#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my @matrix; # Array of Array, ["africa1",18,1,48,23]

<DATA>;  # throw away first line
while (<DATA>)
{
   next if /^\s*$/;                   # skip blank lines   
   push (@matrix, [split(/\s+/,$_)]); # create AoA (2-D matrix)
}

print Dumper \@matrix;

__DATA__
Name	f1	f2	f3	f4
africa1	18	1	48	23
usa2	48	23	60	23
africa2	17	3	49	25
africa3	20	6	52	30
usa1	55	20	56	25
china1	35	37	55	87
china2	40	33	50	73
africa4 18	2	47	23