Africa

Chapters 18-20

Section 1

• Africa is the world’s second largest continent

• It is often referred to as a “plateau continent”

Section 1

• Within the plateau are many basins– Can be as many as 625 miles across and

5,000 feet deep!

• Water collects in these basins and feeds rivers

Rivers and Lakes

• Worlds longest river – Nile– 4,000 miles– Has provided irrigation for thousands of years

• Population density along the Nile in Egypt:– 3,320 psm– 177 psm elsewhere

Rivers and Lakes

• There are many features along the rivers of Africa

• 2,900 mile Congo River is a great example– Cataracts (waterfalls)

• Indirect rivers / Meandering– Niger River

Landforms

• Rift Valleys – formed by the pulling apart of continental plates– East Africa is pulling away from the rest of

Africa• Lakes form in rift valleys

– Some can be almost 5,000 feet deep! (Tanganyika) – However some (Victoria) are only a couple hundred feet

deep but very wide!

Mountains

• Mainly volcanic mountains– Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya– Volcanic Rock also covers the Great

Escarpment• Marks the edge of the continents plateau in

Southern Africa– Escarpment – steep slope with a nearly flat plateau on

top

Wealth of Resources

• One of the worlds richest continents– Diamonds, chromium, copper, etc.– South Africa very wealthy

• 80 percent of worlds platinum• 30 percent of worlds gold

• Economic prosperity has not been evident for all of its population– Colonial rule in Africa

Oil

• Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, and Angola produce 7 percent of the worlds oil together– Ethnic differences in Angola prevent it from

prospering– Money is spent on Civil War

Diversity of Resource

• Coffee, after oil, is Africa’s most precious commodity– Few African’s drink it

• Logging is another resource– Every year, an area twice the size of NJ is

cleared out

• Agriculture is the MOST important economic activity

Section 2

• Deserts - – Sahara Desert – 3,000 miles by 1,200 miles

• 136.4 degrees in Summer / Below freezing at night

– 20 percent sand• The rest is rocks, mountains, gravelly plains

– Travel with camels– Aquifers / Oasis / Mirage

The Tropics

• Africa has a large tropical area

• 90 percent lies within the Tropics

• There is very little temperature change here during seasonal change

Sunshine / Rainfall

• Rainfall is a matter of extremes

• Dependant upon the location– Desert / Dry– Equator / Longer Rainy Season

• Central Africa – consistent rain• Elsewhere – based on rainy seasons

Rain

• Rain may not fall in the Sahara for years

• West coast receives enough rain for floods

Grassy Continent

• Tropical Grassland – Serengeti Plain

• Dry climate / Hard soil – no trees

– Largest numbers of land migrations

Africa’s Extremes

• Rain Forests– Congo Basin

• 100 different kinds of trees, some undiscovered things• Living things decompose quickly / humidity from the canopy

– Animals in the rain forest (p. 423)

• Slash and burn agriculture

• All areas of Africa have a variety of vegetation– Mangrove tree roots – Pine forests

Section 3

• Sahel – shore of the desert– Grassland on edge of Sahara– Desertification

• Human causes

• Results of desertification

Nigeria

• Oil– Pros and Cons

• High oil prices put Nigeria flush– Borrowed against assumed consistent prices

• Oil bottomed out and Nigeria owed billions• Became poorer than before their discovery of oil

– Various reasons

Destroying the Land and the People

• Thousands of oil spills, fires, etc.

• Bandits

Controlling the Nile

• In an effort to control their most valuable resource, Egyptians built the first Aswan Dam in 1902

• Aswan High Dam – Lake Nasser– Irrigation– 3 Harvests a year

Dam Problems

• Many people were relocated during construction

• Ancient relics were flooded or lost

• No more silt

• Rising water table – salt

• Malaria, mosquitoes, evaporation off Lake Nasser

– The verdict is still out on the dam

East Africa

• East Africa – Cradle of Civilization– Olduavi Gorge – 2 million year old fossils

• Continental Crossroads– Aksum on the Red Sea

– Traded with the Romans

– Competition rose, which led to diffusion of ideas

Colonization

• Berlin Conference – set boundaries and combined peoples who were often times traditional enemies– Often cited as a root cause for modern

problems in Africa

Colonization

• Ethiopia was able to fend off Italy’s attempt

• Knowledge of the land (Am. Rev.)

Conflict in East Africa

• Rwanda – Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups– Genocide Attempts – Mid-90’s

Farming and Tourism

• East Africa – 70 percent rural

• Reliant on cash crops– Coffee, tea, sugar

• Pros and cons of cash crops

• Switch from rural to urban– Addis Ababa

Tourism and Wealth

• Parks for safari – tourists

• Big game hunting

• Land usage of parks

Culture

• 2 Major ethnic groups in East Africa– Masai and Kikuyu

Masai:

Kikuyu:

Health Care

• AIDS pandemic

• Could reduce populations by up to 20 percent or more in some countries

West Africa

• Goree Island – Slave trade hub– Human Perspective p. 442

Trading Empires

• West Africa is a cultural hearth– Due to trading empires

• Ghana, Mali, and Songhai– Gold and salt– Thrived because of location– Settled in areas after being nomadic– Ghana > Mali > Songhai

• History of violence

Stateless Society

• W. Africa has many different cultures and people– Stateless society – relies on family lineages

• Work through cooperation and compromise

– Stateless societies disappeared after colonization

West Africa Economics

• Trade is still very important– Ghana relies on exports of minerals

• PCI 1,900 dollars• After colonialism Ghana had many problems

– Since: Democracy has been instilled

– Sierra Leone – worst conditions• 31 percent literacy rate• Only 800 miles of roads• Political instability and civil war plague Sierra

Leone

Cultural Symbols

• Ashanti crafts – – Kente cloth – woven geometric figures from

special fabric (asasia)– Wooden carvings – masks, stools

• Intricate and symbolic

• Benin Art – kingdom of Benin in Nigeria– Benin bronzes– Known for creating metal and terra cotta

objects

Music

• Blend of many forms– Blues, jazz, reggae

• All had their origins in West Africa

– Many original instruments (kora)

• King Sunny and the Africa Beats

Central Africa

• Bantu Migrations– Mantu, a nomadic, migratory people spread

through central Africa• Spread their culture and ideas

• Slave Trade– Sao Tome– Origins of slave trade

Start of Colonialism

• Central Africa had many different culture groups– Geography made travel rough, culture

unchanged

• King Leopold II (Belgium) changed all that– Access by Congo River– Paved the way for the Berlin Conference

– Too many natural resources to pass on» Do cultures change by choice or force?

Effects of Colonialism

• The changing of the borders– Long standing arrangements demolished

• Centralized gov’t took over stateless societies – Abuse of power

Economic Legacy

• Removal of raw materials with no trickle down effects– No development

• Postcolonialism left much of Africa in disarray– The Democratic Republic of the Congo was

still struggling politically into the new millennium

Central Africa Art

• Western influences in African art were banned in the mid to late 1900’s– Focus is still on ways of life and politics

• Fang Sculpture– White mask with black features

• Picasso – 1907

– Skull and bone housing boxes• Decorated with figures for protection

Education

• Shortage of trained teachers

• High dropout rate / low literacy rate

• Language barriers

Education

• Cameroon – school is done at age 12 for most kids

• Education is improving – Taught about many things

• Focus on occupational topics• Diseases and prevention

Southern Africa

• A variety of things shape South Africa– Colonialism– Trade– Tribal cultures– Etc.

Southern Africa

• Great Zimbabwe – Evidence that even the best civilizations fail

• Successful trading center– For reasons unknown it was abandoned

around the time Columbus discovered the New World

Southern Africa

• Mutapa Empire– An extension of Great Zimbabwe (legend)– Declined as a result of increasing European

influence

Southern Africa

• Europeans expanded through Africa

• Competition for land

• The Zulu made the last big stand for South Africa and were defeated by the British in the 1800’s

• The British then defeated the Dutch in the Boer Wars in S. Africa

Apartheid

• Complete separation of races• No social contact between white and black• 1912 – formation of African National Congress

– 1949 Nelson Mandela is head of ANC» Imprisoned

• 1980’s brought outspoken call for change from the rest of the world

• 1984 F.W. DeKlerk became President and proposed change

• Mid 90’s new election – Mandela wins– Democracy is instilled

Economics

• Some of the most advanced economics in all of Africa– Many countries struggling for equal treatment

for black people

Economics

• South Africa – 2 economies– Due to inequalities in its history

• 1. modern, industrial cities

• 2. shantytowns and poor communities• Both ends of the extreme

• Government still faces problems because of land distribution and housing shortageds

Economics

• Botswana– After independence from Britain per capita

income was 69.00 – In 1997 it had risen to 3,900.00

– Wealth is based on minerals (diamonds)– Unequal distribution of wealth

» P. 456

AIDS in Southern Africa

• Life expectancy is dropping

• A quarter of the population or more has the HIV virus

Celebrations

• Many comparisons to our Native Americans– Gule wa makulu– Vimbuzza– Benji – Hira gasy festival

Living in Southern Africa

• Johannesburg is one of the largest cities on the continent– Small mining town now home to 6 million– Apartheid helped it to develop into “two cities”

• Extreme diversity of the individual in Southern Africa – A large mix of traditional and modern lifestyle