This POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DICTIONARY OF AFRICA considers the whole of the continent. It is common to make a distinction between North Africa and Africa south of the Sahara, or sub-Saharan Africa, on the grounds that economically, politically and culturally, the countries and peoples of North Africa are more closely related to and involved with those of the Middle East than those of sub-Saharan Africa. But North Africa has always been linked to the rest of Africa, by the trans-Saharan trade and by cultural, social and political relationships of various kinds. Even today, when state borders are generally better.
