11 fun facts about Africa

Last updated April 24th, 2023.

With these fun facts about Africa, I aim to dispel some common misconceptions. They should hopefully guide you into a better understanding of Africa and perhaps lead you to check out a few more of the articles on this site…

Fun facts about Africa

1. Africa is not a country

Africa can never be the answer to a quiz question which begins ‘what country…?’

Instead, Africa is a continent made up of 54 independent nations. Each can differ vastly in geography, politics, history, language and culture.

2. Africa is huge

Traditional maps of the world don’t really show just how big Africa is. Africa is 30.37 sqaure kilometres in area.

If you travelled west to east across the United States, you’d have to turn around and repeat the journey all over again to roughly replicate Africa’s length.

Even individual countries are much larger than they can appear. Some national parks alone are the size of Wales. Check it out on a globe instead, and realise Africa’s true size.

3. Only one African country avoided colonisation

The Italians tried to bring the count down to zero by occupying Ethiopia. However, they was never truly successful in claiming the country as a colony.

Although it gained its independence from Spain, Western Sahara is currently described as an occupied territory by the United Nations. The Moroccan flag flies from its flag masts.

Germany lost its African colonies at the end of the First World War, and Italy after the second world war. Britain and France were the main colonisers of Africa.

Portuguese colonies – Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau didn’t become independent until the mid-1970s.

4. The youngest nation in Africa is South Sudan

South Sudan is the youngest nation in Africa. It gained its independence from Sudan (in case you couldn’t guess) in 2011 after decades of civil war.

This also makes South Sudan the newest nation in the world. As part of Sudan it gained independence from Britain in 1956.

Namibia, previously South West Africa, didn’t gain its independence from South Africa until 1990. It took a long international campaign and the closing years of apartheid.

Eretria only gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1991.

5. There are only 48 countries on the continent of Africa

Confused? Although Africa comprises 54 nations, only 48 lie on the African continent. The remaining eight countries are island nations that are politically, culturally and geographically part of Africa.

6. The most-populous nation in Africa is Nigeria

Nigeria has a population somewhere in the region of 213 million. This is 3.5 times the UK which used to govern it.

The Seychelles come bottom of the list. Having just 100,000 inhabitants, the Seychelles is the least populous country in Africa.

7. The largest country in Africa by area is Algeria

Algeria became the largest country in Africa after the break up of Sudan.

The vast majority of Algeria’s population lives on a narrow coastal belt on the Mediterranean Sea. Much of the rest of the country is taken up by the Sahara Desert.

The smallest country in Africa by area is either the Seychelles or The Gambia. This depends on whether you mean continental Africa or Africa as a geographical and cultural concept.

8. The ‘the’ in The Gambia’s name was added late

The story goes that Gambia became The Gambia to ensure it wasn’t confused with the similarly sounding Zambia.

Zambia became independent in 1964. Before that, it was known as Northern Rhodesia. The British colony of Gambia existed from at least 1821.

9. Africa has three national monarchies

These are Morocco, Lesotho and eSwatini (formerly Swaziland). Morocco and Lesotho are constitutional monarchies – making their governments similar in form to the UK.

By contrast, eSwatini is an abolsute monarchy. This means the king has no legal controls over his power.

Despite popular opinion, most countries in Africa demonstrate all the hallmarks of democracy. That’s not to say that problems with accountability and corruption don’t still exist.

10. Sub-Saharan Africa refers to countries located south of the Sahara Desert

Sub-Saharan Africa roughly equates to the border between Arab North Africa and Black Africa.

Interestingly, Sahara simply means desert. The Sahel, meaning shore, refers to those countries that edge the Sahara to the south.

11. The equator cuts through 7 African nations

From west to east these are: Sao Tome e Principe, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia.

The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn also dissect the continent, making it the only continent which has all three major lines of latitude running through it. If that’s not worthy of fun facts about Africa, I don’t known what is!