Africa is one of the six continent of the world, its located west of the Atlantic ocean, and made up of 58 fully recognised countries. Its the only continent in the world to be located in all four cardinal hemisphere.
There are more than 2000 native languages across Africa, of which Swahili is the most spoken, followed by Arabic and French. Swahili gained prominence during the 20th century because it was the language of choice during trading in some African countries. This helped enhanced communication among the African population.
Other languages spoken in Africa include; Amharic, mainly spoken in Ethiopia, Zulu, spoken by south Africans, Shona, spoken in Zimbabwe, Yoruba, spoken in Nigeria.
It might also interest you to know that Angola, despite adopting the Portuguese language, now has more Portuguese speakers than Portugal itself. Its also same for French as more than half of French speaking population recides here in African, mainly in Cameron and Gabon.
The name "Dark continent" fondly used to describe the African continent, came due to the non inhabitable state of the continent many years back after discovery, hence the name Dark continent. In addition, it also accounts for the largest population of Negroids in the world. Africa is earth's hottest continent with Ethiopia being the capital.
Africa is blessed with some unique and weird cultural displays, only inherent in the African region. Africa is made up of more than 3000 different tribes with about 2000 spoken languages, spanning across the 54 countries in the continent. This justifies the diversification widely experience in the region.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with an estimated population of over 200 million people. Its the heart of the African continent. They have some great cultural practises of interest specific to some tribes in the country. Some include; the new yam festival, Ekpo Masquerade festival, oronna festival, ofala festival, nupe day festival, kamti festival, omabe festival etc. One of the most widely recognised is the new yam festival practised by the Igbos. In this festival, yam is prepared in every household and used for celebration. This is always done at the end of every rainy season to usher in the season of harvest. In the award winning novel "Things fall Apart" authored by China Achebe, he described yam as the king of all crops, Little wonder its popularity among the Igbos.
In south Africa, the Zulu people are well known for their display of the Zulu dance. This dance signifies the reflection of the warriors tradition and is marked to celebrate significant occassion in life like marriage, attainment of motherhood, etc. The dance is categorised into different types depending on the context of the occasion. We have the hunting dance, aimed at giving the warrior cirage before going at a hunting. The Indlamu dance, carried out during marriage ceremonies, the reed dance, synonymous among the single ladies.
Religious practices
Islam
Islam is the most widely practised religion in Africa with its branches spanning across over 20 different countries. Islam made the breakthrough in the 7th century when Arabians brought the religion and it widely spread through the eastern Africa into some part of west Africa. During the Hijarat, some African settlements in Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti were inhabitated by visiting Muslims seeking for refuge. This further spread the religion in the area. The muslims in Africa are mostly of the Sunni extracts and accounts for almost one-thsrd of the Muslim population on earth. Islam burst of dominant presence in most African country, they include; Algeria, Mauritania, Egypt, Libya, Senegal, niger, Djibouti, Guinea, Sudan somalia, etc.
Christianity
Christianity as a religion in Africa gained prominence in the middle of the fifteen century when the Portuguese missionaries, sent by Roman Catholic encircled the region and started spreading Christianity through the preaching of the gospel. Christianity brought great change to some part of africa, forcing the locales to abolish some nefarious traditional practises like killing of twins, female genital mutilation, slave trade and a host of others. They also brought education to some parts through the opening of missionary schools. Africa accounts for about one-third of the total christian population in the world, with about 657 million christians reciding in the continent. Zambia has the highest percentage by population, followed by lesotho and Rwanda. Other countries practising the religion includes; Seychelles, Angola, Botswana, Burkina faso, cape Verde, Cameron etc.
Africantraditionalreligion
African traditional religion (ATR) was the first religion to be found among the African people before the advent of the Abrahamic religion (Islam & christianity). This tradition promotes the worship of images, sculpture, also pouring of libations. However, the abrahamic religion has cone to fizzle out this religion in most part of the continent. However, in certain countries like Nigeria, Malawi, Togo, and Benin, the religion is still operational in full fledge.
Africa is blessed with unique and awesome people who are very accommodating and welcoming. They prefer to entertain their visitors with indigenous dishes. Its really a place of great pleasure.
