Page 63 - ie2 August 2019

• Africa has over 85 percent of the ereign states, nine territories and two de million–600,000 years BP) have been dis-
world’s elephants and over 99 percent of facto independent states with limited or covered.
the remaining lions are on the African no recognition. After the evolution of Homo sapiens
continent. Africa’s average population is the approximately 150,000 to 100,000 years
• The Serengeti (Tanzania) hosts the youngest amongst all the continents; the BP in Africa, the continent was mainly
world’s largest wildlife migration on median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the populated by groups of hunter-gatherers.
earth with over 750,000 zebra marching worldwide median age was 30.4. Algeria These first modern humans left Africa
ahead of 1.2 million wildebeest as they is Africa’s largest country by area, and and populated the rest of the globe dur-
cross this amazing landscape. Nigeria is its largest by population. Afri- ing the Out of Africa II migration dated
• Africa is the world’s second driest con- ca straddles the equator and encompass- to approximately 50,000 years BP, exiting
tinent (after Australia). es numerous climate areas; it is the only the continent either across Bab-el-Man-
• The continent has the largest reserves continent to stretch from the northern deb over the Red Sea, the Strait of Gibral-
of precious metals with over 40 percent temperate to southern temperate zones. tar in Morocco, or the Isthmus of Suez in
of the gold, over 60 percent of cobalt, and Africa hosts a large diversity of ethnic- Egypt.
90 percent of the platinum reserves. ities, cultures, and languages. In the late Other migrations of modern humans
• Lake Victoria is the second-largest 19th century, European countries colo- within the African continent have been
freshwater lake in the world. nised almost all of Africa; most present dated to that time, with evidence of early
• Africa has eight of the 11 major biomes states in Africa originated from a process human settlement found in Southern Af-
and the largest remaining populations of of decolonisation in the 20th century. Af- rica, Southeast Africa, North Africa, and
lion, elephant, rhinoceros, cheetah, hye- rican nations cooperate through the es- the Sahara.
na, and leopard in the world. tablishment of the African Union, which The size of the Sahara has historical-
The canvas upon which the continent’s is headquartered in Addis Ababa. ly been extremely variable, with its area
epic story is written is itself astonishing, rapidly fluctuating and at times disap-
and reason enough to visit. From the Oldest inhabited territory pearing, depending on global climatic
tropical rainforests and glorious tropical Africa is considered by most paleoan- conditions. At the end of the Ice ages,
coastline of Central Africa to the rippling thropologists to be the oldest inhabit- estimated to have been around 10,500
dunes of the Namib Desert, from the sig- ed territory on earth, with the human BCE, the Sahara had again become a
nature savannah of the Serengeti to jag- species originating from the continent. green fertile valley, and its African pop-
ged mountains, green-tinged highlands During the mid-20th century, anthro- ulations returned from the interior and
and deep-gash canyons that mark the pologists discovered many fossils and ev- coastal highlands in sub-Saharan Africa,
Great Rift Valley’s continental traverse – idence of human occupation perhaps as with rock art paintings depicting a fertile
wherever one finds oneself on this big, early as seven million years ago. Central Sahara and large populations discovered
beautiful continent, Africa has few peers eastern Africa, particularly, is widely ac- in Tassilin’Ajjer dating back perhaps 10
when it comes to natural beauty. cepted as the place of origin of humans millennia. However, the warming and
Africa is the world’s second-largest and and the Hominidae clade (great apes), as drying climate meant that by 5000 BCE,
second most-populous continent, being evidenced by the discovery of the earliest the Sahara region was becoming increas-
behind Asia in both categories. At about hominids and their ancestors. The Sa- ingly dry and hostile. Around 3500 BCE,
30.3 million km2 including adjacent is- helanthropus tchadensis, Australopithecus due to a tilt in the earth’s orbit, the Sa-
lands, it covers 6 percent of earth’s total africanus, A afarensis, Homo erectus, H hara experienced a period of rapid deser-
surface area and 20 percent of its land habilis, and H ergaster, the earliest Homo tification. The population trekked out of
area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, sapiens found in Ethiopia, date to cir- the Sahara region towards the Nile Valley
it accounts for about 16 percent of the ca 200,000 years ago. Fossil remains of below the Second Cataract where they
world’s human population. The conti- several species of early apelike humans made permanent or semi-permanent set-
nent is surrounded by the Mediterranean thought to have evolved into modern tlements. A major climatic recession oc-
Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and man, such as Australopithecus afarensis curred, lessening the heavy and persistent
the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian (radiometrically dated to approximate- rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since
Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic ly 3.9-3 million years BP (BP = before this time, dry conditions have prevailed
Ocean to the west. The continent in- present, used to measure radiocarbon in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during
cludes Madagascar and various archipel- ages), Paranthropusboisei (c. 2.3-1.4 mil- the last 200 years, in Ethiopia.
agos. It contains 54 fully recognised sov- lion years BP) and Homo ergaster (c. 1.9 The domestication of cattle in Africa

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