HISTORY
GEOGRAPHY:
Africa is the largest of the three great southward projections from the largest landmass of the Earth. The largest country is Sudan and the smallest is the Seychelles. The climate is tropical and subartic and it has deserts, jungles, savannah and steppes. At the centre of the continent there are lots of rivers like the Congo or a big lakes like Victoria. Africa has a wild life on it, lots of animals live in there. At the north there are the deserts with really hot temperature.
ECONOMY:
Africa has a lot of natural resources like diamonds, oil or ivory. Africa has a poor economy because their products are always taken away from there. Most of people work as a farmer and they don't even have water or light in their houses. Desease or hunger are common problems. Africa has good tourism and recently in Southafrica has made the worldcup that brought lot of money.
POLITICS:
The African Union (AU) is a 53 member federation consisting of all of Africa's states except Morocco. Lots of countries have dictators that rule with the tyranny and cause problems to the population. Their politics are corrupt and they don't have studies and they haven't been voted to be elected.
CULTURE
Some aspects of traditional African cultures have become less practiced in recent years as a result of years of neglect and suppression by colonial and post-colonial regimes. There is now a resurgence in the attempts to rediscover and revalourise 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. In recent years, traditional African culture has become synonymous with rural poverty and subsistence farming.
Visual art and architecture
African art and architecture reflect the diversity of African cultures. The oldest existing examples of art from Africa are 82,000-year-old beadsmade from Nassarius shells that were found in the Aterian levels at Grotte des Pigeons, Taforalt, Morocco. The Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt was the world's tallest structure for 4,000 years, until the completion of Lincoln Cathedral around the year 1300. The stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe are also noteworthy for their architecture, and the complexity of monolithic churches at Lalibela, Ethiopia, of which theChurch of Saint George is representative
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 ofNorth Africa and Southern Africa. Arab influences are visible in North African music and dance and, in Southern Africa, Western influences are apparent due to colonisation.
Religion
Africans profess a wide variety of religious beliefs and statistics on religious affiliation are difficult to come by since they are too sensitive a topic for governments with mixed populations. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, Islam is the largest religion in Africa, followed by Christianity. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, 45% of the population are Muslims, 40% are Christians and less than 15% continue to follow traditional African religions. A small number of Africans are Hindu, Baha'i, or have beliefs from the Judaic tradition. Examples of African Jews are the Beta Israel, Lemba peoples and the Abayudaya of Eastern Uganda. There is also a small minority of Africans who are non-religious.
