There are 47 countries on the African continent, including the disputed territory of Western Sahara. However, the islands off the coast are also usually listed as African, bringing the total to 53. The island nations are Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Madagascar, the Comoros, the Seychelles, and Mauritius. Each is an independent nation.

Some sources do not count all of the island countries as African, so the total number fluctuates. It is important to remember that even though they may have diverse populations and cultural traditions, all of the island nations listed above have substantial African populations and strong historical connections to Africa, so they are usually considered "African."

Here is a list of all the 47 countries of Africa, and their capitals:

Algeria – Algiers, Angola - Luanda  Benin - Porto-Novo (seat of government at Cotonou)
Botswana – Gaborone      Burkina Faso - Ouagadougou         Burundi - Bujumbura
Cameroon - Yaoundé      Cape Verde - Praia Central African Republic - Bangui
Chad - N'Djamena           Comoros - Moroni
Congo, Democratic Republic of (also known as Congo-Kinshasa) - Kinshasa
Congo, Republic of (also known as Congo-Brazzaville) - Brazzaville
Côte d'Ivoire (also commonly known as Ivory Coast) - Yamoussoukro (seat of government at Abidjan) Djibouti - Djibouti          Egypt - Cairo      Equatorial Guinea - Malabo Eritrea - Asmara  Ethiopia - Addis Ababa  Gabon - Libreville Gambia - Banjul Ghana - Accra Guinea - Conakry Guinea-Bissau - Bissau   Kenya - Nairobi  Lesotho - Maseru Liberia - Monrovia Libya - Tripoli Madagascar - Antananarivo Malawi - Lilongwe Mali - Bamako  Mauritania - Nouakchott Mauritius - Port Louis   Mayotte (overseas territory of France) - Mamoudzou
Morocco - Rabat Mozambique - Maputo Namibia - Windhoek
Niger - Niamey   Nigeria - Abuja Réunion (overseas department of France) - Saint-Denis Rwanda - Kigali Saint Helena (overseas territory of the United Kingdom; including the territories of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha) - Jamestown Sao Tome and Principe - São Tomé
Senegal - Dakar    Seychelles - Victoria Sierra Leone - Freetown   Somalia - Mogadishu
South Africa - Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)
Sudan - Khartoum Swaziland - Mbabane (administrative), Lobamba (royal and legislative)
Tanzania - Dodoma (seat of government at Dar es Salaam)
Togo - Lomé   Tunisia - Tunis Uganda - Kampala Western Sahara - El Aaiún (unofficial)
Zambia – Lusaka, Zimbabwe - Harare

There are 47 altogether.

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