Egypt (Cairo)- controls Suez Canal and Sinai Peninsula; cotton, cement, tourism
Libya (Tripoli)- ruled by Gaddafi, more than 90% desert, oil and natural gas
Tunisia (Tunis)- heavy gov’t control of the economy, oil, mining, tourism, textiles
Algeria (Algiers)- problems with terrorism, 2nd largest country in Africa, oil, natural gas
Morocco (Rabat)- Atlas Mountains, monarchy, mining, textiles, tourism
Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia are former French colonies
Egypt was a former British colony
Libya was a former Italian colony
Mauritania (Nouakchott)- ½ of population depends on agriculture and livestock
Mali (Bamako)- one of poorest countries in the world, 65% of the land is desert
Niger (Niamey)- one of the hottest countries in the world, subsistence based economy
Chad (N’Djamena)- more than 120 different languages spoken
Nigeria (Abuja)- religious unrest; oil rich
Central African Republic (Bangui)- gold and diamond mining
Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa)- straddles equator; formally known as Zaire
Congo (Brazzaville)- lots of political unrest
Gabon (Libreville)- prosperous; oil refining
Equatorial Guinea (Malabo)- oil, fishing
Cameroon (Yaoundé)- Mt Cameroon is an active volcano
Benin (Porto Novo)- underdeveloped economy
Togo (Lome)- cocoa, coffee, cotton
Ghana (Accra) – Lake Volta is world’s largest man made lake; cocoa, gold, ship building
Cote d’Ivoire (Yamoussoukro)-world’s largest producer of cocoa beans
Liberia (Monrovia)- created by US in 1822 as place for freed slaves
Guinea-Bissau (Bissau)- 1 of 5 poorest countries in the world
Gambia (Banjul)- smallest country in Africa
Senegal (Dakar)- westernmost country in Africa; fishing, oil refining, gold mining
Sudan (Khartoum)- largest country in Africa, genocidal civil war going on
Ethiopia (Addis Ababa)- only country in Africa never to be colonized by Europeans
Eritrea (Asmara)- gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993; salt, cement, cotton
Djibouti (Djibouti)- strategic position on world’s busiest shipping lanes
Somalia (Mogadishu)- terrorism problems, strategic location on Horn of Africa
Kenya (Nairobi)- Mt. Kenya, tea, coffee, tourism
Uganda (Kampala)- landlocked, but many lakes and rivers make fertile soil
Tanzania (Dar es Salam)- Mt. Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria, one of the poorest
Rwanda (Kigali)- most densely populated country in Africa; many years of civil war
Burundi (Bujumbura)- only 50% of children go to school, very poor
Zambia (Lusaka)- cooper, corn, rice, peanuts, fertilizer
Malawi (Lilongwe)- tobacco, tea, sugar, cement
Mozambique (Maputo)- cotton, cashews, sugarcane
South Africa (Pretoria)- practiced “apartheid” until the 1990s
Botswana (Gaborone)- most of population lives in eastern part of the country; copper
Swaziland (Mbabane)- monarchy; almost completely surrounded by South Africa
Lesotho (Maseru)- completely surrounded by South Africa; monarchy, mountainous
Madagascar (Antananarivo)- world’s 4th largest island; seafood, sugar, tourism
Zimbabwe (Harare)- 50% are synergetic- mix of Christianity and indigenous beliefs
Angola (Luanda)- oil, diamonds, iron ore, uranium, gold
Namibia (Windhoek)- first country to incorporate environmental protection into constitution