Funny Africa Facts

On a continent the size of Africa there are bound to be many funny facts and here we have collated some of the most unusual. For example, 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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Funny Africa Facts

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.

In the 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.