Mark Melnicove - Africa Is Not a Country

j Millbrook Press Minneapolis

Margy Burns Knight

Mark Melnicove

Illustrated by Anne Sibley OBrien

Is Not a Country

South Africa

Maseru

Swaziland

Lesotho

Botswana

Namibia

Angola

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Madagascar

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Tanzania

Djibouti

Ethiopia

Kenya

Burundi

Rwanda

Eritrea

Sudan

So Tom & Princpe

Gabon

Cameroon

Central African Republic

Nigeria

Mali

Mauritania

Niger

Cte

dIvoire

Egypt

Libya

Tunisia

Algeria

Guinea-Bissau

Burkina Faso

The Gambia

Guinea

Liberia

Sierra Leone

Senegal

Cape Verde

Harare

Algiers

Tripoli

Tunis

Cairo

Khartoum

Asmara

Djibouti

Addis Ababa

Mogadishu

Nairobi

Dodoma

Lilongwe

Maputo

Mbabane

Pretoria

Gaborone

Windhoek

Kinshasa

Luanda

Brazzaville

Kigali

Bujumbura

Yaound

Bangui

Abuja

So Tom

Malabo

Equatorial Guinea

Libreville

Yamoussoukro

Monrovia

Accra

Lome

Porto Novo

Ouagadougou

Bamako

Niamey

Freetown

Conakry

Bissau

Banjul

Dakar

Praia

Nouakchott

Rabat

Antananarivo

Desert

Grasslands

Tropical Rainforest

Lusaka

NDjamena

Chad

MOUNT KILIMANJARO

Lake Victoria

Comoros

Seychelles

Kalahari Desert

sahara desert

AHAGGAR MOUNTAINS

TIBESTI MOUNTAINS

THE HORN OF AFRICA

Uganda

Kampala

Moroni

Victoria

Mauritius

Port Louis

El Aain

A frica is not a countryit is a vast continent made up of nations. If you took the land of the United States and added it to the lands of China, Japan, and Europe, Africa would still be bigger.

From the tiny island nations of Comoros, Seychelles, and So Tom and Prncipe, to its largest country (Sudan), Africa is the only continent with land in all four hemispheres. Unlike any other continent, it is divided into two almost equal lengths by the equator, and it is nearly as wide as it is long.

If you drew a picture of Africas landscapes on a large pie and cut it into ten equal pieces, only one piece would contain all of its rain forests. Four pieces would represent the deserts; another four would be mostly grass, farmland, and trees. The final piece would hold all of the mountains and cities of this beautiful, vibrant continent, where several hundred million children wake up every morning.

T he sun is just rising as Arim and Efrem get up to prepare for school. They take showers, change into school uniforms, and comb their hair while listening to childrens programs on the radio. After a breakfast of sweet, hot tea and bread with butter and marmalade, they put on their book bags.

Their parents gently place their hands on their heads and say, May God be with you the whole day. The boys kiss their parents hands and respond Yekenielai , which means thank-you in Tigrinya, a widely spoken language in Eritrea . Before they walk out of the door with their father, who is going to his office in downtown Asmara, the boys are reminded by their mother to always respect their teachers and elders.