Does anybody know of a place that would be a good reference for creating a fantasy Africa?

I want to create a region that’s heavily inspired by Africa. (I’m not attempting to recreate the entire continent in my world; I just want one region to have African-like countries and I’m using other parts of the world for other regions. (Like Europe and its climate for one; the Middle East for another; the Americas for a fourth, etc.)<br><br>Now, the issue that I have is that I’m American, and as such I have limited knowledge of the world outside of my own country, Europe, Australia, Canada, etc. (Plus whatever random knowledge I have of Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and China.) If I was trying to create a nation that resembles a European nation I could just look at real European nations. But I don’t have the same level of knowledge of African nations.<br><br>A big part of the problem is that, while I know of a lot of European nations, African nations are, to me, just a list of names without any real details. Like, I know France is famous for wine, Italy is famous for pasta, Germany is famous for sausages, etc. I know a lot of random details about European nations, details that I can use to create nations that are similar. I know that Spain and Portugal are in the Iberian peninsula and that they share a border, so I can use that to create a nation that resembles either, or a nation that resembles both. I know Denmark is made up of a peninsula and a bunch of islands, and I know that Norway has a long, narrow shape. I know a lot of these random details about European nations that can help me create countries for my world. But I don’t have the same level of knowledge about African nations, beyond knowing the names of the nations. I don’t know what details I could use to create nations that resemble them.<br><br>So I guess what I’m asking for is places that have this information. Places I can go to learn about African nations so I can use that knowledge to create my own nations; how to create countries, cultures, etc. that are similar to them. I know that African nations are as different from each other as European nations are, but I also know that they’re similar in that they’re all located in Africa. So I’m looking for information that I can use to create that similarity, in the same way I could use European nations as a reference for creating European-like nations. (If that makes sense.) I want nations that are inspired by African nations, but I don’t know how to do that. I need information.<br><br>Edit: I also want to point out I'm also going to be reading about Asian and Oceania nations. I didn't say anything about them because I didn't really have anything to say. But I am going to be using them as inspiration for other regions in my world. This thread was specifically about Africa because that's all I was thinking about when I posted, but I also want to use other continents as references for other regions. I also know more random details about Asian nations than African nations.