2. There are over 800 ethnic groups in Africa. This includes Asians, Europeans, and Arabs who have been there for centuries.

3. Over 1,000 languages are spoken in Africa (40 of which have more than one million speakers)

800 ethnic groups -- wow! Is that more than America?

It is supposed that there are about 150 or more ethnic groups in the United States. However, it is extremely hard to define such number in a melting pot nation like the United States due to multi-ethnic population and annually increasing number of immigration. Link below is the category of Wikipedia.org, which lists 150 ethnic groups in the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_ethnic_groups_are_there_in_the_US#ixzz26QCejiOg

So Africa is over 3 times the size as the U.S. and has over 5 times the number of ethnic groups?

That's a true melting pot IF they can all figure out how to get along.

I suspect there would be a lot less interference if they didn't have more natural resources than any other continent on earth.

I agree.

Look how much interference there is in the Middle East for just one natural resource.