Estimating the African population before 1950 is a complex task due to the lack of reliable data during the colonial period and even more so, during the pre-colonial period. All figures before 1950 are estimates based on incomplete data and projections.
Disinformation campaigns (also known as foreign manipulation and interference campaigns) aimed at manipulating African information systems have nearly quadrupled in Africa since 2022, leading to destabilizing and anti-democratic consequences. These campaigns have continued to proliferate in 2024, particularly in conflict zones across the continent.
The most general characteristic of the continent is that its economy and exports are based on extractive industries. About half of sub-Saharan African countries are net exporters of primary products, and unlike elsewhere, exports of extractive products have increased in importance since the 1990s, making the region one of the most commodity-dependent parts of the world, roughly on par with the Middle East and North Africa. This leads to a strong dependence on international commodity prices. For example, 80% of Algeria's exports are petroleum products. In 2014, oil and its derivatives, along with liquid or gaseous natural gas, accounted for 53.3% of the continent's exports.
The exchange of economic goods appears with the transition from the economy of collection (or predation) to the economy of production, at the time of the Neolithic revolution and sedentarization.
