Apr 01, 2015
Size
•Coastline--smooth, few harbors, poor river transportation, didn’t exactly encourage exploration on the part of Africans or of the African continent
•countries of the sub-Saharamany in number (50) and landlocked
Sub-Saharan Africa
Chp. 20 sec. 1
• population distribution--uneven, people live in the nice areas, along the coast or near the lakes.
• Plateau--much of Africa is on a plateau
Population
• Tropics—90% of Africa is between the tropics—in the low latitudes
• Resources—diamonds, gold, alloys
• Exports—mainly raw materials, which make a few people rich and of those, some are foreigners
• Escarpments---steep cliffs or slopes (I think of water falls flowing over them)
• river transportation---impeded by the escarpments
• Hydroelectricity--Africa has tremendous potential in this area
• Equator--cuts through the middle of Africa
• mirror effect of climatessame rings in the same order going out from the equator both north and south--first rain forest, then savannah, desert and Med. Climates
Chp. 20 sec. 2
Tropical rain forest of the Congo
• Demographics—– low GDP, – low life expectancy, – high population growth rate (the pop. may double in 20
years), – high infant mortality rate,– large % of pop. < 15 years old, – lowest literacy rate in the world, – low economic growth
Chp. 21 sec. 1
• soil--not good, desert or limited fertility (partly due to slash and burn techniques)
• Diversity—Africans speak more than 800 languages
• Urbanization – In this area, people are moving to cities at a rate faster than anywhere else in the world.
• Mali, Ghana, Zimbabwe--country names related to historical empires
Chp. 21 sec. 2
• Cultural diffusion—the slow spread of culture from one area to another
• triangular trade--the trade of manufactured goods from Europe or North America to Africa, Slaves from Africa to the Caribbean, and sugar from the Caribbean to N. Am. or Europe.
• middle passage--the passage where the slaves went to the Caribbean
Apartiheid
• Apartheid--the separation by law of the races in the country of South Africa
• Nelson Mandela--South Africa’s first Black president, for many years a jailed leader of the ANC
• Swahili--a language that reflects the East Coast mixture of Africa, Arabic, and Portuguese
Chp. 21 sec. 3
• Oral Tradition—many of these groups did not have written records, but did have long detailed oral histories
• Masks, sculpture, dance, music, colorful dress, jewelry—reflects a diverse and rich cultural heritage
• Cultural Landscape – markets, Churches, Mosques, villages, and some modern cities
• colonial legacy--political boundaries ignore cultural and ethnic boundaries, leading to war
• subsistence agriculture--what a large percentage of their population does, grows food for their family--70% of the people are farmers, they grow less than what was grown in the area in 1970
• Extended Families—families are very important, many generations live together, having a lot of kids is viewed as a form of “social security”
Chp. 22 sec. 1
• plantation agriculture--there are tea, peanuts, sisal, cocoa, rubber, and palm-oil plantations which are taking more and more land
• Foreign Investors – Own many of the mines, etc. of South Africa
Land use
• Other Disputes—Civil Wars
• Refugees—a large number of people have been displaced by tribal warfare
• Infrastructure--poorly developed
• Desertification--the spread of the Sahara to the south, at when I was in college they said it spread south at the rate of about 20 miles per years, and they blamed it on human activity, now they say it is due in large part to mother nature.
• Deforestation—an issue here too
Chp. 22 sec. 2
Desertification
Victoria Falls in zimbabwe
• national parks--such as Kenya’s Nairobi National Park
• Ecotourism—tourism based on the environment
Cultural Landscape
Bronze Leopards5 inches tall, $160 for the pair
• Made by the people of Benin
• 20th Century Pieces
• Used the “Lost Wax"
Made by the people of Benin20th Century PiecesMade by the “Lost Wax” process
Bronze Guardiansten inches tall, $450 for the pair – also from Benin
Chokwe Mask8” * 5” ---$120
• Traditionally used in ceremonies– Fertility or
initiation rites– Religious or fun
celebration– Wearer take on
power– Wearer is sworn
to secrecy
Maasai Neckwear - Kenya
• 14 inches across--$140
Takes a month to make This is a wedding necklace
Click here
Massai home called a Kraal
Click here also
Another Mask
www.cybernet2.com/africa_explore/ safari_photos.htm
• wmatem.eis.uva.es/~angbar/ Kenya/Kenya.html
Try these web pages, they used to work as links—no more, but you can copy and paste them into your browser.