Africa is not a Country
Many of us think of Africa as a country and sometimes we can make fools of ourselves when we accidentally say that Africa is a country. Even worse, we might think of everywhere in Africa as being about the same.
Here Ugandan TV journalist Nancy Kacungira highlights some important differences on a continent that is big enough to swallow the world's most populous nations and still have room to spare.
Here Ugandan TV journalist Nancy Kacungira highlights some important differences on a continent that is big enough to swallow the world's most populous nations and still have room to spare.
2,000 languages More than a billion people live in Africa. There are more than 3,000 distinct ethnic groups; more than 2,000 languages are spoken. It's a huge continent: the US, China, India, Europe and Japan combined could all fit into Africa. |
Source: Geographical Magazine
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Geographical Ignorance
Donald Kaberuka, former President of the African Development Bank, recently told a think tank in Beijing it "had become necessary to ensure that potential business opportunities in African countries are not jeopardised by a single story line whereby negative issues in one country are attributed to all 54 countries on the continent".
Look at the Ebola epidemic which hit Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia: the World Bank estimates the outbreak has cost other countries in sub-Saharan Africa more than $500m (£320m) in 2015.
It blames ignorance of African geography. For instance, the Hotels Association of Tanzania said that advance bookings for 2015 were 50% lower.
This in spite of the fact that Rome and Madrid are closer to the centre of the Ebola outbreak than Tanzania, which unlike Spain has never had a single case of the disease.
It is simply impossible to define Africa with just one description.
Donald Kaberuka, former President of the African Development Bank, recently told a think tank in Beijing it "had become necessary to ensure that potential business opportunities in African countries are not jeopardised by a single story line whereby negative issues in one country are attributed to all 54 countries on the continent".
Look at the Ebola epidemic which hit Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia: the World Bank estimates the outbreak has cost other countries in sub-Saharan Africa more than $500m (£320m) in 2015.
It blames ignorance of African geography. For instance, the Hotels Association of Tanzania said that advance bookings for 2015 were 50% lower.
This in spite of the fact that Rome and Madrid are closer to the centre of the Ebola outbreak than Tanzania, which unlike Spain has never had a single case of the disease.
It is simply impossible to define Africa with just one description.
Hotel bookings are down in Tanzania because of the Ebola outbreak thousands of miles away in West Africa
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In Africa you'll find Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Mozambique - four of the world's 10 fastest growing economies.
You'll also find some of the world's poorest countries. You'll find Equatorial Guinea with a 94% literacy rate (the global average is 84.1%) and South Sudan with a 27% literacy rate. |
Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia - one of the world's 10 fastest growing economies
African countries by GDP ($bn):
Five largest:
Nigeria: 568.5
South Africa: 349.8
Egypt: 286.5
Algeria: 214.1
Angola: 131.4
Five smallest:
Seychelles: 1.4
Guinea-Bissau: 1.0
The Gambia: 0.8
Comoros: 0.6
Sao Tome and Príncipe: 0.3
Source: World Bank, 2014
