The Geography of Africa

By: Eleanor Joyce

City of Salem Schools

Main Ideas

Fertile soil along the Nile River encouraged the rise of great civilizations (ex. Egypt)

Many geographic features in Africa have prevented contact, trade & unity among peoples

Many of these same features limit European knowledge of Africa “the Dark Continent”

Physical Geography

PHYSICAL FEATURES

Sahara Desert smooth coastline lack of navigable rivers Great Rift Valley high plateau

RESULT Groups are kept

separate - - 800 different languages

are spoken in modern Africa

Desert

Desert

RainforestSavanna

Black line shows the Great Rift Valley

This is what Africa will look like in about one million years. Notice that the Persian Gulf does not exist and the horn of Africa is a separate peninsula. This is caused by the movement of tectonic plates.

Diversity leads to Imperialism

Raw materials and resources lead to European interest in Africa

Africa’s geographical divisions prevents the Africans from cooperating to resist

Interesting Statistics

2nd largest continent- - 11,700,000 square miles!

That’s 20.2% of the earth

And 3x the size of the USA

778,000,000 people 55 countries

Topography

Deserts 40% of the land surface of Africa slows cultural diffusion - does not totally prevent it

Sahara -- North Africa 1/3 of the continent (= to the USA!!) majority is rock and gravel

Kalahari--Southwest Africa

Desert spreads into semi-arid regions

P rob lem : D esert ifica tion

m aln u trit ion s ta rva tion p overty

S ah e l D esert(s ou th S ah ara)

Desertification - Causes

Farmers use semi-arid land next to desert - yields poor crop

Overgrazing by cattle and goats Overcutting of trees for firewood

With no grass or tree roots, the topsoil blows With no grass or tree roots, the topsoil blows away, the desert advancesaway, the desert advances

Solutions

Crop rotation Terracing to prevent soil from washing away Tree belts to stop erosion and hold soil in

place

Mountains

East Africa- caused by volcanic activity section of the land sank - causing the Great Rift

Valley Atlas (NW) Drakensberg (SE) Ethiopian Highlands Famous peaks - Mt. Kenya & Mt. Kilimanjaro

Atlas Mountains

Ethiopian Highlands

Drakensburg Mountains

Mt. Kilamanjaro

Rivers

Depth varies depending on the season-if it’s the rainy season or the dry season

Plateaus prevent easy navigation due to water falls.

Therefore, the interior of Africa remained Therefore, the interior of Africa remained largely unexplored largely unexplored

Can you name the rivers?

Congo

NileNiger

Zambezi

4,180 miles long (world’s longest!!) flows NORTH Source - - Lake Victoria Delta - - Egypt Floods annually

One of the most densely populated region in Africa

Waterfalls and rapids prevent easy navigation Congo - 3000 miles long Niger - ancient civilizations flourished here Zambezi - Victoria Falls, used for hydro-

electric power

Coastline

Smooth coastline Few natural harbors - hard to land ships Narrow continental shelf

Climate - determined by rainfall, latitude and elevation Savanna - 40% of the land, safari!! Tropical Rainforest - 8% of the land, Desert - 40% of the land Mediterranean - 12% of the land, good farm

land

About 85% of the land is not suited to farmingAbout 85% of the land is not suited to farming

Natural Resources

Farming peanuts, cotton, cocoa, coffee

Minerals diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt

Water hydroelectric power

Diseases in Africa

Tropical climate creates incubator for disease Poverty spreads disease

polluted water open sewers bathing in parasite infected water poor medical care

Diseases in Africa

Ebola Encephalitis Guinea worm Sleeping sickness Aids Malaria Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease

transmitted by the sand fly, is almost always fatal if left untreated.

Diseases in Africa

Ebola- is one of the deadliest viruses in the world, killing up to 90% of its victims in days.

The disease begins with high fever, diarrhea, bleeding from the nose and gums, and can eventually induce massive internal hemorrhages.

Diseases in Africa

African Sleeping Sickness (Trypanosomiasis) : This disease occurs in several countries of Central and East Africa. Most risk to tourists occurs when visiting game parks. Travelers to rural areas should take measures to prevent insect (tsetse fly) bites.

Diseases in Africa

Arboviral Fevers : Few if any cases of dengue are reported from North Africa. Sandfly fever is widely distributed, especially in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Rift Valley fever and West Nile fever are significant risks in Egypt.

Diseases in Africa

Cholera occurs in areas with inadequate sanitation, such as urban slums and rural areas. Travelers should consider vaccination. Prevention consists primarily in adhering to safe food and drink guidelines.

Diseases in Africa

Many diseases are carried by mosquito bites, rodent bites or tick bites.

World Bank officials say diarrhea causes the deaths of more than 800 000 African children each year. Many of the deaths are in West Africa, where intestinal illnesses claim more young lives than malaria or AIDS.

Programs are in place that encourage people to wash their hands with soap after using the toilet.

Diseases in Africa Guinea Worm

Guinea worm disease is caused by a threadlike parasitic worm that grows and matures in people. Worms grow up to 3 feet long and are as wide as a paper clip wire.

People get infected when they drink standing water containing a tiny water flea that is infected with the even tinier larvae of the Guinea worm.

Inside the human body, the larvae mature, growing as long as 3 feet. After a year, the worm emerges through a painful blister in the skin, causing long-term suffering and sometimes crippling after-effects

Guinea Worm

Guinea Worm

Guinea Worm

Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping Sickness

African sleeping sickness affects as many as 500,000 people, 80 percent of whom eventually die, and the bite of the fly causes more than $4 billion in economic losses annually.

The tsetse fly has turned much of the fertile African landscape into an uninhabited "green desert," spreading sleeping sickness -- and killing 3 million livestock animals every year

AIDS IN AFRICA

AIDS IN AFRICA

Two orphaned children stand next to the graves of their parents who died from the AIDS virus.

             

          

An infected mother with her child who has the disease as well.

70% of the world’s estimated 40 million people living with

HIV/AIDS are located in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 90% of the world’s

HIV infected children.

Of 30 children born in sub-Saharan Africa-

10 will acquire the virus simply by being born-

4 will be infected from breast feeding .

Most of these children will notlive to see their 5th birthdays.

12 million African children have been orphaned due to the

AIDS virus.

17 million Africans have already died since the

epidemic began in the late 1970’s.

In recent years the government budget for Health care per person

in Kenya has dropped from $9.50 to less than $3.00.

Within 10 years the average life expectancy in 11 countries in Africa will drop below 40 as

HIV/AIDS continues to shorten life spans.