Here are 76 Interesting Facts About Africa.
1-5 Interesting Facts About Africa
1. When the world’s largest diamond was discovered in South Africa, it was shipped to England on a steamboat under heavy security. But it was a diversion, and the real stone was sent in a plain box via post. – Source
2. Apartheid South Africa had a secret weapons program to develop germs that would only kill blacks or lower their birthrate. – Source
3. Popular R&B singer Akon owns a diamond mine in South Africa. – Source
4. South Africa was largely responsible for the global prohibition of Marijuana in 1925, based on one British doctor’s racist opinion from 1908 of how it affected Hindu laborers. – Source
5. Nigeria has the 3rd largest film industry in the world in terms of earnings. It is nicknamed ‘Nollywood’. – Source
6-10 Interesting Facts About Africa
6. Nigeria has overtaken Ireland in Guinness sales and is the number 2 consumer of Guinness world wide – Source
7. Sixto Rodriguez, an American musician in the 1970s, sold very few records in the US. So he quit music and became a demolition worker. In 1998, he found out that his records had gone platinum in South Africa. – Source
8. Anwar Sadat of Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979, the first Arab nation to do so. For this, Sadat won the Nobel Peace Prize. Then Egypt was suspended from the Arab League, and Sadat was assassinated. – Source
9. In 1995, Nigeria donated 88,000 doses of meningitis vaccine to its neighbor Niger, but before the authorities realized that these vaccines were fake, about 60,000 people had been “inoculated” with what was just water. – Source
10. In 2005, in Northern Nigeria a group of Muslim leaders declared the polio vaccine to be a conspiracy to sterilize the true believers. Subsequently, the disease began to spread again – Source
11-15 Interesting Facts About Africa
11. There are over 150 regional “kings” in Nigeria, and that one of them used to be a Professor Emeritus at University of North Carolina – Source
12. In 2003, Morocco offered to send 2,000 monkeys to assist USA in the war effort in Iraq. They were to be used to detonate land mines – Source
13. Algeria was once the largest exporter of wine in the world, more than Spain, France, and Italy combined. – Source
14. Women in Algeria make up 70% of the country’s lawyers and 60% of its judges. – Source
15. There is 795 sq miles of land, Bir Tawil, between Egypt and Sudan that remains unclaimed by either nation. This is the only piece of unclaimed land in the world outside of Antarctica. – Source
16-20 Interesting Facts About Africa
16. Egypt isn’t the country with the most pyramids. It’s Sudan and they have approximately 255 pyramids. – Source
17. In ancient Egypt, couples were considered married whenever they moved in together. Wedding ceremonies were reserved for the upper classes. – Source
18. St. Catherine’s monastery has a permission slip from Muhammad himself to stay as long as they like in Egypt. – Source
19. Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 is a large part of why we know so much about Ancient Egypt. He brought a team of 160 scientists, astronomers, engineers, architects, artists, interpreters, and printers to record and document what he found. – Source
20. In 2003, a Boeing 727 was stolen from an Airport in Angola. Despite a worldwide search it still has not been found. – Source
21-25 Interesting Facts About Africa
21. During a visit to Egypt in 2012, Hillary Clinton was pelted with tomatoes and shoes, while the protesters chanted “Monica, Monica.” – Source
22. In ancient Egypt, any books found in ships coming into port, would be brought immediately to the Library of Alexandria and be copied. The original would be kept in the library and the copy was given back to the owner. – Source
23. The oldest surviving pair of cloth socks was found in Egypt. They were actually designed to wear with sandals. – Source
24. Ancient Egypt had many medical specialists, including proctologists who were called “shepherds of the anus”. – Source
25. There is a 1500km band of land in Namibia covered in unexplained “Fairy Circles” that appear to grow and also die. Scientists have studied the area for over 30 years and still do not know their cause. – Source
26-30 Interesting Facts About Africa
26. There’s a lake in Senegal that is naturally bright pink. The French called it “Le Lac Rose.” – Source
27. There is a submerged island called Ferdinandea in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily and Tunisia that periodically rises above sea-level and causes diplomatic rows due to being claimed by a number of countries. – Source
28. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is considered the richest country in the world in regards to its natural resources even though its citizens are among the poorest. – Source
29. In Ghana it is desirable to be buried in a novelty coffin, with favorites including a huge Coke bottle, an oversized Nokia, and a giant catfish. – Source
30. In ancient Rome, one of the most common cooking ingredients was called “laser”, from the silphium plant. It does not exist today. It was so delicious that it was harvested to extinction from its natural habitat in what is now Libya. Researchers think that it probably tasted something like garlic. – Source
31-35 Interesting Facts About Africa
31. Almost three-quarters of all of Kenya’s athletics come from one tribe, the Kalenjins. – Source
32. There is a four-man anti-poaching team permanently guarding a Northern White Rhino in Kenya – Source
33. There is an age-old tradition among the Nandi people of Kenya where an older, infertile woman marries a younger woman to obtain a child; the younger woman then has sex with a man from the older woman’s clan. That offspring is then regarded as the fruit of the marriage. – Source
34. The article quoting UNICEF that “70% of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction” was an error. UNICEF’s survey says its 7.8% and almost entirely in rural areas. – Source
35. In 1986, 1.6 million tons of CO2 erupted from Lake Nyos in Cameroon, displacing all the air and suddenly asphyxiating everything in its path, including 4 villages, 1,700 people, and 3,500 livestock. – Source
36-40 Interesting Facts About Africa
36. A famine in Ethiopia from 1983-1985 killed around 400,000-1,000,000 people and 56,000 tons of food donated by aid efforts from the West through Live Aid was left to rot in a port by the Ethiopian government. – Source
37. In 1931, African colonial subjects living in the Cameroons took up a collection to aid the starving people of America due to The Great Depression, ultimately mailing $3.77 to the mayor of New York City to assist relief efforts there. – Source
38. Football striker Didier Drogba is credited with brokering a cease-fire in his home country of Ivory Coast that brought a five-year civil war to an end. – Source
39. There was a laughing epidemic in 1962, in Tanzania. It closed down 14 schools and affected over 1,000 people. – Source
40. The countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi have plans to form the East African Federation by 2015. It would be the 11th most populated country in the world. – Source
mauritius is not found in africa. im Mauritian.