CENTRAL AFRICA

region of Africa that straddles the Equator and is drained largely by the Congo River system. It includes, according to common definitions, the countries of the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville), the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa); Gabon is usually included along with the Central African Republic because of their common historical ties, both of these countries having once been part of French Equatorial Africa. Rwanda and Burundi, although they are located east of the East African Rift System that forms the eastern divide of the Congo basin, are also often included in discussions of the region because of their long administrative connections with the former Belgian Congo (now Congo [Kinshasa]). The island republic of So Tom and Prncipe, off the Atlantic coast of Gabon, is also included in the region. Area 1,402,000 square miles (3,632,000 square km). Pop. (1997 est.) 67,600,000. region of Africa that straddles the Equator and is drained largely by the Congo River system. It includes, according to common definitions, the countries of Congo (Brazzaville), the Central African Republic, and Congo (Kinshasa); Gabon is usually included along with the Central African Republic because of their common historical ties, both of these countries having once been part of French Equatorial Africa. Rwanda and Burundi, although they are located east of the East African Rift System that forms the eastern divide of the Congo Basin, are also often included in discussions of the region because of their long administrative connections with the former Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). The island republic of So Tom and Prncipe, off the Atlantic coast of Gabon, is also included in the region. Stretching across the African continent from latitude 11 N to 13 S and from longitude 8 43 E (at Cape Lopez) to 31 30 E (at Lake Albert), central Africa is the least populated part of tropical Africa, with the exception of Rwanda and Burundi, which are the most densely populated countries on the continent. Rwanda and Burundi's human geography resembles that of eastern Africa. Additional reading Africa South of the Sahara (annual); and Africa Contemporary Record (annual), contain updated essays on all aspects of the central African countries. Further information can be found in the relevant sections of Pierre Gourou, L'Afrique (1970); Jacques Denis, Pierre Vennetier, and Jules Wilmet, L'Afrique centrale et orientale (1971); Pierre Vennetier, L'Afrique quatoriale (1972); William A. Hance, The Geography of Modern Africa, 2nd ed. (1975); C. Gregory Knight and James L. Newman (eds.), Contemporary Africa: Geography and Change (1976); R.J. Harrison Church, Africa and the Islands, 4th ed. (1977); A.T. Grove, The Changing Geography of Africa (1989); and Alan B. Mountjoy and David Hilling, Africa: Geography and Development (1988). The geology of the area is covered by Lucien Cahen and N.J. Snelling, The Geochronology of Equatorial Africa (1966); and Michael F. Thomas, Tropical Geomorphology: A Study of Weathering and Landform Development in Warm Climates (1974).Geographic studies of particular countries or features include Gilles Sautter, De l'Atlantique au fleuve Congo: une gographie du sous-peuplement, 2 vol. (1966), covering both the Congo basin generally and aspects of the river itself; and Peter Forbath, The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration, and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River (1977). An annotated review of literature on the region may be found in the periodic essays by Henri Nicolai, Progrs de la connaissance gographique au Congo, au Rwanda, et au Burundi, Bulletin de la Socit Belge d'tudes Gographiques, 36:273315 (1967), 40:263317 (1971), 45:135186 (1976), 50:6396 (1981), 55:175223 (1986), and 58:159207 (1989); the name Zaire instead of Congo was used in the title after 1976.Discussions of the climate of the region may be found in B.W. Thompson, The Climate of Africa (1965), and Africa: The Climatic Background (1975); and in Marcel Leroux, The Climate of Tropical Africa, 2 vol. (1983). Plant and animal life is described by P.W. Richards, The Tropical Rain Forest: An Ecological Study (1952, reissued 1979); D.F. Owen, Animal Ecology in Tropical Africa, 2nd ed. (1976); and J.L. Cloudsley-Thompson, The Zoology of Tropical Africa (1969). Studies of central African peoples are contained in George Murdock, Africa: Its Peoples and Their Culture History (1959); Jocelyn Murray (ed.), Cultural Atlas of Africa (1981); Colin M. Turnbull, The Forest People (1961, reissued 1976), on the Pygmy peoples; Reuben K. Udo, The Human Geography of Tropical Africa (1982); Georges Balandier, Sociologie actuelle de l'Afrique noire: dynamique sociale en Afrique centrale, 4th ed. (1982); Pierre Sirven, La Sous-Urbanisation et la villes du Rwanda et du Burundi (1984); and three essays in David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin (eds.), History of Central Africa, vol. 1 (1983): Dennis D. Cordell, The Savanna Belt of North-Central Africa, ch. 2, pp. 3074; Jan Vansina, The Peoples of the Forest, ch. 3, pp. 75117; and Thomas Q. Reefe, The Societies of the Eastern Savanna, ch. 5, pp. 160204.Central African agriculture, policies, and development are analyzed in Marvin P. Miracle, Agriculture in the Congo Basin: Tradition and Change in African Rural Economies (1967); D.F. Owen, Man in Tropical Africa: The Environmental Predicament (1973); Robin Palmer and Neil Parsons (eds.), The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (1977); B.W. Hodder, Africa Today: A Short Introduction to African Affairs (1978); Robert H. Bates, Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies (1981); Jonathan Barker (ed.), The Politics of Agriculture in Tropical Africa (1984); O. Aboyade, Issues in the Development of Tropical Africa (1976); and David Siddel and Kenneth Swindell, Rural Change in Tropical Africa: From Colonies to Nation-States (1990). Henri Nicola