Geography 210 - Africa

FEB 18:

Sub-Saharan Africa:

• Located South of Sahara Desert

  • The desert is a huge cultural and physical barrier - hard to cross

Physical Geography

• Africa is a plateau continent. There are several major plateaus in Africa.

• Plateau is an elevated area with relatively flat on top

• Average elevation of plateaus is 3,500 to 5,000 ft.  

  • The elevation moderates temperatures, especially at night.

• Escarpments - steep cliffs or mountains

  • They are behind flat, lowland areas

  • Often leading to a plateau region.

• Southern Africa has a long, narrow coastline

• Escarpments

• Also flank Rift valleys

Rift Valleys

• Zones where Earth's crust has pulled apart - break in the Earth's crust.

• Escarpments are the sides of the rift.

• Valley forms at the bottom of the rift.

• Eventually open up and become a new sea

• Red Sea and Gulf of Aden

  • Rifts that are filled with water

• Victoria Falls in Africa.

  • Rift valley starting to form

Vegetation

• Climate and Vegetation are related everywhere around the world

• Equatorial Climate

  • Tropical Rainforest

  • Year round precipitation; found in Central Africa and coast of West Africa.

• Tropical Seasonal Climate

  • Wet and Dry seasons

• Savannas are found in such a climate

  • Mainly grasslands with some tree cover

    • 10% to 50% tree cover

• Large herd of animals and predators

  • Impalas, Zebras, Elephants, Wildebeest, Giraffes, Lions, Orex, etc.

• Desert and Semi-Arid Climates

  • Little rainfall

  • Sparse vegetation, not a lot of moisture.

  • Fewer animals

Drought and Desertification

• Often found in Arid and Semi-arid places

• Frequent droughts

  • Hurts Crops

  • Hydroelectric projects/dams that run through these regions

• Sahel - big arid grasslands

  • South of Sahara desert

  • North of savannas

  • Overgrazing and firewood removal

• Desertification

  • Turning Semi-arid area into desert.

Killer Tropical Diseases

• A lot of them are endemic in many parts of Africa

  • Endemic

    • Like an epidemic, but Endemic is always there over a wide area

• River Blindness

  • Worm larvae from fly bites move into eyes

• Malaria

  • Transferred by Mosquitoes; also affects snakes

• Sleeping Sickness - also affects horses, camels, donkeys

  • Caused by the Tse-Tse fly

  • Some savannas nearly depopulated

  • You sleep from 16-20 hours because of this sickness, as you are so tired.

Natural Resources

• Ancient Rocks in many parts of Africa

  • Iron ore, various metals, gold, diamonds, coal, cobalt.

  • Older the rock, higher likelihood and quantity of minerals.

• Oil

  • Petroleum

  • A little bit here and there in Africa

  • Niger River delta, Nigeria

    • Lots of OIL.

• Wide variety of crops grown in Africa

  • Corn (main crop), cassava, rice, yams, sorghum (used to be dominant), etc.

• Commercial crops

  • Often for export

  • Bananas, cocoa, coffee, tea, palm oil, rubber, cotton, tropical fruits

• For Tourism

  • Animals in protected parks

  • Natural wonders

    • Victoria Falls

  • Cape of Good Hope and Table Mountain

Cradle of the Human Species

• Homo sapiens (humans) evolved in Africa

  • Greatest genetic diversity among people in the world

• Tremendous cultural diversity

Africa's Historical Geography

• Major problems

  • Few written records before colonization

  • Most colonial powers suppressed native African history

African Empires

• Empire of Ghana: 700 - 1240

  • Located in West Africa

  • Trade in salt, gold, ivory, and slaves

  • Middlemen between desert and tropical peoples

• Kingdom of MALI eclipses Ghana

  • 1050 - 1500

  • They traded in all directions

  • Timbuktu is the largest city

    • Major center of learning

    • Universities and libraries built before most of Europe

• Great Zimbabwe - formerly called Rhodesia

  • Vast trading empire

  • Huge cities protected by large stone walls

Arab Expansion

• Into North and East Africa

  • 700s to 1800s

    • Trade expeditions

  • Islam: accomodated local practices

  • Camel: increased trade activity

    • Came into Africa around 100 AD

  • Trade, education, art, science, etc  

  • Later holy wars with native Africans

• East Africa

  • Arab trade tied it to Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade networks.

European Expansion

• Portugal mid-1400s

  • Trying to go around Africa

    • Did not know if they could

  • To India and East Indies

    • Spice trade

  • Forts and trading posts along African coast

    • Especially Angola and Mozambique

• Later Europeans come in the 1500s to 1800s

African Slave Trade

• Before Europeans

  • Slave trade among Africa and with Arabia

  • Still continues - Way more slaves than Europeans took

• African Slave Trade by Eropeans, from mid-1400s

• Division of Labor - Geography

  • Africans

    • Captured slaves inland and transported to coast and sold them to Europeans

  • Europeans

    • Transported slaves across Atnalntic and abused them in New World.        

Atlantic Slave Trade

• Went from West Africa to:

  • Caribbean

  • Mexico

  • Central America

  • Colonial USA

    • About 3% of all slaves

    • Mostly indirect through Caribbean

• From Angola and Mozambique

  • Brazil

  • All Portuguese colonies   

• Scramble for Africa

• Countries trying to compete for colonies in Africa

Berlin Conference 1884 - 1885

• European countries divide Africa

  • Colonies of

    • Belgium

    • France

    • Spain

    • Italy

• US and Russia watched silently

• No consultation with Africans

• Little consideration for Tribal boundaries

  • Basis for current African boundaries

  • Origin of many modern ethnic conflicts in Africa.       

• Germany - lost colonies after WW1.

Portugal

• Angola and Mozambique

• EXPLOITATION

  • Natural Resources

  • Forced labor of Africans

    • Very harsh conditions

  • Unverdevelopment in colonies

France

• In parts of North, Western, and Central Africa

• ASSIMILATION

  • They try to make colonies "French"             

  • French language widespread in former African colonies

• French Foreign Legion - French colonies in Africa

UK

• Western, Eastern, and Southern Africa

• Often by INDIRECT RULE

  • Like in India

  • Rule through local leaders in Africa

    • Puppets of UK

• White Settler Colonies

  • Not as many British whites as USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand

  • Kenywa, South Africa, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

King Leopold of Belgium

• He had the Congo Free State (DRC)

• Personal Holding of Leopold, 1885

  • Not owned by Belgium; he gives it to Belgium before his death

• CRUEL RACISM - harshest of all colonial systems

  •  Villagers are given quotas for natural resources

    • If a village did not meet quotas, it got punished   

    • Cut off hands of some villagers

• 1885 - 1908

  • 12 million Africans murdered

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Feb 20:

African Independence:

• Before World War 2

  • Small movements were demanding independence 

    • Local African elites educated in Europe

      • Learned about European:

        • Democracy - Africans were drawn to this   

        • Self-determination

• World War 2

  • US policy to assist Allies

    • Forced Anti-Colonialism on European allies

    • Native peoples had right to self-determination - this is in the UN Charter

• Post World War 2

  • European countries could not hold onto colonies

    • No money

    • To tired from fighting

• Africans demanded Independence

  • Africans fought in European armies

  • Exposed to ideas of self-determination

  • Sometimes violent uprisings - Kenya, Algeria, Angola

• Problems after Independence:

  • Europeans had not prepared Africans for:

    • Governance

    • Administration

    • Social Services

    • Ex: Belgian Congo, 1960    

      • Only 2 African-trained physicians in the entire country of Belgium

• Ethnic conflicts

  • Berlin Conference - no regard for tribal boundaries

Ethnic Conflicts

• Country boundaries

  • Based on European colonial boundaries

  • NOT based on African tribal boundaries

• Often violent borders

Rwanda Genocide

• Hutu majority and Tutsi minority

  • Tutsi minority favored by Belgian colonial authorities when they conquered them

  • Ethnic conflicts during   

    • Colonial period

    • First decades of independence

• 1994, April - June

  • Hutu majority attacked the Tutsi minority.

  • Approx. 500,000 people are killed; 400,000 children were turned into orphans

  • Murder, torture, rape with HIV infection.

South Africa

• Dutch settlers at Cape Town

  • In the 1640s

  • Supports Dutch ships traveling between Europe and East Indies

  • Farming to supply ships and port - farmers signed contracts with Dutch to farm in Cape Town

  • The settlers had conflict and trade with local people

    • San people

    • Bushmen and Khoi-khoi

    • Different lifestyle

    • British eventually take this over from the Dutch

  • White minority rule to 1994    

• Dutch settlers slowly pushed settlement inland

• Early 1800s - Cape Colony came under Britain

  • Conflict between British and Boers - Dutch for "farmer"

• British wanted to end:

  • Slavery

  • Boer culture

• Boers moved much farther inland

  • Far from Cape Colony

  • Known as the Great Trek

    • They went to Orange and Vaal River valleys - decent farmlands, water, irrigation

  • Established Boer states

    • Orange Free State

    • Transvaal

  • The Boers arrived here the same time native Africans were fleeing this region

    • Fighting Zulus

• 1860s - 1880s

  • Diamonds and gold discovered in Boer territory

  • Many British settlers into Boer territory

• 1898 - Boer War

  • Sort of won by Britain in 1903   

  • British invented Modern Concentration Camps, which prevented the Boers from fighting

• Union of South Africa formed - 1910

  • British and Boer territories combined to form Union of SF.

  • Self-governing country in the British empire

    • Independent under White control

• Discrimination against Africans since 1640s

  • This increased dramatically in diamond and gold camps

  • African workers didn't have hems on their clothes so they couldn't hide diamonds. They had security checks

• Apartheid

  • Officially in 1960s

    • So many discriminatory policies before then

• Separate races and ethnic groups

  • Tribes are separate from each other in "homelands"   

    • Homeland is supposed to be a separate country from S.A.

    • Separate Afrikaner and British descendants

• Economic sanctions and political pressure lead to S.A. ending white minority rule

• White Minority rule ended early 1994

• Problems today

  • Rampant govt. corruption

  • Nelson Mandela becomes the president after his prison time, but he's old.

  • Poor economy

    • Too reliant on mining

    • Mismanagement of economy by govt. and companies

  • Racial problems

    • Africans - tribes don't get along.

    • Afrikaners (Boers)

    • British

    • Coloureds - mixed race

    • Asians - largely India

• Rapidly becoming a fragile state

  • Govt. corruption for 25 years   

    • Crumbling infrastructure

      • Electric grid

      • Water and sewage systems

      • Roads, etc.

    • Lack of confidence in govt.

    • Increasing violence

      • One of highest murder rate in World

        • Maybe 6.5 times that of USA

• One of World's highest rates of rape

HIV/AIDS in Africa

• Source region for HIV/AIDS

  • Central Africa

  • 1st known case

    • 1920; as early as 1800s

    • Kinshasa, DR Congo

      • Leopoldville, Belgian Congo

• Probably as early as 1880s   

• Origins - nobody is sure

• Rapid diffusion through Africa from 1960s

• Destroys your immune system, but doesn't kill you.

  • Victims become more vulnerable to other diseases

    • Tuberculosis, pneumonia, etc.

    • These are what kill people

• Cause for high levels in Africa:

  • Poverty

  • Breakdown of traditional family support system

  • Apartheid policies

    • Male-only mining camps serviced by prostitutes

• Rapid Urbanization

• Mistaken government policies

• Re-using injection needles in hospitals

• Sub-Saharan Africa

  • 2/3 of world's cases

  • Over 30 million infected with HIV in 1997.   

  • Down to 19 million in 2015 

  • 1997 - 4 million new infections

  • 2015 - 790,000 new infection

• Southern Africa has highest % of people with HIV.

• Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Reducing infections depends on educating the people

    • Talking about "taboo" subjects - sex - is necessary

• Uganda

  • Expanded Education

  • HIV positive

    • 1997 - 19%

    • 2020 - 5%

  • They talked about "taboo" subjects (sex); also talked about not resuing needles

  • Part of the education was less ostracization of people with HIV/AIDS

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