Eastern Africa (UN Statistics Division subregion)


Due to colonial territories of the British East Africa Protectorate and German East Africa, the term East Africa is often (especially in the English language) used to specifically refer to the area now comprising the three countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.[10][11][12][13] However, this has never been the convention in many other languages, where the term generally had a wider, strictly geographic context and therefore typically included Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]

Geography and climate


Some parts of East Africa have been renowned for their concentrations of wild animals, such as the "big five": the elephant, buffalo, lion, black rhinoceros,[21] and leopard, though populations have been declining under increased stress in recent times, particularly those of the rhino and elephant.

The geography of East Africa is often stunning and scenic. Shaped by global plate tectonic forces that have created the East African Rift, East Africa is the site of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the two tallest peaks in Africa. It also includes the world's second largest freshwater lake, Lake Victoria, and the world's second deepest lake, Lake Tanganyika.

The climate of East Africa is rather atypical of equatorial regions. Because of a combination of the region's generally high altitude and the rain shadow of the westerly monsoon winds created by the Rwenzori Mountains and Ethiopian Highlands, East Africa is surprisingly cool and dry for its latitude. In fact, on the coast of Somalia, many years can go by without any rain whatsoever.[22] Elsewhere the annual rainfall generally increases towards the south and with altitude, being around 400 mm (16 in) at Mogadishu and 1,200 mm (47 in) at Mombasa on the coast, whilst inland it increases from around 130 mm (5 in) at Garoowe to over 1,100 mm (43 in) at Moshi near Kilimanjaro. Unusually, most of the rain falls in two distinct wet seasons, one centred on April and the other in October or November. This is usually attributed to the passage of the Intertropical Convergence Zone across the region in those months, but it may also be analogous to the autumn monsoon rains of parts of Sri Lanka, Vietnam and the Brazilian Nordeste.

West of the Rwenzoris and Ethiopian highlands, the rainfall pattern is more typically tropical, with rain throughout the year near the equator and a single wet season in most of the Ethiopian Highlands from June to September – contracting to July and August around Asmara. Annual rainfall here ranges from over 1,600 mm (63 in) on the western slopes to around 1,250 mm (49 in) at Addis Ababa and 550 mm (22 in) at Asmara. In the high mountains rainfall can be over 2,500 mm (98 in).


The unique geography and apparent suitability for farming made East Africa a target for European exploration, exploitation and colonialization in the nineteenth century. Today, tourism is an important part of the economies of Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, and Uganda. The easternmost point of the continent, that is Ras Hafun in Somalia, is of archaeological, historical and economical importance.[24][25]



According to the theory of the recent African origin of modern humans, the predominantly held belief among most archaeologists, East Africa is the area where anatomically modern humans first appeared.[26] There are differing theories on whether there was a single exodus or several; a multiple dispersal model involves the Southern Dispersal theory.[27] A growing number of researchers suspect that North Africa was instead the original home of the modern humans who first trekked out of the continent.[28]



The southern part of East Africa was occupied until recent times by Khoisan hunter-gatherers, whereas in the Ethiopian Highlands the donkey and such crop plants as teff allowed the beginning of agriculture around 7,000 B.C.[31] Lowland barriers and diseases carried by the tsetse fly, however, prevented the donkey and agriculture from spreading southwards. Only in quite recent times has agriculture spread to the more humid regions south of the equator, through the spread of cattle, sheep and crops such as millet. Language distributions suggest that this most likely occurred from Sudan into the African Great Lakes region, since the Nilotic languages spoken by these pre-Bantu farmers have their closest relatives in the middle Nile basin.

Ancient history

Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, northern Somalia, and the Red Sea coast of Sudan are considered the most likely location of the land known to the Ancient Egyptians as Punt.[32] The old kingdom's first mention dates to the 25th century BC.[33] The ancient Puntites were a nation of people that had close relations with Pharaonic Egypt during the times of Pharaoh Sahure and Queen Hatshepsut.

The Kingdom of Aksum was a trading empire centered in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.[34] It existed from approximately 100–940 AD, growing from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period c. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. The kingdom is mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as an important market place for ivory, which was exported throughout the ancient world. Aksum was at the time ruled by Zoskales, who also governed the port of Adulis.[35] The Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own Aksumite currency. The state also established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian peninsula, eventually extending its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom.

Bantu expansion

Between 2500–3000 years ago, Bantu-speaking peoples began a millennia-long series of migrations eastward from their homeland around southern Cameroon. This Bantu expansion introduced agriculture into much of the African Great Lakes region. During the following fifteen centuries, the Bantu slowly intensified farming and grazing over all suitable regions of East Africa, in the process making contact with Austronesian- and Arabic-speaking settlers on southern coastal areas. The latter also spread Islam to the coastal belt, but most Bantu remained African Traditional Religion adherents.

Early Iron Age findings in East and Southern Africa


After their movements from their original homeland in West Africa, Bantus also encountered in central east Africa peoples of Cushitic origin. As cattle terminology in use amongst the few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests, the Bantu migrants would acquire cattle from their new Cushitic neighbors. Linguistic evidence also indicates that Bantus most likely borrowed the custom of milking cattle directly from Cushitic peoples in the area.[36]


The earliest Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Kenya and Tanzania encountered by these later Arab and Persian settlers have been variously identified with the trading settlements of Rhapta, Azania and Menouthias[39] referenced in early Greek and Chinese writings from AD 50 to AD 500,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] ultimately giving rise to the name for Tanzania.[48][49] These early writings perhaps document the first wave of Bantu settlers to reach central east Africa during their migration.[50]

Between the 14th and 15th centuries, large African Great Lakes kingdoms and states emerged, such as the Buganda[51] and Karagwe[51] kingdoms of Uganda and Tanzania.

Modern history

Arab and Portuguese eras

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the region of current-day Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique by sea. Vasco da Gama visited Mombasa in 1498. Da Gama's voyage was successful in reaching India, which permitted the Portuguese to trade with the Far East directly by sea. This in turn challenged the older trading networks of mixed land and sea routes, such as the spice trade routes which utilized the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and camel caravans to reach the eastern Mediterranean.

The Republic of Venice had gained control over much of the trade routes between Europe and Asia. After traditional land routes to India had been closed by the Ottoman Turks, Portugal hoped to use the sea route pioneered by da Gama to break the once Venetian trading monopoly. Portuguese rule in the African Great Lakes region focused mainly on a coastal strip centered around Mombasa. The Portuguese presence in the area officially began after 1505, when flagships under the command of Don Francisco de Almeida conquered Kilwa, an island located in what is now southern Tanzania.






Period of European imperialism

Map of British East Africa in 1911

Between the 19th and 20th century, East Africa became a theatre of competition between the major imperialistic European nations of the time. The three main colors of the African country were beige, red, and blue. The red stood for the English, blue stood for the French, and the beige stood for Germany during the period of colonialism. During the period of the Scramble for Africa, almost every country in the larger region to varying degrees became part of a European colonial empire.






Post-colonial period



In the Horn of Africa and Nile Valley, Afroasiatic languages predominate, including languages of the family's Cushitic (such as Beja, Oromo and Somali), Semitic (such as Amharic, Arabic and Tigrinya), and Omotic (such as Wolaytta) branches.

In the African Great Lakes region, Niger-Congo languages of the Bantu branch are most widely spoken. Among these languages are Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Runyakitara and Luganda. Swahili, with at least 80 million speakers as a first or second language, is an important trade language in the Great Lakes area. It has official status in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Nilo-Saharan languages, such as Luo, Kalenjin, Maasai and Nuer, are spoken in lesser numbers, primarily in the African Great Lakes and Nile Valley.

Indo-European languages, such as English, French and Portuguese, remain important in higher institutions in some parts of the larger region.


Eastern Africa had an estimated population of 260 million in 2000. This was projected to reach 890 million by 2050, with an average growth rate of 2.5% per annum. The 2000 population is expected to quintuple over the course of the 21st century, to 1.6 billion as of 2100 (UN estimates as of 2017).[52] In Ethiopia, there is an estimated population of 102 million as of 2016.[53]

Science and technology



Northern East Africa (Horn of Africa)
South Sudan
Southern East Africa (Southeast Africa)
Outside Southeast Africa with Southeast African participation




Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have each faced instability and ethnic conflict since independence, most notably the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and the 1993 Burundi Genocide and subsequent Burundi Civil War. Rwanda and Uganda continue to be involved in related conflicts outside the region.

Djibouti, as well as the Puntland and Somaliland regions of Somalia, have also seen relative stability.[54][55][56]


Countries, capitals and largest cities

According to the CIA, as of 2017, the countries in the eastern Africa region have a total population of around 537.9 million inhabitants.[58]

Country Capital Largest city by population[59] Second largest city by population[59]
Horn of Africa
 Djibouti Djibouti City (529,000; 2018 est.) Djibouti City Ali Sabieh
 Eritrea Asmara Asmara Keren
 Ethiopia Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (2,739,551; 2007 est.) Dire Dawa
 Somalia Mogadishu Mogadishu Hargeisa
Nile Valley
 Sudan Khartoum Omdurman Khartoum
 South Sudan Juba Juba Malakal
Indian Ocean islands
 Madagascar Antananarivo (1,015,140; 2005 est.) Antananarivo Toamasina (3,133,518; 2009 est.)
 Mauritius Port Louis Port Louis Beau Bassin-Rose Hill
 Comoros Moroni Moroni Mutsamudu
 Seychelles Victoria Victoria Anse Etoile
 Réunion Saint-Denis Saint-Denis Saint-Paul
 Mayotte Mamoudzou Mamoudzou Dzaoudzi
East African Community
 Uganda Kampala (1,507,114; 2014 est.) Kampala Gulu
 Rwanda Kigali Kigali Gitarama
 Burundi Gitega (22,989; 2012 est.) Bujumbura Muyinga
 Kenya Nairobi Nairobi Mombasa (915,101; 2009 est.)
 Tanzania Dodoma Dar es Salaam Mwanza
Southeast Africa
 Mozambique Maputo Maputo Nampula
 Malawi Lilongwe (868,800; 2012 est.) Lilongwe Blantyre (783,296; 2012 est.)
 Zambia Lusaka Lusaka Kitwe
 Zimbabwe Harare Harare Bulawayo

See also


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