Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both
categories. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6%
of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.[3] With 1.2 billion people[1] as of 2016, it accounts
for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to
the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and
the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains
54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with
limited or no recognition.[4] The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern
Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.

Africa

Africa (orthographic projection).svg

Area
30,370,000 km2 (11,730,000 sq mi) (2nd)
Population
1,225,080,510[1] (2016; 2nd)
Population density
36.4/km2 (94/sq mi)
GDP (nominal)
$2.33 trillion (2018; 5th)[2]
GDP (PPP)
$6.74 trillion (2018; 5th)[2]
GDP per capita
$1,890 (2018; 6th)[2]
Demonym
African
Countries
54 (and 2 disputed)
Dependencies
External (1)
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Internal (6)
Canary Islands
Ceuta
Madeira
Mayotte
Melilla
Réunion
Languages
1250–3000 native languages
Time zones
UTC-1 to UTC+4
Largest cities
Largest Urban Areas:
LagosCairoKinshasaJohannesburgAbuja
KhartoumDar es SalaamAlexandriaAbidjan
AlgiersKanoCasablancaIbadanNairobi
Addis AbabaAccra

Africa's average population is the youngest amongst all the continents;[5][6] the median age in 2012 was
19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4.[7] Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria
is its largest by population. Africa, particularly central Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of
origin of humans and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as evidenced by the discovery of the earliest
 hominids and their ancestors as well as later ones that have been dated to around 7 million years ago,
including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus africanus, A. afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis
and H. ergaster—the earliest Homo sapiens (modern human), found in Ethiopia, date to circa 200,000
years ago.[8] Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only
continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones.[9]

Africa hosts a large diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages. In the late 19th century, European
countries colonised almost all of Africa; most present states in Africa originated from a process of
decolonisation in the 20th century. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African
Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.

Afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of then-known northern Africa to the west of
the Nile river, and in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean (Ancient
Libya).[10][11]This name seems to have originally referred to a native Libyan tribe, an ancestor of
modern Berbers; see Terence for discussion. The name had usually been connected with
the Phoenician word ʿafarmeaning "dust",[12] but a 1981 hypothesis[13] has asserted that it stems from
the Berber word ifri (plural ifran) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers.[14] The same
word[14] may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, a Berber tribe
originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane) in northwestern Libya.[15]
Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province it then named Africa Proconsularis,
following its defeat of the Carthaginians in the Third Punic War in 146 BC, which also included the coastal
part of modern Libya.[16] The Latin suffix -icacan sometimes be used to denote a land (e.g.,
in Celtica from Celtae, as used by Julius Caesar). The later Muslim region of Ifriqiya, following its
conquest of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman)Empire's Exarchatus Africae, also preserved a form of the
name.
According to the Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while "Asia" was used to refer to Anatolia and
lands to the east. A definite line was drawn between the two continents by the geographer Ptolemy (85–
165 AD), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of Suez and the Red
Seathe boundary between Asia and Africa. As Europeans came to understand the real extent of the
continent, the idea of "Africa" expanded with their knowledge.
Other etymological hypotheses have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":

 The 1st-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for Epher,
grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
 Isidore of Seville in his 7th-century Etymologiae XIV.5.2. suggests "Africa comes from the Latin aprica,
meaning "sunny".
 Massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, meaning "to turn toward the
opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and the "opening of the Ka" refers to a
womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace."[17]
 Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposed[18] linking the Latin word with africus "south wind", which would be of
Umbrian origin and mean originally "rainy wind".
 Robert R. Stieglitz of Rutgers University in 1984 proposed: "The name Africa, derived from the Latin
*Aphir-ic-a, is cognate to Hebrew Ophir."[19]
 Ibn Khallikan and some other historians claim that the name of Africa came from a Himyarite king called
Afrikin ibn Kais ibn Saifi also called "Afrikus son of Abrahah" who subdued Ifriqiya.[20][21][22]

Languages

By most estimates, well over a thousand languages (UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are
spoken in Africa.[129] Most are of African origin, though some are of European or Asian origin. Africa is
the most multilingual continent in the world, and it is not rare for individuals to fluently speak not only
multiple African languages, but one or more European ones as well. There are four major language
families indigenous to Africa:
 The Afroasiatic languages are a language family of about 240 languages and 285 million people
widespread throughout the Horn of Africa, North Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia.
 The Nilo-Saharan language family consists of more than a hundred languages spoken by 30 million
people. Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken by ethnic groups
in Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, and northern Tanzania.
 The Niger-Congo language family covers much of Sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of number of languages,
it is the largest language family in Africa and perhaps the largest in the world.
 The Khoisan languages number about fifty and are spoken in Southern Africa by approximately 400,000
people.[130] Many of the Khoisan languages are endangered. The Khoi and San peoples are considered
the original inhabitants of this part of Africa.

Following the end of colonialism, nearly all African countries adopted official languages that originated
outside the continent, although several countries also granted legal recognition to indigenous languages
(such as Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa). In numerous countries, English and French (see African
French) are used for communication in the public sphere such as government, commerce, education and
the media. Arabic, Portuguese, Afrikaans and Spanish are examples of languages that trace their origin
to outside of Africa, and that are used by millions of Africans today, both in the public and private spheres.
Italian is spoken by some in former Italian colonies in Africa. German is spoken in Namibia, as it was a
former German protectorate.

Culture

Some aspects of traditional African

cultures have become less practised
in recent years as a result of neglect
and suppression by colonial and
post-colonial regimes. For example,
African customs were discouraged,
and African languages were
prohibited in mission
schools.[131] Leopold II of Belgium
attempted to "civilize" Africans by
discouraging polygamy and
witchcraft.[131]
Obidoh Freeborn posits that
colonialism is one element that has
created the character of modern
African art.[132] According to authors
Douglas Fraser and Herbert M. Cole,
"The precipitous alterations in the
power structure wrought by
colonialism were quickly followed by
drastic iconographic changes in the art." [133] Fraser and Cole assert that, in Igboland, some art objects
"lack the vigor and careful craftsmanship of the earlier art objects that served traditional
functions.[133] Author Chika Okeke-Agulu states that "the racist infrastructure of British imperial
enterprise forced upon the political and cultural guardians of empire a denial and suppression of an
emergent sovereign Africa and modernist art." [134] In Soweto, the West Rand Administrative Board
established a Cultural Section to collect, read, and review scripts before performances could
occur.[135][self-published source]Editors F. Abiola Irele and Simon Gikandi comment that the current
identity of African literature had its genesis in the "traumatic encounter between Africa and
Europe."[136] On the other hand, Mhoze Chikowero believes that Africans deployed music, dance,
spirituality, and other performative cultures to (re)asset themselves as active agents and indigenous
intellectuals, to unmake their colonial marginalization and reshape their own destinies." [137]
There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalue African traditional cultures, under
such movements as the African Renaissance, led by Thabo Mbeki, Afrocentrism, led by a group of
scholars, including Molefi Asante, as well as the increasing recognition of traditional spiritualism through
decriminalization of Vodou and other forms of spirituality.

Geology and geography

Africa is the largest of the three great southward

projections from the largest landmass of the Earth.
Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it
is joined to Asia at its northeast extremity by
the Isthmus of Suez (transected by the Suez Canal),
163 km (101 mi)
wide.[78] (Geopolitically, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula east
of the Suez Canal is often considered part of Africa,
as well.)[79]
The coastline is 26,000 km (16,000 mi) long, and the
absence of deep indentations of the shore is
illustrated by the fact that Europe, which covers only
10,400,000 km2 (4,000,000 sq mi) – about a third of
the surface of Africa – has a coastline of 32,000 km
(20,000 mi).[80] From the most northerly point, Ras
ben Sakka in Tunisia (37°21' N), to the most
southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa
(34°51'15" S), is a distance of approximately
8,000 km (5,000 mi).[81] Cape Verde, 17°33'22" W, the westernmost point, is a distance of approximately
7,400 km (4,600 mi) to Ras Hafun, 51°27'52" E, the most easterly projection that neighbours Cape
Guardafui, the tip of the Horn of Africa.[80]
Africa's largest country is Algeria, and its smallest country is Seychelles, an archipelago off the east
coast.[82] The smallest nation on the continental mainland is The Gambia.

Climate

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks.
Its northern half is primarily desert, or arid, while its
central and southern areas contain both savanna plains
and dense jungle(rainforest) regions. In between,
there is a convergence, where vegetation patterns such
as sahel and steppe dominate. Africa is the hottest
continent on Earth and 60% of the entire land surface consists of
drylands and deserts.[87] The record for the highest-ever
recorded temperature, in Libya in 1922 (58 °C (136 °F)), was
discredited in 2013.
 Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest
combination of density and "range of freedom"
of wild animal populations and diversity, with
wild populations of large carnivores (such
as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs)
and herbivores (such
as buffalo, elephants, camels, and giraffes)
ranging freely on primarily open non-private
plains. It is also home to a variety of "jungle"
animals
including snakes and primates and aquatic
life such as crocodiles and amphibians. In
addition, Africa has the largest number of megafauna species, as it was least affected by the extinction of
the Pleistocene megafauna.

Demographics
Africa's population has rapidly increased over the last 40 years, and
consequently, it is relatively young. In some African states, more than
half the population is under 25 years of age.[113] The total number of
people in Africa increased from 229 million in 1950 to 630 million in
1990.[114] As of 2016, the population of Africa is estimated at 1.2
billion [1]. Africa's total population surpassing other continents is fairly
recent; African population surpassed Europe in the 1990s, while
the Americaswas overtaken sometime around the year 2000; Africa's
rapid population growth is expected to overtake the only two nations
currently larger than its population, at roughly the same time – India
and China's 1.4 billion people each will swap ranking around the year
2022.[115] This increase in number of babies born in Africa compared
to the rest of the world is expected to reach approximately 37% in the
year 2050, an increase of 21% since 1990 alone.[116]

San Bushman man from Botswana

Speakers of Bantu languages (part of the Niger–Congo family) are the
majority in southern, central and southeast Africa. The Bantu-
speaking peoples from the Sahel progressively expanded over most
of Sub-Saharan Africa.[117] But there are also several Nilotic groups
in South Sudan and East Africa, the mixed Swahili people on
the Swahili Coast, and a few remaining indigenous Khoisan ("San" or "Bushmen") and Pygmy peoples in
southern and central Africa, respectively. Bantu-speaking Africans also predominate in Gabon and
Equatorial Guinea, and are found in parts of southern Cameroon. In the Kalahari Desert of Southern
Africa, the distinct people known as the Bushmen (also "San", closely related to, but distinct from
"Hottentots") have long been present. The San are physically distinct from other Africans and are the
indigenous people of southern Africa. Pygmies are the pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of central
Africa.[118]
The peoples of West Africa primarily speak Niger–Congo languages, belonging mostly to its non-Bantu
branches, though some Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic speaking groups are also found. The Niger–
Congo-speaking Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani, Akan and Wolof ethnic groups are the largest and most influential.
In the central Sahara, Mandinka or Mande groups are most significant. Chadic-speaking groups, including
the Hausa, are found in more northerly parts of the region nearest to the Sahara, and Nilo-Saharan
communities, such as the Songhai, Kanuri and Zarma, are found in the eastern parts of West Africa
bordering Central Africa.
The peoples of North Africa consist of three main indigenous groups: Berbers in the northwest, Egyptians
in the northeast, and Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples in the east. The Arabs who arrived in the 7th
century AD introduced the Arabic language and Islam to North Africa. The Semitic Phoenicians (who
founded Carthage) and Hyksos, the Indo-Iranian Alans, the Indo- European Greeks, Romans,
and Vandals settled in North Africa as well. Significant Berber communities remain
within Morocco and Algeria in the 21st century, while, to a lesser extent, Berber speakers are also
present in some regions of Tunisia and Libya.[119] The Berber-speaking Tuareg and other often-
nomadicpeoples are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa. In Mauritania, there
is a small but near-extinct Berber community in the north and Niger–Congo-speaking peoples in the
south, though in both regions Arabic and Arab culture predominates. In Sudan, although Arabic and Arab
culture predominate, it is mostly inhabited by groups that originally spoke Nilo-Saharan, such as the
Nubians, Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa, who, over the centuries, have variously intermixed with migrants
from the Arabian peninsula. Small communities of Afro-Asiatic-speaking Beja nomads can also be found
in Egypt and Sudan.

In the Horn of Africa, some Ethiopian and Eritrean groups (like the Amhara and Tigrayans, collectively
known as Habesha) speak languages from the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, while
the Oromo and Somali speak languages from the Cushitic branch of Afro-Asiatic.
Prior to the decolonization movements of the post-World War II era, Europeans were represented in
every part of Africa.[120] Decolonization during the 1960s and 1970s often resulted in the mass
emigration of white settlers – especially from Algeria and Morocco (1.6 million pieds-noirs in North
Africa),[121] Kenya, Congo,[122] Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola.[123] Between 1975 and 1977, over
a million colonials returned to Portugal alone.[124] Nevertheless, white Africans remain an important
minority in many African states, particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia, Réunion, and the Republic of South
Africa.[125] The country with the largest white African population is South
Africa.[126] Dutch and British diasporas represent the largest communities of European ancestry on the
continent today.[127]
European colonization also brought sizable groups of Asians, particularly from the Indian subcontinent, to
British colonies. Large Indian communities are found in South Africa, and smaller ones are present in
Kenya, Tanzania, and some other southern and southeast African countries. The large Indian community
in Uganda was expelledby the dictator Idi Amin in 1972, though many have since returned. The islands in
the Indian Ocean are also populated primarily by people of Asian origin, often mixed with Africans and
Europeans. The Malagasy people of Madagascar are an Austronesian people, but those along the coast
are generally mixed with Bantu, Arab, Indian and European origins. Malay and Indian ancestries are also
important components in the group of people known in South Africa as Cape Coloureds (people with
origins in two or more races and continents). During the 20th century, small but economically important
communities of Lebaneseand Chinese[75] have also developed in the larger coastal cities
of Westand East Africa, respectively.
Music and dance
Egypt has long been a cultural focus of the Arab world, while
remembrance of the rhythms of sub-Saharan Africa, in
particular West Africa, was transmitted through the Atlantic
slave trade to modern samba, blues, jazz, reggae, hip hop,
and rock. The 1950s through the 1970s saw a conglomeration
of these various styles with the popularization
of Afrobeat and Highlife music. Modern music of the continent
includes the highly complex choral singing of southern Africa
and the dance rhythms of the musical genre of soukous,
dominated by the music of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Indigenous musical and dance traditions of Africa are
maintained by oral traditions, and they are distinct from the
music and dance styles of North Africa and Southern
Africa. Arab influences are visible in North African music and
dance and, in Southern Africa, Western influences are
apparent due to colonization.

Sports

The Namibia rugby team

Fifty-four African
countries have football (soccer) teams in the Confederation of
African Football. Egypt has won the African Cup seven times, and
a record-making three times in a row. Cameroon, Nigeria,
Senegal, Ghana, and Algeria have advanced to the knockout
stage of recent FIFA World Cups. South Africa hosted the 2010
World Cup tournament, becoming the first African country to do
so.
Cricket is popular in some African nations. South
Africa and Zimbabwehave Test status, while Kenya is the leading
non-test team and previously had One-Day International
cricket (ODI) status (from 10 October 1997, until 30 January
2014). The three countries jointly hosted the 2003 Cricket World
Cup. Namibia is the other African country to have played in a
World Cup. Morocco in northern Africa has also hosted the 2002
Morocco Cup, but the national team has never qualified for a
major tournament. Rugby is a popular sport in South Africa,
Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

FOODS
 The cuisine of South Africa can be generalised as:
 Cookery practised by indigenous people of Africa such as
the Sotho- and Nguni-speaking people.
 Cookery that emerged from several waves of colonisation and
immigration introduced during the colonial period by white European
people of Dutch (since 1652), German, French, Italian, Greek and
British (since 1805~1820) descent and their Indo-Asian slaves or
servants – this includes the cuisine of the so-called Cape
Malay people, which has many characteristics of Indonesia and
cooking styles from neighbouring colonial cultures such as
Portuguese Mozambique.

South Africa can be said to have a significant "eating out" culture.

While there are some restaurants that specialise in traditional South
African dishes or modern interpretations thereof, restaurants
featuring other cuisines such as Moroccan, Chinese, West
African, Congolese, and Japanese can be found in all of the major
cities and many of the larger towns.[citation needed] There are also
many home-grown chain restaurants, such as Spur and Dulce Cafe.

There is also a proliferation of fast food restaurants in South Africa. While some international players such
as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wimpy are active in the country, they face stiff competition from local
chains such as Nando's, Galito's, Steers, Chicken Licken, Barcelos, and King Pie. Many of the restaurant
chains originating from South Africa have also expanded successfully outside the borders of the country.

Beer has been an important beverage in South Africa for hundreds of years among indigenous people
long before colonisation and the arrival of Europeans with their own beer drinking traditions. Traditional
beer was brewed from local grains, especially sorghum. Beer was so prized that it became central to
many ceremonies, like betrothals and weddings, in which one family ceremoniously offered beer to the
other family. Unlike European beer, South African traditional beer was unfiltered and cloudy and had a
low alcohol content. Around the turn of the centuries, when white owned industry began studying
malnutrition among urban workers, it was discovered that traditional beer provided crucial vitamins
sometimes not available in the grain heavy traditional diet and even less available in urban industrial
slums.

When South Africa's mines were developed and Black South Africans began to urbanise, women moved
to the city also, and began to brew beer for the predominantly male labour force – a labour force that was
mostly either single or who had left their wives back in the rural areas under the migrant labour system.
That tradition of urban women making beer for the labour force persists in South Africa to the extent that
informal bars and taverns (shebeens) are typically owned by women (shebeen queens). Today, most
urban dwellers buy beer manufactured by industrial breweries that make beer that is like beer one would
buy in Europe and America, but rural people and recent immigrants to the city still enjoy the cloudy,
unfiltered traditional beer.
 Compared to an American, Korean or western European diet, milk and milk products are very prominent
in the traditional Black South African diet. As cows were considered extremely desirable domestic animals
in precolonial times, milk was abundant. In the absence of refrigeration, various kinds of soured milk,
somewhat like yogurt, were a dietary mainstay. A visitor to any African village in the 1800s would have
been offered a large calabash of cool fermented milk as a greeting. Because milk cows allowed women to
wean their children early and become fertile more quickly, local cultures had a number of sayings
connecting cattle, milk and population growth, such as the Sotho-Tswana saying, "cattle beget children."
Today, in the dairy section of South Africa's supermarkets, one will find a variety of kinds of milk, sour
milk, sour cream, and other modern versions of traditional milk products.

 Amasi, fermented milk.

 Biltong, a salty dried meat (similar to jerky), although the meat
used is often from different types of Antelope or other venison.
 Biryani
 Bobotie, a dish of Malay descent, is like meatloaf with raisins and
with baked eggon top, and is often served with yellow
rice, sambals, coconut, banana slices, and chutney.
 Boeber, is a traditional Cape Malay sweet, milk drink, made with
vermicelli, sago, sugar, and flavoured with cardamom, stick
cinnamon and rose water.
 Boerewors, a sausage that is traditionally braaied (barbecued).
 Bunny chow, curry stuffed into a hollowed-out loaf of bread. A
bunny chow is called Kota by the locals.
 Chakalaka, a spicy South African vegetable relish.
 Chutney, or blatjang, a sweet sauce made from fruit that is usually
poured on meat.
 Dombolo flour bread usually made steamed in a pot.
 Frikkadelle – meatballs.
 Gatsby, food mainly popular in Cape Town, comes in the form of
a long roll with fillings of anything ranging from polony to chicken
or steak and hot chips.
 Gesmoorde vis, salted cod or snoek with potatoes and tomatoes and sometimes served
with apricot or moskonfyt (grape must) jam.
 Hertzoggie, a tartlet with an apricot jam filling and desiccated coconut meringue topping.
 Hoenderpastei, chicken pie, traditional Afrikaans fare.
 Isidudu, pumpkin pap.
 Kaiings, a chewy traditional Boer delicacy often served as a topping over "pap". Kaiings are made from
small cubes of pork in a cast iron pot over a "slow" fire and are the leftover pieces of pork after extracting
the pork fat. Kaiings partly resembles pork cracklings. The skin is not as puffy and crispy as a crackling,
and a small piece of meat is usually left on the skin and fat.
 Koeksisters come in two forms and are a sweet delicacy. Afrikaans koeksisters are twisted pastries,
deep-fried and heavily sweetened. Koeksisters found on the Cape Flats are sweet and spicy, shaped like
large eggs, and deep-fried.
 Kota, Skhambana, a quarter of a loaf of bread usually stuffed with Atchar, and chips.
 Mafi sour milk, often consumed with pap or drank alone.
 Mageu, a drink made from fermented mealie pap.
 Mala Mogodu, a local dish equivalent of tripe. The locals usually enjoy mala mogodu with
hot pap and spinach.
 Malva pudding, a sweet spongy apricot pudding of Dutch origin.
 Marog. A spinach like wild plant often seen by the casual observer as a weed of sorts. Traditionally boiled
and served with "pap". Sometimes dried in small lumps for extended "shelf life". The traditional
Afrikaner/Boer preparation usually incorporates either onion or potato or both.
 Mashonzha, made from the mopane worm.
 Melktert (milk tart), a milk-based tart or dessert.
 Melkkos (milk food), another milk-based dessert. Traditionally served as a standalone dish for supper and
for lunch in some instances. (Famous traditional cookbooks such as the "Kook en Geniet" don't refer to
this a dessert though)
 Mealie-bread, a sweet bread baked with sweetcorn.
 Mielie-meal, one of the staple foods, often used in baking but predominantly cooked into pap or phutu.
 Monkey gland sauce
 Mosbolletjies, a sweet-bun made with aniseed and a grape juice leavening agentfrom the wine-making
region of South Africa.
 Ostrich is an increasingly popular protein source as it has a low cholesterolcontent; it is either used in a
stew or filleted and grilled.
 Pampoenkoekies (pumpkin fritters), flour has been supplemented with or replaced by pumpkin. Some
variants of the "Pampoenkoekie" are, among other, the "Patatkoekie" (Sweet potato fritter),
"Aartappelkoekie" (potato fritter), "ryskoekie" (rice fritter), etc., where the pumpkin is replaced with either
sweet potato or potato or rice. The name of the fritter being derived from the vegetable being used.
 Potbrood (pot bread or boerbrood), savoury bread baked over coals in cast-iron pots.
 Potjiekos, a traditional Afrikaans stew, made with meat and vegetables and cooked over coals in cast-
iron pots.
 Rooibos, a herbal tea that is indigenous to South Africa.
 Rusks, a rectangular, hard, dry biscuit eaten after being dunked in tea or coffee; they are either home-
baked or shop-bought (with the most popular brand being Ouma Rusks).
 Samosa, or samoosa, is a savoury stuffed Indian pastry that is fried.
 Samp and beans.
 Skilpadjies, lamb's liver wrapped in netvet and braaied over hot coals.
 Smagwinya, fat cakes.
 Smoked or braai'ed snoek, a regional gamefish.
 Sosatie, kebab, grilled marinated meat on a skewer.
 Tomato bredie, a lamb and tomato stew.
 Trotters and Beans, from the Cape, made from boiled pig's or sheep's trotters and onions and beans.
 Umngqusho, a dish made from white maize and sugar beans, a staple food for the Xhosa people.
 Umphokoqo, an African salad made of maize meal.[3]
 Umqombothi, a type of beer made from fermented maize and sorghum.
 Umvubo, sour milk mixed with dry pap, commonly eaten by the Xhosa.
 Vetkoek (fat cake, magwenya), deep-fried dough balls, typically stuffed with meat or served
with snoek fish or jam.
 Walkie Talkies, grilled or deep-fried chicken feet and lamb's head, most popular in townships and sold by
street vendors, sometimes in industrial areas with high concentrations of workers.
 Waterblommetjie bredie (water flower stew), meat stewed with the flower of the Cape Pondweed.

List of state leaders in 2019

 Algeria
o President –
1. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, President of Algeria (1999–2019)
2. Abdelkader Bensalah, Acting President of Algeria (2019–present)
o Prime Minister –
1. Ahmed Ouyahia, Prime Minister of Algeria (2017–2019)
 Angola
o President – João Lourenço, President of Angola (2017–present)
 Benin
 o President – Patrice Talon, President of Benin (2016–present)
 Botswana
o President – Mokgweetsi Masisi, President of Botswana (2018–present)
 Burkina Faso
o President – Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, President of Burkina Faso (2015–present)
o Prime Minister –
1. Paul Kaba Thieba, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (2016–2019)
2. Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso (2019–present)
 Burundi
o President – Pierre Nkurunziza, President of Burundi (2005–present)

 Cameroon
o President – Paul Biya, President of Cameroon (1982–present)
o Prime Minister –
1. Philémon Yang, Prime Minister of Cameroon (2009–2019)
2. Joseph Ngute, Prime Minister of Cameroon (2019–present)
 Cape Verde
o President – Jorge Carlos Fonseca, President of Cape Verde(2011–present)
o Prime Minister – Ulisses Correia e Silva, Prime Minister of Cape Verde (2016–present)
 Central African Republic
o President – Faustin-Archange Touadéra, President of the Central African
Republic (2016–present)
o Prime Minister –
1. Simplice Sarandji, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (2016–2019)
2. Firmin Ngrébada, Prime Minister of the Central African Republic (2019–present)
 Chad
o President – Idriss Déby, President of Chad (1990–present)
o Prime Minister – Position vacant (2018–present)
 Comoros
o President –
1. Azali Assoumani, President of the Comoros (2016––present)
2. Moustadroine Abdou, Acting President of the Comoros(2019)
 Congo–Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo)
o President – Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of the Republic of the Congo (1997–
present)
o Prime Minister – Clément Mouamba, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo (2016–
present)
 Congo–Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
o President –
1. Joseph Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2001–2019)
2. Félix Tshisekedi, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019–present)
o Prime Minister – Bruno Tshibala, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (2017–present)
 Djibouti
o President – Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, President of Djibouti (1999–present)
o Prime Minister – Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed, Prime Minister of Djibouti (2013–
present)
 Egypt
o President – Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt (2014–present)
o Prime Minister – Moustafa Madbouly, Prime Minister of Egypt(2018–present)
 Equatorial Guinea
o President – Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea (1979–
present)
o Prime Minister – Francisco Pascual Obama Asue, Prime Minister of Equatorial
Guinea (2016–present)
 Eritrea
o President – Isaias Afwerki, President of Eritrea (1991–present) [a]
 Eswatini
o Monarch – Mswati III, King of Eswatini (1986–present)
o Prime Minister – Mandvulo Ambrose Dlamini, Prime Minister of Eswatini (2018–
present)
 Ethiopia
o President – Sahle-Work Zewde, President of Ethiopia (2018–present)
o Prime Minister – Abiy Ahmed, Prime Minister of Ethiopia (2018–present)
 Gabon
o President – Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon (2009–present)
o Prime Minister –
1. Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet, Prime Minister of Gabon(2016–2019)
2. Julien Nkoghe Bekale, Prime Minister of Gabon (2019–present)
 The Gambia
o President – Adama Barrow, President of the Gambia (2017–present)
 Ghana
o President – Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana (2017–present)
 Guinea
o President – Alpha Condé, President of Guinea (2010–present)
o Prime Minister – Ibrahima Kassory Fofana, Prime Minister of Guinea (2018–present)
 Guinea-Bissau
o President – José Mário Vaz, President of Guinea-Bissau (2014–present)
o Prime Minister – Aristides Gomes, Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau (2018–present)
 Ivory Coast
o President – Alassane Ouattara, President of the Ivory Coast(2010–present)
o Prime Minister – Amadou Gon Coulibaly, Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast (2017–
present)
 Kenya
o President – Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya (2013–present)
 Lesotho
 oMonarch – Letsie III, King of Lesotho (1996–present)
oPrime Minister – Tom Thabane, Prime Minister of Lesotho (2017–present)
 Liberia
o President – George Weah, President of Liberia (2018–present)
 Libya
o Government of House of Representatives of Libya(Government of Libya
internationally recognised to 12 March 2016)
 Head of State – Aguila Saleh Issa, Chairman of the House of Representatives of
Libya (co-claimant, 2014–present)
 Prime Minister – Abdullah al-Thani, Prime Minister of Libya(co-claimant, 2014–
present)
o Government of National Accord of Libya (Interim government internationally
recognised as the sole legitimate government of Libya from 12 March 2016)
 Head of State – Fayez al-Sarraj, Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya (co-
claimant, 2016–present)
 Prime Minister – Fayez al-Sarraj, Prime Minister of Libya (co-claimant, 2016–present)
 Madagascar
o President –

0. Rivo Rakotovao, Acting President of Madagascar (2018–2019)

1. Andry Rajoelina, President of Madagascar (2019–present)
o Prime Minister – Christian Ntsay, Prime Minister of Madagascar(2018–present)
 Malawi
o President – Peter Mutharika, President of Malawi (2014–present)
 Mali
o President – Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, President of Mali (2013–present)
o Prime Minister –
0. Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga, Prime Minister of Mali (2017–2019)
1. Boubou Cisse, Prime Minister of Mali (2019–present)
 Mauritania
o President – Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of Mauritania(2009–present)
o Prime Minister – Mohamed Salem Ould Béchir, Prime Minister of Mauritania (2018–
present)
 Mauritius
o President – Barlen Vyapoory, Acting President of Mauritius(2018–present)
o Prime Minister – Pravind Jugnauth, Prime Minister of Mauritius(2017–present)
 Morocco
o Monarch – Mohammed VI, King of Morocco (1999–present)
o Prime Minister – Saadeddine Othmani, Head of Government of Morocco (2017–present)
 Mozambique
o President – Filipe Nyusi, President of Mozambique (2015–present)
o Prime Minister – Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, Prime Minister of Mozambique (2015–
present)
 Namibia
 o President – Hage Geingob, President of Namibia (2015–present)
o Prime Minister – Saara Kuugongelwa, Prime Minister of Namibia(2015–present)
 Niger
o President – Mahamadou Issoufou, President of Niger (2011–present)
o Prime Minister – Brigi Rafini, Prime Minister of Niger (2011–present)
 Nigeria
o President – Muhammadu Buhari, President of Nigeria (2015–present)
 Puntland (self-declared autonomous state)
o President –
0. Abdiweli Mohamed Ali, President of Puntland (2014–2019)
1. Said Abdullahi Deni, President of Puntland (2019–present)
 Rwanda
o President – Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda (2000–present)
o Prime Minister – Édouard Ngirente, Prime Minister of Rwanda(2017–present)
 Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (Overseas Territory of the United
Kingdom)
o Governor –
0. Lisa Honan, Governor of Saint Helena (2016–2019)
1. Louise MacMorran, Acting Governor of Saint Helena(2019)
2. Philip Rushbrook, Governor of Saint Helena (2019–present)
 São Tomé and Príncipe
o President – Evaristo Carvalho, President of São Tomé and Príncipe (2016–present)
o Prime Minister – Jorge Bom Jesus, Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe (2018–
present)
 Senegal
o President – Macky Sall, President of Senegal (2012–present)
o Prime Minister – Mohammed Dionne, Prime Minister of Senegal(2014–2019)
 Seychelles
o President – Danny Faure, President of Seychelles (2016–present)
 Sierra Leone
o President – Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone (2018–present)
o Chief Minister – David J. Francis, Chief Minister of Sierra Leone(2018–present)
 Somalia
o President – Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, President of Somalia(2017–present)
o Prime Minister – Hassan Ali Khayre, Prime Minister of Somalia(2017–present)
 Somaliland (unrecognised, secessionist state)
o President – Muse Bihi Abdi, President of Somaliland (2017–present)
 South Africa
o President – Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa (2018–present)
 South Sudan
o President – Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of South Sudan (2005–present) [b]
 Sudan
o President –
 0. Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan (1989–2019)
1. Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, Chairman of the Transitional Military Council (2019)
2. Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan, Chairman of the Transitional Military
Council (2019–present)
o Prime Minister –
0. Motazz Moussa, Prime Minister of Sudan (2018–2019)
1. Mohamed Tahir Ayala, Prime Minister of Sudan (2019)
 Tanzania
o President – John Magufuli, President of Tanzania (2015–present)
o Prime Minister – Kassim Majaliwa, Prime Minister of Tanzania(2015–present)
 Togo
o President – Faure Gnassingbé, President of Togo (2005–present)
o Prime Minister – Komi Sélom Klassou, Prime Minister of Togo(2015–present)
 Tunisia
o President – Beji Caid Essebsi, President of Tunisia (2014–present)
o Prime Minister – Youssef Chahed, Head of Government of Tunisia(2016–present)
 Uganda
o President – Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda (1986–present)
o Prime Minister – Ruhakana Rugunda, Prime Minister of Uganda(2014–present)
 Western Sahara (self-declared, partially recognised state)
o President – Brahim Ghali, President of Western Sahara (2016–present)
o Prime Minister – Mohamed Wali Akeik, Prime Minister of Western Sahara (2018–
present)
 Zambia
o President – Edgar Lungu, President of Zambia (2015–present)
 Zimbabwe
o President – Emmerson Mnangagwa, President of Zimbabwe(2017–present)

2. Noureddine Bedoui, Acting Prime Minister of Algeria(2019–present)