Her iconography typically included an elephant-mask head dress, a cornucopia, a military standard, and a lion.

[8] To the Romans "Africa" was only their imperial province, roughly equating to modern north-east Algeria, Tunisia and coastal Libya,[9] and the goddess/personification was not given sub-Saharan African characteristics; she was thought of as Berber.

[4][18][19] A sanctuary found in Timgad (Thamugadi in Berber) in Algeria features goddess Africa's iconography.

[21] To the Romans the distinction between goddesses who received worship and personification figures understood to be literary and iconographic conveniences was very elastic, and Africa seems to have been on the boundary between the two.

[26] In the Renaissance Africa was revived, along with other personifications, and was, by the 17th century, usually given a dark complexion, curly hair and a broad nose, in addition to her Roman attributes.