AFRICA
General Information:
Geography: Africa is separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea and joins Asia at its northeast extremity on the Isthmus of Suez. However, it occupies a single tectonic plate, unlike Europe tdat shares the Eurasian plate with Asia.
Main ecosystems:
Sahara Desert
Sahel
Sudanese Savanna
Congo Forest
Namib Desert
Kalahari Desert
Okavango Delta
Great Lakes
Kenya Highlands
Ethiopian Massif
Great Rift Valley
Main islands and archipelagos:
Archipelago of Madeira
Archipelago of the Canary Islands
Archipelago of Cape Verde
Bioko, Sao Tome and Principe
Saint Helena
Madagascar
Archipelago of the Mascareñas
Archipelago of Zanzibar
Archipelago of the Comoros
Archipelago of the Seychelles
Socotora.
Main rivers
Senegal
Volta
Niger-Benue
Congo (the second largest in the world)
Orange
Limpopo
Nile (the second longest in the world)
Zambezi.
WEATHER
To the north and south of the continent the Mediterranean climate predominates, with the rainy season in the spring and autumn, and in the center the equatorial climate, warm and humid. Between the Mediterranean and equatorial regions, there are two large deserts, the Sahara to the north and the Kalahari to the south of Africa.
Area: 30.37 million km2
Population: 1.216 billion (2016)
Languages: 200 (In Africa is where the highest percentage of bilingual, trilingual and polyglot people is found).
Currency: United States dollar (USD), South African rand (ZAR), Euro (EUR), Indian rupee (INR), Pound sterling (GBP), Chinese yuan/ Renminbi (CNY), Botswanan pula (BWP) among others.
FLAG
The contrast
There is a great contrast between North and South Africa, you can see the great difference, it's like a line that shows how beautiful and ugly this country is; For my concept, this country should help all those who have no way to live or survive because of poverty and lack of food.
Stories about people from South Africa
"MOMMY, PLEASE GO"
Big changes have been happening in
a Botswanan family’s home since the
mother sent her eight-year-old son to the
Seventh-day Adventist elementary school
in Francistown. The boy, Lethabo, now insists that his
parents pray before meals. He asks for
prayer when he gets up in the morning and
when he goes to bed in the evening. He
begs his mother to go with him to church
on Sabbath.
The requests initially shocked his
mother, Gomolemo, who was not raised
in a Christian home. But she couldn’t
be happier. “I just want to thank God
for bringing me and my kids here,” she
said after Sabbath worship services at the
Eastern Gate Primary School, where her
son attends third grade.
Her young daughter goes to the church’s
Place of Love preschool up the street.
How did the mother end up in church?
Lethabo completed the first three grades
in a privately run home school with 10other students in Francistown, the secondlargest city in Botswana with a population
of about 90,000. After three years,
however, he was struggling with reading
and math, and his worried mother decided
to enroll him at Eastern Gate Primary
School. She had heard about the school
from a mother who planned to send her
daughter there. In addition, she wanted
her son to learn about God.
“I was not raised in a Christian family,
but I want to raise my kids in a Christian
family,” she said. “A lot of events are
happening in the world. We need to
know God.”Because of his poor reading and math
skills, Lethabo was asked to repeat the
third grade at the Adventist school. His
mother noticed a drastic improvement in
his studies in just a few months.“Now my son can do everything
alone,” she said. “He can read, and he’s
a star in math. Math and Bible are his
favorite subjects.”
Lethabo especially loves the Bible.
Tears come to his eyes when he hears
stories about Jesus in school.
“This boy is very close to God,” his
mother said. “Every morning, every
evening, every meal—we pray. He
encourages us. Every Sabbath, he and his
sister come to church. Sometimes I just
drop them off, and he says, ‘Mommy, you
know what? You need to come to church.”
His mother didn’t come to church,
so Lethabo decided to make it a matter
of prayer. For four months, his mother
suffered severe morning sickness. Every
day, he told his schoolteacher, “You know,
Teacher, my Mommy is not well. She is
vomiting every day. Can we pray for her?”
At home, he told his mother, “Mommy,you need to go to church so the pastor can
pray for you to get well.”
“Those words touched me,” his
mother said.
Finally, she agreed to go to church.
But she didn’t feel well the next Sabbath
morning, and a church worker came to
the house to pick up her children. Before
leaving, Lethabo turned to his mother.
“Mommy, can you please go with us?”
he said. “Why are you staying behind? Just
go. If you go, the pastor will pray for you,
and you will be healed.”
The words cut to his mother’s heart.
“Next Saturday, we will be together,”
she promised. “I will go to church.”
That is how she ended up at the school
on Sabbath.
“My son loves God. That is very good,”
she said. “I think God sent him to us to
show us the light.”
This Sabbath was the first day in four
months that she hadn’t experienced
morning sickness—an improvement not
lost on her son, who stood nearby as his
mother spoke.
“Praying is very good,” he told her.
“You’re no longer vomiting.”
His mother smiled. “Thank you, my son,”
she said. “I will keep coming to church.”
OUT OF DARNESS
Atija first heard about the Seventhday Adventist Church as an eightyear-old girl visiting her grandmother
in a village some distance from her
home in Nampula, a major city in
Mozambique where 80 percent of the
population is Muslim.
A church elder stopped her as she
walked by an Adventist church and
invited her inside for a meal. After she
ate, the elder invited her to stay for
a sermon. Atija still remembers the
sermon vividly. The preacher spoke
about Matthew 24 and described how
Jesus would raise the dead at His second
coming. Atija’s young heart was touched.
A month earlier, she had lost a four-yearold sister, Muanacha, to anemia.
“Listening to the preacher, I believed
that would be able to touch my dear sister
again,” Atija said.
Seven years passed and, at the age of 15,
she married a man who had been raised in
a Sunday-keeping home but attended anAdventist church in Nampula.
One Sabbath, she accepted his
invitation to go to church. Sabbath School
opened with the hymn, “When the Roll
Is Called Up Yonder,” and Atija listened,
transfixed, as a six-year-old girl standing
nearby sang in a clear, sweet voice.
“I was touched when I heard her voice,
and I felt something happen to my heart,”
she said.
From that day, she decided to stay in
the Adventist Church.
In northern Mozambique, tradition
requires consultations with family elders
before making major decisions, so Atija
went with her husband to visit her aunt,
Carmen. The aunt had raised her, and she
also was a witch doctor.
Aunt Carmen listened to Atija’s request
to become an Adventist and said, “Go
talk about this with your mother.”
Atija’s mother, a widow, told her, “I
didn’t raise you. Go talk with your uncle.”
Uncle Candido refused give his
permission. He vowed never to visit her
again if she were baptized.
The words frightened Atija, but she
went ahead with the baptism. She and her
husband were baptized the same day. No
family members attended.
Atija, meanwhile, gave birth to a boy,Dionisio, and he fell seriously ill. Atija
refused to take him to her aunt or any
other witch doctor for treatment.
Uncle Candido showed up at Atija’s
door one evening with a spear.
“I’m waiting for this child to die,” he
said. “When this child dies, I’m going to
impale you in the neck.”
Two days passed. The baby refused to eat
and grew weaker. Atija and her husband
tearfully prayed. On the third day, the baby
began to nurse, and a hospital examination
showed he would be fine.
The uncle went home with his spear.
“We saw that the devil had been
defeated,” Atija said. “I believe that my
son was so sick that he would have died.
But by God’s grace, he lived.”
The healing amazed one of Atija’s
sisters, and she joined the Adventist
church. A year later, Atija’s brother and
another sister were baptized. Then Atija’s
mother was baptized and, sometime later,
Aunt Carmen followed suit. “On the day
of her baptism, the pastor put her under
the water three times,” Atija said.
When the aunt emerged from the water
the first time, she began screaming words
that no one could understand. The pastor
took one look at her and said, “Let’s
baptize her again.”
When she came up the second time,
she continued to scream the torrent of
incomprehensible words. The evil spirit
left after the third immersion, Atija said.
Aunt Carmen is now a church deaconess.
Uncle Candido, who had vowed never
to visit if Atija were baptized, entered
her home after his wife’s baptism. He
announced that he also wanted to be
baptized. He died a year after his baptism.
“My whole family has surrenderedthemselves to Christ and are now church
members,” Atija said. “I praise the Lord
because the same family who opposed me
and said I was wrong are now Seventhday Adventists.”
Today, Atija is 57 and an active
pastor’s wife. Her husband, Lazaro,
completed ministerial studies and serves
as a pastor in Nampula.
Part of this quarter’s Thirteenth
Sabbath Offering will help build an
orphanage for children who lost parents
to HIV/AIDS in Nampula. Thank you for
your mission offering.
FINDING A SABBATH CHURCH
High school student Ivaldo had every
intention of becoming a priest.
He diligently studied the catechism
and taught in his church in Nampula,
Mozambique’s third-largest city with a
population of half a million. He prepared
to move to the capital, Maputo, for his
training to be a priest.
But then he compared the catechism
with the Bible as he prepared to teach
about the Ten Commandments one
Sunday. He saw that the Bible’s teachings
were quite different.
He asked a priest to explain
the discrepancies, but the priest
couldn’t answer.
At his high school, Ivaldo formed a
social group of 30 students to count the
differences between the Bible and the
church’s teachings. The students’ work
alarmed the bishop, who declared that
their research was a sin and demanded that they confess to him or risk being
ejected from the church.
“We must confess sins only to the
Lord,” the students replied.
The bishop banished the students from
the church.
The 30 students read in the Bible
that early Christians worshipped on
the seventh day, but they didn’t know
of anyone who kept the Sabbath in
Nampula. The group ended up splitting,
with some students joining evangelical
churches and others converting to Islam.
Ivaldo’s parents had some influence with
their church, and their son was allowed to
return but not become a priest.
One Sunday, Ivaldo was speaking about
the Sabbath at church when a woman
spoke up. “You know, there is a church that
keeps the Sabbath in Nampula,” she said.
Ivaldo excitedly called his 30 friends
to announce the news. Many of them,
however, were no longer interested.
Only Ivaldo and three friends went to
the Seventh-day Adventist church the
next Sabbath.
Five months later, Ivaldo was baptized.
When he told his parents about his
decision, his mother said she already
knew. “I noticed that your behavior has
changed a lot,” she said. “You started
talking about the Bible all the time.”
Father was furious and threatened to disown him. “If you go to the Adventist
church next Sabbath, I will throw you and
all your clothes out of the house,” he said.
Ivaldo went to church the next
Sabbath, and Father ordered him out
of the house. His mother, however,
convinced Father to back down.
Still, Father refused to support Ivaldo in
any way, including with his high school fees.
“I’m not going to spend any money
on you anymore unless it is to buy your
coffin,” he said.
Ivaldo received food from his mother,
and church members provided money for
school fees and other expenses.
Seeing that Ivaldo was prospering,
Father’s wrath grew. He told the neighbors
that his son had HIV and other illnesses.
“People began to shun me,” Ivaldo said. “The neighbors even forbade their
children from talking to me.”
He lived with his grandmother for
a year. Then Father sent a message
asking forgiveness and inviting him to
return home.
Father tried to help Ivaldo get into a
university, but classes were on Saturdays
so Ivaldo wouldn’t go. The father arranged
a job with a government agency, but the
job interview fell on Sabbath.
Father was angry. “I don’t understand
what you want in life,” he said. “I’m trying
to help you, but you are losing many
opportunities because of the Sabbath.
Don’t expect me to help you anymore.”
Ivaldo started working as a freelance
journalist and used his income to put
himself through journalism school. He
worked for several radio and television
companies, but no one would hire him full
time because of the Sabbath.
But Ivaldo, now 23, is not despairing.
Through his influence, 10 young people
have joined the Adventist Church.
In addition, three younger brothers
have started attending the church, and
his mother wants to join. Father has
threatened divorce.
“I’m praying for my mother and hope that
she will become an Adventist,” he said. “I’m
praying that my father will at least allow the
rest of the family to attend church.”
WORRISOME DREAMS
Antonio’s life was a mess.
In a short period of time, he married
his first-ever girlfriend, had an affair with
another woman, and lost his job as a
customs police officer in São Tomé, capital
of the island nation of São Tomé and
Príncipe off the West African coast.
A year passed, and he landed a job at a
brewery. He tried to make up with his wife,
but she refused, and they got divorced.
Then his father died.
Antonio began to drink heavily.
He moved in with another woman,
Alcina, and they had two boys and a girl.
“Life was complicated,” he said. “I drank
a lot, and there wasn’t enough money for
my family.”
Making life even more complicated,
Antonio started to have dreams—strange
dreams that he didn’t understand. In
São Tomé, people pay close attention to
dreams. A dream about a flood is believed to mean that trouble is looming. A dream
with the local safou fruit means a family
member will die.
Antonio didn’t dream about floods or
fruit. Instead, he had a dream in which he
was carrying a backpack on his shoulders
and standing before two sets of stairs. One
set of stairs was wide, and the other was
narrow. He discovered that he could climb
the wide stairs with the backpack, but he
couldn’t get up the narrow stairs.
Then he had another dream. In this
dream, he was walking toward a door when
suddenly a woman blocked his path with
a large rock. Antonio couldn’t push aside
the rock, but he found a narrow opening
that he could squeeze through. Entering
the opening, he saw a cave with a pool of
water. Someone stood there, pointing at
the water.
Antonio woke up baffled after
each dream.
He didn’t understand the dreams,
but it seemed to him that God was
revealing something.
One day, Antonio was working at the
home of his boss, the brewery owner,
and a neighbor invited him to attend an
evangelistic meeting at the local Seventhday Adventist church. Antonio accepted.
That evening, he was shocked to hear
the pastor read Matthew 7:13, 14, where
Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for
wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leads to destruction, and there are many
who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate
and difficult is the way which leads to life,
and there are few who find it” (NKJV).
Antonio returned the next evening to
hear more.
“As I kept going to the meetings,
I realized that I needed to remove
everything to get through the narrow
opening in the stone. I needed to remove
everything in my life to take the narrow
stairs,” he said.
He understood that the backpack
represented the burdens weighing him
down in life, and the pool of water
symbolized baptism.
“To get baptized, I needed to remove
everything in my life that I was a slave
to,” he said.
After Bible studies, Antonio and his
wife were baptized—and officially married.
Today, Antonio is 45 and works as a
cashier at a small wood-working business.
He also is a deacon at the church where
he attended the evangelistic meetings.
Life is no longer complicated for him.
“I am happy, and I thank God for everything that He has given to us,” he said.
MAN WITH THREE WIVES
Carlos had three wives in São Tomé,
capital of the island nation of
São Tomé and Príncipe off the West
African coast.
He and seven brothers grew up in
the home of a Seventh-day Adventist
grandmother. But he and his siblings
drifted away from the church after their
grandmother died.
When he was 21, Carlos moved in with
his Sunday-keeping common-law wife,
Edite, and they had a baby daughter.
An argument soon erupted. On the
island, it is customary to put earrings on
a newborn girl to supposedly protect her
from harm. Although Carlos no longer
went to church, he was opposed to
jewelry and asked Edite not to pierce their
daughter’s ears.
As the couple heatedly discussed the issue, Edite had a priest baptize the baby
without Carlos’ knowledge.
When Carlos learned about the
baptism, he left Edite and found a second
common-law wife, Maria.
Edite, however, wasn’t ready to give up
on the relationship and kept calling Carlos.
“So, I ended up with two wives,”
Carlos said.
Then he found a third woman and
began dating her. They moved in together
and had a child.
Carlos wound up with five children with
his first wife, four children with his second
wife, and one child with his third wife.
As Carlos split his time between his
three families, his first wife grew lonely
and befriended an Adventist couple. She
started attending church with them and
was baptized.
Carlos, meanwhile, was working for
Voice of America, a U.S. governmentfunded news broadcaster, and had little
interest in God. But he accepted an
invitation from Edite to attend the
baptism of two daughters one Sabbath.
Their teenage daughters sang a hymn
from the church platform that made him
weep. He remembered attending church
as a child, and he hid his face so people
wouldn’t see the tears. After that day, he
started attending church with his first wife.
When his second wife, Maria, learned
that he was going to church, she accused
him of planning to abandon her.
“Adventists don’t allow couples to live
together without marriage, and this means
you are planning to get married to Edite,”
she said.
Carlos denied going to church to
look for marriage. “I went to look for
salvation,” he said. “You also need to be
saved. Please attend church with me.”
Maria started attending church. Every
Sabbath, Carlos picked up his first wife and
drove her to church. Then he drove his
second wife to another church. He took
turns worshipping with his two wives.
Around this time, his third wife left
him for another man and things got really
complicated. Carlos wondered which
woman to marry.
Carlos prayed and fasted every Sabbath
for two months. Increasingly, he felt
impressed to marry his first wife, but he
longed for confirmation from the Bible.
One day, he opened his Bible and prayed,
“Help me to find the answer in the Bible.”
He looked down and saw the book of
Malachi. His eye then fell on Malachi
2:14, which says, “The Lord has been
witness between you and the wife of
your youth, with whom you have dealt
treacherously; yet she is your companion
and your wife by covenant.” (NKJV).
The second wife was devastated
by Carlos’s decision to commit to his
first wife. They wept together, but she
understood. Carlos married Edite on Dec.
29, 2013, and later was baptized.
“Then I started having a new life,” he
said. “Now I am a new creation, prepared
to go anywhere to tell the world what God
has done for me.”
It is important that as tourists in Africa we know the life that is lived there, especially in the southern area of the country where poverty is most reflected, to help in some way, it can be through the church carrying food or also doing a project in favor of those who really need it and thus provide a grain of sand to those people who sincerely sometimes have nothing.
