Drawing maps used to be a big part of the geography curriculum in the U.S. One guide for students, published in 1900, is Schutze’s Amusing Geography and System of Map Drawing by Lenore Schutze. Tips for Africa, “The Skull” as Schutze sees it:
1. Cut a square into four smaller squares, and erase the southwest one.
2. Mark the cross-line from east to west, “The Equator.”
3. Draw Tripoli at the north of the division line from north to south, and Cape Town at the south end.
4. Locate the mouths of the Nile River west of the middle of the north side of the second square, and draw from them to a point north of the Equator, on the east side, and print “Cape Guardafui.” Draw the Red Sea south of this line.
5. Draw from Cape Guardafuit to Cape Town, and print “Cape of Good Hope.” Zanzibar, Pretoria, and Pietermaritzburg must be south of this line.
6. The west side of Africa extends somewhat above the north side of the first square, and does not quite reach the Equator.
7. Madagascar slants in about the same direction as the line from Cape Guardafui to Cape Town.
The entire page on Africa from Schutze’s Amusing Geography and System of Map Drawing (1900) p. 43 is below:
Making Maps: DIY Cartography 