AFRICA
GEOGRAPHY
• 2nd largest continent (behind Asia)
• 3 times larger than the United States
• Contains a plethora of geographic features & wildlife
• 2008 population = 972,752,366 (world is
6,706,992,932) Africa is about 14% of the world’s
population
5 GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS
NORTH AFRICA
• Features: Thin coastal
plain & inland desert
(Sahara)
• Location: Borders the
Mediterranean Sea
• Coastal N.A. – mild
temperature and
frequent rainfall
REGIONS cont.
EAST AFRICA
• Sahel – great plateau w/
moderate rainfall and large
savannas (treeless plains)
• Savannas south of the
Sahara constitute about 40%
of Africa’s land
• Great Rift Valley – 40 m.
wide; 2,000 ft. deep; 3,000
m. long (Red Sea to S. Africa)
• Mts. – Kenya and
Kilimanjaro
REGIONS cont.
WEST AFRICA
• narrow coastal plain
• Rivers – Niger and Zaire
(Congo)
• Few natural harbors and
limited river travel isolated
early civilizations in this
area (made conquest by
foreigners difficult as well)
REGIONS cont.
CENTRAL AFRICA
• Tropical forests so thick
sunlight does not reach the
floor
• Climate is hot & humid but
turns into desert in the
south/central Africa
REGIONS cont.
SOUTH AFRICA
• Far south has cool, fertile
highlands
Northern and Southern Coasts
• Narrow strips of fertile land border northern
and southern coasts
• Moderate rainfall
• Warm temperatures
• Dense populations
Deserts
• Sahara and the Kalahari make up about 1/3 of
Africa’s land
• Sahara mostly wasteland of rocks and pebbles
• About 90 inhabited oases in Sahara
Dry Grasslands
• Semiarid climate: less than 20 inches of
rainfall per year
• Nomads live here with herds
– Suitable for grazing, but not for farming
Savanna
• Grassy plains that cover 2/5 of the continent
• Difficult for farming, but has always supported
the most life
AFRICA’S
MAJOR
LAND FORMS
• Largest desert in the
world (N. Africa)
• 3”- 5” of rain or less per
year (some areas go
years without rain)
• Temperatures get as
high as 130 and as low
as freezing
SAHARA
NILE RIVER
• Northeast Africa
• Longest river in the world
(about 4,000 miles long)
• Source - Lake Victoria
• Mouth – Mediterranean
Sea
• Largest African lake
• Source of the Nile River
• Many isles and
prehistoric remains
LAKE
VICTORIA
MT. KILIMANJARO
• Highest African mountain (19,340 ft)
• Located in Tanzania
SERENGETI NAT’L PARK
SLAVERY
• Europeans started using African
slaves on a large scale basis
around 1500
• Slavery in Africa had actually
been practiced for centuries
before the Europeans arrived
• Berber groups in NA captured
slaves from sub-Saharan Africa
and sold them throughout the
Mediterranean world
SLAVERY cont.
• Before European slavery, slaves
included:
– Prisoners of war
– Debtors
– Criminals
• They were not necessarily seen
as inferior (major difference
between slavery in the
colonies)
• Some were respected for their
skills and could win their
freedom
ROLES OF SLAVES
working the land
soldiers
servants
EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM IN
AFRICA
EUROPE & AFRICA
• Little knowledge of
Africa until the
1800s
• Early involvement
was limited to the
coasts and focused
on trade (why didn’t
they go inland?)
Africa?
What’s
that?
LIVINGSTONE & STANLEY
• David Livingstone –
explorer who travelled
throughout Africa for about
30 years in the mid-1800s
• Henry Stanley –
reporter/explorer who went
to look for him and found
him in 1871
• This generated a LOT of
excitement and interest in
Europe about Africa
DAVID LIVINGSTONE
WHY WOULD
EUROPEANS
“SCRAMBLE” FOR
CONTROL OF
AFRICA?
REASONS EUROPE WOULD BE INTERESTED
IN AFRICA
1. Control of waterways for trade and military
benefits
2. Access to natural resources such as gold and
timber
3. Prestige/Power
4. Spread of Christianity
5. Spread of European culture
PARTITION OF
AFRICA
• 1885 – 14 European
nations meet to
partition (divide)
Africa (Berlin
Conference)
• 1914 –European
nations controlled
90% of Africa
“Ask any man what nationality he would
prefer to be and ninety-nine percent out of a
hundred will tell you that they would probably
prefer to be Englishmen.”
- Cecil Rhodes, British industrialist who
helped colonize southern Africa
IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA
WEST AFRICA
• Great Britain annexed the west
coastal states
• France had areas such as
modern-day Mauritania
• Germany controlled areas such
as Cameroon
– They wanted peanuts, timber,
hides, palm oil
NORTH AFRICA
• Great Britain gained control
of Egypt – wanted control of
the Suez Canal
• Italy failed to control
Ethiopia but got Libya wanted prestige, trade
IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA
CENTRAL AFRICA
• Livingston was a missionary
and explorer, opened peoples
eyes to Africa – wanted to
spread Christianity
• Stanley – sent to find
Livingston – wanted to settle
Africa
• Belgium/King Leopold II –
controlled the Congo, wanted
resources and wealth
EAST AFRICA
• Germany controlled areas
such as modern-day
Tanzania – wanted prestige,
trade
• Great Britain controlled
areas such as modern-day
Kenya – wanted to connect
British holdings in South
Africa to Egypt
EFFECTS OF IMPERIALISM
NEGATIVES
• Africans worked for low wages
• Forced to pay taxes
• Very harsh working conditions (brutal
discipline)
• Decay of traditions and culture
• Decline in populations (millions died)
• Removal/destruction of traditional
homelands
• Institutionalized racism
POSITIVES (?)
EARLY DUTCH
SETTLERS
settle the Cape
in the 1600s to
provide food
for Dutch ships
DUTCH SETTLERS (BOERS) CAME INTO CONTACT
AND FOUGHT AGAINST NATIVE AFRICAN PEOPLES
British eventually annex the Dutch colony (1795),
which leads to great conflict between the Boers and
the British government
CREATION OF SOUTH AFRICA IN 1910
• The country is
“created” but
racism is VERY
much a part of the
government
policies (white
only vote)
• 1994 – Nelson
Mandela becomes
first black
president
APARTHEID
• A policy created by the
South African
government in 1948 to
segregate the whites
and blacks
• Laws were passed that
kept the races apart and
blacks inferior to whites
EFFECTS OF APARTHEID
1978
BLACKS
WHITES
19 Million
4.5 Million
13 %
87%
@20%
@75%
DOCTORS/POPULATION
1/44,000
1/400
INFANT MORTALITY RATE
20% (urban); 40% (rural)
2.7%
ANNUAL MONEY SPENT ON
EDUCATION PER PUPIL
$45
$696
TEACHER/PUPIL RATION
1/60
1/22
POPULATION
LAND ALLOCATION
SHARE OF NAT’L INCOME
END OF EUROPEAN CONTROL OF
AFRICA
• After WW II (1939-1945)
many European powers
realized they could no longer
hold onto their colonies
• Beginning in the 1950s many
African colonies started to
gain their independence
• Many of these “new”
countries changed colonial
names that represented
white/European colonization
(ex. Rhodesia became
Zimbabwe)
Goodbye Europe!
We won’t miss
you!!!!
END OF EUROPEAN CONTROL OF
AFRICA cont.
• Some European countries
left peacefully while
others sometimes fought
to hold on to their
colonies
• Once the Europeans left,
the Africans faced many
problems in establishing
governments for the
newly independent
nations
The
Europeans
left, now
what do we
do?
END OF EUROPEAN CONTROL OF
AFRICA cont.
• Some of these problems in
each country included:
1. Different language groups
2. Various religions
3. Ethnic differences
---- how could all of these
different groups agree on
how the new country
should be run?
What do we
do about all
of these
problems?
PROBLEMS FOR AFRICA IN GENERAL
1.
Health Issues (esp. HIV/AIDS)
2.
Diamond industry
3.
Poaching
4.
Poverty
5.
Corruption
6.
Civil/Tribal Warfare
7.
Racial tension
DARFUR
GENOCIDE
the systematic extermination or attempted
extermination of a national, racial, political, or
cultural group