Sub-Saharan Africa

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Sub-Saharan Africa

• Geography 200
• Dr. Stavros Constantinou

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Africa

• Africa is the poorest and least urbanized of the
  world regions.
• Present day boundaries of African countries are a
  legacy of colonialism.
• Africa is made up of a series of plateaus
  separated by escarpments.
• Africa has a rich resource base, but political
  fragmentation prevents exploitation of these
  resources by any one country.
• Colonialism, governmental instability, and
  tribalism prevent Africa from achieving economic
  development.
• The people of Africa face a high incidence of
  diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness
  (trypanosomiasis), and river blindness.

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AFRICA LOCATION AND SIZE

• Africa is positioned astride the Equator,
  reaching as far north as the latitude of
  Richmond, Virginia, and as far south as Buenos
  Aires, Argentina. The continent has no Pacific
  coastline and is located at the heart of the land
  hemisphere. Africa has a minimum aggregate
  distance to the world's other continents as well
  as a central location antipodal to the Pacific.
• Africa has an area of 30,186,000 square
  kilometers (11,698,111 square miles) which
  represents about 20 percent of the total
  planetary surface (world total land is
  149,961,000 square kilometers or 57,900,000
  square miles).
• Africa had a population of 861,000,000 people in
  2003, which accounts for 13.6 percent of the
  world total population.

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Africa lacks major mountain ranges. The Atlas
  Mountains of the Maghreb occupy a mere corner in
  the northwest of Africa. The Cape Ranges in the
  far south have only local, not regional
  dimensions.
• The following form the most striking of Africa's
  physical landscapes
• In East Africa there is a set of elongated lakes
  (with the exception of Lake Victoria) from Lake
  Malawi (formerly Nyasa) in the south to Lake
  Turkana in the north. Rift valleys are formed
  when huge parallel cracks or faults appear in the
  earth's crust and in the in-between strips of
  land sink or are pushed down to form valleys.
  These valleys extend from the north end of the
  Red Sea to Swaziland in southern Africa.
• (continued on next slide)

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Unusual river course systems
• The Niger starts in the far west of Africa, on
  the slopes of the Futa Jallon Highlands and then
  flows inland toward the Sahara Desert. Then
  after forming an interior delta, it suddenly
  turns southward, leaves the desert area, plunges
  over falls as it cuts through the plateau area of
  Nigeria, and creates another large delta at its
  mouth.
• The Congo River begins as the Lualaba River on
  the Zambia-Congo boundary, and for some distance
  it actually flows northeast before turning north,
  then west, then southwest, finally to cut through
  the Crystal Mountains to reach the ocean.
• The Zambezi River, whose headwaters lie in Angola
  and northwestern Zambia, the situation is the
  same it first flows south, toward the inland
  delta known as the Okovango Swamp then it turns
  northeast eventually to reach its delta
  immediately south of Lake Malawi.
• The Kafue River, the Zambezi's chief tributary,
  flows southwest also toward the Okovango Swamp,
  but then abruptly vacates its course to turn due
  east as though the Zambezi "captured" and
  diverted it.
• The Nile River, has a famed and erratic course,
  which braids into numerous channels in the Sudd
  area of the Southern Sudan. In its middle course.
  it actually reverses direction and flows
  southward before resuming its flow toward the
  Mediterranean delta.

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Coastal areas in Africa are small and few in
  number except for some low-lying areas of
  coastal Mozambique and Somalia, and along the
  north and west coasts, nearly all of Africa lies
  300 meters in elevation and fully half of it is
  more than 800 meters high.
• Even the Congo Basin, Equatorial Africa's
  tropical lowland, lies well more than 300 meters
  above sea level, in contrast to the much lower
  Amazon Basin across the Atlantic.

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Among other outstanding features of Africa are
• The Zambezi River's Victoria Falls 1000 meters
  wide and 100 meters high.
• Volcanoes and other erosional left-overs stand
  above the landscape in many areas--even in the
  Sahara Desert, where the Ahaggar and Tibesti
  Mountains both reach about 3000 meters.
• The Kalahari Desert
• The Great Escarpment in South Africa. The high
  veldt drops precipitously from more than 1.5
  kilometers in elevation to a narrow, hilly
  coastal belt. Africa has a disproportionately
  large share of the escarpment by world standards.
• Africa's western coastline has a configuration
  that matches the east coast of South America

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• The present day landscapes of Africa are a
  reflection of the historical evolution of the
  planet. In the geologic time scale, Africa along
  with South America, Antarctica, Australia,
  Madagascar, and even Southern India formed a
  super continent called Gondwana or sometimes
  called Gondwanaland.
• Africa occupied a central position in Gondwana.
• More than 100 million years ago the breaking up
  started and the various fragments moved radially
  away from Africa and are continuing to do so.
  Africa moved least of all from its location near
  the South Pole.
• Africa occupied the heart of Gondwana and did not
  have the coasts it has today. The rivers that
  arose in the interior failed to reach the sea
  The upper Niger flowed into Lake Djouf, the Shari
  River into Lake Chad, the Upper Nile into Lake
  Sudan, the Lualaki into Lake Congo, and the Upper
  Zambezi into the Okovango Delta on the shores of
  Lake Kalahari. When the coasts of Africa were
  formed after the breakup of Gondwana, the rivers,
  by head ward erosion, reached the long isolated
  lake basins in Africa's interior. With the huge
  volumes of lake water these rivers cut deep
  gorges and formed fast retreating waterfalls.
  Africa today has half of the hydroelectric power
  potential of the world.

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Africa's major rivers have upper courses
  pre-drift and lower courses which are younger and
  result from the release of the pent-up lakes.
• Africa has the worlds longest rift valley. A
  rift valley is a trench-like valley with steep
  parallel sides essentially a graben between two
  normal faults associated with crustal spreading.
  
• East Africas rift valley is about 9,600 km
  (6,000 mi) long and extends from the Red Sea
  southward to the Zambezi River.
• Major rivers and several long deep lakes--Lake
  Nyasa and Lake Rudolph for exampleoccupy some of
  the valley floors.

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Africa's rift valleys are part of a
  globe-girdling system of mid ocean ridges,
  magma producing rifts that are the foci of
  crustal spreading.
• Mid ocean ridges first formed as fracture-rifts
  across the great Gondwana landmass. When the
  continental pieces began to drift away ocean
  water invaded as the newly formed, separating
  crust became "sea floor."
• Sea floor spreading, then, might better be called
  crustal spreading and may be seen going on today
  in East Africa's earthquake-prone, volcanically
  active regions.
• Madagascar's separation may represent an old rift
  stage the Rift Sea is just the beginning of what
  will eventually be a wide portion of the ocean.

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Tectonics is a geological term pertaining to
  earth movements. The movements in question
  involve the lithosphere, the rigid outer shell
  of the earth, which is on the order of 100
  kilometers (60 miles) thick.
• The lithosphere floats on the asthenosphere and
  is segmented into about six primary slabs or
  plates, each of which may encompass a continent
  and part of an adjacent ocean basin.
• The boundaries of the lithospheric plates are
  delineated by narrow earthquake prone zones where
  the plates are moving with respect to each other.

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AFRICA LANDFORMS

• Three types of boundaries between tectonic plates
  are recognized
• Convergent plate boundary Two adjacent plates
  move together and collide or, where one plate
  plunges downward under the other plate and is
  absorbed into the interior of the earth -- its
  lithosphere is destroyed.
• Subduction is the descent of the edge of a
  crustal plate under the edge of an adjoining
  plate, presumably involving melting of the
  subducted material.
• Divergent plate boundary Two adjacent plates
  move apart new lithosphere is added to each
  plate by the process of sea-floor spreading
  (continental drift). Lithosphere is created.
• Because the convergent and divergent plate
  boundaries counteract each other, the diameter of
  the earth is not changing radically.
• Parallel plate boundary (transcurrent) Two
  adjacent plates move edge to edge along their
  common interface.

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AFRICA CLIMATE

• The main climatic Types of Sub-Saharan Africa are
  the following
• Dry summer subtropical or Mediterranean (Csb). A
  small pocket of this climatic type is found in
  the area around Capetown in South Africa.
• Humid subtropical (Cfa). This climatic type
  predominates in the eastern section of the
  Republic of South Africa.
• Steppe (BSh). This climatic type prevails in the
  interior of South Africa and extends into
  Botswana, Angola and adjacent areas.

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AFRICA CLIMATE

• Desert (BWh). An extensive area that covers the
  western section of South Africa, Namibia, and
  coastal section of Angola.
• Savanna (Aw). A very extensive area that borders
  on the north and south of the wet equatorial.
• Wet equatorial (Af). This climatic zone extends
  along the equatorial region of Africa.
• Monsoon (Am). A narrow zone that extends along
  the western coastal regions of Africa.

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AFRICA VEGETATION

• The major vegetative regions of Africa are the
  forest biome, savanna biome, and desert biome.
• The equatorial and tropical rainforest is found
  in the areas straddling the equator with an
  additional pocket in western Africa and another
  one in eastern Africa.
• The savanna biome is the most extensive
  vegetation region in Africa and is found in
  extensive areas north and south of the equator.
• The desert biome surrounds the savanna biome.

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AFRICA SOILS

• An examination of the soil map of Africa shows
  that overall the soils of the continent are of
  medium to low fertility.
• An extensive area of oxisols is found in the
  equatorial regions of the continent. Surrounding
  the oxisols is an extensive area of entisols that
  extends all the way from Congo (Zaire) to the
  Republic of South Africa.
• North and south of this zone, one can find a
  broad area of alfisols.
• A small pocket of ultisols is found in western
  Africa.
• Large areas of aridisols are found in the
  northern tier of Sub-Saharan countries, in the
  horn of Africa, and the southern part of the
  continent.
• Note the absence of any mollisols or histosols.

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AFRICA RESOURCES

• Sub-Saharan Africa is very well endowed in a
  great array of minerals.
• As a region it leads the world in the production
  of cobalt, vanadium, chromite, and gold.
• It produces 3.9 of the world coal (all of it in
  the Republic of South Africa) and has 6.3 of the
  world's reserves in coal.
• Africa produces 6.9 of the world's petroleum and
  has 6.5 of the world's oil reserves.
• Africa produces 2.2 of the worlds natural gas.

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AFRICA RESOURCES

• Among individual countries, South Africa leads
  the world in the production of vanadium,
  chromite, and gold it ranks second in the
  production of manganese
• Zambia leads the world in the production of
  cobalt.
• Congo (Zaire) ranks second worldwide in the
  production of cobalt.
• Guinea ranks second worldwide in the production
  of of bauxite.

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AFRICA HAZARDS AND DISEASES

• General terms
• Epidemic This term describes a situation in
  which a disease outbreak occurs, leading to a
  high percentage of afflictions in a population.
• An example of this disease is the sudden outbreak
  of Ebola fever in the Sudan in the 1970s, the
  Congo in the 1990s, and Uganda in 2000-2001.
• Another example of an epidemic disease in
  Tropical Africa is trypanosomiasis, the disease
  known as sleeping sickness and vectored by the
  tsetse fly. The infection is caused by a
  trypanosome, of the genus of parasitic flagellate
  protozoa that infests the blood of various
  vertebrates including man. They are usually
  transmitted by the bite of an insect. They
  include some that cause a serious disease
  (sleeping sickness). It appears to have
  originated in West Africa in the 1400s and from
  there, diffused to much of Tropical Africa.

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AFRICA HAZARDS AND DISEASES

• Pandemic Worldwide spread of a disease such as
  influenza.
• Africas and the worlds most deadly disease is
  malaria which is transmitted by mosquitoes and
  kills as many as 1,000,000 children per year.
• Another example of a pandemic disease is Acquired
  Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). People
  infected with Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome
  (HIV) do not display symptoms of the disease
  immediately. In some cases, people may carry the
  virus for years without being aware of it.
• According to the United Nations, more than
  32,000,000 people were infected with HIV
  worldwide in 2001.
• Approximately 27,000,000 lived in Tropical
  African countries, specially the AIDS Belt that
  extends from Congo to Kenya.
• In Zimbabwe and Botswana more than 25 of all
  persons aged 15-49 were infected with the HIV
  virus. The percentage of infections in Zambia is
  about 20 and in South Africa about 13.
• The impact of AIDS on Africa is devastating.
• Yellow fever is another African pandemic disease.
  
• There was an outbreak in Senegal in the 1960s
  that claimed more than 20,000 lives.

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AFRICA HAZARDS AND DISEASES

• Endemic A disease exists in a population in a
  state of equilibrium (syphilis and mononucleosis
  in the U.S.).
• Endemic African diseases include malaria, yellow
  fever, onchocerciasis (river blindness) and
  schistosomiasis also called bilharzia.
• The name bilharzia comes after Theodor Bilharz a
  German physician who died in 1862.

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AFRICA HAZARDS AND DISEASES

• Schistosomiasis Infestation with schistosome
  (any elongated trematode of the genus
  Schistosoma, parasitic in the blood vessels of
  man and other mammals) a blood fluke.
• Onchocerciasis (river blindness) A
  fly-transmitted tropical disease in which
  parasitic filarial worms cause tumors, skin
  lesions, and blindness.
• Kwashiorkor Severe malnutrition resulting in
  anemia, loss of skin pigmentation, hair loss or
  color change, and protruding stomachs.

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AFRICA POPULATION

• In 2003, Africa had a population of 861,000,000,
  13.6 percent of the world total.
• Sub-Saharan Africa, as defined here (excluding
  North Africa), had 711,300,000 people in 2003.
• The realm is divided into 55 countries,
  approximately one fourth of the political units
  of the world.
• The overall rate of natural increase of the
  population in Africa is 2.4 percent, the highest
  of any world region (world rate of natural
  increase is 1.3 percent).
• The doubling time for Africas population is only
  29 years as compared to 54 years for the world as
  a whole.

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AFRICA POPULATION

• The major clusters of population in Africa are
  the following
• Eastern Africa, especially the area around the
  great lakes region Rwanda and Burundi.
• Western Africa, most notably in Nigeria and
  Ghana.
• Southern Africa, particularly the industrial
  sections of the Republic of South Africa.
• Among the smaller population clusters the
  following are noted
• 1. Northern Morocco and Algeria.
• 2. The Nile Valley and Delta.

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AFRICA POPULATION

• Sub-Saharan Africa's most populous countries are
  
• Nigeria -- 133,900,000
• Ethiopia (Abyssynia) -- 70,700,000
• Congo (Zaire) -- 56,600,000
• South Africa -- 44,000,000

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AFRICA POPULATION

• Among the smallest African countries eight have
  populations less than 1,000,000, including
• Seychelles
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Mayotte
• Cape Verde
• Equatorial Guinea
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Reunion

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AFRICA MIGRATION

• An estimated 30,000,000 Africans were forced from
  their homelands in bondage by the practices of
  the Europeans and Arabs with the use of African
  middlemen.
• Africa formed the major source areas for slavery.
  
• A western African core area supplied the slaves
  for North America and the West Indies.
• Present day Angola and Mozambique, both
  Portuguese colonies, supplied the slaves for
  Brazil and other Portuguese possessions.
• Eastern Africa supplied the slaves for Arab lands
  and other points north and east of this region.
• The Arabs introduced slavery in eastern Africa
  long before the Europeans carried out similar
  practices in western Africa.
• The Arab traders used dhows to carry African
  slaves to Arabia, Persia and India.
• The practice of slavery, notwithstanding the
  extreme misery that it caused to the indigenous
  populations, resulted in the decline of the
  interior savanna states, reoriented trade routes
  and ravaged the population of the interior
  because of the insatiable demand for slaves.

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AFRICA URBAN GEOGRAPHY

• Africa is the least urbanized of the world's
  regions with only 33 percent of its people living
  in urban areas. Only 11 African cities have more
  than 1,000,000 people. Kinshasa, the capital of
  Congo (Zaire), is Sub-Saharan Africa's largest
  city in terms of population size.

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AFRICA CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

• Culture is a seamless web that describes patterns
  of learned human behavior that form a durable
  template by which ideas and images can be
  transferred from one generation to another, or
  from one group to another.
• 1. Transfer is not through biological means
• 2. The main imprinting forces in cultural
  transfers are symbolic, with language playing a
  particularly important role. Imprinting refers
  to the spontaneous acquisition of information,
  particularly those habits of speech and behavior
  acquired in the early years of life.
• 3. Culture has a complexity and durability that
  set it apart from the learned behavior of other,
  nonhuman animals.

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AFRICA CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

• In the case of Africa, the Niger-Kordofanian
  family of languages is the most extensive with
  the Bantu subfamily being the most important.
• Nilo-Saharan Family
• The Khoisan family, including the Bushmens
  languages, represents the oldest surviving
  African languages.
• Malay-Polynesian family. Madagascar's languages
  belong to a non-African, Malay-Polynesian family.
  
• Indo-European Family. Afrikaans is an
  Indo-European language spoken by the majority of
  the 4.5 million whites living in South Africa.

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AFRICA ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

• Primary Sector
• The majority of Africa's people are employed in
  farming for survival, which is mainly labor
  intensive. A great number of farmers depend on
  subsistence farming.
• Hunting and gathering still sustain the Bushmen
  of the Kalahari and the Pygmies of Congo (Zaire).
  
• The Masai pastoralists of Kenya and Tanzania in
  Eastern Africa consider cattle as a measure of
  the wealth and prestige of their owners in the
  community.
• In only a limited number of areas of the
  continent is farming carried out on a commercial
  basis. Such areas are mainly located in Middle
  Equatorial Africa and in Southern Africa.
• Several African countries depend almost
  exclusively on the export of selected commodities
  for their survival. Nigeria, Africa's most
  populous country, depends heavily on crude oil
  exports which account for 95 percent of all
  exports of the country.
• The chief crops are cocoa (a main export item),
  tobacco, palm products, peanuts, cotton,
  soybeans, timber, rubber, and hide.

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AFRICA ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

• Secondary sector
• The industrial sector accounts for only a small
  portion of Sub-Saharan Africa's economy,
• Usually around one-fifth or less of the labor
  force is employed in manufacturing.
• The only African economy that can be classified
  as industrial is that of the Republic of South
  Africa which compares favorably with the
  industrial countries of Europe, North America,
  and Asia, both in terms of output and variety of
  industrial goods produced.
• For the remaining countries the industrial sector
  is limited to food processing and light
  industries.

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• The present day political organization of Africa
  is a reflection of the colonial scramble for
  Africa.
• The term colony referred to any territory
  invaded, conquered, and settled by a white
  immigrant population.
• European colonial powers pursued different
  colonial policies in Africa and these are
  summarized on the next slide.

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Britain - indirect rule the least centralized
  among European colonizing nations.
• Belgium - paternalism It tended to treat
  Africans as children, to be tutored in Western
  ways, although slowly.
• France - assimilation the acculturation of
  Africans to French ways of life.
• Portugal - exploitation

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Types of British colonial organization
• Colony white settler minorities had substantial
  autonomy, e.g., Southern Rhodesia, Kenya.
• Protectorate the rights of African people were
  guarded more effectively, e.g., Uganda, Northern
  Rhodesia.
• Mandate later trust territories that the
  British undertook to uphold the League of
  Nations, later the United Nations,
  administrative rules, e.g., Iraq, Palestine.
• Condominium where the administration is shared
  with another government, e.g., Anglo -Egyptian
  Sudan, ruled by the British and the Egyptians.
• Dominion territories which enjoyed sovereignty
  within the Commonwealth long before the beginning
  of the second World War, e.g., Canada, Australia,
  New Zealand, and South Africa.

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Forward capital cities Several examples of
  African countries exist that moved their capital
  cities to refocus national attention and
  strengthen national control of their territories.
  
• For example, Nigeria, following the Biafra
  rebellion by the Ibo, moved the capital of the
  country from Lagos to Abuja, a city that is
  better situated to control the national
  territory.
• Tanzania moved the capital of the country from
  coastal Dar es Salaam to the interior city of
  Dodoma.
• Cote d Ivoire moved the capital city from
  Abidjan to Yamoussoukro.

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Geometric boundaries Straight line boundaries
  separate the national territories of many African
  countries. For example, Libya is separated from
  Egypt by the 28th meridian. The 20th meridian
  separates Namibia from Botswana and Namibia from
  the Republic of South Africa.

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Internal ethnic conflict An example of ethnic
  conflict is Nigeria.
• Nigeria has an area of 910,770 sq. km. (351,650
  sq. mi.). For comparison purposes, Nigeria is
  more than twice the size of California.
• The country is inhabited by four main ethnic
  groups Hausa 21 Yoruba 20 Ibo 17 Fulani
  9 Others, 33.
• The main languages of the country are English
  (official), Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibo.
• In terms of religion, the Moslems account for 47
  and they are concentrated mostly in the northern
  part of the country Christians constitute 34
  of the population of the country and they are
  concentrated mainly in the southern section.
• (continued on next slide)

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Following independence on October 1, 1960,
  Nigeria was organized into a federal state with
  three regions, two in the South and one in the
  North.
• 1. Western Region. This region formed the
  Yoruba core, people with a long history of
  urbanization and good farmers. Colonialism
  introduced cash crops. For example, cocoa was
  introduced by Fernando Po in the 1870's and
  fostered trade. Among the major urban centers of
  the area are the cities of Lagos, 3.4 million,
  and Ibadan, 1 million. At the time of
  independence, 10 million people lived in the
  area, more than any other part of Nigeria.

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• 2. Eastern Region. This region formed the Ibo
  core and included the area east of the Niger and
  south of the Benue where the influence of
  colonialism was less pronounced. The population
  of this region was less urbanized. About 10 of
  the population was urban in 1985. Thirteen
  million people live in the area which has high
  rural densities. On May 30, 1967, the Eastern
  Region seceded proclaiming itself the Republic of
  Biafra and plunging the country into civil war
  which ended on January 12, 1970 with the
  capitulation of the secessionists. Casualties
  were estimated at 1,000,000.
• 3. Northern Region. This region formed the
  Moslem north centered on the Hausa-Fulani
  population cluster. Thirty million people live
  in this area with a legacy of a feudal social
  system, conservative traditionalism, and
  resistance to change.
• The original three regions were subdivided and
  rearranged into a federal structure of 19 states
  plus the federal capital territory. A new
  capital, Abuja, was built in a more central
  location.

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AFRICA POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

• Sudan. In the Sudan, the Muslim North has been
  involved in a prolonged war with the Christian
  and animist South.
• Eritrea. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front
  has been fighting the Ethiopian government for
  the past 30 years. In May 1992, this
  organization took control of Eritrea and in an
  agreement with the Ethiopian government there is
  going to be an internationally supervised
  referendum on independence.
• Territorial disputes. War between Ethiopia and
  Somalia over the Ogaden region in southeastern
  Ethiopia not far from the ancient city of Harare.
  Somali claims on Ogaden resulted in open warfare
  in the 1970s and intermittent skirmishes since
  then.

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AFRICA REGIONS

• Africa is usually subdivided into five regions
• Northern Africa
• Western Africa
• Eastern Africa
• Southern Africa
• Equatorial Africa
• The last four regions are part of Sub-Saharan
  Africa. The binding elements and criteria that
  are used to organize these regions are the
  following
• Cultural and historical momentum.
• Set of parallel ecological belts.

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NORTHERN AFRICA

• Northern Africa includes seven countries
• Algeria
• Egypt
• Libya
• Morocco
• Sudan
• Tunisia
• Western Sahara
• This area is covered in greater detail in the
  Northern Africa Southwest Asia unit.

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WESTERN AFRICA
Western Africa includes sixteen countries

• Liberia
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Niger
• Nigeria
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Togo

• Benin
• Burkina Faso ( formerly Upper Volta).
• Cape Verde
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea Bissau,
• Guinea
• Côte d Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

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WESTERN AFRICA

• This region extends from the margins of the
  Sahara Desert south to the coast and from Lake
  Chad to Senegal and includes sixteen countries.
• West Africa comprises former British and French
  dependencies, four British and nine French.
• While the British colonies of Nigeria, Ghana,
  Sierra Leone, and Gambia were all separated from
  one another, Francophone West Africa was
  contiguous.
• Their proximity notwithstanding, there was little
  trade between British influenced and Francophone
  countries. For example, Nigeria's trade with
  Britain is about one hundred times as great as
  its trade with nearby Ghana.

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WESTERN AFRICA

• Guinea-Bissau was once Portuguese and
  long-independent Liberia was never colonized.
• A rough division can be made between the very
  large, mostly steppe and desert states that
  extend across the Southern Sahara (Chad
  included), and the better-watered, smaller
  coastal states. Burkina Faso is small, but dry
  and landlocked, and does not fit into either
  group.

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WESTERN AFRICA

• Criteria for regionalization of West African
  Region
• Remarkable cultural and historical momentum.
• Old states and empires
• Ancient Ghana
• Ancient Mali
• Ancient Songhai
• 2. Western Africa contains a set of parallel
  east-west ecological belts, pervasive in the
  development of the region.
• 3. Early impact of European colonialism,
  maritime dominance, and slave trade.

49
WESTERN AFRICA

• Western Africa constitutes one of Africa's major
  population clusters and includes Nigeria,
  Africa's largest country in terms of population
  with 133,900,000 in 2003. Ghana with 20,500,000
  is this region's second most populous
  nation-state, followed by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory
  Coast) which has 17,000,000 people.

50
EASTERN AFRICA
Eastern Africa includes nineteen countries

• Mozambique
• Reunion
• Rwanda
• Seychelles
• Somalia
• Zimbabwe
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zambia

• Cape Verde
• Burundi
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius

51
EASTERN AFRICA

• Eastern Africa includes nineteen countries.
  Among those are the British colonial territories
  of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania (formerly
  Tanganyika), and its offshore islands of Zanzibar
  and Pemba also the Belgian wards of Rwanda and
  Burundi.
• Eastern Africa is mostly a highland plateau with
  savanna type vegetation that turns into a steppe
  in the dryer northeast.
• Great volcanic mountains rise above a plateau
  that is cut by the giant rift valleys -- a
  valley which has been formed by the sinking of
  land between two roughly parallel faults. Such a
  valley is long in proportion to its width. The
  rift valley running from Syria, Israel and Jordan
  through East Africa is more than 4,800 km or
  3,000 mi. in length. Graben is a synonym for
  rift valley.

52
EASTERN AFRICA

• Lake Victoria is a pivotal physical feature of
  Eastern Africa, where the three major countries
  boundaries come together. Uganda's primary core
  and the secondary cores of Kenya and Tanzania are
  located here.
• Rainfall is marginal or insufficient. The heart
  of Tanzania is dry, tsetse and malaria ridden,
  and occasionally faces food shortages.
• Eastern and Northern Kenya consist of steppe
  country with frequent drought.
• Uganda receives more rainfall than its neighbors.
  
• Major minerals include diamonds in Tanzania (not
  far south of Lake Victoria), and copper in
  Uganda.

53
EASTERN AFRICA POPULATION

• The Eastern Africa population cluster includes
  262,800,000 people. The most populous countries
  of this region are Kenya (31,600,000), Tanzania
  (35,400,000), and Ethiopia (70,700,000). Rwanda
  and Burundi have very high population densities.
• Tanzania lacks a primary core area and has many
  ethnic groups. Tanzania never had a white
  population of more than 20,000.
• Kenya has a strongly concentrated core area
  centered on its capital Nairobi, which has a
  population of 1,505,600. Kenya is dominated by
  the Kikuyu 21. Other ethnic groups include the
  Luo 13, Luhya 14, Kelenjin 11, and Kamba 11.
  Also, there are 280,000 Asians, 70,000
  Europeans, and 30,000 Arabs.
• In Uganda 75,000 Asians were ordered to leave the
  country within a three month period in 1972,
  under the government of dictator Idi Amin
  (1971-1979). This was a classical case of
  forced migration.

54
EASTERN AFRICA TANZANIA

• In Tanzania, commercial agriculture predominates
  with sisal plantations along the north coast,
  coffee on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro (near
  the Kenya border), cotton south of Lake Victoria
  and tea in the southwestern part of the country.
  
• New villages, cooperatives, and improved farming
  methods were introduced under Julius Nyerere.
• Tanzania served as haven for insurgents fighting
  the Portuguese in Mozambique. It had a difficult
  merger with Zanzibar and moved the capital from
  Dar es Salaam (1.8 million) to Dodoma in the
  interior.
• The Chinese built the Tan-Zam or TAZARA railway.
  Tan-Zam Railway provides Tanzania with a link to
  neighboring landlocked Zambia, as well as access
  to a poorly developed domestic area with
  relatively good agricultural potential in the
  southern highlands.
• Despite significant improvements in farming
  practices, pressures from a fickle environment
  and periodic food shortages are a frequent
  problem.

55
EASTERN AFRICA KENYA

• Kenya, with an area of 582,800 sq. km. (219,960
  sq. mi.), is twice the size of Nevada.
• The country had a population of 31,600,000,000 in
  2003.
• The population density is 54 persons per sq. km.
  (141 persons per sq.mi.)
• Kenya has an average annual growth of 2.0 percent.

56
EASTERN AFRICA KENYA

• The physical environment of the country can be
  divided into these physiographic regions the
  equatorial and coastal plain the arid north
  southwestern fertile Lake Victoria Basin and the
  eastern depression of the Great Rift Valley which
  separates western highlands from those that rise
  from the lowland coastal strip.
• Kenya has about 10 to 15 percent of its land used
  for agriculture with 23 percent of the labor
  force employed in farming. The principal
  products include coffee, sisal, tea, cotton,
  pyrethrum, and livestock. Sisal is a strong
  durable white fiber used to make hard cordage and
  twine (also called sisal hemp) widely cultivated
  in West India, sisal comes from the leaves of the
  sisalana plant.

57
EASTERN AFRICA KENYA

• The industrial sector of the Kenyan economy
  employs about 14 of the labor force.
• Among the major industrial goods are plastics,
  furniture, batteries, textiles, and soap.
• The official language of Kenya is Swahili, with
  Bantu, Kikuyu, and English among the other
  important languages.
• In terms of religion, the Kenyan population is
  27 Protestant, 26 Roman Catholic, 19 Animist,
  and 6 Islamic.

58
EASTERN AFRICA KENYA

• Only 22 of the population is classified as
  urban.
• Nairobi (835,000), the capital city and the port
  city of Mombasa (400,000) are the most important
  urban centers of the country.
• Kenya, formerly a British colony and
  protectorate, was made a crown colony in 1920.
• The whites domination of the White Mountains
  (which were long regarded as Kikuyu territory)
  led to the Mau movement in 1952.
• Kenya gained independence on December 12, 1963.

59
EASTERN AFRICA UGANDA

• Uganda has an area of 199,560 sq. km. (93,066
  sq. mi).
• It is twice the size of Pennsylvania, has
  25,300,000 people and a density of 105 persons
  per sq. km. (271 persons per sq. mi).
• The Ugandan annual population growth rate stands
  at 3 percent.

60
EASTERN AFRICA UGANDA

• The major landforms of Uganda include swampy
  lowlands, a fertile plateau with wooded hills,
  and a desert region.
• Uganda is a landlocked country which depends on
  coastal Kenya for its exit to the ocean however,
  relations between Uganda and Kenya have not been
  good.
• Uganda's former dictator, Idi Amin, claimed a
  large part of western Kenya and an Ugandan
  corridor to the sea through Northern Tanzania.

61
EASTERN AFRICA UGANDA

• English serves as the official language of
  Uganda. Swahili, Luganda, Ateso, and Luo are also
  spoken in the country.
• Religion 64 of the people are Christian Islam
  accounts for 6.
• About 21 of the land is used for agriculture,
  and 90 of the labor force is involved in
  farming. The principal products are coffee, tea,
  cotton, tobacco, sugar, and fish.
• Coffee, tea, and cotton are the major export
  items.
• Only 3 of the labor force is employed in
  industry. Major industrial products are copper,
  cement, shoes, fertilizer, and beverages.

62
MIDDLE AFRICA

• Middle Africa includes nine countries
• Angola
• Cameroon
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Gabon
• Sao Tome and Principe
• Congo (Zaire).

63
MIDDLE AFRICA

• Middle Africa is a region of subsistence farming
  and raw material exports.
• Chad, located on the northern side of the Central
  African Republic, was an administrative part of
  French Equatorial Africa and is one of the
  countries still included in this region, but it
  lies between Niger and Sudan in the Western
  African-related savanna belt.

64
MIDDLE AFRICA CONGO (ZAIRE)

• Congo (Zaire) with an area of 2,400,000 square
  kilometers (905,351 square miles) is the largest
  country of this region, both in terms of area and
  population. Congo (Zaire) is about one quarter
  the size of the United States.
• Congo (Zaire) has 56,600,000 people in 2003,
  which is more than the combined population of the
  remaining countries in this region.
• The population density is 24 persons per sq. km.
  (63 persons per sq. mi.).
• The population annual natural growth rate is
  3.1, well above the world natural rate of
  increase of 1.3.

65
MIDDLE AFRICA CONGO (ZAIRE)

• Most of Congos (Zaire's) margins occupy the
  plateau rim surrounding the Congo Basin, but the
  interior and northeast quadrant fall within the
  basin.
• Mineral wealth lies within the basin's rim.
• The river system is not navigable because rapids
  exist in many key locations.
• The principal tributaries of the Congo River are
  the Ubangi and Bonu in the North and the Congo in
  the West.
• The entire length of Lake Tanganyika lies along
  the eastern border with Tanzania and Burundi.

66
MIDDLE AFRICA CONGO (ZAIRE)

• The most important mineral resources of Congo
  (Zaire) include copper, cobalt, zinc, industrial
  diamonds, manganese, tin, gold, rare metals,
  bauxite, iron, and coal.
• Congo (Zaire) also has 13 percent of the world's
  hydroelectric potential.
• While only 2 percent of the land is used for
  agriculture, about 70 to 80 percent of the labor
  force is employed in this activity.
• The principal agricultural products of Congo
  (Zaire) include coffee, palm oil, rubber, tea,
  cotton, cocoa, bananas, vegetables, and fruits.

67
MIDDLE AFRICA CONGO (ZAIRE)

• Political-geographical implications
• The population of Congo (Zaire) is composed of
  these ethnic groups Bantu, Sudanese, Nilotics,
  Pygmies, Hamites.
• They speak French, Bantu dialects, mainly
  Swahili, Lingala, Ishiluba, and Kikongo.
• About 50 percent are Animists and the remaining
  are Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Islamic.
• Congo (Zaire) has about 40 percent of its people
  living in urban centers. Kinshasa (3,000,000),
  the most important urban center of the country,
  is the capital city and the largest African city
  south of the Sahara.
• Among the other urban centers are Kananga,
  (800,000) Lubumbashi (525,000) Mbuji-Maji
  (425,000).

68
MIDDLE AFRICA

• Gabon and Cameroon fared better economically than
  the landlocked Central African Republic and
  Congo.
• Gabon is small, compact and thinly settled, with
  modest oil reserves, substantial metallic mineral
  deposits, and abundant forest resources.
• Cameroon has a fair commercial agriculture base,
  including tea, bananas, coffee, and palm oil.

69
SOUTHERN AFRICA

• Southern Africa includes five countries
• Botswana
• Lesotho
• Namibia
• Republic of South Africa
• Swaziland

70
SOUTHERN AFRICA

• Botswana, Swaziland, and Lesotho are landlocked.
  
• Southern Africa is Africa's richest region in
  material terms.
• A great zone of mineral deposits extends from
  Zambia's Copperbelt, through Zimbabwe's Great
  Dyke, and South Africa's Bushveld Basin and
  Witwatersrand, to the gold fields of the Orange
  Free State in the heart of the Republic of South
  Africa.
• Among the most important minerals are gold,
  chromium, diamonds, platinum, coal and iron in S.
  Africa.
• Copper, lead, and zinc are found in Namibia (SW
  Africa) at Tsumeb.
• Diamonds are found along the beaches facing the
  Atlantic.

71
SOUTHERN AFRICA

• The country was organized in 1910 as the Union of
  South Africa.
• It was officially proclaimed the Republic of
  South Africa on May 31, 1966.
• South Africa has an area of 1,220,900 sq km
  (471,400 sq mi).
• It is 11.5 times the size of Ohio. The U.S. is
  seven and one-half times the area of South
  Africa.
• In 2003, South Africa had 44,000,000 people, a
  population that is 6.2 of the African population
  south of the Sahara.
• The population density is 36 persons per sq km
  (93 persons per sq mi).
• The population grows at a rate of natural
  increase of 0.9.

72
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• Landforms
• 1. High interior plateau, or veld, nearly half of
  which averages 1,219 m (4,000 ft).
• 2. Great Escarpment, separating the veld from the
  coastal plain, rises to 3,350 m (11,000 ft) in
  the Drakensberg Mountains in the east. The
  principal river is the Orange rising in the
  Lesotho and flowing westward for 2,092 km (1,300
  mi) to the Atlantic. Vaal is its major
  tributary, and an important source for urban,
  industrial irrigation use. The country's
  agricultural heartland, the "maize heartland," is
  located here.

73
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• The southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas,
  located in Cape Province about 161 km (100 miles)
  southeast of the Cape of Good Hope.
• The lengthy Limpopo River, forming much of South
  Africa's northern border is of little economic
  value as it fluctuates in volume during the year,
  and from year to year.
• Short streams from the Drakensberg to the Indian
  Ocean include Tugela, Pongola, Kei, Fish and
  Umzimvuda.

74
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• Climates
• 1. Mediterranean or Dry Summer Subtropical
  (Csb). Area around Cape Town.
• 2. Humid Subtropical (Cfa) in eastern section
  of the country.
• 3. Marine West Coast (Cfb) in southern section.
• 4. Cwb in the northern area of Cfb.
• 5. Tropical subtropical steppe (Bsh).
• 6. Tropical subtropical desert (BW).

75
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• Agriculture
• Only about 15 of the country is arable and
  precipitation is variable.
• Labor force that is employed in agriculture 53
  
• Principal products Corn, wool, wheat, sugar
  cane, tobacco, citrus fruit.
• Wool from sheep in the Karoo is the second most
  important export item after gold.
• Crop specialization Maize from the high veld
  also, tobacco, wheat, dairy products, and beef.
• In the SW Cape Wine, wheat, and fruit are
  produced.
• In Natal Sugar is cultivated.

76
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• Economy Minerals constitute about 2/3 of all
  exports.
• Natural resources
• Gold (2/3 of world production)-in Witwatersrand.
• Diamonds, platinum, coal, iron, ore, and
  manganese in the Northern Orange Free State.
• Mining employs 90 of the 700,000 man labor force
  which is Black, including workers from
  Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland.
• Two new ports were opened in the 1970s to handle
  mineral exports Saldanha Bay north of Cape Town
  and Richard's Bay north of Durban.
• Labor force that is in industry 15
• Major products Machinery, textiles, iron and
  steel, chemicals, fertilizer, fish.

77
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• The Dutch East India Company landed the first
  European settler at Table Bay near the Cape of
  Good Hope in 1652, and founded the settlement of
  Cape Town. By the end of the 18th century its
  population numbered about 15,000.
• The Dutch settlers were joined by French and
  German immigrants, as slaves from Malaya and
  Eastern and Western Africa began to be brought.
• Intermarriage between Europeans and slaves and
  Khoikoi locals gave rise to the Cape Coloreds,
  who clustered in the Western Cape Region. Today
  they constitute about 10 percent of South
  Africa's population.

78
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• The language of the European settlers and
  Coloreds was a dialect of Dutch that is known
  as Afrikaans.
• Europeans who traced their ancestry to the early
  Dutch-French-German settlers identified
  themselves as Boers or more recently as
  Afrikaners.
• Afrikaners constitute 60 percent of the European
  total, which accounts for about 19 percent of
  South Africa's population.

79
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• In 1806, England took control of the Cape from
  Holland and began the process of Anglicizing the
  colony. British immigration was encouraged and
  today about 30 percent of the European population
  is of British extraction.
• In the 1830s, groups of Boers, reacting to the
  British abolition of slavery, began the "Great
  Trek" into the interior high veld where they
  founded the Afrikaans speaking republics of
  Transvaal and Orange Free State. In order to
  deter the Boers from acquiring access to the
  ocean, the British annexed Natal (Kwazulu-Natal)
  and established the port of Durban 1842. In
  1860, the British introduced Indians to Natal as
  indentured laborers on sugar plantations. Today,
  descendants of these and later arrivals
  constitute almost 4 percent of South Africa's
  population, and are 70 percent Hindu and 20
  percent Muslim. Indians reside in Natal mostly
  in the Durban area.

80
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• Diamonds were discovered at Kimberley in 1869 and
  gold just north of the Vaal River 1886.
• These discoveries led to conflict between the
  Boers and the British.
• The British victory in the Anglo-Boer War of
  1899-1902 resulted in the joining together of
  Natal, Cape of Good Hope, Transvaal, and the
  Orange Free State as the Union of South Africa in
  1910.

81
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• The Europeans quickly assumed political power and
  the newly formed parliament enacted legislation
  that excluded other racial groups from
  participating in the political process. In 1948,
  an Afrikaner dominated government began to
  implement the policy of apartheid or separate
  development. The long term goal was to create
  separate homelands or Bantustans for the
  different African ethnic groups and one homeland
  for whites. Apartheid did not include a
  possibility for the formation of homelands for
  Asians or Coloreds.

82
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• The ethnic composition of the population of the
  republic of South Africa (44,000,000) is given
  below
• Black 76.3 33,572,000
• White 12.7 5,588,000
• Colored mixed 8.5 3,740,000
• Cape Province
• Asian 2.5 1,100,000
• Durban and Natal
• Administrative Capital Pretoria
• Legislative Capital Cape Town
• Judicial Capital Bloemfontein

83
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• South Africa granted independence to
• Transkei in 1976 as a Xhosa homeland
• Bophuthatswana in 1977 as a Twana homeland
• Venda in 1979 as a Venda homeland
• Ciskei in 1980 as a western Xhosa homeland.
• No other country or the U.N. has recognized these
  states.
• The Zulus, the largest Black ethnic group,
  rejected the offer for independence as the
  Kwazulu homeland.
• Kwazulu remains a collection of scattered
  territorial units that comprise more than half of
  the province of Natal.
• The ten African homelands collectively comprise
  13 of South Africa's land area.
• More than half of South Africa's black population
  lives and works on white farms or in urban areas.

84
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• Languages English, Afrikaans, nine Bantu
  languages.
• Religions
• Christian 66.4, of which Protestants account for
  36.6, black independent churches 22.2, Roman
  Catholic 7.6
• Hindu 1.3
• Muslim 1.1
• nonreligious 1.2
• other/traditional beliefs 30.0
• Urbanization 53

85
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• South Africa regions
• 1. Transvaal and Orange Free State
• 2. Natal
• 3. The Cape of Good Hope Province and South West
  Africa

86
SOUTHERN AFRICA SOUTH AFRICA

• Transvaal and the Orange Free State
• The interior of South Africa is a plateau lying
  at a general elevation of 3,000 to 6,000 ft. It
  is highest in the east and tapers off gradually
  to the west.
• The Orange River, with its large tributary, the
  Vaal, and the Limpopo drain most of the plateau.
• At the extreme end of the plateau is the High
  Veld which is 4,500 to 6,000 feet.
• It occupies most of the Orange Free State and the
  southern third of Transvaal and extends into
  Lesotho (formerly Basutoland).
• The northern 2/3 of Transvaal is primarily an
  area of woodlands and savanna grasses - the "Bush
  Veld.

87
SOUTHERN AFRICA NAMIBIA

• Namibia had 1,900,000 population in 2003
• It was formerly known as South West Africa.
• The major landforms
• 1. The Namib Desert
• 2. Arid and semiarid plateaus in the center
• 3. Kalahari Desert in the east extending into
  Botswana

88
SOUTHERN AFRICA NAMIBIA

• The N.E. receives sufficient precipitation to
  support a transitional ecosystem between savanna
  and steppe.
• This region is home of the Orambo (500,000 in
  population), the territory's most populous ethnic
  group.
• Other ethnic groups are the Okovango and the East
  Caprivians.
• The Caprivi Strip extends almost 483 km (300 mi.)
  eastward to the Zambezi River.

89
SOUTHERN AFRICA NAMIBIA

• Germany acquired South West Africa in 1884 but
  lost it to South Africa as a mandate territory
  following WWI.
• In 1949, South Africa extended its sovereignty to
  Namibia and in 1969 extended its apartheid policy
  to the territory as well.
• A white minority of more than 100,000 controlled
  most of the economy.
• In 1985, South Africa handed over limited powers
  to a new multiracial administration while
  insurgency continued from Angola.
• Windhoek, on the central plateau (population
  125,000) is the capital city.

90
SOUTHERN AFRICA BOTSWANA

• Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland are nations that
  were established at the end of the 19th century
  when their people sought British protection from
  the threat of annexation by the Boers. They are
  landlocked and dependent on S. Africa.
• Botswana -- the British protectorate of
  Bechuanaland was granted independence in 1966.
  About 98 of the country's 1,600,000 people are
  ethnic Tswana. Gaborone (population 156,803) is
  the capital city in the eastern semiarid steppe
  lands near the S.African border.

91
SOUTHERN AFRICA LESOTHO

• Lesotho, the British colony of Basutoland, was a
  19th century refuge for southern Sotho speakers,
  and it became independent in 1966.
• The highest point in Southern Africa, Mt. Thabana
  Ntlenyana (11,425 ft.), is located here.
• Arable area is about 1/8 of total area.
• The capital city is Maseru (population 109,302).
  
• Total population of Lesotho is 1,800,000.
• About 200,000 residents migrate to South Africa
  to work in mines and farms

92
SOUTHERN AFRICA SWAZILAND

• Swaziland, resisting both Boer and Zulu
  pressures, sought British protection in the
  1840s, and again in the early 1880s.
• It was brought under British rule in 1904.
• Independence was granted in 1968.
• The capital city is Mbabane with a population of
  38,290 people.

93
AFRICA