In 1962 Zambia had
a space program intending to be the first nation on earth to send
man to the Moon and then, using a catapult firing system, to send
ten Zambian men and a 17yr old girl, together with her cat, to
Mars (see video below). In the event, the launches never
occurred although the girl did get pregnant by one of her fellow
astronauts and she was taken home from the 'training camp' by her
disgusted parents.
Visitors to Tunisia
can still visit Luke Skywalker's home from the set filmed
there representing the planet where he grew up of Tatoonine.
Lake
Malawi saw the first worldwide naval battle of the first world war when the
captain of the British gunboat Guendolen was given orders
on hearing of the outbreak of war to sink the German craft
the Hermann von Wissmann which it duly did with a single
cannon shot from 2000 yards. Okay, not so funny if you are
German but Lord Palmerston would have been proud.
Kenya is the
second largest exporter of flowers in the world.
Buildings in Tunisia
normally have fish bones embedded in them to ward off evil
spirits.
Nigeria has the
highest rate of twin births in the world.
Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the
Congo, and Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
are the two closest capital cities anywhere in the world,
facing each other from opposite sides of the Congo River
just under four miles apart.
A monument near
Rutovu, in Bururi Province, Burundi marks the
source of the River Nile.
South Africa is
the only
nation in the world to voluntarily abandon its nuclear
weapons program.
One of Lesotho's
major claims to fame is being the crash site of an alleged
UFO in 1995.
Although expanding
rapidly not least because of its burgeoning youth
population, despite having just 16% of the world's
population, Africa has 25% of all the planet's languages
spoken only on the continent totalling some 2000 of which
Arabic is the most commonly spoken.
Sudan has around
around 223 pyramids, double that found in Egypt.
The shortest war in
recorded history was between the UK and Zanzibar in August
1896 after Sultan Khalid bin Barghash succeeded the
pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini. The British did not
accept this succession and demanded Khalid relinquish his
post. After his refusal British forces bombarded his palace
for 38 minutes before the white flag was raised and Khalid
fled to German East Africa with the British installing
Sultan Hamud as head of a puppet government.
Out of all the areas
of land that made up the super-continent of Pangea, Africa
has moved the least.
The word Aphrike
(Africa) in
Greek means "without cold" whilst in Latin it means
"sunny".
More people in New
York have internet access than across the whole of Africa.
Although more closely
associated with the Netherlands, South Africa is home to
280,000 windmills.
The Sahara Desert is
larger than mainland USA.
Many believe that
Mogadishu in Somali is the world's most dangerous city. In
fact it is fourth coming in just one place higher than
Washington, DC.
The world's biggest
frog measures over one foot long and can be found in
Cameroon.
e 12th Century
over 25,000 students attended one of the three universities
in Timbuktu, situated in Modern day Mali. These
universities are amongst the oldest in the world. In
contrast to this level of academic achievement, the Spice
Girls in one of their self penned lyrics, believed Timbuktu
to be located in China.
Funny Africa Facts: Funny African Signs
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