Summary
- The oldest securely dated fossils of our species, about 300,000 years old, were found at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco. They are 100,000 years older than the previous record (Hublin et al., Nature, 2017)
- Africa has 2,167 living languages out of 7,159 worldwide, about 30 per cent of the total (Ethnologue, 28th edition, 2025)
- Sub-Saharan Africa handled $1.4 trillion of the more than $2 trillion that moved through mobile money worldwide in 2025, a 66 per cent share (GSMA, State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026)
- On 4 September 2026, the UN General Assembly voted 164 to 1, with 6 abstentions, to promote maps that show Africa at its true relative size (UN press release GA/12779)
| # | Fact | Where | When | Key Number | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oldest fossils of our species | Jebel Irhoud, Morocco | c. 300,000 years ago | 100,000 years older than the previous record | Nature, 2017 |
| 2 | Oldest known drawing by Homo sapiens | Blombos Cave, South Africa | c. 73,000 years ago | 9 lines drawn in ochre | Nature, 2018 |
| 3 | The Sahara was green | North Africa | c. 11,000–5,000 years ago | Thought to have dried out in 1–2 centuries | MIT and Columbia study, 2013 |
| 4 | More pyramids than Egypt | Sudan | Built over about 1,000 years | About 255, against 118–138 in Egypt | National Geographic |
| 5 | A 13-month calendar, 7–8 years behind | Ethiopia | 2019 began on 11 September 2026 | 12 months of 30 days, plus 5 or 6 days | Ethiopian calendar |
| 6 | Oldest operating educational institution | Fez, Morocco | Founded 859 | 229 years before Bologna (1088) | Guinness World Records |
| 7 | About 30% of the world's languages | Continent-wide | 2025 count | 2,167 of 7,159 | Ethnologue, 2025 |
| 8 | Highest share of women in parliament | Rwanda | Since the July 2024 election | 63.8% (51 of 80 seats) | IPU Parline |
| 9 | Two-thirds of the world's mobile money | Sub-Saharan Africa | 2025 | $1.4 trillion of $2 trillion+ | GSMA, 2026 |
| 10 | The UN voted to stop shrinking Africa on maps | UN General Assembly | 4 September 2026 | 164 votes to 1 | United Nations |
This list is ordered by date, oldest first, rather than ranked. Dates marked "c." are approximate. Where sources disagree on a number, the text gives the range.
Selected Details About Each Fact on the List
1. The oldest fossils of our species are from Morocco
For decades, the search for human origins centred on East Africa. Then, in June 2017, a team led by Jean-Jacques Hublin published fossils from Jebel Irhoud, about 100 kilometres west of Marrakech, dated to about 300,000 years ago (Hublin et al., Nature, 2017). That is 100,000 years older than the previous oldest securely dated Homo sapiens fossils. The bones come from at least five people, including a child (Science, 2017). Hublin was careful about the meaning. He does not claim Morocco was the cradle of humankind, only that early humans had already spread across Africa by then (CNN, 2017).
2. The oldest known drawing by Homo sapiens was made in South Africa
It is nine red lines, cross-hatched on a small flake of stone. Someone drew them with an ochre crayon about 73,000 years ago in Blombos Cave, about 300 kilometres east of Cape Town (Henshilwood et al., Nature, 2018). That is at least 30,000 years older than any drawing known before it. The same layer of the cave held shell beads and pieces of ochre engraved with patterns. The wording of the record matters: an engraved shell from Java is far older, at 540,000 years, so this title is specifically for a drawing by our own species (Popular Archaeology, 2018).
3. The Sahara was green
From about 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, the Sahara was covered in vegetation and dotted with lakes, and ancient rock paintings in the region show hippos in watering holes (MIT and Columbia study, reported by Phys.org, 2013). Scientists call this the African Humid Period. It was caused by a slow wobble in the Earth's orbit that strengthened the monsoon rains (Nature Education, 2012). The end is thought to have come quickly, with the region drying back into desert within one to two centuries. Today the Sahara covers more than 3.5 million square miles. In 2025, a study in Nature reported ancient human DNA recovered from the green Sahara.
4. Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt
National Geographic counts some 255 pyramids in Sudan, more than twice the number Egypt built. Counts for Egypt range from about 118 to 138, depending on the source. The Kingdom of Kush built Sudan's pyramids as tombs for its kings and queens. They are steeper and smaller than Egypt's, between 30 and 100 feet tall (National Geographic). Kush was no minor neighbour: its rulers occupied Egypt for close to a century (UNESCO). The largest group stands at Meroë, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2011.
5. It is 2019 in Ethiopia
On 11 September 2026, Ethiopia celebrated New Year and entered the year 2019 (Briefly News, 2026). The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months: twelve of exactly 30 days, then a short month called Pagume of five or six days. The year count runs behind because the Ethiopian Church calculates the date of the Annunciation of Christ differently from the Western churches. The gap is seven years from September to December and eight years from January to early September (Wikipedia, "Ethiopian calendar"). Ethiopia celebrated its millennium on 11 September 2007.
6. The world's oldest operating educational institution is in Morocco
Guinness World Records names the University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, founded in 859, as the oldest existing and continually operating educational institution in the world. The same record lists Bologna, founded in 1088, as the oldest in Europe, 229 years later. Tradition says the founder was a woman, Fatima al-Fihri, a merchant's daughter who spent her inheritance on it (World History Encyclopedia). Two caveats belong here. It began as a mosque and became a state university only in 1963, and some modern historians question the founding story (Wikipedia, "University of al-Qarawiyyin"). Women were first admitted as students in the 1940s.
7. Africa speaks about 30 per cent of the world's languages
Ethnologue's 2025 edition lists 2,167 living languages in Africa, out of 7,159 in the world. Nigeria alone has more than 500, the third-highest count of any country after Papua New Guinea (841) and Indonesia (721) (Ethnologue). The numbers shift with the counter, because linguists disagree on where a dialect ends and a language begins: the Glottolog catalogue lists 2,290 for Africa (Ling, 2026). The total includes languages born on the continent in recent centuries, such as the pidgins and creoles of West and Central Africa.
8. Rwanda's parliament is nearly two-thirds women
Women hold 51 of the 80 seats in Rwanda's Chamber of Deputies, or 63.8 per cent, the highest share of any national parliament in the world (IPU Parline). The world average is 27.2 per cent (IPU, 2025). In November 1994, months after the genocide, the figure in Rwanda was 4.3 per cent. Women have held the majority since the 2008 election, when the share reached 56.3 per cent. Part of the explanation is structural: 24 of the 80 seats are reserved for women, who are elected by electoral colleges in each province and in Kigali (IPU).
9. Most of the world's mobile money moves through Africa
M-Pesa, the service that made mobile money famous, launched commercially in Kenya in March 2007 (World Bank). In 2025, more than $2 trillion moved through mobile money wallets worldwide, and $1.4 trillion of it, 66 per cent, was in sub-Saharan Africa (GSMA, 2026). East Africa alone accounted for $806 billion and West Africa for $498 billion. Africa also holds 1.2 billion of the world's 2.3 billion registered accounts. One caveat from the same report: almost 75 per cent of accounts are inactive in any given month.
10. The world map shrinks Africa, and the UN has voted to change it
The Mercator projection, introduced in 1569, makes Greenland look almost as large as Africa. Africa is in fact about 14 times larger, at 30.37 million square kilometres, and exceeds the United States, China and India combined by roughly a third (Visual Capitalist; Mappr, 2026). On 4 September 2026, the UN General Assembly adopted the "Correct the Map" resolution by 164 votes to 1, with 6 abstentions. The United States cast the only vote against (UN press release GA/12779). The text does not ban Mercator. It encourages equal-area maps such as Equal Earth when size is being compared. It is one correction in a longer history, which we cover in The Real Reason Why Africa Was Called the Dark Continent.
Quick Answers to Commonly Asked Questions About this Topic
How many countries are there in Africa?
The United Nations recognises 54. The African Union has 55 member states, because it also includes the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara).
How big is Africa compared with the United States?
About three times bigger. Africa covers 30.37 million square kilometres and the United States 9.83 million. Africa is also larger than the United States, China and India put together, which total about 22.7 million square kilometres.
What year is it in Ethiopia?
It is 2019 in the Ethiopian calendar, which began on 11 September 2026. The next Ethiopian New Year falls on 12 September 2027, a day later than usual because the following Gregorian year, 2028, is a leap year.
Which continent has the youngest population?
Africa. Its median age is 19, far below the next-youngest region, Latin America and the Caribbean, at 32 (Pew Research Center, 2025, using UN data). Africa's population passed 1.5 billion in 2024, and the UN projects that more than one in four people in the world will be African by 2050 (UN Economic Commission for Africa, 2024).
Why are some popular "facts" about Africa missing from this list?
Because they did not survive checking. Many lists say Africa has 3,000 languages; Ethnologue counts 2,167. Many still say the oldest human fossils are 200,000 years old and from Ethiopia; the Moroccan finds are about 300,000 years old. This list only includes claims we could trace to a named source.
Key Sources
Other sources are named in brackets in the text. All pages pulled October 4, 2026.
- Jean-Jacques Hublin et al., "New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens", Nature 546 (2017). https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22336
- Christopher Henshilwood et al., "An abstract drawing from the 73,000-year-old levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa", Nature 562 (2018). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0514-3
- Guinness World Records, "Oldest higher-learning institution, oldest university". https://www.guinnessworldrecords.de/world-records/oldest-university
- Inter-Parliamentary Union, Parline: Rwanda, Chamber of Deputies, data on women. https://data.ipu.org/parliament/RW/RW-LC01/data-on-women/
- United Nations, press release GA/12779, 4 September 2026. https://press.un.org/en/2026/ga12779.doc.htm
