Africa

1
Africas Major Climate Zones and Geography
2
West Africa

• The vast majority of West Africa is savannah and
  semiarid sahel
• West African droughts are the norm
• Expansion of the Sahara, called desertification,
  has affected people living in West Africa for the
  past 3000 years.
• Access to Atlantic Ocean and navigable rivers
  like the Niger River encouraged trade

3
Central Africa

• Main feature is the Congo Rainforest, the worlds
  second largest rainforest.
• Tropical rainforest, no regular dry season
• Congo River, important to trade and
  transportation

4
Southern Africa

• A lot of variation in climate throughout the
  region
• Mild coastal climate
• Semiarid areas
• Kalahari Desert
• Drakensberg Mountains
• Victoria Falls
• Zambezi River
• Too difficult to navigate to be a useful trading
  route

5
North Africa

• Mediterranean mild climate on northern coast
• Sahara Desert Desertification
• Atlas Mountains
• Nile River and Nile Delta

6
East Africa

• Great Rift Valley
• Lake Victoria
• Mount Kilimanjaro
• Savannahs
• Some areas receive a lot of rain, other areas get
  almost no rain.
• Moderate temperatures
• Unreliable rains affect agriculture

7
Cradle of Humanity

• Archeologists call East Africa the cradle of
  humanity.
• Has the largest number of hominid fossils
• Olduvai Gorge
• Great Rift Valley

8
Mitochondrial Eve

• Theory claims that all living humans are
  descended from humans living in Eastern Africa
  150,000 to 200,000 years ago
• Assumes that mitochondrial DNA changes at a
  predictable rate over time.
• Supported by the fact that modern human DNA is
  very different from Neanderthal and other
  pre-humans.

9
Replacement Model

• Suggests that our ancestors from Eastern Africa
  wiped out the rest of the human-like species in
  the world.
• DNA most supports this theory.

10
Assimilation Model

• Suggests that humans from Eastern Africa merged
  with the other human-like populations around the
  world
• Most supported by archeological evidence
  (artifacts)

11
Multi-regionalist Theory

• Opposes the Mitochondrial Eve theory entirely.
• Wolpoff at the University of Michigan
• Supported by the similarity between pre-human and
  modern humans in different regions.
• Not supported by DNA evidence

12
TAKE A STAND

• Which of the human origins theories would you
  support?
• Remember to include 2 facts, 1 piece of data, at
  least 1 CDV, and the opposing opinion.

13
Climate and Geography

• Group artists
• Responsible for showing climate and geography on
  the map.
• Responsible for explaining how climate and
  geography affected the history of the region.

14
History and Kingdoms

• The group fact checkers
• Responsible for creating a timeline of important
  events.
• Responsible for describing the rise and decline
  of kingdoms

15
Culture and Religion

• Responsible for making sure that a diverse
  history is represented.
• Responsible for describing the regions cultures
• Responsible for explaining affect major religions
  had the region.

16
Economy and Agriculture

• Responsible for getting group materials and
  putting them back at the end of group time.
• Responsible for identifying important resources
  and how they affected a region.
• Responsible for describing the regions
  relationship to agriculture.