GEOG 101 – World Regional Geography
Professor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Chapter 6 – Sub-Saharan Africa
A – Physical Geography
B – Colonialism
C – Social Issues
D – Regions of the Realm
A Overview
■ 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.
Physical Geography
■ Africa's Deserts
• The continent straddles the Equator.
• Sufficiently large to include land in both the northern and
southern hemispheres.
• Dry belts:
• Astride the two Tropics - Cancer and Capricorn.
• Areas of high atmospheric pressure.
• Air circulation patterns:
• Clockwise (northern hemisphere) and counterclockwise (southern
hemisphere)
• Net air outflow towards zones of lower pressure.
• Receive very little rainfall.
• Relatively little moisture can accumulate in the air masses that
are the sources of the outflow of air.
Sahara
Equator
Tropic of Capricorn
Kalahari
Tropic of Cancer
Physical Geography
■ Pre-colonial Africa
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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.
Colonialism
■ European colonial objectives
• A port along the West African coast.
• A water route to South Asia and Southeast Asia.
• 1500’s:
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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.
Colonialism
■ Berlin Conference (1884)
• 14 States divided up Africa without consideration of existing
cultures.
• Results of superimposed boundaries:
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African peoples were divided.
Unified regions were ripped apart.
Hostile societies were thrown together.
Hinterlands were disrupted.
Migration routes were closed off.
■ Legacy of political fragmentation
• Impaired the cohesion of newly formed countries in the 1950s.
• A constant source of unrest and violence.
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.
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.
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.
• Usage of the colonizer’s language as “lingua franca”.
• Notably French and English.
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:
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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.
Social Issues
■ Development
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Africa is one of the least achieving region of the world.
Complex set of causes.
Not a lack of resources.
Not a lack of labor.
Not a lack of capital.
The main factor is government corruption, incompetence and
socialist policies.
Social Issues
■ Medical geography
• Studies spatial aspects of disease and health.
■ Africa is an extraordinary laboratory
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Disease incidence and diffusion.
Tropical and subtropical climates.
Complex ecosystems.
Widespread nutritional deficiencies.
■ Main diseases
• Malaria.
• Yellow fever.
• AIDS.
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.
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 yo) have been orphaned (end of 1999).
Global Estimates of Cumulative HIV/AIDS Infections
and Deaths Worldwide, 1980-2002 (in millions)
70
60
HIV infections
AIDS deaths
50
40
30
20
10
20
02
20
00
19
98
19
96
19
94
19
92
19
90
19
88
19
86
19
84
19
82
19
80
0
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.
Causes of deaths, globally and in Africa, 1999 (in %)
World
Lung cancer
Tubercolosis
HIV/AIDS
Africa
0
5
10
15
20
AIDS in Africa
■ Botswana
• The world’s 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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Age in years
Projected population structure with and
without the AIDS epidemic, Botswana, 2020
80
75
70
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Males
140 120 100
80
Females
60
40
20
0
20
40
60
80
100 120 140
Population (thousands)
Projected population structure in 2020
Deficits due to AIDS
Life Expectancy in Selected African Countries, 19552000
65
Bostwana
Zimbabwe
Uganda
Zambia
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
AIDS in Africa
■ Social costs
• Places the most infected are the least able to fight the disease:
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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.
AIDS in Africa
• AIDS orphans:
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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 35:
• Most productive years.
• Four out of five deaths of the age group are attributed to AIDS.
• Less attractive context for investment.
• Recruiting problems.
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
East Africa
■ Lies astride the equator
■ Mainly highlands
■ Cooler and generally drier
conditions prevail
■ Ethnic diversity
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.
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
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.