Sub-Saharan Africa

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Sub-Saharan Africa, Africa south of the Sahara Desert, is the term is used to describe those countries of Africa that are not part of North Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is also known as Black Africa (though some consider this to be a politically incorrect or offensive form). Sub-Saharan corresponds with the standard representation of North as above and South as below.

This division of Africa has arisen from the perception of North Africa as predominantly Arab or Berber in ethnicity or culture and the perception of sub-Saharan Africa as predominantly black in ethnicity or culture, and from the geographic separation of the two regions by the sparsely populated Sahara Desert. North Africa has long been integrated with the Mediterannean and the Middle East. Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, had sporadic contacts with the rest of the world before the modern era. While the coasts received visits by traders, much of the interior of the continent remained unknown to the outside world until the colonial era.

With a few exceptions, such as Mauritius and South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa is one of the poorest regions in the world, and it contains many of the least developed countries.

The exact position of the dividing line between the two regions is not clear. However, according to one classification of the two regions, sub-Saharan Africa includes forty-eight nations. Forty-two of these nations are on the African mainland. In addition, four island nations in the southwest Indian Ocean (Madagascar, The Comoros, Mauritius, and Seychelles) and two island nations in the Atlantic Ocean (Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe) are considered part of Africa. According to this classification scheme, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa are:

Central Africa

Eastern Africa

Southern Africa

Western Africa

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