Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.

3
2
million km (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area
[7] [1][2]
and 6% of its total surface area. With 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18%
[8][9]
of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest amongst all the continents;
[10]
the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide
range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy
by total wealth, ahead of Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including
[11] [12][13]
geography, climate, tribalism, colonialism, the Cold War, neocolonialism, lack of democracy,
[11]
and corruption. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and the
large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context.

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, eight cities and islands that are part of non-African states, and two de facto independent
states with limited or no recognition. This count does not include Malta and Sicily, which are
geologically part of the African continent. Algeria is Africa's largest country by area, and Nigeria is its
largest by population. African nations cooperate through the establishment of the African Union,
which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.

Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian. It is the only continent to stretch from the
[14]
northern temperate to the southern temperate zones. The majority of the continent and its
countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and a number of countries in the
Southern Hemisphere. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, except for a large part of Western
Sahara, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, the northern tip of Mauritania, and the entire territories of
Morocco, Ceuta, Melilla, and Tunisia which in turn are located above the tropic of Cancer, in the
northern temperate zone. In the other extreme of the continent, southern Namibia, southern
Botswana, great parts of South Africa, the entire territories of Lesotho and Eswatini and the southern
tips of Mozambique and Madagascar are located below the tropic of Capricorn, in the southern
temperate zone.

[15]
Africa is highly biodiverse; it is the continent with the largest number of megafauna species, as it
was least affected by the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna. However, Africa also is heavily
affected by a wide range of environmental issues, including desertification, deforestation, water
scarcity and pollution. These entrenched environmental concerns are expected to worsen as climate
change impacts Africa. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified Africa as
[16][17]
the continent most vulnerable to climate change.

The history of Africa is long, complex, and has often been under-appreciated by the global historical
[18]
community. Africa, particularly Eastern Africa, is widely accepted as the place of origin of humans
and the Hominidae clade (great apes). The earliest hominids and their ancestors 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)
remains, found in Ethiopia, South Africa, and Morocco, date to circa 233,000, 259,000, and 300,000
years ago, respectively, and Homo sapiens is believed to have originated in Africa around
[a]
350,000–260,000 years ago. Africa is also considered by anthropologists to be the most
[25][26][27]
genetically diverse continent as a result of being the longest inhabited.

Early human civilizations, such as Ancient Egypt and Carthage emerged in North Africa. Following a
subsequent long and complex history of civilizations, migration and trade, Africa hosts a large
diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages. The last 400 years have witnessed an increasing
European influence on the continent. Starting in the 16th century, this was driven by trade, including
the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which created large African diaspora populations in the Americas.
From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, European nations colonized almost all of Africa,
[28]
reaching a point when only Ethiopia and Liberia were independent polities. Most present states in
Africa emerged from a process of decolonisation following World War II.

Etymology

The totality of Africa seen by the Apollo 17 crew

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
[29][30]
Libya). 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
[31] [32]
Phoenician word ʿafar meaning "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from
[33]
the Berber word ifri (plural ifran) meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. The same
[33]
word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, a Berber tribe
[34]
originally from Yafran (also known as Ifrane) in northwestern Libya, as well as the city of Ifrane in
Morocco.

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
 [35]
coastal part of modern Libya. The Latin suffix -ica can 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 lies 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 CE), indicating Alexandria along the Prime Meridian and making the isthmus of
Suez and the Red Sea the 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
[36]
Egyptians, "the birthplace."
[37]
● Michèle Fruyt in 1976 proposed 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
[38]
from the Latin *Aphir-ic-a, is cognate to Hebrew Ophir ['rich']."
● 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 Abraham" who
[39][40][41]
subdued Ifriqiya.
● Arabic afrīqā (feminine noun) and ifrīqiyā, now usually pronounced afrīqiyā (feminine)
'Africa', from ‘afara [‘ = ‘ain, not ’alif] 'to be dusty' from ‘afar 'dust, powder' and ‘afir 'dried,
dried up by the sun, withered' and ‘affara 'to dry in the sun on hot sand' or 'to sprinkle
[42]
with dust'.
[43]
● Possibly Phoenician faraqa in the sense of 'colony, separation'.