People
The inhabitants of North Africa are generally divided in a manner roughly corresponding to the principal geographic regions of North Africa: the Maghreb, the Nile Valley, and the Sahara. Northwest Africa on the whole is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers since before the beginning of recorded history, while the eastern part of North Africa has been home to the Egyptians and Nubians. Ancient Egyptians record extensive contact in their Western desert with people that appear to have been Berber or proto-Berber.
The official language or one of the official languages in all of the countries in North Africa is Arabic. The largest ethnic groups in North Africa are the Arabs and Berbers. North Africa is predominantly Muslim, with Christian and Jewish minorities.
(Southern Sudan is also considered part of Northern Africa.)
Read more about this topic: North Africa
Famous quotes containing the word people:
“The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.”
—Alice Walker (b. 1944)
“The general feeling was, and for a long time remained, that one had several children in order to keep just a few. As late as the seventeenth century . . . people could not allow themselves to become too attached to something that was regarded as a probable loss. This is the reason for certain remarks which shock our present-day sensibility, such as Montaigne’s observation, “I have lost two or three children in their infancy, not without regret, but without great sorrow.””
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)
“Most people regard getting their way as a matter of simple justice.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)