African continent in the context of "Organisation of African Unity"

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⭐ Core Definition: African continent

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surface area. With nearly 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world's human population. Africa's population is the youngest among all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, when the worldwide median age was 30.4. Based on 2024 projections, Africa's population will exceed 3.8 billion people by 2100. Africa is the least wealthy inhabited continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania. Scholars have attributed this to different factors including geography, climate, corruption, colonialism, the Cold War, and neocolonialism. Despite this low concentration of wealth, recent economic expansion and a large and young population make Africa an important economic market in the broader global context, and Africa has a large quantity of natural resources.

Africa straddles the equator and the prime meridian. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Arabian Plate and the Gulf of Aqaba to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Yemen have parts of their territories located on African geographical soil, mostly in the form of islands.

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👉 African continent in the context of Organisation of African Unity

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; French: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an African intergovernmental organisation established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and economic integration among member states, and to eradicate colonialism and neo-colonialism from the African continent.

The absence of an armed force like the United Nations peacekeepers left the organization with no means to enforce its decisions. It was also unwilling to become involved in the internal affairs of member nations, prompting some critics to claim the OAU as ineffective in taking decisive action. Recognising this, in September 1999 the OAU issued the Sirte Declaration, calling for a new body to take its place. On 9 July 2002, the OAU's Chairman, South African President Thabo Mbeki, formally dissolved the OAU and replaced it with the African Union (AU), its immediate successor, which upholds many of the founding principles of the OAU.

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African continent in the context of Central Africa

Central Africa (French: Afrique centrale; Spanish: África central; Portuguese: África Central) is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Middle Africa is an analogous term used by the United Nations in its geoscheme for Africa and consists of the following countries: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The United Nations Office for Central Africa also includes Burundi and Rwanda in the region, which are considered part of East Africa in the geoscheme. These eleven countries are members of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Six of those countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of the Congo) are also members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) and share a common currency, the Central African CFA franc.

The African Development Bank, on the other hand, defines Central Africa as seven countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.

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African continent in the context of White Africans of European ancestry

White Africans of European ancestry refers to citizens or residents in Africa who can trace full or partial ancestry to Europe. They are distinguished from Arabs, Berbers, indigenous African Greeks, and Copts in North Africa, who are sometimes identified as white, but not European. In 1989, there were an estimated 4.6 million white people with European ancestry on the African continent.

Most are of Anglo-Celtic, Dutch, French, German, and Portuguese origin. To a lesser extent, there are also those who descended from Belgians, Greeks, Italians, Scandinavians, and Spaniards. The majority once lived along the Mediterranean coast or in Southern Africa.

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African continent in the context of Monumentum Adulitanum

The Monumentum Adulitanum II, so named by Leo Allatius, was an ancient inscription written in Greek, depicting the military campaigns of an anonymous king. The original text was inscribed on a throne in Adulis. Although the inscription has never been discovered by archaeologists, it is known about through the copying of the inscription by Cosmas Indicopleustes, a 6th-century Greek traveler-monk. The text narrates the king's military campaigns in the African continent and in the Arabian peninsula. It is thought to be between 200 and 270 AD.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Central Africa ← White Africans of European ancestry ← Organisation of African Unity ← Monumentum Adulitanum
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Continent → Asia → Earth → Human population → Demographics of Africa → Median → Per capita → Oceania → Geography of Africa → Climate of Africa → Corruption → Scramble for Africa → Cold War → Neocolonialism → Natural resources of Africa → Equator → Prime meridian → Mediterranean Sea → Arabian Plate → Gulf of Aqaba → Indian Ocean → Atlantic Ocean → France → Italy → Portugal → Spain → Yemen → List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa →