The Black Africa , also known as sub-Saharan Africa is the region of Africa that lies south of the Sahara desert. The term “Black Africa” was created in the 19th century by European colonists to refer to the region of Africa whose population was mostly black and which had not yet been fully “discovered” by Western civilization.
This region comprises 47 countries , namely: South Africa, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Comoros, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Kenya, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, São Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Despite being called the “cradle of humanity” and “true Africa”, sub-Saharan Africa is best known for being the poorest area in the world. Among the countries that make up the region, 33 of them are among the poorest on the planet. The fall in the constant standard of living is visible: crowded classrooms (despite high rates of school dropout), hospitals in subhuman conditions, cities saturated with slums, among other problems. However, the main economies across the African continent are South Africa and Nigeria, respectively.
Very dependent on the export of agricultural and mineral goods, the economies of the countries of Black Africa suffered a deep crisis from the 1980s, due to the fall in the value of the products used in exports. This factor, coupled with constant ethnic conflicts and civil wars, in addition to government corruption, increasing indebtedness and insufficient agricultural food, contributed to aggravate the precarious situation of society.