SubSaharan Africa

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Sub-Saharan Africa

• A Physical Geography
• B ColonialismC Social Issues
• D Regions of the Realm

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Overview
A

• A plateau continent that is physiographically
  unique
• Comprised of dozens of nations and hundreds of
  ethnic groups
• A realm of subsistence farmers
• Inefficient state boundaries represent colonial
  legacies
• Dislocated peoples and refugees
• News media generally focus on Africa to report on
  its problems.
• Leaves the public with a very limited, usually
  negative view of the region.
• Raw materials and resource potential

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Physical Geography

• Pangaea
• The original supercontinent of the plate Tectonic
  theory.
• Africa lay at its heart.
• Produced some unique features in the more than
  200 million years that have passed since the
  breakup of Pangaea.
• Rift valley
• African Rift Valley is formed by plate
  separation.
• Gradually breaking away from the rest of Africa.
• Extends from Mozambique in the south to the Red
  Sea in the north.
• The Red Sea forms part of the rift.
• Many of Africa's great lakes lie in the Rift
  Valley.

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Physical Geography

• Africa's Deserts
• The continent straddles the Equator.
• Sufficiently large to include land in both the
  northern and southern hemispheres.
• Belts that lie astride the two Tropics - Cancer
  and Capricorn - and are essentially areas of high
  atmospheric pressure.
• Air circulation patterns
• Clockwise (northern hemisphere) and
  counterclockwise (southern hemisphere)
• Net air outflow towards zones of lower pressure.
• Belts lying around the globe which receive very
  little rainfall, since relatively little moisture
  can accumulate in the air masses that are the
  sources of the outflow of air.

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Sahara
Tropic of Cancer
Equator
Kalahari
Tropic of Capricorn
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Physical Geography

• Pre-colonial Africa
• Subsistence economies (as in the Americas).
• Reliance on the extended family as the basic
  social unit.
• It was the unit that effectively owned land.
• Individuals did not technically own land but had
  access to land as part of the larger family unit.
• Land could not be sold.
• Was passed down through the tradition of partible
  heritance, as opposed to primogeniture.
• Under this system, no landed aristocracy
  developed.
• Women were (and are) the primary agriculturalists
  of Africa.
• Men did the hunting and gathering.

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Colonialism

• European colonial objectives
• A port along the West African coast
• A water route to South Asia and Southeast Asia
• 1500s- looking for resources
• Slaves.
• About 12 million Africans were taken to work
  elsewhere.
• Americas and the Middle East.
• 1850- industrial revolution occurs in Europe
• Increased demand for mineral resources.
• Need to expand agricultural production.

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Colonialism

• Berlin Conference (1884)
• 14 States divided up Africa without consideration
  of cultures.
• Results of superimposed boundaries
• African peoples were divided.
• Unified regions were ripped apart.
• Hostile societies were thrown together.
• Hinterlands were disrupted.
• Migration routes were closed off.
• When independence returned to Africa after 1950,
  the realm had already acquired a legacy of
  political fragmentation.

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Colonialism

• Colonial policies
• Different powers followed different policies.
• Great Britain
• Indirect Rule (Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya,
  Zimbabwe).
• Indigenous power structures were left intact to
  some degree.
• Local rulers were made representatives of the
  crown.
• France
• Assimilationist (Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast,
  etc.),
• Enforced a direct rule which propagated the
  French culture through language, laws, education
  and dress (acculturation)
• Portugal
• Exploitation (Guinea-Bissau, Angola,
  Mozambique).
• First to enslave and colonize and one of the last
  to grant independence.
• Maintained rigid control raw resource oriented.

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Colonialism

• Belgium
• Paternalistic (Rwanda, Zaire, Burundi).
• Treated Africans as though they where children
  who needed to be tutored in western ways did not
  try to make them Belgium.
• Raw resource oriented ignored the development of
  natives.
• Transport development
• In many parts of the world, transport development
  aims at the integration of national economies.
• Main port-city as the administrative and
  transshipment center.
• Spokes radiating from the port to regions of the
  interior.
• System built to exploit resources agriculture
  and minerals.
• Not a network per se the purpose was
  exploitation.
• Colonies not well connected to one other.

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Colonialism

• Cultural diversity
• Numerous political subdivisions.
• Culturally diverse
• More than 800 languages are spoken in Africa.
• Many are spoken by only small numbers of people.
• Nigeria alone has thirty languages in common use.
• Many multi-ethnic colonies
• Europeans had little concern about the numerous
  cultures.

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Colonialism

• Decolonization
• New governments were put into place with the
  departure of the colonial powers (1950s to
  1970s).
• Ethnic tensions.
• Each group wanted to attain power in the central
  government.
• Possibility of re-drawing boundaries was minimal
• Governments typically don't wish to give up
  territory.
• One-party states
• Prevalent in post-colonial Africa.
• Dictatorship.
• Repression of minorities (sometimes Genocides
  Uganda, Rwanda).
• Cult of personality.
• Unsound investments and dilapidation of capital
• Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire) embezzled between 10-15
  US billion.
• Sani Abacha (Nigeria) embezzled 2-5 US billion.

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Social Issues

• Medical geography
• Studies spatial aspects of disease and health.
• Africa is an extraordinary laboratory
• Disease incidence and diffusion.
• Tropical and subtropical climates.
• Complex ecosystems.
• Widespread nutritional deficiencies.
• Main diseases
• Malaria.
• Yellow fever.
• AIDS.

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Social Issues

• Endemic
• Many diseases exists in a state of equilibrium
  within a population.
• Many develop an immunity.
• Saps energy, lowers resistance, shortens lives.
• Epidemic
• Sudden outbreak at local, regional scale.
• Generally short lived.
• Pandemic
• Worldwide spread.

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The AIDS Epidemic

• Global Context
• More than 40 million people were HIV positive in
  2000.
• One person every six second contracts the
  disease.
• By the end of 2002, 27 million people have died
  of AIDS.
• About 5 million contracted the virus in 2001
• 14,000 people a day contracted HIV.
• 95 in developing countries.
• 5.6 million in 1999.
• 3.0 million died, of which 2.4 million in Africa
• 70 of all HIV positive population.
• 80 of all deaths.
• 47 HIV positive persons are women.
• 13.2 million children (-14) have been orphaned
  (end of 1999).

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Global Estimates of Cumulative HIV/AIDS
Infections and Deaths Worldwide, 1980-2002 (in
millions)
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AIDS in Africa

• African Context
• AIDS is reaching epidemic proportions
• Death rates are rising.
• Infant mortality rates are rising.
• About 25 million infected
• Most will die within 8 years.
• One new HIV positive case every 25 seconds.
• The transmission is mainly heterosexual
• 55 of infected people are women.
• In several large cities, 33 of pregnant women
  are infected.
• Life expectancy is declining
• Most of the population will die around 30.
• Back 100 years in time.
• The population of some countries is expected to
  drop
• First time since the Black Death of the 14th
  century.

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Causes of deaths, globally and in Africa, 1999
(in )
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AIDS in Africa

• Botswana
• The worlds hardest hit country.
• 33 of the reproductive-age population is
  infected.
• Life expectancy expected to decline from 61 years
  in 1990 to 29 years in 2010.
• Zimbabwe
• Second-highest infection rate for HIV.
• 25 of people between 25 and 45 are HIV positive.
  
• 220 deaths a day were attributed to AIDS (1998).
• Government spent 70 million a month for the war
  with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• 1 million a month for the prevention of AIDS.

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Projected population structure with and without
the AIDS epidemic, Botswana, 2020
Projected population structure in 2020
Deficits due to AIDS
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Life Expectancy in Selected African Countries,
1955-2000
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AIDS in Africa

• Social costs
• Places the most infected are the least able to
  fight the disease
• Widespread poverty.
• Poor educational system.
• Limited employment opportunities.
• Limited health facilities.
• Foreign debt.
• Changed African family structures
• Instead of grown children looking after aging
  parents, these parents have to look after their
  orphaned grandchildren.
• One of the main obstacles to fighting AIDS in
  Africa is patriarchy.
• Societies (and government) are male dominated.

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AIDS in Africa

• AIDS orphans
• Most HIV positive themselves.
• Lost the support of their parents.
• Perceived as taboo.
• There are over 12.1 million AIDS orphans in
  Africa.
• Economic costs
• People dying of AIDS are mostly between 25 and
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• Most productive years.
• Four out of five deaths of the age group are
  attributed to AIDS.
• Less attractive context for investment.
• Recruiting problems.

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South Africa

• 10 countries
• Northern and Southern Tiers
• 6 landlocked states
• Northern zone marks limit of Congo basin
• Plateau country
• Rich in natural resources
• Agricultural diversity

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East Africa

• Lies astride the equator
• Mainly highlands
• Cooler and generally drier conditions prevail
• Ethnic diversity

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East Africa

• Rwanda
• Between April and July 1994 (100 days).
• 800,000 mostly Tutsi civilians were slaughtered
• About 50 of the Tutsi population.
• Genocidal campaign organized by Hutu hardliners
• Hutus comprised about 85 of the population.
• Tutsis 14 percent, and the Twa group 1 percent.
• Genocide organizers wanted to eliminate the
  minority Tutsi
• Labeled as "Inyenzi" (the Kinyarwanda word for
  "cockroach").
• Nearly succeeded.
• On average, as many as 10,000 persons a day were
  murdered
• Tutsis were taking refuge in churches, schools
  and stadiums at government suggestion.
• Primarily at close range with machetes (pangas),
  spears, and clubs.
• Cause of genocide linked with population pressure.

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Equatorial Africa

• Mainly lowland country
• Vast areas of rainforest
• Environment is a mixed blessing? Dominated by
  Congo River and Basin
• Equatorial rainforest
• Impeded in transportation and communication
• French is predominant in most states except Sao
  Tome and Principe
• The most underdeveloped region in this realm

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Nigeria

• Independence
• Nigeria was composed of three regions (based on
  regional tribal bases of the Hausa-Fulani,
  Yoruba, and Ibo).
• In 1967 interregional rivalries led to civil war
  when the eastern region tried to succeed as
  Biafra.
• Regions were subdivided and rearranged to ensure
  a civil war did not occur again.
• Currently - a Federal State under a military
  government.
• Capital city moved from Lagos to Abuja.

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