Top 10 Most Interesting Sub-Saharan African Countries
Wooh, I've already made tons of these lists. Geography is my favourite subject in school so the fact that I've made tons of world related lists here shouldn't surprise you. I've already made lists of most interesting countries in South America (my first one), Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, Asia as whole and now it's time for Africa, unfortunately, that list has already been made. Don't worry though, because we're going to do the sub-Saharan African countries instead, which are all the African countries south of the sahara desert, so the countries that are NOT allowed on the list are Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. Without further ado, let's begin!Ghana was the first sub-saharan country to launch a cellular mobile network in 1992. It was one of the first countries in Africa to be connected to the internet and to introduce ADSL Broadband services. By the reign of Kwame Nkrumah , her first leader, the country exported almost everything from cars to clothes. Ghana also trained countries like Malaysia and Cuba in scientific and other fields and granted loans which helped those countries become what they are now. Ghana has launched a Universal QR Code , the only on the continent and one of the few in the world to do so.
The largest man-made land is located in Ghana. This is Lake Vlota, that was fed by the three rivers from Burkino Faso which are called Black, White and Red Volta. This lake is huge! It takes up four percent of the entire country and that's a lot for a man-made lake! Like a lot of western african countries the south is wetter and the north is drier. Ghana is also the second largest cocoa producer behind their western neighbour Ivory Coast (which I talked about on the Ivory Coast episode). Cocoa isn't the only product that they are the second biggest producer of in the world. They're actually the second biggest gold producer in the world too (behind South Africa), because of this Ghana used to be referred to as "the gold coast". Ghana was the first colony in Africa as well that declared independence, Ghana is also usually seen as one of the most democratic african countries. Capital is Accra and president is Nana Akufo-Addo
Doors and elevators that use heat signature to open without you performing any action. Electric cars, automated TVs, satellite systems, armor combat soldier uniforms etc. Check Kofi katanka and you'll see the potential this country has.
Why is Ghana 14th? Too low. At least top 2
Gabon is such an interesting and fascinating country! I have always been a huge fan of gabonese culture and nature! Gabon is the most forested country on the african mainland and has tons of different ethnicities, with the biggest ethnic group called the Fang, part of the Bantu. The fang people surely are quite an interesting tribe I gotta say! The fang also exist in countries like Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. The fang made such cool maks that were used for pretty much everything and have a unique shape. And due to the fact that it's the most forestest african country on the mainland, thus there is quite a lot of unique animals as well! Capital is Libreville and president is Ali Bongo. A few weeks ago there was also a failed coup d'état that was quite interesting in my opinion. Gabon takes the number #1 spot in my opinion!
Chad has always been an interesting country in my eyes. It's very interesting as it's the only sub-saharan country that has both arabic and french as official languages and it's quite interesting. It's basically an arab-influenced sub-saharan country but yet a bit french influenced as well which makes it quite fascinating. I find it interesting how all of Chad's neighbours have had some sort of drama in the past (with the exclusion of the states south of Chad), it makes it much more interesting. It varies quite a lot in terms of landscape as the northern part is known as the dead heart of Africa and is basically part of the sahara desert while the southern parts have savannahs instead. Capital is N'Djamena and president is Idriss Deby. Tons of things about this country catches my interests
The Gambia is the smallest country on the mainland of Africa but holds so much interesting culture and history! The flag is my favourite flag of all in Africa because of how cool and colourful it is! The country is built around the Gambia river which is even present on the flag and is almost completely surrounded by Senegal, with only the western part having a coast to the atlantic. The capital city is Banjul but it's actually only the fourth largest city in the country. The three bigger cities are Serrekunda, Brikama and Bakau. The history of this country is quite interesting, as it's completely surrounded by Senegal, which used to be a french colony whereas Gambia used to be an brittish colony, and the brittish got to colonize the areas surrounding the gambia river. It's quite interesting
Ethiopia was the only african country outside of Liberia which was a bit complicated to never get colonized. While Italy once tried to colonize Ethiopia, the natives of Ethiopia managed to fight them off, and this makes it so interesting. Because it never got colonized, the culture is very unsimilar to anything european and even their official language isn't a european language and it's the only one on the african continent where the official language is a native african language, and it's amharic
Great history and great food.
Love the history
C'te d'Ivoire, or in english known as Ivory Coast is the biggest producer of cocoa in the world. Countries that border it such as Ghana also produce much cocoa. This is quite an interesting country in my opinion. There are a lot of interesting tribes in this country such as the sanwi who once wanted to be an independent country and they literally declared Michael Jackson to be king! I've been looking at a lot of sites to see if it actually is true and it seems. Capital city is Yamoussoukro but biggest city and former capital was Abidjan, president is Alassane Outtara. There's tons of things about this country that catches my interests
I like to call Ghana, Togo and Benin the "the square of three small countries (even though Ghana is very different from the other two countries)" and Togo is the smallest of them and the most dangerous. However it has the best flag of the three in my opinion. I think one of the most interesting aspects of Togo are the Aja people who live in south-east Benin along the coast. It is thought that voodoo originated from the Aja people and that gets quite interesting. Capital is Lomé and president is Faure Gnassingbe. This country holds so much interesting things about it
Benin is generally a flat country with interesting varieties in terms of landscape. Benin is located right below the sahel region, which is the the gateway between sahara and sub-sahara, and Benin gets a form of dry wind called the harmattan which pretty muh dries up the grass in the northern parts of Benin. This country also has at least 42 ethnic groups within the country and it gets quite complicated but very fascinating with the three largest groups being the Fon, Aja (not Aja from 3 Below) and the Yoruba. The Aja (as I said in Togo) are thought to be the origins of voodoo as well. Capital is Porto-Novo (which means new port in portugese, even though Benin was a french colony, but it had some historical ties with Portugal) and president is Patrice Talon. This country is similar to Togo but has tons of other interesting aspects as well
"Africa in miniature", the nickname for Cameroon. It's called so because you can pretty muh find all the different climates in this country, thanks to the narrow size. The south has a lot of forests and jungles and the further up you go the drier it becomes. In the far north you'll be in a desert! The variety is quite fascinating in my opinion. Capital is Yaoundé while biggest city is Douala, president is Paul Biya. The biggest mountain is Mount Cameroon which is also actually an active volcano that I am currently studying
Usually called the "North Korea" of Africa and is about as dangerous, but it's interesting as well. Located on the horn of Africa, Eritrea is a narrow country that borders the red sea to the east and otherwise borders Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan, and almost border Yemen on the other side of the red sea. It's a generally hot country as well, on the coasts. In the inland it's rather the opposite. It's quite cool
This surely is a fascinating country. For starters the northern parts of the country are located in the sahel region making them quite dry whereas the further south you go the greener and lusher it gets until you get to the most southerm part of the country located in south-west where you get to a lush forest. There's a lot of red sand in the deserts giving Burkino Faso a more red look and a lot of people live in the countryside and not in the cities, making Burkino Faso one of the lesser urbanised countries in Africa. The biggest ethnic group in the country are the Mossi who are sometimes referred to as the cowboys of africa. Capital is Ouagadougu, and president I don't know yet
Liberia is interesting because it was created by the USA
Lions, savannahs and zebras and stuff is usually what first comes to mind when I think of Tanzania. Tanzania is one of the bigger countries in Africa (although still very small when compared to (Algeria, D.R Congo, Sudan and Mali). There's tons of interesting aspects of this country even though I still don't know too much about it, but it will stay in the top ten. Capital is Dodoma and president is John Magufuli
The bigger and more known of the congo twin countries, but unfortuanely the way more dangerous and unfortunately one of the most dangerous countries in africa, is one interesting country. It's the second biggest country on the continent and overall largest in sub-saharan africa, in fact takes up a lot of central africa and has tons of resources and rainforests. The congo rainforest is the second biggest rainforest in the world as well behind the amazonas. It's definitely an interesting country
The land of diamonds. It's pretty cool, as Botswana used to be one of the poorest countries in Africa back in the day. However once they started find diamonds, the economy was booming and it has made Botswana into one of the safest countries in Africa, and pherhaps the safest on the mainland (I think Mauritius is safer). It's in the top three most democratic african countries as well and has interesting history and stuff. Botswana deserves a mention on here
The southern brother of Egypt, and shares a very similar history to Egypt in fact. They used to be part of the same country at one point and under an alliance at one point as well, and they have pyramids and stuff as well. I heard somewhere that Sudan has more pyraminds than Egypt, but that the egyptian pyraminds are bigger, which may also be why it's more known. Sudan also used to be the biggest country in Africa when it came to size but since South Sudan gained independence, it has dropped to third place giving Algeria the title instead (D.R Congo is the second biggest)