VIRTUALLY unknown to the civilized world a century ago, Middle Africa sprawls forbiddingly across a full two-thirds of the earth's second largest continent, an area big enough to contain the entire U.S. with room to spare. On one side the hot Arab lands of North Africa are linked to Europe by more than 2,000 years of common history. At the other end descendants of 17th century Dutch settlers in the Union of South Africa boast a colonial past nearly as long as that of North America. But until the mid-19th century, Middle Africa was...
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