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