| Africa | |
| Category: | Continent |
| Planet: | Earth |
| Points of interest: | Algeria; Casablanca; Egypt; Maghreb; Morocco; North Africa; South Africa; Wakanda |
Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people (as of 2009, see table) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.72% of the World's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Not counting the disputed territory of Western Sahara, there are 53 countries, including Madagascar and various island groups, associated with the continent.
Points of Interest[]
In film[]
2001: A Space Odyssey[]
In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the movie opens with a tribe of herbivorous apes foraging for food in the desert. They encounter an alien Monolith, which prompts their evolutionary change. Soon after, the tribal leader, the Moonwatcher, learns how to use the bone of an animal as a tool and weapon. Learning how to hunt, the tribe then carnivores. [1]
2012[]
In the 2009 thriller 2012, the southern tip of Africa was one of the few locations left on the planet to survive the global catastrophe that flooded the world. Survivors of this extinction-level event found refuge in the tip of South Africa which, once again, became a cradle of civilization.
Animal Crackers[]
Famed safari hunter and explorer Captain Geoffrey T. Spaulding spent some time in Africa hunting elephants. He referred to it as "God's Country", adding to the sentiment that "He can have it". After returning to the United States, he delighted guests at a gala at the Rittenhouse estate with tales of his exploits, bragging about how he once shot an elephant in his pajamas, though he had no idea how the elephant got into his pajamas in the first place.
District 9[]
South Africa was the central location of the 2009 Neill Blomkamp film District 9. In the film, a space ship piloted by an alien race referred to as "Prawns" took up position above South Africa. The Prawns were brought to the surface and relocated to the District 9 reservation camp. Twenty years later, an organization called Multinational United began evicting the prawns out of the district. Wikus van de Merwe, a worker at the MNU Department for Relations with Extraterrestrial Civilizations was charged with issuing eviction notices. Through the course of his work, Wikus became infected with prawn DNA and slowly transformed into one of them.
Jurassic Park[]
In Jurassic Park, entrepreneur John Hammond asserted that he had built an animal preserve in Kenya. By his own words, the animal preserve seemed like a petting zoo compared to Jurassic Park.
Films that take place in Africa[]
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950)
- Beyond Borders
- Casablanca (1942)
- District 9 (2009)
- Exorcist: The Beginning
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The (2003)
- Legend of Tarzan, The
- Lion King, The
- Man Who Knew Too Much, The (1956)
- Monster from Green Hell
- Mummy, The
- Mummy, The (1959)
- Mummy, The (1999)
- Solomon Kane
- Tarzan and His Mate
Characters from Africa[]
Note: The following is a list of characters known to reside in Africa. It does not necessarily mean that they were born there.
| Character | Film/Series |
|---|---|
| Nyota Uhura | Star Trek film series |