IIRC, Africa is the most forested continent on the planet, as a percentage of land. Huge swaths of Africa have never met even 18th century industrialization.
The deforestation and lack of forest in the world is one of the great myths of the environmental left. It is only true in Europe, and to a lesser extent, Asia. Most of the rest of the world is as forested or more forested that it was a few hundred years ago, including North America.
That is interesting .....considering that Africa has one of the smallest forest-to-area, as well as total area, of forests in the world. Infact the continents of North America (yeah, us guys in terms of both percentage and total area), South America (in both percentage and total), Europe (yep ...them too in terms of percentage area but NOT total area) and Asia (once you add the great Siberian 'Taiga' forests ....infact Russia by itself has more forest than Africa ....multiplied 6 times) ALL pass by Africa by a HUGE margin. Infact Africa is basically denuded, and has always been.
Most of Africa is Savannah, with deserts in the north (Sahara) and south (Namib). The only forests that can be found are those in and around central Africa (starting from the Virungas where east and central meet, up to the Congo basin). That is where you find the type of flora that one would see in 1930s Tarzan flicks. Otherwise Africa is almost entirely grassland, with desert taking up the second position.
The whole 'Jungle-Africa' is a myth that has been perpetuated for ages. True, there are deeply forested areas, but those are tiny as a percentage (again, both in terms of percentage ratio as well as total size, N.America and Europe surpass Africa in terms of trees ....infacf Russia by itself has more trees than Africa). If you want to see the type of foliage normally associated with Africa go to the jungles of Brazil, or those of S.E Asia. However for some reason there is this image of lliana vines, huge magrove swamps, and jungles that stretch for eternity in Africa. Are they there? Yes, in the Congo. But Africa is nowhere near the other continents (with the exception of Antartica and depending on how you look at it Australia) when it comes to forests/jungles/however-ya-wanna-call-it. Virtually all of the 'great African jungles' you have seen come from either the Virungas or the Congo Basin.
Forest Area in Thousands of square kilometers
Africa 527
Asia 844
North America 3,737
South America 4,439
Europe 14
Russia 3,448
Oceania 319
The whole 'African jungle' thing is perpetuated by people who base their knowledge of Africa (and the world) on b-grade movies, or people who happened to visit one of the areas that have jungle. Infact a simple look at a global foliage map would show Africa oscillates between Savannah and desert (with Savannah being numero uno and arid/semi-arid desert a close second).