Page 3 - Africa Is Not a Country, 2nd Edition

Africa is not a country—it is a vast continent made up of fifty-four nations.

If you took the land of the United States and added it to the lands of China,

Japan, and Europe, Africa would still be bigger.

From the tiny island nations of Comoros, Seychelles, and São Tomé and

Príncipe, to its largest country (Algeria), Africa is the only continent with

land in all four hemispheres. Unlike any other continent, it is divided into

two almost equal lengths by the equator, and it is nearly as wide as it is long.

If you drew a picture of Africa’s landscapes on a large pie and cut it

into ten equal pieces, only one piece would contain all of its rain forests.

Four pieces would represent the deserts; another four would be mostly grass,

farmland, and trees. The final piece would hold all the mountains and cities

of this beautiful, vibrant continent, where several hundred million children

wake up every morning.

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