People in Africa

Africa has the second highest population on the planet; the continent with the highest population is Asia. The country with the largest population in Africa is Nigeria, which was estimated to be just over 170 million in 2012. The country with the smallest population in Africa is Saint Helena. The two major religions in Africa are Christianity and Islam although many communities and tribal groups have their on religion. Islam is the largest religion in North Africa and the horn of Africa. A recent estimate is that 47% of the population of Africa practices Islam. There are about 2,000 different languages in Africa there are four major linguistic families that exist in Africa: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Khosian. Afro-Asiatic family contains about 200 languages that are spoken by around 285 million people. The Niger-Congo family is the largest linguistic family in the entire world and can be found all over sub-Saharan Africa. The African Union is a union of 54 African countries that is similar to the European Union. Morocco is the only country in Africa that isn’t in the African Union. Three countries are currently suspended members, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. They were all suspended due to internal conflict. Africa is being predicted to have 2.4 billion people living there by 2050. Some people call this a mixed blessing as it should bring economic growth to Africa but there is a bad side to it. The increase in population means that African nations have more people to support on crumbling infrastructure that in most cases cant support its current population.

Wildlife in Africa

There is a huge amount of wildlife in Africa here is a bit of information on some of the animals in Africa. Lions The dominant predator in the savannahs is the lion; lions often hunt in groups called prides. Lions hunt gazelles, zebras, buffalo and much more. The lionesses do the hunting while the lion stays back and watches over the cubs. Cheetahs Cheetahs usually live in the savannahs and low woodlands. They hunt a variety of gazelles, springbucks and impalas. Sometimes they hunt young wildebeests and zebras. The cheetah is the fasted animal on earth it can run at a top speed of 113km per hour. Cheetahs are hunted for there fur. Cheetah cubs are also often killed by predators such as lions and hyenas. The Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile is quite common in sub-Saharan Africa. On average the Nile crocodile is between 4 metres to 5 metres and weighs around 410 kilograms. They are cold blooded and one of the largest reptiles in Africa. Nile crocodiles are very aggressive predators and they will eat any animal it can catch including each other if they are short on food. Nile crocodiles that live near villages often attack domestic animals such as goats, cattle, sheep, etc. They also commonly attack people. African Elephant African Elephants are extremely intelligent and are the largest animal in Africa. There are two different species of elephants in Africa, the smaller forest elephant and the bush elephant. They are hunted for their ivory tusks with about 70% of all poached tusks going to China. Some countries even allow the hunting of Elephants for sport.

Afrcias Climate

Africa has a few different climates due to its size. In the north of the Continent it is quite dry and the Sahara desert dominates an area that is roughly 9,400,000 km² stretching from the Atlantic ocean all the way across to the red sea in the west. The highest temperature recorded in North Africa was 57.8 degrees Celsius in Libya which is also the highest temperature recorded on Earth’s surface. The average rainfall in the Sahara is 10 inches (250 mm) per year. Snakes, scorpions and lizards are quite common in the Sahara. Camels are also often used by the nomads around the edge of the Sahara. The space separating the Sahara desert from the central part of the continent is known as the Sahel, the Sahara is expanding into the Sahel which is causing a lot of problems for the people living there, this process is called desertification The central area in the continent contains a lot of rainforest and open plains known as savannah. These areas have a wet and a dry season this is caused by the movement of the inter-tropical convergence zone also known as the monsoon trough. During the wet season is rains heavily nearly every single day, it transforms open plains around rivers into swamps and gives plants the water which they will need badly during the dry season. They are very few trees in the savannah and they are scattered, the trees have thick bark to protect them from fires. The rainforests in Africa are located mainly around the equator, mainly in central Africa. They make up about 8% of Africa.

Current Conflict in Africa

Every country in Africa has been involved in some sort of conflict and nearly every country in Africa has had a civil war. In North Africa there are quite a few conflicts going on. Libya is looking like it’s going to re-enter a civil war with rebels controlling major oil ports along the coast in the east of the country. In Egypt there are protests led by the Muslim Brotherhood over a coup during the summer that led to the arrest of the elected president. In South Sudan there is currently a civil war the two main tribal groups are the Nuer and the Dinka. South Sudan is the world’s youngest country having just broken off from Sudan. In Somalia there are major problems with Islamist terrorists as well as pirates and other groups. The Somalian government is not able to enforce law over much of the country and Al-Qaeda related groups use Somalia as a base to launch attacks into neighbouring countries such as Kenya with the Westgate shopping centre attack by al-Shabaab. Nigeria is currently going through an insurgency led by Boko Haram, an Islamist group whose means western education is sinful. They often attack schools and massacre anyone inside. Mali has just overcome a rebellion in the north of the country with the help of France. The Central African Republic is a mess with Christian and Muslim militias forming to attack each other which all started when Muslim rebels seized the capital and installed the countries first Muslim president. Nearly every conflict in Africa is fought over natural resources or has something to do with race. An example of a war fought of natural resources is the Sierra Leon civil war which was fought over the control of the diamond fields. An example of a conflict over race would be the Rwandan civil war/genocide.

Blog Introduction

Hi my name is Daniel and this is my blog on Africa. I have decided to do my blog on Africa as I do not know much about Africa and I find it an interesting place. I will be looking at several different topics in this blog including • Wildlife in Africa • The people of Africa • Current Conflict in Africa • The climate of Africa I am planning on covering the topics listed above as I feel they are all interesting and I would like to learn more about them.