Africa is considered to be the second most populous continent in the world, and equally second largest only behind Asia in terms of the total number of areas covered. There are about 54 countries in Africa that are registered under the United Nations, and 8 territories. Africa has the youngest average population compared to all other continents, with Algeria boasting the highest in terms of land area, while Nigeria is the largest in terms of population. All you need to know about the countries in Africa have been properly documented for you here.

The continent has about 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles), and covers up to 6% of the Earth’s total surface in total. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The Mediterranean is located to the North, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the Northeast, the Indian to the Southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The majority of countries in Africa are in the Northern Hemisphere, while substantial portion are in the Southern Hemisphere.

Africa is a continent with a lot of ethnic groups, cultures and languages. Dating back in the 19^th Century, some of the European countries colonized almost all the countries in Africa before they gained independence. Currently, Africa now has an association called the African Union, which has it headquarter in Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia.

The most visited cities by tourists are Cape Town, Cairo, and Tunis. These travel destinations are popular among those who are seeking for vibrant colors, ancient monuments, natural attractions, and exotic wildlife along with beautiful beaches. Less known, but also very exciting, are such capitals like Nairobi, Dakar, Port Louis, and Antananarivo. As less economically developed, many countries of this continent have the lowest level of life quality in the world.

List of Countries in Africa

Africa has about 54 countries according to the United Nations figure. Although there are four extra countries but they’re not under United Nations because they’ve not fully gained their independence, and will not be included here.

According to the list, we’re going to arrange it in sequence; based on population, sub-region, and their capitals.

According to Population

Based on the population, we’re going to start the list from the highest down to the lowest.

#	Country	Population (2020)
1	Nigeria	206,139,589
2	Ethipia	114,963,588
3	Egypt	102,334,404
4	DR Congo	89,561,403
5	Tanzania	59,734,218
6	South Africa	59,308,690
7	Kenya	53,771,296
8	Uganda	45,741,007
9	Algeria	43,851,044
10	Sudan	43,849,260
11	Morocco	36,910,560
12	Angola	32,866,272
13	Mozambique	31,255,435
14	Ghana	31,072,940
15	Madagascar	27,691,018
16	Cameroon	26,545,863
17	Cote d’Ivoire	26,378,274
18	Niger Republic	24,206,644
19	Burkina Faso	20,903,273
20	Mali	20,250,833
21	Malawi	19,129,952
22	Zambia	18,383,955
23	Senegal	16,743,927
24	Chad	16,425,864
25	Somalia	15,893,222
26	Zimbabwe	14,862,924
27	Guinea	13,132,795
28	Rwanda	12,952,218
29	Benin Republic	12,123,200
30	Burundi	11,890,784
31	Tunisia	11,818,619
32	South Sudan	11,193,725
33	Togo	8,278,724
34	Sierra Leone	7,976,983
35	Libya	6,871,292
36 37	Congo Liberia	5,518,087 5,057,681
38	Central African Republic	4,829,767
39	Mauritania	4,649,658
40	Eritrea	3,546,421
41	Namibia	2,540,905
42	Gambia	2,416,668
43	Botswana	2,351,627
44	Gabon	2,225,734
45	Lesotho	2,142,249
46	Guinea-Bissau	1,968,001
47	Equatorial Guinea	1,402,985
48	Mauritius	1,271,768
49	Eswatini	1,160,164
50	Djibouti	988,000
51	Comoros	869,601
52	Cape Verde	555,987
53	Sao Tome & Principe	219,159
54	Seychelles	98,347

According to sub-regions

WEST AFRICA

• Benin
• Burkina Faso
• Cape Verde
• Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Liberia
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Saint Helena
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Togo

EAST AFRICA

• Burundi
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mayotte
• Mozambique
• Reunion
• Rwanda
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

SOUTH AFRICA

• Botswana
• Lesotho
• Namibia
• South Africa
• Swaziland

CENTRAL AFRICA

• Angola
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Congo
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Gabon

NORTH AFRICA

• Algeria
• Egypt
• Libya
• Morocco
• South Sudan
• Sudan
• Tunisia
• Western Sahara

According to capitals

All capital cities in Africa listed by country

Country	Capital
Algeria	Algiers
Angola	Luanda
Benin	Porto
Botswana	Gaborone
Burkina Faso	Ouagadougou
Burundi	Gitega
Cameroon	Yaounde
Cape Verde	Praia
Central African Republic	Bangui
Chad	N’Djamena
Comoros	Moroni
Côte d’ Ivoire	Yamoussoukro
Democratic Republic of the Congo	Kinshasa
Djibouti	Djibouti
Egypt	Cairo
Equatorial Guinea	Malabo
Eritrea	Asmara
Ethiopia	Addis Ababa
Gabon	Libreville
Ghana	Accra
Guinea	Conakry
Guinea-Bissau	Bissau
Kenya	Nairobi
Lesotho	Maseru
Liberia	Monrovia
Libya	Tripoli
Madagascar	Antananarivo
Malawi	Lilongwe
Mali	Bamako
Mauritania	Nouakchott
Mauritius	Port Louis
Morocco	Rabat
Mozambique	Maputo
Namibia	Windhoek
Niger	Niamey
Nigeria	Abuja
Republic of the Congo	Brazzaville
Rwanda	Kigali
São Tomé and Príncipe	São Tomé
Senegal	Dakar
Seychelles	Victoria
Sierra Leone	Freetown
Somalia	Mogadishu
South Africa	Cape Town, Pretoria & Bloemfontein
South Sudan	Juba
Sudan	Khartoum
Swaziland	Mbabane
Tanzania	Dodoma
The Gambia	Banjul
Togo	Lomé
Tunisia	Tunis
Uganda	Kampala
Zambia	Lusaka
Zimbabwe	Harare

Note: Currently, there are about four other countries been created; Reunion, Western Sahara, Mayotte, and Saint Helena. Although why they are not yet fully included to make it 58 countries in total is because they’re still partially dependent on European countries like France and England.

See Also: List of World Countries Affected by Covid-19

A Brief History

According to history, Africa is considered to be the oldest inhibitory territory on Earth, with human species originating from the continent. The historical record opens in Northern Africa with the rise of literacy in the Pharaonic civilization of Ancient Egypt, One of the world’s earliest and longest-lasting civilizations. The Sahara region is considered as one of the best fertile valley, experiencing a period of rapid desertification.

Around 4000 BC, the Saharan climate started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace.  This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification. This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and helped to cause migrations of farming communities to the more tropical climate of West Africa.

A major climatic recession occurred, lessening the heavy and persistent rains in Central and Eastern Africa. Since this time, dry conditions have prevailed in Eastern Africa and, increasingly during the last 200 years, in Ethiopia. The domestication of cattle in Africa preceded agriculture and seems to have existed alongside hunter-gatherer cultures. It is speculated that by 6000 BC, cattle were domesticated in North Africa. In the Sahara-Nile complex, people domesticated many animals, including the donkey and a small screw-horned goat which was common from Algeria to Nubia.

By the first millennium BC, iron-working had been introduced in Northern Africa and around that time also became established in parts of sub-Saharan Africa either through independent invention there or diffusion from the northand by 500 BC, metalworking began to become commonplace in West Africa. Iron-working was fully established by roughly 500 BC in many areas of East and West Africa, although other regions didn’t begin iron-working until the early centuries AD. Copper objects from Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, and Ethiopia dating from around 500 BC have been excavated in West Africa, suggesting that Trans-Saharan trade networks had been established by this date.

In 332 BC, European exploration began with Ancient Greeks and Romans when Alexandria the Great was welcomed in Egypt as a liberator. According to history, he was the one that founded Alexandria in Egypt. The first Roman emperor native to North Africa was Septimius Severus, born in Leptis Magna in present-day Libya, whose mother was an Italian Roman and his father was Punic. Following the conquest of North Africa’s Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrated economically and culturally into the Roman system. Roman settlement occurred in modern Tunisia and elsewhere along the coast.

Christianity spread across these areas at an early date, from Judaea via Egypt and beyond the borders of the Roman world into Nubia by AD 340 at the latest, which has become the state religion of the Aksumite Empire. In the early 7th century, the newly formed Arabian Islamic Caliphate expanded into Egypt, and then into North Africa. In a short while, the local Berber elite had been integrated into Muslim Arab tribes. When the Umayyad capital Damascus fell in the 8th century, the Islamic centre of the Mediterranean shifted from Syria to Qayrawan in North Africa. Islamic North Africa had become diverse, and a hub for mystics, scholars, jurists, and philosophers. During the above-mentioned period, Islam spread to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly through trade routes and migration

Coming down to West Africa, inhabitants there fished and grew millet. It has been found Augustin Holl that the Soninke of the Mandé peoples were likely responsible for constructing such settlements. Around 300 BC the region became more desiccated and the settlements began to decline, most likely relocating to Koumbi Saleh.  Architectural evidence and the comparison of pottery styles suggest that Dhar Tichitt was related to the subsequent Ghana Empire. Djenné-Djenno (in present-day Mali) was settled around 300 BC, and the town grew to house a sizable Iron Age population, as evidenced by crowded cemeteries. Living structures were made of sun-dried mud. By 250 BC Djenné-Djenno had become a large, thriving market town.

Farther south, in central Nigeria, around 1,000 BC, the Nok culture developed on the Jos Plateau, which was a highly centralized community. The Nok people produced lifelike representations in terracotta, including human heads and human figures, elephants, and other animals. By 500 BC they were smelting iron. By 200 AD the Nok culture had vanished. Based on stylistic similarities with the Nok terracottas, the bronze figurines of the Yoruba kingdom of Ife and those of the Bini kingdom of Benin is believed to be continuations of the earlier Nok culture.

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