AFRICA
Our Home AFRICA! HOME! Revised Edition
AFRICA! HOME! Africa was the first home of humans. Here we first stood on two feet, took arms, made art, music, love. Africa is full of natural and human wonder, beauty and ingenuity. Africa has 54 countries, covers 31 million km2, is home to 1 billion people, speaks over 800 languages, has the world’s fastest land animal (the cheetah), and the world’s biggest frog (the Goliath frog of Cameroon) that reaches 30cm long. Africa has the largest land mammal (African elephant), the world’s smallest butterfly (the Dwarf blue butterfly of South Africa) with a 1cm wingspan and the world’s heaviest beetle (the Goliath beetle of tropical Africa) which weighs over 100g. Between one and a hundred types of creature disappear every day. They are going extinct. Having taken millions of years to evolve into perfect, functional beings, they are now being lost in moments.
4 | Africa! Home!
11
1 10
12
2
22
3 52 5
6
13
9
4
14
7 8
16
15
19
17
23
21
33
20
18 27 51
28
32
24
25
26
50
34
31
29
35
37 38
30
36 53
40
41
54
44
39 43
45
49
42 48 46
1. Morocco 1. Morocco 2. Western Sahara Sahara 2. Western 3. Mauritania 3. Mauritania 4. Senegal 4. Senegal 5. Gambia Gambia 6. Guinea Guinea Bissau Bissau 7. Guinea Guinea 8. Sierra Sierra Leone Leone 9. Mali 9. Mali 10. Algeria 10. Algeria 11. Tunisia 11. Tunisia 12. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 12. Libya 13. Niger 13. Niger Faso 14. Burkino 14. Burkino Faso 15. Ivory Coast 15. Ivory Coast 16. Liberia 16. Liberia 17. Ghana 17. Ghana 18. Togo 18. Togo
47
19. Benin Benin 19. 20. Nigeria 20. Nigeria 21. Chad Chad 21. 22. Egypt Egypt 22. 23. 23. Republic Republicof ofSudan Sudan 24. 24. South SouthSudan Sudan 25. 25. Central CentralAfrican AfricanRepublic Republic 26. Cameroon 26. Cameroon 27. 27. Equatorial EquatorialGuinea Guinea 28. Gabon 28. Gabon 29. Congo 29. Republic of Congo 30. Democratic Republic of Congp 30. Democratic Republic of Congo 31. Uganda 31. Ethiopia Uganda 32. 32. Ethiopia 33. Djibouti 33. Djibouti 34. Somalia 34. Somalia 35. Kenya 35. United Kenya Republic of Tanzania 36. 36. Tanzania
37. Rwanda 37. Rwanda 38. Burundi 38. Burundi 39. Zambia 39. Zambia 40. Angola 40. Angola 41. Namibia 41. Namibia 42. Botswana 42. Botswana 43. Zimbabwe 43. Zimbabwe 44. Malawi 44. 45. Mozambique 45. Mozambique 46. South 46. South Africa Africa 47. Lesotho 47. Lesotho 48. eSwatini 48. eSwatini 49. Madagascar 49. Madagascar 50. Eritrea 50. Eritrea 51. Sao Tomé & Principe 51. Sao Tomé 52. Cape Verde& Principe 52. Cape Verde 53. Comoros 53. Comoros 54. Seychelles 54. Seychelles 5 5
WE ARE by Niyi Osundare
POEM
We are the people of the Nile Blue and white are the colours of our smile From the Abyssinia Mountains to the raging sea We bring History’s treasures for all to see We flow and flow like the mighty Congo Pulsing with the blood of the BaKongo We flow, like the lyric of the Limpopo The music of our life is rich in tempo We zig and zag like the Zambezi Strong as the children of Nyembezi We are the Niger from the Fouta Djallon Our water is precious to the very last gallon With the Benue which rises in the east We join waters in willing confluence The harvest all gathered is quite a feast As southwards we surge to a delta of affluence We are the Kilimanjaro which towers in the sky We bathe our heads in the rain-filled clouds We walk the earth, prompt and proud We are everywhere, low or high We laid the bricks in the dawn of Ghana Rich in plants and wondrous fauna From our hands rose the Empire of Songhay On our sable brow the sun’s bright ray
We are the ancient people of Mali Where wisdom and wonder meet and often parley Red tales of war, the schools of Timbuktu Big books of Gao, and Alexandria too We are the sons of Shaka We are the daughters of Nzinga We are the sons of Nehanda We are the offpring of Amina
6 | We Are
We were the soldiers of the Samouri Toure We learnt our valour in the village of Juffure We were there when freedom sounded the first horn Strong and wise, the noble-born We’re the heirs of Lumumba, Patrice, not patrician, Courageous true and loyal – rare politician We drank from the spring of Nkrumah, of Nasser: To Africa’s problem there must be an answer We are the children of the mighty forest Where trees grow with lofty crest The savannah so dazzling with its elephant grass Its tender stalk, its sandy mass At harvest time the barn is full of maize Sometimes with a beauty that does amaze In times of drought and little farming Our world is lean with the pains of famine But cassava has the answer; so does the yam In seasons when the millet says “I am” The cowpea hits the market with a black-ringed eye When the rain is low and the sun is high Diamonds from the Lion Mountain Flow day and night like a fabulous fountain Our earth is heavy with tons of gold Our streams with fishes, young and old We are the children of the day We are the children of the night We walk every acre without a fright Working as hard as when we play We are the hands that make, the hands that mend We are the sky with the smiling moon We carry life’s fortune like a golden boon.
7