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Dr. Francis Koti 12C Leonard Hall Tel: 357 2647 Email: fkoti@geo.wvu

Philadelphia Partnership Program 2004 Geography of Africa. Dr. Francis Koti 12C Leonard Hall Tel: 357 2647 Email: fkoti@geo.wvu.edu. What is Geography?. The study of earth, places, human-environment interaction, people, natural environment, and the movement of people, goods, and ideas.

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Dr. Francis Koti 12C Leonard Hall Tel: 357 2647 Email: fkoti@geo.wvu

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  1. Philadelphia Partnership Program 2004 Geography of Africa Dr. Francis Koti12C Leonard HallTel: 357 2647Email: fkoti@geo.wvu.edu

  2. What is Geography? • The study of earth, places, human-environment interaction, people, natural environment, and the movement of people, goods, and ideas. • The study of the interaction of all physical and human phenomena at the individual places and how interactions among places form patterns and organize space

  3. Geography is as an Integrative Science/Holistic Discipline

  4. Traditional Core Areas of Geography • Physical geography • Studies the characteristics of the physical environment (climate, soil and vegetation) • Human Geography • Human groups and activities (languages, economic activities and cities • Economic geography • Focuses on the organization of economic livelihoods • Cultural Geography • Focuses of spatial aspects of human cultures • Geographic techniques - Cartography, Geographic Information Systems -GIS, Remote Sensing • Map making/computerized mapping constitute tools that help physical and human geographers store, display and analyze geographic data

  5. GIS is our tool • Manage location-based information • Provides the tools to display and analyze location information, whether it’s: • population characteristics • economic development or • vegetation types

  6. GIS Integrates Data. • GIS is more than computer maps – provides ability to: • link databases to maps to create dynamic displays • Visualize • Connect • Relate • Query

  7. FUNDAMENTAL THEMES IN GEOGRAPHY • Study of Geography begins with knowing: • Where things are located on the map. • Why things are located in particular places, and • How those places influence our lives • Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Regions. • Understanding of themes provides a better appreciation of cultural and environmental differences globally

  8. LOCATION • WHERE IS THE PHENOMENON OR PHENOMENA BEING STUDIED LOCATED? • Relative location • Distance and direction • Absolute location • Latitude and longitude Mount St. Helens: Erupted in 1980 blowing away the mountain top

  9. PLACE • WHAT ARE THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL FEATURES OF A PARTICULAR PLACE THAT GIVE IT CHARACTER AND IDENTITY? Wailing Wall, Jerusalem: A confluence of religious activity - Jews, Christians and Muslims

  10. HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION • HOW DO PEOPLE RESPOND TO AND MODIFY THEIR ENVIRONMENT? Sahel: Desert encroachment on pasturelands due to human and animal activity

  11. Glen Canyon Dam: Colorado River has been dammed several times to address water problems in West United States

  12. Environmental Pollution: Los Angeles Before and After enforcement of Clean Air Act

  13. Example 1: Transamazonian Highway Construction Project in Brazil • DEVELOPMENT GOALS VS. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY • Amazon Basin constitutes 40% Brazil’s land area – natural resource that needs to exploited • Highways construction; New farm lands; Building power plants • The Project is considered a major environmental Threat Because: • Alters climatic conditions which contributes to global warning • Leads to destruction of sensitive tropical soils • Leads to depletion of Bio-diversity • Tropical Rainforests contain 50% of the world’s animal and plants species The Mighty Amazon

  14. EXAMPLE 2: Threat of Acid Rain • WHO ARE THE CULPRITS? • USA and other industrialized nations • Major consumers of coal-powered, petroleum based fuels, processors of metals and producers chemical goods • By Product of Industrial Activity: • Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide • Solutions of sulfuric/nitric acids fall back as rain, fog and snow –(acid rain) • Problem compounded by wannabes – developing countries Human Environment Interaction: Industrial Pollution

  15. Famous Quote • “It isn’t pollution that’s harming the environment. It’s the impurities in our air and water that are doing it” (Candidate Bush, 2000 Presidential campaign)

  16. MOVEMENT • WHAT ARE THE KINDS OF INTERACTION AND TYPES OF MOVEMENT THAT OCCUR AMONG PEOPLE, GOODS, IDEAS AND PLACES ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE? • Spatial Interaction or Movement through Space can either be simple or complex: • Migration • Diffusion • Trade • Examples: • Simplicity • A child’s morning bus ride to school • Complexity • The movement of goods and ideas between places • Outward growth of cities (Metropolis to megalopolis)

  17. The Third World: A street scene in Bangalore, India. Most people walk or cycle

  18. Panama Canal: A cruise ship and a container in transit

  19. Global movement of Goods: Container Traffic

  20. Complex movement of goods and ideas: The three cornered pattern of world investment among core countries

  21. Regions • How can the earth be divided into smaller parts in order to gain perspectives on the character and relationships between geographic areas and places? • How do regions form and change? • Use concept of region to classify certain areas in order to understand similarities and differences between them • The size of a region can vary as long as it is large enough to be distinguished from surrounding regions • Importance of the concept of scale

  22. Scale • Defines whether one studies a smaller or larger area • Representation of real world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization • In cartography it represents the ratio of map distance to ground distance, indicated as a bar graph.

  23. Scale of Regions

  24. Types of Regions: Formal and Functional • Formal Regions • Regions exhibiting some form of uniformity in one or more variables • Cultural characteristics – crops, religion, politics. Etc • Levels of development to classification regions –Core vs. semi-periphery vs. periphery • Physical characteristics - climate

  25. Types of Regions • Functional Regions or Nodal Regions • Delineated by a single activity

  26. AFRICA

  27. OBJECTIVES • TO INTRODUCE THE VARIED GEOGRAPHY OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENT • TO INTRODUCE STUDENTS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE WHO INHABIT THE DIFFERENT REGIONS OF AFRICA • TO PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW TO THE HISTORY OF AFRICA • TO PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS FOR AFRICA

  28. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT AFRICA? • Very Little. • And most of what people know is only partially correct or based on stereotypes • It’s not uncommon, for example to find people who still believe Africa is a land of primitive stone-age hunters and gathers living in the jungle (the Africa of Tarzan movies); Or

  29. Africa: Overview… • The perception of Africans as innocents unaware of modern life, like the Bushman of the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” or • Jackie Chan’s movie “Who am I” Or • The belief that Africans are violent and cruel people who like to conduct endless tribal warfare

  30. Africa: Overview… • Unfortunately the media reinforces these stereotypes with negative news –drought/famine, war, poverty and AIDS • War Internal civil strife is real: • CAR, DRC, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Algeria, Burundi, Rwanda

  31. Africa: Overview… • Also drought and famine is real Drought affected countries Famine Relief center

  32. Though such tragedies exist, there is more to Africa and its people. • Besides, it is important to know why and what has been or should be done about such problems

  33. Unfortunately Media focus on “Big Stories” leads to an uninformed public: • Not Surprisingly: • Most Americans view Africa as a country and not what it is a continent or a region of the world. • Remember this gaffe : “Nigeria is an important continent.” • Lack of Geography and History courses on Africa in High School and College compounds the problem. • Need to correct the problem: 2000 Presidential Debate

  34. What is Africa? • Africa is a Continent of Contrasts attributable to four factors:: • Size • Geographical position • Only continent divided by the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Thus Africa is Tropical with few exceptions (77% lies in the tropics) • Long history of human occupation • Story of humanity begins in Africa. Remains of our oldest ancestor “Homo” was discovered in East Africa • The beginnings of technology (stone tools) dating back 2 millions years have been discovered in Africa • Diversity

  35. What about Size?... • AFRICA IS THE SECOND LARGEST CONTINENT AFTER ASIA • INCLUDES THE SINAI PENINSULA, MADAGASCAR, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles, etc. • AFRICA IS LARGER THAN THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE AND THE COUNTRIES OF CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES COMBINED

  36. AFRICA’S PHYSICAL FEATURES • Land mass composed of Plateaus and bounded escarpments: The plateau continent • Almost the entire continent lies above 1,000 feet in elevation • Bihe, Jos, Ennedi, Ahagger, East African Plateau, and Futa Jolan • Plateau structure is punctuated with Basins and Mountains: • El djouf, Chad, Sudan,Victoria, Congo and Kalahari • Atlas, Kilimanjaro, Kenya, and Cameroon

  37. OTHER MAJOR PHYSICAL FEATURES • Deserts: Sahara, Namib, and Kalahari • Aridity is a major barrier to development in many countries such as Botswana, Namibia, Mali and Northern Nigeria. • Major Rivers: Nile, Niger, Congo, Zambezi, Orange • Rift Valley

  38. CLIMATE CHARACTERSITICS • Africa is tropical with few exceptions • Seasonal temperature contrasts are minimal but rainfall amounts vary significantly • The continent is dominated by tropical wet and dry (savanna) followed by arid/semi-arid climates • Rainfall is distributed into wet-and dry seasons

  39. Effect of Tropical Wet and Dry Climate:Tale of Cities (Kano vs. Chicago)

  40. Africa’s Diversity includes... • 5 regions (North, West, East, Central and Southern) comprising 54 countries • Approximately 800 million people who speak more than 2000 languages call Africa home.

  41. Africans enjoy diverse household arrangements, kinships systems and Religious belief systems that pre-date Christianity

  42. Africa’s diversity is also reflected in the contrasting lifestyles of a small but growing urban population and the mass of subsistence farmers.

  43. Africa’s Diversity can also be seen in contrasting rural and urban landscapes Harare, Zimbabwe: Jacaranda bloom

  44. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY The Impact of Colonialism

  45. WHAT WAS THE PRIMARY MOTIVE FOR EUROPEAN INVOLVEMENT IN AFRICA? • Major Motive for European Involvement in Africa was Strategic following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 • Colonization in the 17th Century only a minor motive (Dutch outpost in South Africa in 1652) • Economic motive only followed after the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley later in 1869 and Gold in 1886 in South Africa. Pre-Colonial Africa

  46. BERLIN CONFERENCE OF 1884-85 • Led to the partition and scramble for Africa. • By 1914 only Ethiopia and Liberia remained free of European occupation • Why Ethiopia and Liberia? • Strategic maneuvering by Ethiopian rule, Menalik • Founded in 1847 as Homeland for freed slaves

  47. END OF COLONIALISM IN AFRICA • Internal Factors • Rise of Nationalism • Impact of Religious and Secular Education • External Factors • Impact of the Russian Revolution • Rise of American Domination • Impact of World War II • Impact of the Formation of the United Nations

  48. Road to Independence • NORTH AFRICA • Egypt (1925), Libya, Tunisia, and Sudan - but not Algeria (1962) • Eritrea forced into a federation with Ethiopia • SUB-SAHARA AFRICA • Ghana (1957, and the rest by the 1960s • Only exceptions --Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau (1975); Zimbabwe (1980), Namibia (1990), and South Africa (1994) • Symbol of Africa Resistance

  49. Apartheid South Africa and the Dawn of Independence • Apartheid: Policy of separate development was introduced in 1948 • Race classification (whites,blacks, Asian, colored) • Tribal homelands • Pass laws • 1964 Mandela sentenced to life in prison. • 1976 Soweto Uprising • Imposition of Afrikaans as language of instruction • Growth of Anti-Apartheid Movement globally • Forced Divestment of global capital • Forced change in USA foreign policy • 1990 Nelson Mandela is freed after 27 years in prison • 1993 Mandela Wins Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk • 1994 South Africa achieves independence with Mandela as President Mandela: A symbol of African Resistance

  50. AFRICA’S RICH NATURAL RESOURSE BASE Timber products Minerals

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