AFRICA 



81 



AFRICA 



A TYPICAL VILLAGE IN THE REGION OF THE EQUATOR 



northerly of the true negroes, and the blackest. 

 It was in this region that the slave-dealers 

 carried on their trade, and most of the negroes 

 in the United States to-day are descendants of 

 Sudan negroes. Southward, and beginning just 

 north of the equator, is the Bantu family, a 

 collection of tribes of light-colored negroes who 

 are connected rather by a common language 

 than by any physical peculiarities. These Ban- 

 tus occupy all the remaining part of Africa, 



pt the southwestern corner when- live th<> 



Hottentots and Bushmen (which see). Tribes 



of very small, as well as very large, people 



occur at intervals in Africa, and it is believed 



the sight of these gave rise to many of 



popular talcs of dwarfs and of giants. Of 



ipeans and Americans there are only as 

 many as are needed to control the numerous 



rprises, private and governmental, which 

 have been opened up in various parts of the 

 continent. 



Religiously the c< still darkest 



a," for almost sixty per cent of the people 

 still hold to the old heathen superstitions 

 which inik. rieht. and even necessary, demon- 

 worship, fetishism (sec . and barbaric 



Ity Over a third of the whole popul.v 

 are Mohammedans, and the remaining five or 



6 



six per cent are Christians of one branch or 

 another. 



Division Into Countries. The following 

 statement has reference to conditions just be- 

 fore the outbreak of the War of the Nations, in 

 1914. There will probably be more extensive 

 rearrangements of territory in Africa at th> 

 close of that struggle than in any other conti- 

 nent. 



Africa contains two independent countries, 

 Abyssinia and I.il>. r::i. 1. :t to-.thrr they pos- 

 sess less than live percent of its area. Except 

 for a neutral zone of 140 square miles at Tan- 

 gier, all the rest of the continent is divided 

 among seven European nations as follows: 



Belgium. Congo, formerly the Congo Free 

 State; area. 909,654 square ml lea ; population, 

 about 15,000,000. 



France. Algeria, Congo, Madagascar. Mayotte, 

 Comoro Inlands, Somali protectorate, Senegal. 

 Guinea, Ivory Coast. Dahomey. Upper Senegal 

 and Niger. Niger Tunis 



protectorate, Morocco i be; area, about 



3,000,000 square miles; population, perhaps 40.- 

 000,000. 



Germany. Until 1916. Kamerun. Kast Africa. 

 Southwest Africa. Togoland ; area. 931.460 square 

 miles; lost In the War of the Nations. 



Great Britain. Bast Africa protectorate, Ugan- 

 da protectorate. Zanzibar protectorate, Nyassa- 

 ' protectorate, Rhodesia (governed by the 



