Chic African Culture Africa Factbook

Did you know?

1. No African country names begin with the letters F, H, I, J, O, P, Q, V, W, X, or Y.

2. Africa is surrounded by water but by definition Africa is not an island because Africa is a continent.

3. The Republic of the Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa.

South Sudan Biological Supermarket

The Sudd is a huge swampy biological supermarket in South Sudan, formed by the White Nile, comprising more than 15% of the country's total area; it is one of the world's largest wetlands.

The Sudd of South Sudan is a large swampy area of more than 38,610 sq miles or 100,000 sq km fed by the waters of the White Nile. The Sudd dominates the center of Africa’s newest country, South Sudan.


The Sudd of South Sudan is a large swampy area of more than 38,610 sq miles or 100,000 sq km fed by the waters of the White Nile.
The Sudd

The Sudd is one of the largest flood plains in Africa, and one of the largest tropical wetlands in the world. The Sudd region has countless wetlands, a maze of channels, lakes, and swamps, and which receives water from the Bahr el Gazal River. 

One of the most extraordinary physical features of the Sudd is its flatness and the soils of the whole area are generally clayish and poor in nutrients.

The idea behind the construction of the Jonglei Canal was to bypass the Sudd region and to direct a downstream a proportion of the water available for irrigation and other uses downstream in Sudan and Egypt.

The Jonglei Canal had been planned for construction in 1978 but work stopped in November 1983 because of civil war. When Sudan gained its independence in 1956, it was with the understanding that the southerners would be able to participate fully in the political system.

When the Arab Khartoum government reneged on its promises, a mutiny began that led to two prolonged periods of conflict from 1955-1972 and 1983-2005 in which possibly 2.5 million people died. 

The canal would have provided a straight channel for the Al-Jabal River to flow northward until its junction with the White Nile. However, the project would have drained the swamplands of the Sudd.

The Sudd wetlands provide fish and wildlife habitats, storing floodwaters and maintaining surface water flow during dry periods in South Sudan.
Sudd location

The Sudd wetlands provide fish and wildlife habitats, storing floodwaters and maintaining surface water flow during dry periods in South Sudan. 

The Sudd is also an important place for biodiversity because of an immense variety of species of microbes, plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish and mammals, some of which are only found in the region.

The ecological issue today is if water is drained from the Sudd through the construction of the Jonglei Canal can serious or irreparable damage to the Sudd environment be avoided.

Sudd Swamp three facts
Papyrus reeds which grow prolifically in the Sudd is a native plant of Africa
Sudd is the world's largest wetlands in the Nile basin
In the wet season, the Sudd covers an area nearly 1 1/2 times the size of Texas.

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Africa is surrounded by water but is not an island, here are a few African Island facts.

Madagascar is the 4th large island in the world and is located in the Indian Ocean supporting a unique biology, about 90% of its plants and animals are found nowhere else on earth.

Composed of 155 islands, Seychelles is Africa's smallest country. By far the largest island is Mahe, home to about 90% of the population and the site of its capital city of Victoria.

Cabo Verde has a strategic location 310 miles or 500 km from the west coast of Africa near major north-south sea routes; important communications station; important sea and air refueling site.

Africa is surrounded by water but by definition Africa is not an island because Africa is a continent. Continents can not be considered islands because of their size and also by historic definition since many people who study geography define islands and continents as two different things.

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Being African in America I have grown up learning about different ethnic cultures. My father and mother are historians of African culture and history and their influence expanded my activities to several best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, self-branded products, and a popular African culture and food blog.

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