DID YOU KNOW FACTS…
Hello, and welcome to another edition of did you know fact. The universe is so enormously structured in structured that it’s so difficult for us to know everything that exists in it. However, as a curious being that we are, we still strive to know despite the seemingly impossibility of knowing all. And in this quest to know we often encounter astounding facts we never knew and these facts could be either positive or negative, appealing or repelling. So, what could our facts for today be? Kindly join me as we embark on this voyage of discovery. And our focus for today is the continent of Africa.
NIGERIA HAS THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF TWINS BORN IN THE WORLD
Did you know that Nigeria has the highest number of twins born in the world? Incredible isn’t it?
One of Africa’s largest countries, Nigeria, has been nicknamed “The Land of Twins” by the BBC because it has the highest rate of twin births in the world. Numbers show that twin birth rates in West Africa are actually four times higher here than anywhere else in the world and the centre of it all takes place in a little town in Nigeria called Igbo-Ora, Oyo State. In Igbo-Ora, almost every household boasts at least a set of twins. The town is nicknamed the ‘Twin Capital of the World” with an estimated 2017 population of about 92,000 people. Igbo Ora records an unusually high rate of twin births; a study carried out by British gynecologist, Patrick Nylander from 1972 to 1982 recorded an average of 45 to 50 sets of twins per 1000 births in Igbo Ora.
The people see the birth of twins as an honor and a blessing from God, with some of them regarding twins as supernatural beings and accordingly worship them as deities. Others, however, subscribe to a different school of thought, which attributes the high birth rate of twins to a diet related condition.
AFRICA’S SAHARA DESERT IS BIGGER THAN THE USA
What?!!! Yeah…exactly, that was the reaction I expected.
It’s popularly known that the Sahara the largest and hottest desert in the world. However, what’s unknown to us is the fact that the expanse of land which constitutes the Sahara desert is way bigger than the whole of the United States. Africa is the hottest continent on the planet and so much of its land is made up of desert. The Sahara, being the largest desert in the world, is truly vast. Its expansive size is 9.4 million square kilometres – bigger than the entire USA! Another interesting fact about the Sahara is that it is actually growing in size as it’s been expanding in the southern regions at a rate of half a mile per month which equates to six miles per year!
Ethiopia is the only African country with its own alphabet.
It may said that the colonial administration of the Europeans in Africa has robbed us of almost all of our cultures; starting from our modes of dressing, language, food, and alphabet etc. Hardly can any colonized African country fully boast of having her own alphabet outside that which the colonial masters having given to us – except Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the only African country that was not colonized by the European powers, and this to an extent explains why she is the only African country that has her own alphabet. The Ethiopian alphabet has been tagged the world’s oldest living alphabets – Ethiopic – and probably one of the longest with its 345 letters.
Jubril Olalekan
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