The Dark Continent - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 352

rates, in part because of vaccination programs aimed at the young, not because of economic
development. So the capital for caring for the young before they can contribute to a coun-
try's economy is much more difficult to obtain in Africa when compared to the history of
western societies. It is a two-edged sword as high birth rates impede economic develop-
ment, yet the latter is a major cause of lowered growth.
The good news is that Africa can look to Asia as a success story. Massive birth pop-
ulation control programs led to declining birth rates, which in turn, resulted in economic
development, again leading to incentives for lowered births. This is the second challenge
in Africa. The easy availability of contraceptives is much less there than in the rest of the
developed world, not to mention the developed sector. While contraception is widely avail-
able in the west and 60 percent of the rest of the developing world has access to contracep-
tion, in Africa access is limited to 20 percent of the population.
GEOGRAPHY OF A VAST CONTINENT
“The continent is too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a var-
ied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of con-
venience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa
does not exist.” ― Ryszard Kapuściński , The Cobra's Heart
Africa is the second largest continent after Asia. [301] Containing fifty-five countries and
eight other territories, it is 11,725,385 square miles, more than three times that of the con-
tinental United States. Its population in 2013 was 1.11 billion. Its five largest countries are
Nigeria (around 182.3 million in 2015), Ethiopia (about 90.1 million in 2015), Egypt (about
87.5 million in 2015), the Democratic Republic of Congo (about 74 million in 2015), and
South Africa (about 54.4 million in 2015). Africa covers 25 percent of the world's land-
mass and about 15 percent of its population. At current growth rates, Africa's percentage of
the global population could rise to 40 percent by the end of the century. Yet its population
density is less than half that of Europe and about one-third that of Asia. Its highest moun-
tain is Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at 19,341 feet. Its longest river is the Nile at 4,258
miles and its largest river basin is the Congo at 1,440,051 square miles. Lake Victoria at
26,000 square miles is the largest lake on the continent. The average elevation above sea
level is about 2,000 feet, not unlike that of North America. Differences in elevation levels
are not pronounced. Plateaus or tablelands tend to be only moderately high, with the more
pronounced ones found in the eastern and southern part of the continent.
The equator bisects the continent in half with most of it falling in the tropics. Only the
most northern and southern parts of the continent are in temperate zones. The desert regions
of the north and the lower plains are quite hot, with contrasting day and night temperatures.
Rainfall levels vary considerably with the highest amount found near Mount Cameroon at
over an inch a day (390 inches a year), while the lowest at 0.1 inch per year occurs some-
where in Sudan.