Africa%20Notes

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Africa Notes
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Geography.

• About 50 countries
• 1/3 of all the worlds countries
• 2nd largest continent in land area

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Continent of Plateaus.

• Africa is a giant plateau
• Plateau - flat landmass higher than the
  surrounding land with at least one steep side
• Narrow coastal plains extend inland less than 20
  miles
• One plateau follows the other as the land rises
  from west to east in a series of steps

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Continent of Plateaus

• Escarpment steep cliffs or slopes, separate the
  plateaus
• The highest and broadest plateaus and escarpments
  lie in the south and east
• Rivers turn into cataracts waterfalls, as they
  flow over the escarpments
• Because of plateaus, Africa has the highest
  overall elevation of any other continent
• The average elevation is 2000 feet above sea level

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Mountains Highlands

• Not many mountains
• Atlas Mountains
• Drakensberg Mountains
• Mount Kenya
• Mount Kilimanjaro
• Africas highest mountain

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Great Rift Valley

• Great Rift Valley - valley that creates a Y
  shaped trench 3500 miles long
• Series of faults
• Mt. Kilimanjaro famous of the rifts volcanoes
• Steep escarpments over a mile high

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Pangaea.

• Pangaea
• Theory that all the continents were connected to
  form one large continent
• Scientists believe the Great Rift Valley was
  created during violent movements that separated
  the continents and caused them to drift apart 180
  million years ago

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Deserts.

• Kalahari Desert
• Located in south-central Africa
• Grasses palm trees
• Biodiversity many different types of plant
  animal life
• Namib Desert
• Some of the worlds highest sand dunes
• As little as ½ inch rain per year
• Beetles, lizards, snakes

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• Lake Victoria
• Source of the White Nile River
• 2nd largest freshwater lake in the world
• Lake Tanganyika
• Stretches 420 miles
• Worlds longest freshwater lake
• Lake Malawi
• Many species of fish found in Lake Malawi that
  are not found anywhere else on earth
• Lake Volta
• Formed due to a dam on the Volta River
• Lake Chad
• No outlets to the sea

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Rivers.

• Nile
• Worlds longest river
• Zaire River
• 2700 miles long
• Crosses the equator twice
• Congo River
• Flows northward from Zambia then southwest into
  Atlantic Ocean
• Niger River
• Empties into the Atlantic Ocean
• Zambezi River
• Empties into the Indian Ocean
• Forms Victoria Falls
• Explorer, David Livingstone, name this after the
  British Queen Victoria
• Twice the height of Niagara Falls

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Climate.

• Western Africa
• Lies within the tropics
• Warm temperatures throughout the year
• Areas around the equator have arid climate
• Sahel region of semiarid climate extending
  below the Sahara Desert
• Major droughts can occur causes widespread
  famine

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Climate cont

• Southern Africa
• Tropical wet and dry
• Winds from Sahara bring hot, dry conditions in
  winter
• Winds from the ocean bring rain in summer
• Grasslands grazing animals
• Drakensberg Mountains
• Causes rain shadow effect
• Central Africa
• Rainfall year round
• Dense tropical rainforest
• Home to many endangered species

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Natural Resources.

• Diamonds
• Found in South Africa and Zaire
• Gold
• Geologists believe ½ the worlds gold comes from
  South Africa and the Great Rift Valley
• Oil
• Found in Nigeria - member of OPEC
• Cacao Beans (coco)
• West Africa is worlds major source

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Population.

• 967 million
• Worlds youngest population
• About half of the people are less than 15 years
  old
• Worlds highest birthrate - statistic that tells
  the of babies born in a population

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Population

• Worlds shortest life expectancy - average age
  people are expected to live
• Worlds lowest economic growth rate
• High infant mortality rate - the of babies that
  die in a population
• Worlds highest population growth rate

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Population Distribution.

• Uneven population distribution due to physical
  geography
• Sparsely populated
• Deserts
• Mountains
• Densely populated
• Around lakes and rivers
• Fertile soil
• Good climates

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Problems Facing the Population

• Due to a growing population, many regions in
  Africa are struggling to feed their population
• Food production has declined due to
• Loss of soil fertility
• Droughts
• Famine and malnutrition kill many Africans
• Famine - severe food shortage for an extended
  period of time
• Only about 40 have clean drinking water

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Problems.

• Many diseases
• AIDS has become an epidemic - a disease affecting
  many persons at the same time, and spreading from
  person to person in a location
• Poor medical care due to
• Lack of doctors
• Lack of medical supplies and equipment

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• Very low Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - total
  amount of goods and services produced in a county
  in a year
• Low per capita income - average amount a person
  earns in a year
• Varies from region to region
• Sierra Leone - 530
• South Africa - 10, 270

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Urbanization.

• Urbanization - the movement of people from rural
  to urban areas
• Africa is the least urbanized continent but it is
  urbanizing at the fastest rate
• Most cities are located along rivers or near
  natural resources
• People often move to cities in search of jobs
• Housing shortages
• No electricity or running water

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History.

• Great kingdoms ruled areas of West Central
  Africa
• Trading sites
• Gold, cloth, slaves
• Islam spread to region
• 1400s Europeans began trading with Africans
• Trying to find route to East Asia
• Tropical disease, few navigable rivers, and thick
  forests kept Europeans out

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History.

• European Colonization
• 1500s to 1800s the Europeans began trading with
  African societies for slaves
• Europeans sold enslaved Africans to American
  colonists
• The slave trade existed for a long time
• Disrupted families societies
• Coastal states became more powerful than inner
  savanna

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• The triangular slave trade
• Europeans traded with Africans for slaves in
  exchange for goods like weapons
• Slaves were taken from Africa to the colonies in
  the Americas
• Raw materials grown in the Americas were taken to
  Europe to the manufacturing plants
• Millions died during the Middle Passage- ocean
  journey from Africa to the Americas

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History cont.

• David Livingstone
• Scottish doctor and missionary
• One of the first Europeans to explore the
  interior of Africa
• For 30 years, he explored and set up Christian
  missions
• Sent detailed reports back to Great Britain of
  the exotic wildlife and people
• The stories from Africa made people very curious

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European Colonization

• Mid-1800s slave trade was ending
• Europe was industrializing and needed resources
• Europeans sought control of fertile African
  territories and resources

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Scramble for Africa.

• European nations scrambled to make their claims
  in Africa
• By the 1800s, European nations divided up Africa
  and colonized it
• In 1885, 14 nations met in Berlin to partition-
  or divide, Africa
• By 1914, European nations controlled 90 of
  Africa
• Europeans controlled most of Africa until the mid
  to late 1900s

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History cont.

• Liberia
• The only free independent state in west Africa
• Established in 1822 by freed Africans who were
  once enslaved
• Received support from the U.S.
• This discouraged European powers from seizing it
  as a colony
• Only other free country was Ethiopia

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History.

• Boer War 1899 to 1902
• Dutch vs British
• British were victorious
• White minorities controlled South Africa
• Held political power
• Controlled the economy owned most of the land

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Post-Colonialism.

• Colonialism lasted less than 100 years
• 1976 all African countries were independent
• Effects
• Many ethnic conflicts
• Workers shifted from agriculture to industry

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History

• Apartheid official policies that forced black
  South Africans to live in separate areas and use
  separate facilities from white South Africans
• African National Congress pushed for end to
  apartheid
• 1990 apartheid ended
• 1994 Nelson Mandela elected first black
  president

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Culture.

• Language
• Over 800 languages and dialects
• Some originated in Africa
• Some were brought by foreigners
• Some are a mixture of languages
• Lingua franca- universal language that trade and
  business is conducted in
• Swahili is the lingua franca of East Africa
• Many countries still have the language of the
  European country that colonized them

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Culture cont.

• Religion
• Many ethnic groups have their own traditional
  religions
• Traditional religions, Islam and Christianity
  each consist of about 1/3 of the religions
  practiced in Africa
• African religions
• Believe spirits of ancestors are important
• Spirits are honored in ceremonies
• Animists believe in sprits of the natural world
• Islam
• Religion of the Sahel
• Christianity
• Atlantic coast

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Housing
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Housing South African slums
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1. Market in West Africa selling fruits
2. Farmer and his laid-out field (needs to be
   located near water for irrigation
3. Farmer plowing his field to grow crops (lack of
   technology)
4. Typical business woman in South Africa where
   opportunities are greater
5. Copper mining in Central Africa

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Agriculture.

• Most Africans still rely on agriculture to make a
  living
• Cash crops - grown to make a profit
• Millet sorghum are staple crops drought
  resistant
• Other staple crops cassava, yams, corn
• Dual economies some goods produced for
  exportation while others are produced for local
  people

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Agriculture cont

• Farming methods
• Commercial farming- farming organized as a
  business produce cash crops
• Shifting farming- farmers move every one to three
  years to find better soil
• Sedentary farming- farming conducted on permanent
  settlements
• Problems
• Most people cannot afford the machinery,
  technology and fertilizers to increase food
  production
• Food shortages are a constant problem

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Mining.

• Important economic activity
• Very dangerous
• Work long hours
• Many poor Africans work in the mines to support
  their families
• Mineral wealth has made South Africa one of the
  richest regions in the area
• Most black South Africans do not benefit from
  this because the mines are owned by white South
  Africans or foreign companies

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Industrialization.

• Manufacturing is not a big part of the economy
• Obstacles to industrialization
• Lack of capital - tools and equipment used in
  factories
• Political conflict (within countries and between
  neighboring ones)
• Not enough skilled workers

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Environment.

• Famine is caused by
• Rapidly growing populations
• Lack of capital (tools and equipment)
• Overdependence on cash crops
• Desertification- transformation of arable
  (fertile) land into desert
• Using land too much for grazing and farming
  causes erosion
• Droughts have impacted this too
• Civil War is the biggest cause of famine
• Used food as a weapon by burning the fields of
  their enemies
• Relief agencies like the Red Cross would send
  food but it was often stolen by rebels or
  warlords
• Example - the movie Black Hawk Down was set in
  Somalia

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Deforestation

• The destruction of forests for
• Wood to export
• Burn forests to clear land for farming or grazing
• Fuel
• Results of deforestation
• Deforestation may make the earth hotter
• Carbon dioxide holds in more heat than oxygen
• Increase in carbon dioxide (since plants turn
  carbon dioxide into oxygen)
• Plants and animals are at risk for extinction-
  disappearance from the earth

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Deforestation cont.

• Protecting rain forests and endangered wildlife
• As the population grows, farmers need more land
  for farming
• Taking land from grasslands and forests where
  animals live
• Many animals are becoming endangered because
• Humans have pushed into the animals natural
  habitats living areas
• Increase in hunting
• Poaching illegal hunting
• Elephants and rhinos (Tusks and horns are very
  profitable)
• Some countries have made huge game preserves to
  protect animals
• Ecotourism- tourism based on the environment
• Ecotourism has increased visits to preserves
• Some Africans object to preserves because they
  need the land and often dont profit from
  ecotourism

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Current Issues.

• Slow economic development
• Rapid population growth
• Internal war conflict
• Deforestation
• Extinction of plants animals
• Malaria HIV/AIDS
• Genocide intentional destruction of people
• Rwanda (1994)
• Hutu vs Tutsi