Sub-Saharan Africa: Geography, History, and Economics

Sub-Saharan Africa Learning Objectives

• Identify the key geographic features of Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Describe the pre-colonial history of Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Explain the process of colonization in Sub-Saharan Africa and its effects on the modern geographic landscape.
• Analyze how colonization has impacted political stability and economic opportunity across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Physical Landscape of Sub-Saharan Africa

• Human Origins: Africa is known as the cradle of human civilization. Early ancestors, homo erectus (meaning ‘upright man’), first appeared in East Africa between $1$ and $2$ million years ago. These humans were the first to create tools, develop language, and control fire.
• Continental Scale and Tropics: Africa is the second-largest continent in the world after Asia. It is unique in being the only continent crossed by both the Tropic of Cancer ($23^{\circ}$ North of the Equator) and the Tropic of Capricorn ($23^{\circ}$ South of the Equator). These areas are characterized by high atmospheric pressure and dry conditions.
• Major Deserts:
  • The Sahara: Situated along the Tropic of Cancer in the north, it spans much of northern Africa, acting as a massive barrier that divides the Muslim, Arab North from traditional African cultural groups in the South.
  • The Namib Desert: Located on the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern part of the continent.
• Tectonic History and Pangaea: The landmass originated from the supercontinent Pangaea approximately $300$ million years ago. About $175$ million years ago, Pangaea began to break apart, with Africa situated at the heart of this supercontinent.
• The Great Rift Valley: This feature is a result of tectonic plate movement where the African Plate is slowly splitting. The rift expands at a rate of approximately $6$ to $7\,mm$ ($0.25\,in$) each year. Over a century, the rift expands by two feet. This valley contains some of the deepest lakes in the world, including Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second-largest and second-deepest freshwater lake, reaching depths of $1,470\,m$ ($4,820\,ft$).
• The Horn of Africa: A protruding peninsula east of the rift valley containing Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
• Hydrology and Basins:
  • Congo Basin: The largest tropical basin in Sub-Saharan Africa and the drainage area for the Congo River, which is the deepest river in the world and Africa’s largest river by discharge. Its forests are a biodiversity hotspot supporting $40$ million people, though deforestation is a major concern.
  • The Nile: Considered the longest river in the world, it flows from Lake Victoria in the rift valley north through $11$ different countries. It serves as a vital transport route and its floodplain supports agriculture in arid environments.
• The Sahel: A transitional ecoregion located just south of the Sahara that connects the dry desert to tropical regions in the south. It is primarily grassland and traditionally supports semi-nomadic livestock herders.
• Environmental Concerns: Desertification: This refers to the process where fertile land becomes desert due to climate change and human activities.
  • Causes: Overgrazing (which rids the land of vegetation and leads to topsoil erosion) and warming temperatures (which alter precipitation and increase evaporation).
  • Impact: In the Sahel, desertification has caused the Sahara to expand, leading to conflict as northern farmers migrate south in search of fertile soil.
• Climate Variations: Precipitation varies wildly across the continent:
  • Tropical rainforests in West Africa can receive over $3,000\,mm$ ($118\,in$) of rain annually.
  • The Namib Desert receives less than $10\,mm$ ($0.39\,in$) of rain annually.

Pre-Colonial Sub-Saharan Africa

• Early Agriculture: Domestication of crops and livestock began approximately $10,000$ years ago, leading to the development of settled agriculture.
• Social and Gender Roles:
  • Women were traditionally the primary agriculturalists, responsible for understanding crop seasonality and child-rearing. This granted them central importance in society, reflected in early religions with female goddesses.
  • Men were primarily hunters and gatherers.
• Land Ownership and Inheritance: The basic social unit was the family, which owned land collectively.
  • Partible Inheritance: Land was divided among all heirs, which prevented the development of a landed aristocracy.
  • Primogeniture: Contrastingly, in places like the UK, land was passed only to the firstborn male.
• Political Structure: The extended family was the most important political unit. Tribes, or groups of families with common ancestry and language, controlled specific territories. There were over $800$ distinct ethnic regions in pre-colonial Africa.
• Major Pre-Colonial Empires:
  • Kingdom of Kush ($1070$ BCE): Located on the Nile south of Egypt.
  • Kingdom of Aksum ($100$ CE – $940$ CE): Located in modern Eritrea and Ethiopia. It minted its own currency, built monuments, and established trade routes.
  • Empire of Ghana: The first state in West Africa ($350$ CE to the $1200$s CE), later conquered by the Mali Empire. It featured a capital city, markets, and taxation.
• Cultural Shifts:
  • Islam: Spread across North Africa starting in the $7$th century CE.
  • Slavery: Existed locally before European contact (slaves were usually conquered groups or gifts), but the transatlantic slave trade (starting in the $15$th century CE) changed the scale. Portugal first bought enslaved Africans to work sugar plantations on So Tome. Spain later sent slaves to the New World (Cuba and Hispaniola) in the early $16$th century.
  • Identity: Africans identified by tribe/ethnic group. Slaves from other groups were seen as ‘other.’ Between $1700$ CE and the end of the trade, an estimated $12$ million Africans were shipped to the New World.
• Agricultural Practices:
  • Shifting Cultivation: Farming land for a period and then abandoning it for fertility to restore.
  • Slash-and-burn: Burning overgrown vegetation to return nutrients to the soil. European empires often mistook these fallow lands for ‘unused’ land and seized them.

Sub-Saharan African Colonization

• Scramble for Africa: During the Industrial Revolution, European powers (France, Italy, Britain, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany) competed for mineral resources and agricultural land.
• The Berlin Conference (1884): $13$ European countries and the United States met to establish formal procedures for controlling African territory. This re-shaped the political map without regard for ethnic boundaries. By the early $20$th century, $90\%$ of Africa was under European control.
• Colonial Policies:
  • Paternalism (Belgian Congo): A racist ideology viewing Africans as children requiring ‘paternal’ Western authority.
  • Assimilationist (French Colonies): Focused on spreading French culture through language, law, and education.
  • Indirect Rule (British Colonies): Partnering with local rulers as representatives of the Crown (e.g., Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria).
  • Exploitation (Portuguese): Rigid control over local economies in places like Angola and Mozambique, ignoring local development.
• Economic Impact: Colonizers focused on commodities (raw materials/agricultural goods) for export. Infrastructure, like rail lines, was built only to transport resources from the interior to coastal ports, rather than developing regional connectivity.
• Independence: Most countries gained independence after World War II. The last to do so was Djibouti in $1977$.
  • Transition ease varied; British colonies (indirect rule) often had more gradual transitions, whereas Belgian colonies (direct rule) faced resistance from colonizers.
• Legacy of Conflict: Artificial colonial boundaries often grouped rival ethnic groups together or split a single group across multiple states. This led to contemporary political and economic challenges regarding resource access and power-sharing.

The Modern Sub-Saharan African Landscape

• Demographics: The region has over $1$ billion people.
  • Urbanization: Only $1/3$ of the population lives in cities. In $2007$, $72\%$ of city-dwellers lived in slums. Most urban areas have fewer than $200,000$ people.
  • Lagos, Nigeria: A major exception, Lagos has an estimated metropolitan population of $21$ million, making it Africa’s most populous city.
  • Population Growth: The region has the world’s highest fertility rates (e.g., Angola average is $6$ children per woman). The population is expected to double between $2010$ and $2050$. Nigeria is projected to surpass the U.S. population by $2050$.
  • Dependency Ratio: The high birth rate creates a high ratio of people not in the labor force compared to productive workers.
• Healthcare and Disease:
  • Endemic Diseases: Illnesses like hepatitis and hookworm are found in steady numbers within the population.
  • Epidemic Diseases: Outbreaks affecting large numbers on a regional scale.
  • Malaria: The deadliest disease in the region. $90\%$ of global malaria deaths occur in Africa, costing $\$12$ billion annually in healthcare and lost productivity.
  • Insect-Borne Illnesses: Yellow fever (mosquitoes) and sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis, tsetse fly).
  • HIV/AIDS: Roughly $70\%$ of all people living with HIV/AIDS are in Sub-Saharan Africa. It remains the leading cause of death. In Swaziland, Botswana, and Lesotho, more than $1$ in $5$ adults are infected.
  • Ebola: A viral hemorrhagic fever. A $2013$ outbreak in Guinea spread and killed $11,000$ people over two years.
• Governance and Conflict:
  • Corruption: Costs residents approximately $\$150$ billion each year.
  • Failed States: Seven of the world’s ten most vulnerable states are in Africa.
  • Genocide in Rwanda (1994): Rooted in colonial policy where Belgians gave power to the minority Tutsi over the Hutu. After independence in $1962$ CE, conflict arose. Between April and July $1994$, $800,000$ Tutsis (approx. $50\%$ of their population) were killed in $100$ days, mostly by machetes.
  • Apartheid in South Africa: A policy of racial separation and minority rule by Afrikaners (descendants of Dutch settlers). It ended in $1994$ with the first democratic elections.
• Regional Cooperation:
  • African Union (AU): Formed in $2001$; includes every African state (Morocco rejoined in $2017$).
  • ECOWAS and COMESA: Regional organizations focused on creating free trade areas.
  • Lingua Franca: A common language used for communication between different language speakers. Examples include colonial languages (English, French) or native languages like Swahili in Southeast Africa.

Economics and Globalization in Sub-Saharan Africa

• Neocolonialism: The practice of exerting economic rather than direct political control. Most exports remain raw materials, leaving economies vulnerable to global price shifts. Western corporations and investors often own land or water rights.
• Dual Economy: The coexistence of commercial/plantation agriculture alongside traditional subsistence methods, often exacerbating income inequality (notably in South Africa).
• Debt and Structural Adjustment:
  • The IMF and World Bank have loaned over $\$150$ billion to African countries.
  • Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs): Economic changes required for loan repayment (e.g., lower wages, higher food prices). Critics argue these limit sovereignty and lead to austerity-induced stagnation.
  • Heavily Indebted Poor Countries: $33$ of the $39$ countries eligible for joint IMF/World Bank debt relief are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Foreign Investment: Private investment now exceeds development aid.
  • China: Africa’s largest trading partner. Projects include a $\$12$ billion railway in Nigeria and Kilamba New City in Angola ($25,000$ homes paid for with oil).
• Microfinance: Small loans (microcredit) provided to low-income individuals. Women have particularly benefited, allowing them to become entrepreneurs. Over $95\%$ of these loans are repaid.
• Economic Growth: Sub-Saharan Africa had a $4\%$ growth rate in $2016$ (global average was $3.4\%$). However, many remain impoverished; for instance, while petroleum is a leading export, many Africans lack reliable electricity. Population is expected to quadruple by the end of this century.