That's Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi all together, draped around lake Victoria. It's quite densely populated there.
Rwanda and Burundi are each among the top 20 most densely populated countries. Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, not so much, to my surprise. I thought Malawi might be too but nope.
Unfortunately these lakes (Victoria, Tanganyka and Malawi) water levels have become very volatile due to climate change and will increase to do so. There is an acute risk of a lot of climate refugees coming from these bright yellow areas within the next century.
For anyone else curious, that bright spot and line at the top right is Cairo, Egypt and the line follows along the Nile River.
Apparently most of the population avoids deserts (understandable) and likes to hang out in the tropical or near-sea environment.
The right hand side of South Africa, (KZN and the Eastern Cape) are also the poorest and worst run parts of the country.
Yeah it's pretty neat to learn about. The high heat of the equator causes clouds coming off the ocean to the east to drop all their rain, creating the rainforest. Then the now dry winds travel north and south off the equator, bringing lots of heat and dryness, which gives us the Sahara!
You can find the equator roughly in the centre between the Sahara, the dark horizontal area in the north, and the Namib desert, the dark area in the south west.
And all of that creates massive dust clouds that travel across to South America where it is deposited and gave birth to the lushness of the Amazon.
That was my first thought when I saw it too, but I went and looked and was reminded how bad my geography knowledge is!
There's really not much in the southern hemisphere. I spent most of my life in Australia and generally thought of Africa and South America as being down under with us, but 2/3 of Africa is above the equator and even 10% of South America is "north".
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