Text for written translation. Africa’s overall population density is low by world’s standards, because much of its vast desert area is uninhabitable; the population per unit of arable

Africa’s overall population density is low by world’s standards, because much of its vast desert area is uninhabitable; the population per unit of arable land, however, its near the world average. Wide variations in density occur from country to country and within countries. Africa’s effort to achieve sustained economic growth have been plagued by the region’s very high fertility level. The continent is a developing region with all the associated demographic and social problems. It is estimated that the continent’s annual rate of population growth is about 3 per cent, the highest of any continent and several times higher than Africa’s real economic growth. Birth and death rates, the major factor in population growth, vary widely from region to region. Southern Africa, for example, has the lowest crude birth rate and the lowest rate of growth and western Africa has the highest birth rate.

The peoples inhabiting Africa probably speak more separate and distinct languages (800 to 1,000) than those of any other continent. The most homogeneous region, in terms of language, is North Africa, where Arabic is predominant. The languages spoken by the Sub-Saharan peoples are known collectively as Bantu. The forest-dwelling Pygmies, inhabiting various parts of central Africa, form a distinctive ethnic and cultural group but have no distinctive language of their own. In southernmost parts of the continent, people of European descent are found. Dutch migrations began in the 17 th century. The English first settled in what is now Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the East African Highlands in the 19 th century. The Portuguese settled in Angola and Mozambique, while Germans settled in what is now Namibia.