Africa is a huge continent, the population of which is very uneven and does not at all correspond to its size. The reason for this is the peculiarities of its history and geography. Most of the mainland is occupied by two deserts - Kalahari and Sahara, in which it is impossible for a person to live. In addition, the long slave system and colonial rule also influenced the uneven settlement of the inhabitants.
Currently, the population of Africa is about a billion people. A significant part of it is concentrated around the basins of large rivers: Congo, Nile, Senegal, Niger, on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Guinea. The most densely populated state is Nigeria, where about one thousand people fall on one square kilometer.
The population of Africa is constantly increasing, 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 is much more intensive than on other continents. According to scientists, by the middle of this century, the population of Africa will be a quarter of the total number of inhabitants of the planet.
Representatives of three main races live on this continent : the equatorial, Caucasoid, and Mongoloid. The vast majority of residents are indigenous.
Caucasians mainly make up the population of North Africa - these are Arabs and Berbers who live in Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. Outwardly, they can be distinguished by dark skin, dark eyes and hair, a narrow nose, an elongated skull and an oval face.
Sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by representatives of Negroids - the African branch of the equatorial race, which can differ significantly from each other in terms of skin tone, size and shape of the skull, facial features, physique and growth.
For example, the highest Negroids are the Tutsi and Khimni tribes that live in the savannah in northern Africa. Their growth averages 180-200 cm. And in another region of the continent, in the equatorial forests, small pygmies live - their growth does not exceed 150 cm.
In the western part of the mainland, stocky, athletically built people are most often found, and a distinctive feature of the inhabitants of the upper Nile is a very dark, almost blue-black skin color.
In the deserts and semi-deserts of the southern part of the mainland, there are tribes of Bushmen and Hottentots. They are distinguished by a yellowish skin color and a flat face, therefore they resemble Mongoloids. These nationalities are mostly stunted and thin-boned. Many scientists attribute Ethiopians to a certain intermediate race. Their skin is light, with a reddish tint, and the appearance indicates the proximity to the southern branch of the Caucasians. The inhabitants of Madagascar are Malagasy, they are a mixture of Mongoloids and Negroids.
The alien population of Africa, whose population is insignificant, is mainly Europeans, and they live in places with the most favorable climate. So, in the northern part of the mainland, along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in the former colonies of France, you can meet many Europeans of French origin. And in the very south of the mainland white Afrikaners live - the descendants of the Dutch and English who moved here several centuries ago.
Most African peoples have a very ancient culture. In Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, crafts, construction, science, religion developed even five to seven millennia ago, and architectural monuments of those times still impress with their monumentality.
The people of Africa have come a long way and have made an invaluable contribution to global development. Now, after the end of a protracted period of colonial rule, African culture is beginning to develop again.