Snakes of Southern Africa (1962); and S.H. Skaife, African Insect Life, new ed. rev. by John Ledger (1979). John Ford, The Role of Trypanosomiases in African Ecology (1971), studies the problems caused by the tsetse fly; and Jeffrey C. Stone (ed.), The Exploitation of Animals in Africa (1988), contains several colloquium papers on wildlife, domesticated stock, and conservation. Robert Walter Steel Kwamina Busumafi Dickson David N. McMaster The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica The people George Murdock, Africa: Its Peoples and Their Culture History (1959), is a standard text on the diverse peoples of Africa. Simon Ottenberg and Phoebe Ottenberg (eds.), Cultures and Societies of Africa (1960); and James L. Gibbs (ed.), Peoples of Africa (1965, reissued 1988), contain essays and readings about African peoples. John Middleton (ed.), Black Africa (1970), presents readings about the diversity of peoples and cultural change in sub-Saharan Africa. P.C. Lloyd, Africa in Social Change (1967), studies social interaction in West Africa between traditional African institutions and those imported from Europe. Ali A. Mazrui, The African Condition (1980), contains a political diagnosis; and Morag Bell, Contemporary Africa: Development, Culture, and the State (1986), examines the links between the political and economic structures and Africa's cultural variety. Joseph H. Greenberg, The Languages of Africa, 2nd ed. (1966), is a basic study of language classification; and Edgar A. Gregersen, Language in Africa: An Introductory Survey (1977), is also helpful. John S. Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion (1975), provides a summary; and Geoffrey Parrinder, Africa's Three Religions, 2nd ed. (1976), discusses Christianity, Islam, and traditional religion. On Islam in particular, Ren A. Bravman, African Islam (1983); and J. Spencer Trimingham, The Influence of Islam Upon Africa, 2nd ed. (1980), are general introductions.Etienne van de Walle, Patrick O. Ohadike, and Mpembele D. Sala-Diakanda (eds.), The State of African Demography (1988), reviews the state and dynamics of African populations in the late 1980s. John I. Clarke and Leszek A. Kosinski (eds.), Redistribution of Population in Africa (1982), provides overviews of population redistribution as well as national case studies and studies of the impact of settlement schemes and redistribution policies; and John I. Clarke, Mustafa Khogali, and Leszek A. Kosinski (eds.), Population and Development Projects in Africa (1985), examines the general and specific impacts of development projects upon population redistribution, with particular emphasis on The Sudan. Robert F. Gorman, Coping With Africa's Refugee Burden (1987), attempts to find solutions to the major problems of refugees in Africa since the mid-20th century. William A. Hance, Population, Migration, and Urbanization in Africa (1970), contains a major overview of population and urbanization trends. Population Growth and Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa (1986), is a study by the World Bank of the fastest-growing population region in the world.A.T. Grove and F.M.G. Klein, Rural Africa (1979), studies the rural environments in which most Africans live; and Kenneth Swindell and David J. Siddle, Rural Change and Development in Tropical Africa (1990), looks at the nature of rural change and the problems of African rural development. Josef Gugler and William G. Flanagan, Urbanization and Social Change in West Africa (1978), analyzes the process of increasing urbanization in West Africa and the related social changes; and Margaret Peil and Pius O. Sada, African Urban Society (1984), views changing urban society in West Africa. Anthony O'Connor, The African City (1983), examines the forms, functions, and patterns of growth of African cities, especially in the postindependence period; as does Richard E. Stren and Rodney R. White, African Cities in Crisis: Managing Rapid Urban Growth (1989). John Innes Clarke The economy The general economic situation is explored in P. Robson and D.A. Lury (eds.), The Economies of Africa (1969); Michael Hodd, African Economic Handbook (1986); Melville J. Herskovitz and Mitchell Harwitz (eds.), Economic Transition in Africa (1964); A.M. O'Connor, The Geography of Tropical African Development, 2nd ed. (1978); Andrew M. Kamarck, The Economics of African Development, rev. ed. (1971); Ralph A. Austen, African Economic History: Internal Development and External Dependency (1987); Wilfrid Knapp, North West Africa: A Political and Economic Survey (1977); D. Hobart Houghton, The South African Economy, 4th ed. (1976); and O. Aboyade, Issues in the Development of Tropical Africa (1976). The problems of regional economic integration are treated by Adebayo Adedeji and Timothy M. Shaw, Economic Crisis in Africa (1985); Carol Lancaster and John Williamson (eds.), African Debt and Financing (1986); Arthur Hazlewood (ed.), African Integration and Disintegration: Case Studies in Economic and Political Union (1967); and B.W.T. Mutharika, Toward Multinational Economic Cooperation in Africa (1972). Useful books on mineral resources and industrialization include Oye Ogunbadejo, The International Politics of Africa's Strategic Minerals (1985); and A.F. Ewing, Industry in Africa (1968). Natural resources and environmental problems are covered by Neville Rubin and William M. Warren (eds.), Dams in Africa: An Inter-disciplinary Study of Man-made Lakes in Africa (1968); D.F. Owen, Man in Tropical Africa: The Environmental Predicament (1973); David Dalby, R.J. Harrison Church, and Fatima Bezzaz (eds.), Drought in Africa 2, rev. and expanded ed. (1977); and Bonaya Adhi Godana, Africa's Shared Water Resources: Legal and Institutional Aspects of the Nile, Niger, and Senegal River Systems (1985). Agricultural development and the agrarian crisis are presented by William Allan, The African Husbandman (1965, reprinted 1977); Prabhu Pingali, Yves Bigot, and Hans Binswanger, Agricultural Mechanization and the Evolution of Farming Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa (1987); John W. Mellor, Christopher L. Delgado, and Malcolm J. Blackie (eds.), Accelerating Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa (1987); Paul Harrison, The Greening of Africa: Breaking Through in the Battle for Land and Food (1987); Stephen K. Commins, Michael F. Lofchie, and Rhys Payne (eds.), Africa's Agrarian Crisis: The Roots of Famine (1986); and Robert H. Bates and Michael F. Lofchie (eds.), Agricultural Development in Africa: Issues of Public Policy (1980). Akinlawon Ladipo Mabogunje