Collecting Africa can be Daunting

Africa stands unique, in history, in geography, and in the world of stamp collecting. It's the second-largest continent in land area, behind Asia and ahead of North America. It has the third-largest population, and the largest number of independent states. It is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, and yet has many areas where the current inhabitants are only a few steps up from stone-age technology. It was also the most colonially dominated continent, even moreso than South America, and the last to rid itself of European masters. All of these vast differences, and more, are reflected in its philatelic history. Over the next several months, I'll try to provide some groundwork that will help make this area a little less confusing for the average collector.

Africa is too large an area to cover in one article, so we're going to break it down in to what are considered the major subareas: Northern Africa, which are the states bordering the Mediterranean Sea; West Africa, also referred to as sub-Saharan Africa, which stretches from Sudan's western border to the Atlantic Ocean; Equatorial Africa, which is concentrated in central Africa, along the Congo River and its major tributaries; the Middle Nile and Horn of Africa areas, which incorporate Sudan and the countries to the east, bordered by the Red Sea and the northern Indian Ocean; East Africa, which includes Lake Victoria, the upper Nile, and the area to the east, along the Indian Ocean coast; Southern Africa, which stretches from the Bihe Plateau and Lake Nyassa south; and Madagascar and other Indian Ocean island groups. These breakdowns somewhat coincide with geographic, political, and climate differences that shape both the government and the development of these areas. We'll start in the north, and work our way south.

The southern Mediterranean coast is basically a narrow strip of arable land hemmed in to the north by the Mediterranean, and to the south by the almost impenetrable Sahara Desert. Water is the key to survival in this region: the most advanced civilization in the Western world grew to prominence along the lower Nile River, in Egypt. The primary religion is Mohommedanism, the result of the rise of Arabic culture in the late 700's AD, which swept across northern Africa from Arabia to the Atlantic. When the Spanish defeated the Moors in the late 15th century, it opened up an age of conquest that swept most of North Africa's territory into colonial empires for the Spanish, French, and Italians. Egypt was nominally an independent caliphate attached to the Ottoman Empire until the end of World War I, when it became an independent nation with strong ties to Britain.

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