10 things you didn't know about Africa

Our interim report, which we launched two weeks ago, is provoking debate and discussion in many quarters. The focus of the report is our association with AfrOx, a new organisation working to improve cancer prevention and control in Africa.

Download Language_is_Everything_interim_report_2008.pdf

One of the articles in our report asks "Can the private sector make a difference in Africa?". We've used this as the basis for the following ten things you didn't know about Africa...

1. There are more land-locked countries in Africa (15) than on any other continent.
2. Africa is the most linguistically diverse region in the world — most Africans grow up speaking two, three or four languages.
3. Lesotho, in southern Africa, is the only country in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 metres.
4. Although maps often show Africa as being similar in size to Greenland, Africa is in fact 14 times bigger ...
5. ... and Greenland would rank as only Africa's fourth-largest country (just behind the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
6. The capital of Algeria (Algiers) is closer to the capital of its former colonial power (Paris) than it is to its southernmost border.
7. There are more than 2,000 different languages spoken in Africa.
8. Passenger ferries cross between Europe and Africa in half the time it takes to travel from Dover to Calais.
9. There are only 14 million telephone lines in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa — less than the number in Tokyo ...
10. ... however Africa is the fastest-growing market in the world for mobile phones.