May 25 – Africa Day

nPostednMay 25, 2015

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nTodaynmarks the birthday of the Organization of African Unity, which wasneventually replaced by the African Union. It is a celebration ofnAfrican unity. n

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nAlthoughnAfrica Day is only celebrated as a public holiday in five Africanncountries, there are 54 countries, plus two disputed countries. Thencontinent is the world’s second largest in area and also second mostnpopulous. (Do you know which continent is even larger and morenpopulous?)

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nOfnall the Earth’s land area, Africa is about 20%, and it holds aboutn15% of the human population. Africa’s population is the youngest ofnall the continents – with about half of the population being age 19nor younger!

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nAfricansnare more genetically diverse than the rest of humanity put together;nthis can be explained by the fact that all non-Africans descendednfrom one or two bands of humans who traveled across the Red Sea onnrafts about 50,000 years ago!

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nOfncourse, if you go back far enough, one could say that there are nonnon-Africans. After all, Africa is the birthplace of humans as anspecies. Because of that, some people have created T-shirts that sayn“We are all Africans.” n

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nAsidenfrom the genetic diversity of humans in Africa, Africa may have thenlargest diversity of wild animal populations that range freely onnnon-private plains, and a huge variety of “jungle” animals asnwell. It definitely has the largest number of “megafauna” speciesn– which means animals larger than 100 pounds (45 kg). (The wordn“jungle” is roughly equivalent to tropical rainforest.)

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nHerenis a list of the 54 nations in African countries, innalphabetical order – but with the names missing. Can you come upnwith any of the names, given the hints and the fact that thenlist is in alphabetical order?

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nThen largest nation in Africa

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nAn nation with a substantial coastline and this beautiful canyon:n Miradouro da Lua

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nOncen part of the Kingdom of Dahomey and, later, a French colony

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nSincen becoming independent from Britain, has had uninterrupted democraticn elections

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nAn tiny landlocked nation just north of Togo and Ghana

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nAn really tiny landlocked nation on the shores of Laken Tanganyika

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nCalledn “Africa in miniature” because it has beaches, deserts,n mountains, rainforests, and savannas

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nAn chain of 10 volcanic islands

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nItsn name hints at its location – it’s one of the poorest nations in then world

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nItsn name is a fairly common boy’s name as well

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nIslandsn in the Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar

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nFormerlyn called Zaire

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nItsn name could be mixed up with #12 above

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nAn tiny nation on the “Horn of Africa” and the Red Sea

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nFamous for being a cradle of civilization and amazing ancientn structures

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nItsn economy is almost entirely dependent on large oil reserves
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Most nations have “economy trees” that are filled with
rectangles of many different sizes and colors,
because they have many different resources and industries!

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nUsedn to be the Kingdom of Aksum, a trading empire

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nThen most populous landlocked nation in the world, home of the oldestn evidence of anatomically modern humans

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nAn nation where megafauna meets coastline

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nThisn nation is surrounded by Senegal and basically just consists of then strips of land along the course of a river

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nThen site of the Kingdom of Ashanti and the first sub-saharan Africann nation to become independent from European colonization

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nThisn nation is at the center of the Ebola outbreak

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nThisn nation’s name is apt to be confused with that of #22

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nItsn name refers to one of the precious commodities it used to trade

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nThisn nation has a mountain with a permanent snowcap and the largestn tropical freshwater lake in the world

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nThisn tiny nation is entirely surrounded by South Africa – and, yes,n that means it is landlocked

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nAn nation founded by former American enslaved persons

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nHomen of the famous cities Tripoli and Benghazi

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nAnn island, a biodiversity hotspot, and a series of computer-animatedn movies

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nAn very small, very poor country with about one third of its arean covered by a lake

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nEnjoyedn a “golden age” around 1300 A.D. (or C.E.) – a time whenn mathematics, astronomy, literature, and art flourished

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nAboutn 90% of its land is in the Sahara Desert, but it also has a bit ofn Atlantic coastline

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nAn nation made up of several islands that are farther out in the Indiann Ocean than most of the island nations

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nWithn rugged mountains, swaths of desert, and coastlines on the Atlanticn Ocean AND the Mediterranean Sea, this nation has a lot of diversity

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nMostlyn populated by Bantu people who practice Christianity and speakn Swahili and Portuguese

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nFamousn for amazing red sand dunes

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nFacesn huge challenges with desertification (when non-desert land becomesn desert)

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nThen “Giant of Africa,” it is the most populous nation in Africa andn it has the largest economy

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nFamousn for a 1994 genocide, the entire nation is at high elevation, in then African Great Lakes region

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nTwon main islands whose names make the nation’s name

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nThen Westernmost nation in the Old World (mainland), it is a strangen shape because it seems to have a cut-out where the Gambia Rivern flows

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nAnothern island nation, found far flung out in the Indian Ocean

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nAn West African nation that is known for being one of the mostn religiously tolerant nations in the world (Muslims and Christians,n for the most part)

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nFamousn for ancient trading empires and modern pirates, mostly due to an strategic position along the Gulf of Aden

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nAn nation once divided by racial segregation called apartheid, but nown famous as a “Rainbow Nation” thanks to Nelson Mandela andn Desmond Tutu

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nOnen of the most recent nations – having gained independence from Sudann in 2011

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nAn nation torn apart by civil wars, including the war in Darfur

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nAn tiny nation famous for its kingship dance

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nItsn name reflects the two former nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar

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nOnen of the really skinny nations of Western Africa, on what used to ben called the “Slave Coast”

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nOnen of the smallest Arabic nations of northern Africa

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nAn landlocked nation that borders on Lake Victoria

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nFormerlyn the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia

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nItsn name comes from a great ancient city, now in ruins

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nANSWERS:n(1)nAlgeria (2) Angola (3) Benin (4) Botswana (5) Burkina Faso (6)nBurundi (7) Cameroon

n(8) Cape Verde (9) Central African Republic (10)nChad (11) Comoros (12) Congo – Democratic Republic of the Congo (13)nCongo – Republic of the Congo (14) Djibouti (15) Egypt (16)nEquatorial Guinea (17) Eritrea

n(18) Ethiopia (19) Gabon (20) Gambian(21) Ghana (22) Guinea (23) Guinea-Bissau (24) Ivory Coast (25) Kenyan(26) Lesotho (27) Liberia (28) Libya (29) Madagascar (30) Malawi (31)nMali (32) Mauritania (33) Mauritius

n(34) Morocco (35) Mozambique (36)nNamibia (37) Niger (38) Nigeria (39) Rwanda (40) Sao Tome andnPrincipe (41) Senegal (42) Seychelles (43) Sierra Leone (44) Somalian(45) South Africa (46) South Sudan (47) Sudan

n(48) Swaziland (49)nTanzania (50) Togo (51) Tunisia (52) Uganda (53) Zambia (54) Zimbabwe

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nChecknout the many holidaysnfeatured about these African nations here at Every Day Is Special. n

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nAlsonon this date:

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