Country South Africa

• Post by Staff Writer on 14 Jul 2014

Africa is one of the largest continents in the world with over 50 different countries. It is subdivided into various regions: Northern Africa which is constituted by countries like Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya; The western region of Africa include countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo etc. Countries that occupy the eastern part of Africa include Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar. The Central Africa is made up of countries like Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea etc.

“Countries in South Africa” – the part that often brings confusion: There are several countries in Southern Africa just like in every other African region. Such countries include Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa (which is a country within the southern Africa).

A lot of people often think that South Africa has other countries within it; but that’s not true, South Africa is the main hub among the Southern African countries. South Africa is just one country at the southern part of Africa. Geographically, Lesotho is an African country located right inside South Africa forming an enclave ( an independent country that is completely landlocked by another) and is the only independent African country to have such attribute. Apart from Lesotho, there are only 2 more landlocked nations in the world: The republic of San Marino which is enclaved within Italy and The Vatican City, which is enclaved within the city of Rome.

There are 2 major classifications for countries in Southern Africa:

The United Nations classification and that of Southern African Development Community (SADC) which is an inter-governmental agency headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana with the sole purpose of fostering socio-economic integration and growth among the member states. One may consider it as a smaller version of the African Union.

United Nations Recognition of Countries in South Africa:

According to the United Nations, there are 5 different countries that make up Southern Africa:

1. South Africa
2. Namibia
3. Lesotho
4. Botswana
5. Swaziland

These countries constitute the geographic mapping of South African countries according to the United Nations. This is also the classification used by the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) which was established in 1969 to replace the customs union of 1910 making it the oldest existing customs union in the world.