Some countries, like South
Africa, are holding a month of celebrations under the theme “We are
Africa.”
In commemoration, here are 25 things you knew, or probably
didn’t know, about this fair continent:
You can be First Lady of two
different countries, like Graca Machel. She was first lady of Mozambique from
1975 to 1986, when her husband, president Samora Machel was killed in a plane
crash. She was later First Lady of South Africa from 1998-99, when her new
husband Mandela was president of South Africa.
Half of Africa’s fixed
infrastructure stock – roads, railways, ports and “modern” buildings is
found in just four countries: South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.
At least 20 sitting African
presidents or prime ministers have run for election but have been defeated at
the ballot; the number rises to 25 when we include “acting” or interim
presidents, and the semi-autonomous territories like Puntland in Somalia.
By 2050, Africa will be home to two in five of the world’s
children. On current trends, almost 2 billion babies will be born in
Africa in the next 35 years; in 1950 only 11 million African babies were born.
By 2050 Nigeria will account for almost 10% of all births in the world, and its
population would have overtaken that of the US.
Niger has most reduced HIV incidence between 2001 and 2013 in
Africa, with a 95% cut. Burundi reduced incidence by 90%, while Ethiopia and
Eritrea have also made significant progress in this area, with 87% and 86%
reduction. But Algeria, Angola and former HIV star performer Uganda have
regressed, and seen an increase in HIV incidence.
Sub-Saharan Africa generates just 68,000 megawatts of
electricity, equivalent to that of Spain. Excluding South Africa, sub-Saharan
Africa’s electricity output is 24,000 megawatts, far less than 40,000 megawatts
available in New York City alone.
Somalia is the world’s leading exporter of sheep and goats, with
almost 4 million animals exported in 2011, despite its “war-torn” reputation.
With approximately 52 million heads of cattle, neighbouring Ethiopia
has the largest livestock population in Africa.
Lake Malawi contains the largest number of fish species of any
lake in the world. There are between 500 and 1,000 fish species, and it is
home to a vast array of cichlids, the majority of which are only found in
the lake.
Groundwater makes up just 15% of Africa’s freshwater reserves,
but it is the source of water for three out of four Africans.
You can grow your food in the city, in Zimbabwe, about 60% of
Harare’s residents grow their own food, after rural plantation agriculture
collapsed and inflation made the currency useless. In Africa, urban agriculture
can be very lucrative. In Brazzaville, Congo, for example, urban farmers can
make up to five times the national average income.
You would think that journalists, with their
presumed sharp political consciousness, would make great presidents.
But history tells us that it is not necessarily so. One of Africa’s most brutal
dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko, though trained as a soldier, also had a journalism
career in the army. Rwanda’s first president Gregoire Kayibanda was trained as
a journalist in Belgium. Founder of the virulently pro-Hutu party Parmehutu,
Kayibanda nurtured and clarified what is now referred to as “genocide ideology”.
Burundi has been up in arms about Pierre Nkurunziza’s third term
bid, but the odds favour success in circumventing term limits laws to allow
African Big Men to remain in power, especially if they have already stayed a
long time. Eleven countries in Africa: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon,
Guinea, Namibia, Niger, Togo, Uganda, Algeria and Djibouti have all seen
term-limit laws repealed. The majority of these leaders are veterans of
African politics, and had been in power before the adoption of term-limiting
constitutions in the 1990s.
Coups, assassinations and
presidential exiles are now rare in Africa – between 1960 and 1975, 47% of
African presidents were either exiled, assassinated, executed or deposed by
coup. Since 1999, this fate has only befallen 14% of African leaders but close
to 100 attempts and successful coups have recorded in the region since 1960.
But you can be deposed by coup twice, as befell Milton Obote in
Uganda in 1971, when he was overthrown by Idi Amin, and again in 1985, when
Tito Okello ousted him.
If you’re an African president and you don’t want to die in
office, don’t go abroad for treatment, and make sure you have served for more
than eight years. Eleven African leaders have died in office since 2008, and nine
of them have died either away from home, or very shortly after returning home
from getting medical treatment abroad; seven of them died after serving less
than four years.
More than 177 ethnic
groups were split by colonial borders in Africa, and if we were to redraw
Africa’s borders to have each ethnic group in their own country, we would have
at least 2,000 countries.
Today, a quarter of Africa’s population lives within 100km of a
sea coast, but in the next 1,000 years climate change related sea level rise
could see major coastal cities such as Lagos, Banjul, Abidjan, Nouakchott
and Port Harcourt all underwater.
Two-thirds of Africa’s soil is endangered; 34 of Africa’s 54
countries reported over 20% in either the amount of land degraded or the number
of population affected by land degradation.
The mobile phone comes first in Africa, before electricity,
water, roads or even toilets. In the majority of African countries, mobile
network covers over 90% of the land area, while an average of just three out of
ten Africans uses sewerage services.
In Africa, the biggest stars on Twitter are not politicians,
they are sports stars and entertainers: Africa’s most followed person on
Twitter is Bassem Youssef, Egyptian satirist and TV host who now has more than
4.5 million followers.
The richer an African country is, the less swayed its young
people are by the latest fashion brands, and the more frugal and financially
prudent they tend to become. Young consumers in faster-growing (but relatively
poorer in per capita terms) Nigeria and Kenya are more brand-conscious, than
the relatively richer South Africa and Egypt.
Africa produces 71% of the world’s tantalum – without this the
world’s production of mobile phones and laptops would come to a standstill.
Africa has the world’s most dangerous roads. The continent has
only 2% of the world’s registered vehicles but accounts for a full 16% of
all its road-related deaths. Just seven African countries account for nearly
two thirds, 64% of all road deaths. These are Nigeria, DRC, Ethiopia, South
Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Ethiopia is landlocked, but the
state-owned shipping company has 17 ships. Its neighbour Kenya is a
coastal country, with a national shipping company, but not a single ship.
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