ABSTRACT
From the shifting sands of the Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope, sub-Saharan Africa is immense, two and a half times the size of the United States and home to nearly 600 million people. The region—what used to be called “black” Africa, although it is in fact multiracial—encompasses some forty-seven countries and a far larger number of cultures and languages. Yet notwithstanding its size and vast mineral wealth, sub-Saharan Africa is largely undeveloped: the entire region has fewer telephones than does Manhattan, the central borough of New York City. 1
