The Geography of Africa

1
The Geography of Africa
2
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

3
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

4
Diversity leads to Imperialism

• Raw materials and resources lead to European
  interest in Africa
• Africas geographical divisions prevents the
  Africans from cooperating to resist

5
Interesting Statistics

• 2nd largest continent- - 11,700,000 square miles!
• Thats 20.2 of the earth
• And 3x the size of the USA
• 778,000,000 people
• 55 countries

6
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

7
True desert spreads into semi-arid regions
8
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
  away, the desert advances

9
Solutions

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

10
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

11
Rivers

• Depth varies depending on the season
• Plateaus prevent easy navigation
• Therefore, the interior of Africa remained
  largely unexplored

12
Nile River

• 4,180 miles long (worlds longest!!)
• flows NORTH
• Source - - Lake Victoria
• Delta - - Egypt
• Floods annually
• One of the most densely populated region in Africa

13
Congo, Niger Zambezi Rivers

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

14
Coastline

• Smooth
• Few natural harbors - hard to land ships

15
Climate - determined by rainfall, latitude and
elevation

• Savanna - 40, safari!!
• Tropical Rainforest - 8,
• Desert - 40
• Mediterranean - 12, good farm land
• About 85 of the land is not suited to farming

16
Natural Resources

• Farming
• peanuts, cotton, cocoa, coffee
• Minerals
• diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt
• Water
• hydroelectric power