Interesting facts about Africa

AFRICA is the world’s second largest continent and is home to some of the most beautiful countries with some of the most unique landscapes and wildlife which is why it is a top holiday destination. Here are some fun facts about Africa. There are 54 countries in Africa Africa boasts more countries than Asia the largest continent in the world.

Africa covers 30 million square kilometres

Africa is a huge continent and it is divided up into five sub-sections; North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa. The entirety of Africa covers almost 16 million square kilometres which makes up more than 20% of the world’s land!

The most widely spoken language is Arabic

This may be a somewhat surprising fun fact about Africa. Due to the fact that there are 54 countries in Africa, there are many different languages spoken. However, the most widely spoken language here is Arabic (by 170 million people), followed by English (by 130 million people) then Swahili, French, Bereber, Hausa and Portuguese, among others.

Illiteracy is as high as 40%

Although Africa holds many different resources it is a continent where many of the countries have vast numbers of their populations living in poverty. This has led to 40% of adults in Africa being illiterate. The worst affected areas, with shocking illiteracy over 50% are in Ethiopia, Chad, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso.

Africa is the world’s hottest continent

Africa has a very warm climate and it is actually considered to be the world’s hottest continent. Around 60% of land is dry and covered by desert, and the Sahara is the world’s biggest desert with temperatures often exceeding 40°C.

But while the hottest recorded temperature on Earth was once in Africa in El Azizia, Libya at 58°C, the continent also has the other extreme with the coldest temperate in Africa being as low as −23,9°C in Ifrane, Morocco. This just shows the diversity of the different countries here in Africa and the differences do not end with the climate!

Africa was once made up of 10 000 States

Before colonial rule, Africa was made up of 10 000 different States and autonomous groups, each with their own very distinct languages and unique customs. This pre-colonial, disjointed Africa could explain why there are so many languages spoken and why many of the languages spoken in regions of Africa are not spoken elsewhere

Zambia had a space programme in the 1960s

Although it sounds unlikely during the 1960s, Zambia was home to a space programme, but it was not a very successful one. It started because a Zambian citizen was intent on beating the Americans and the Russians in being the first to send a man to land on the moon. Asides from the space programme, there was also a grant for £7 million that was applied for in order to send 12 astronauts and a cat to Mars, but this was denied and the space programme failed.

Nigeria has the highest number of twins born in the world

One of Africa’s largest countries, Nigeria, has been nicknamed “The Land of Twins” by the BBC because it has the highest rate of twin births in the world.

Numbers show that twin birth rates in West Africa are actually four times higher here than anywhere else in the world and the centre of it all takes place in a sleepy little town in Nigeria called Igbo-Ora where the last recorded figures revealed an average of 50 sets of twins in every 1 000 births.

Over five million people died in the second Congo war

The second Congo war, which began in August 1998, happened only one year on after the first Congo war and is the second deadliest worldwide conflict, subsequent only to World War II. The war started as a political and military tension between Rwanda and Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) and led later to involve seven other countries; more than five million lives were taken during the second Congo war. In order to keep the peace and stop the death toll from rising, a peace agreement was signed in 2002.

Africa took part in the shortest war ever recorded in history

Not only was Africa the host of the second deadliest war, but it was also home to the world’s shortest war. The war began in August 1896 and it was between Zanzibar and Great Britain. It started because the British did not accept the succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash after the previous pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini.

As British forces attacked the palace grounds, war broke out, but the battle only lasted 38 minutes before Sultan Khalid bin Barghash raised the white flag of surrender. He later fled to German East Africa, while the British took matters into their own hands and appointed a new Sultan.

Africa’s sahara desert is bigger than the US

As previously mentioned, Africa is the hottest continent on the planet and so much of its land is made up of desert. The Sahara, being the largest desert in the world, is truly vast. Its expansive size is 9,4 million square kilometres — bigger than the entire US! Another interesting fact about the Sahara is that it is actually growing in size as it has been expanding south at a rate of 800m per month.

Africa has one of the oldest universities in the world

Although many adults are illiterate here, Africa is actually home to one of the oldest universities in the world. Built in the 12th Century, Timbuktu in Mali had become the centre of all intelligentsia and historians have even branded it as the “Paris of Medieval times”. The University of Timbuktu was built in 982 CE and it is one of the oldest known educational establishments.

There are 280 000 windmills in South Africa

The Netherlands are most renowned for their windmills, but South Africa is actually the home to 280 000 windmills. These can be found on farms across the country and the numbers here are much higher than the Netherlands’ figures which have only ever recorded the total of 10 000 windmills.