Africa is a huge continent, whose population is very uneven and does not correspond to its size.The reason for this - in particular its history and geography.Most of the continent is occupied by two deserts - the Kalahari and Sahara, where a man can not live.In addition, long-slave system and the colonial domination also influenced the uneven settlement residents.
Currently, the population of Africa is about a billion people.A large part of it is centered around a major river basins: the Congo, Nile, Senegal, Niger, on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Guinea.The most populous state is Nigeria, where one square kilometer of the order of thousands of people.
The population of Africa is growing, and the average age of its inhabitants is becoming younger.At the moment, most of the Africans are people under 15 years old.The process of population growth in Africa passes much more intensively than in other continents.Scientists predict that by the middle of this century, the population of Africa will account for a quarter of the total population of the planet.
on this continent is home to three major races: the equatorial, Caucasoid and Mongoloid.The vast majority of residents belong to indigenous peoples.
Caucasian largely make up the population of North Africa - the Arabs and Berbers who live in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt.Externally, they can be distinguished by dark skin, dark hair and eyes, a narrow nose, elongated skull and oval face.
Saharan dominated by Negroid - the African branch of the equatorial race, which may differ significantly from each other in skin tone, size and shape of the skull, facial features, body type and height.
For example, the highest Negroid - a Tutsi tribes and Himni who live in the savannah in the north of Africa.Their growth is an average of 180-200 cm. In other parts of the continent, in the equatorial forest, the pygmies live stunted - their growth does not exceed 150 cm.
In the western part of the continent most common stocky, athletic people, a distinctive feature of the inhabitantsthe headwaters of the Nile - very dark, almost blue-black color.
in deserts and semi-deserts of the southern part of the continent inhabited by tribes of the Bushmen and Hottentots.They are distinguished by a yellowish color of the skin and flat face, so reminiscent of the Mongoloids.These peoples mostly short and fine-boned.Ethiopians, many scientists attribute to some intermediate race.Their skin is light, with a reddish tinge, and the appearance suggests proximity to the southern branch Caucasians.Inhabitants of Madagascar - Malagasy, they are a mixture of Mongoloid and Negroid.
alien population of Africa, the number of which is insignificant - it is mainly Europeans, and they live in areas with the most favorable climate.So, in the northern part of the continent, along the Mediterranean coast, in the former colonies of France you can find a lot of Europeans of French origin.And in the south of the continent inhabited by white Afrikaners - descendants settled here several centuries ago, the Dutch and the British.
majority of the African people has a very ancient culture.In Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, five - seven thousand years ago developed the craft, construction, science, religion, and the monuments of those times still affect its monumentality.
population of Africa has come a long way of development and has made an invaluable contribution to global development.Now, after a long period of colonial rule, African culture is again beginning to develop.
