History of Africa

Africa is the world's second largest continent spread over an area of 11,668,545 sq. miles, which makes up for 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area on the surface of the Earth. Africa is second only to Asia with more than 900 million people inhabiting the continent which is approximately 14% of the world's total population. The continent is bound by Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and Red Sea in the northeast, which separate it from the neighboring continent of Asia. Indian Ocean bounds the continent of Africa in the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean in the west. Some of the major countries on the continent include Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt which are home to diverse cultural and geographic features Africa is very diverse with over 800 to 1,500 languages; mainly Bantu. Nigeria has over 300 languages and Ethiopia has over 80 languages. In other African continents English, Arabia and Swahili are also spoken throughout the continent. Africa has numerous nations of people that include the Nubian of Southern Egypt and Sudan, the Oromo, the Amhara, the Masai, the Igbo, the Fulani, the Wolof and Yoruba. Africans were often divided because of the vast diversity of languages and tribes. Religion was also a factor that divided the nations of Africa. Some believed in polytheism: the belief of many Gods, animism: the belief that natural objects have souls, ancestral veneration: the belief that one's ancestors possess supernatural powers and syncretism which often combines parts of these religions with Islam and Christianity.
Africans were skilled in many areas such plantation agriculture and mining. They were skilled artisans, ironworkers, cobblers, tanners, and rice and cotton farmers. The men were trained as sailors and soldiers while the women were wet nurses and raised the children in the villages. These characteristics made the African nation very strong but with so many different languages and