This year's Haute Route featured a team of Kenyans with an interesting story and an unorthodox entry into the world of cycling:
“We have a multi-tribal team. Most come from rural areas and none of them completed secondary school. These are hard men... they have dug 10 meter boreholes with their hands and simple tools, hauled 90kg sacks of corn up hills, endured abandonment and deaths in their families, and generally experienced deprivation throughout their lives.” Almost all of them use a bicycle, the basic 1-geared Black Mamba, in some capacity in their daily lives.
More about the Kenyan Riders here.
Cycling is an incredibly popular mode of transportation in East Africa particularly, and as their infrastructure develops it's only a matter of time before their teams become competitive. The recent Tour of Rwanda showed off a lot of pristine road surfaces and Team Rwanda have to turn away countless numbers of ambitious bicycle taxi drivers who ride out to their base in the mountains at Musanze in the hope of getting noticed by the team. the sport seems to be really big in Kenya, Ethiopia and Eritrea (the Italian influence?) too.
The South Africans are the continental leaders in terms of professionalism though (unsurprising given the relative wealth of the country). Their MTN Qhubeka team has a 70% African roster (mostly South Africans but also Eritreans, Ethiopians, Rwandans and Algerians) and is targeting participation in a Grand Tour by 2014.