North Africa

North Africa is the region that spans the countries on the northern tip of the African continent, most of which have a coastline on the Mediterranean sea. The countries that constitute North Africa share a number of key similarities while also maintaining salient differences: most importantly, the Islamization of North Africa during the Muslim conquests of late antiquity has left histories and cultures firmly rooted in the beliefs and ideals of Islam. As a result, North Africa is central to the Islamic faith and forms a major part of Islamic history. From the densely populated and rich agricultural Nile Delta to the vast desert regions of Algeria and Libya, North Africa contains a stunning variety of geographical landscapes. The diversity of North African geography can be fundamentally broken down into three categories: the Nile Delta in the east, the Sahara desert in the south and the Atlas Mountains in the west. While the Sahara desert occupies much of the North African expanse, constituting roughly 75% of its landmass, the Atlas Mountains and the Nile Delta are formidable geographical elements of this region. For instance, the Atlas Mountains extend over three countries: Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. With the Nile Delta clearly visible and highly electrified from night photographs from the ISS, this region of Egypt is a hub of economic activity and promises high potential for investment in agriculture, business and finance. The Nile Delta additionally hosts a population of around 39 million people, which equates to 1,000 people per square kilometer, far higher than the average for North Africa at 32 people per square kilometer. The Nile Delta is a pearl of economic activity in Egypt and of North Africa, and stands out as a major tourist destination, while the rest of the country is also desert.

North Africa is also home to a number of peoples, who live from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the farthest reaches of the Mediterranean and Red Sea. While the Maghreb region and much of western North Africa is inhabited by Berber peoples, who have settled and lived the land since 10,000 BC and have developed a unique dialect of Arabic called Maghrebi Arabic, with its own Berber syntactical elements, Arabization of the region also took place during the Muslim conquests; for this reason, Arabs constitute the largest ethnicity and are the majority ethnicity in countries closer to the Middle East such as in Egypt. Therefore, Arabic culture and language is a fundamental aspect of each North African country, while other languages such as French serve as the language of administrative discourse in states such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, which all share a common colonial past tied to France. The western countries of North Africa also boast an official second language called Tamazight which is spoken in Algeria and Morocco, while Spanish is spoken in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.

As the inheritors of a common Arabic heritage, Islam is the predominant religion in North Africa. With each capital and large city boasting spiraling minarets and grand mosques, this region is steeped in the lessons, faith, and culture of Islam. Despite this, several religious minorities have lived and thrived in North Africa for centuries. For instance, Egypt has a sizable Christian Coptic minority, a community that has survived in the region since the time Christianity was first introduced in the first centuries after Jesus’ death and which still persists to this day. Moreover, the Inquisitions in Spain and Portugal, in 1492, caused waves of Jewish residents to flee the Iberian peninsula to North Africa, where there are still established Jewish communities in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The confluence and presence of the three major Abrahamic religions speak to the richness of North African culture and the centrality of the region in issues of international culture and religion. As such, North Africa is an important cradle of civilization.