2008 Woodie Awards
African Pride
Asmaou Sidi
Issue date: 3/23/06 Section: Opinion
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Africa is a vast continent composed of 51 states and many countries such as Benin, Morocco, Algeria and South Africa. It has a wide variety of culture and great physical and climatic diversity. It is the second largest continent after Asia. With a population of 302 million people in 1975, 591.3 million in 2001 and an estimated 866 million in 2015, Africa makes up 11 percent of the total population of the earth.
Forty-five percent of the population of Africa is 15-17 years old. Only three percent of the population is over 65 years old. The birthrate is 43 per 1,000 people and the average number of children per women is six. Life expectancy is 48 years and the mortality rate is 47.5 out of 100. The infant mortality rate is 100 out of 1,000 which is 20 times higher than in France.
There are many ethnic groups in Africa including Pygmies (the oldest ethnic group), Bushmen, Hottentots, Ethipides, Somalis, Toubous, African-negros, Indo-europeans and Malgaches. Consequently, there are between 200 and 2,000 languages. The wide difference in numbers depends on how one differentiates between language and dialect.
In most colonized countries the official language is that of the colonizing country. The only countries where the official language is indigenous are Lesotho, Rwanda and Burundi.
With the languages comes a huge discrepancy between the value of Africa's natural resources and its "richness." Diseases such as AIDS and malaria keep African's from making good use of their resourses.
This is a new column that will be appearing regularly in the Communiqué to add a taste of diversity to the content displayed in this paper.
Forty-five percent of the population of Africa is 15-17 years old. Only three percent of the population is over 65 years old. The birthrate is 43 per 1,000 people and the average number of children per women is six. Life expectancy is 48 years and the mortality rate is 47.5 out of 100. The infant mortality rate is 100 out of 1,000 which is 20 times higher than in France.
There are many ethnic groups in Africa including Pygmies (the oldest ethnic group), Bushmen, Hottentots, Ethipides, Somalis, Toubous, African-negros, Indo-europeans and Malgaches. Consequently, there are between 200 and 2,000 languages. The wide difference in numbers depends on how one differentiates between language and dialect.
In most colonized countries the official language is that of the colonizing country. The only countries where the official language is indigenous are Lesotho, Rwanda and Burundi.
With the languages comes a huge discrepancy between the value of Africa's natural resources and its "richness." Diseases such as AIDS and malaria keep African's from making good use of their resourses.
This is a new column that will be appearing regularly in the Communiqué to add a taste of diversity to the content displayed in this paper.