Tooting Africa's Horn

1. East Africa Cradle of Civilization now beset by conflict Burundi Djibouti Eritrea Ethiopia Kenya Mauritius Tanzania Rwanda Somalia Uganda

2. Sudan Republic of Sudan is the largest country by area in Africa. The capital is Khartoum. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, Kenya and Uganda to the southeast, Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest.

3. Khartoum, Sudan The capital of Sudan, Khartoum is located at the point where the White Nile, flowing north from Uganda, meets the Blue Nile, flowing west from Ethiopia. The Mosque of Khartoum

5. Eritrea A 1913 sketch by the Deutsche Aksum-Expedition of Hawulti, a pre-Aksumite or early Aksumite stela at Matara. Eritrea was consolidated into a colony by the Italian government in 1890.

6. Asmara, Eritrea

7. The economy of Djibouti is based on service activities connected with the country's strategic location and status as a free trade zone in northeast Africa.

8. Djibouti This country has an historically strategic location in northeast Africa. Two-thirds of the inhabitants live in the capital city, Djibouti, the remainder being mostly nomadic herders.

9. Djibouti provides services as both a transit port for the region and an international transshipment and refueling center.

10. Aksumite Kingdom Emerging around the time of the birth of Jesus, for unknown reasons, it declined after the 7th century

11. Ethiopia's population is highly diverse. Most of its people speak a Semitic or Cushitic language.

12. Ethiopia is the only country in Africa with an unbroken sovereignty and is one of the oldest continuous nations in the world.

13. Addis Ababa - Ethiopian capital

14. Berlin Conference The diplomats the 1884-85 Berlin Conference laid down the rules of competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies.

15. Tanzania

16. Dodoma In 1973, plans were made to move the capital of Tanzania to Dodoma. Tanzania's National Assembly moved there in February 1996, but many government offices remain in the original national capital, Dar es Salaam. (below) The port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city. Makua mask

17. In 1894, the British Government declared Uganda its protectorate. Surrounding kingdoms are incorporated, with the borders becoming fixed in 1914. Independence is achieved peacefully in 1962 but rising tensions between the country's different ethnic groups see Prime Minister Milton Obote impose a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the country's kingdoms. Uganda

18. Kampala, Uganda Capital and largest city of Uganda, Kampala occupies a series of hills at an elevation of about 3,900 feet and is situated just north of Lake Victoria.

19. Full name: Idi Amin Dada Oumee. AKA 'Big Daddy', AKA 'Butcher of Africa', AKA 'Conqueror of the British Empire', AKA 'Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea'. Kill tally: 100,000-500,000 (most sources say 300,000). Idi Amin

20. Forest Whitaker won a Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Idi Amin in the fictionalized account of this man’s horrific reign.

21. Uganda The traditional dress of a Karimojong woman was constituted of aprons and skirts made from carefully matched goatskins. But once Idi Amin became president in 1970 he forced the people of Uganda to wear western style clothes. Staple foods eaten in Uganda are bananas, corn, millet and sorghum. Vegetables that they grow are beans, sweet potatoes and cassava. Cassava, a root vegetable, can be made into dumplings . Soups and stews are supplemented with goat's meat, beef and fish.

22. Uganda is one of the few African countries where rates of HIV infection have declined, and it is seen as a rare example of success in a continent facing a severe AIDS crisis. Uganda's policies are credited with helping to bring adult HIV prevalence (the proportion of adults living with HIV) down from around 15% in the early 1990s to 5% in 2001. At the end of 2003, the government and the UN say that only 4.1% of adults had the virus.

23. Kigali, Rwanda

25. Rwanda "Unity, Work, Patriotism" The above movie is based on the true events that took place during the genocidal violence that erupted in Rwanda between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups in 1994.

26. Genocide Some have theorized that the 1994 mass killings in Rwanda were partially the result of its high population density. At 8.6 children per woman, it had one of the highest fertility rates in the world, and 40% of its children under the age of 5 were malnourished. A Rwandan boy in a Catholic church which is now a memorial to the genocide. In 1994, thousands of Tutsis were massacred in the church’s grounds .

28. Population Pyramid How can you tell when the genocide occurred simply by looking at this Population Pyramid?

29. A Somali rancher herds cattle in Kismayo. Livestock accounts for about 40% of Somalia's GDP Somalia has no recognized central government authority nor any other feature associated with an established nation state. De facto authority resides in the hands of the governments for the unrecognized entities of Somaliland, Puntland, and other rival warlords.

30. Mogadishu, Somalia Showing the scars of ten years of constant battling for control of the city, a state of near-anarchy yet exists.

31. Burundi Geographically isolated, facing population pressures and having sparse resources, Burundi is one of the poorest and most conflict-ridden countries in Africa and in the world. Its small size belies the magnitude of the problems it faces in reconciling the claims of the Tutsi minority with the Hutu majority.

32. Bujumbura The nation's capital and largest urban centre this city's industry specializes in textiles, leather, paper, chemicals, and agricultural products. Bujumbura also serves as the country's main port on Lake Tanganyika; most of Burundi's foreign trade is shipped between the capital and Kigoma, Tanzania, and, to Kalemi, Congo.

33. Mauritius Mauritian society is highly multicultural. The official language of Mauritius is English. French dominates the media and business, radio and television, despite France having lost its colonial dominion over the island nearly 200 years ago.

34. Port Louis, Mauritius Its main port on the Indian Ocean is the largest city in Mauritius with a population is 147,688.

35. African issues Nearly 90 million Africans could be infected by HIV in the next 20 years if more is not done to combat the epidemic, the UN has warned. "Millions of new infections can be prevented if Africa and the rest of the world decide to tackle Aids as an exceptional crisis that has the potential to devastate entire societies and economies," said UNAids chief Peter Piot.