Africa Review

1. Africa Review The Sleeping Giant

2. Landforms and Resources • Africa is referred to as the “plateau continent because all of it is at least 1,000 feet above sea level. • Africa’s rivers are difficult to use for transportation because of their many gorges, waterfalls, and rapids. • The Great Rift Valley was formed during the separation of Pangaea.

3. Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile River. • Some of Africa’s many resources are gold, platinum, chromium, cobalt, copper, phosphate, diamonds, oil, coffee, lumber, sugar, palm oil, and cocoa. • A steep cliff or slope is called an escarpment.

4. Climate and Vegetation • Temperatures in the Sahara are extremely hot in the day and very cold in the evening. • The Sahara is only 20% sand with mountains, rock formations, and gravelly plains. • Stores of underground water are called aquifers. • Oasis occur where the aquifer comes to the surface and vegetation grows.

5. The closer to the equator an area is will cause it to have a long rainy season. • The canopy is the uppermost layer of the rainforest which branches supports life, but doesn’t allow much light to the forest floor.

6. Human Environment Interaction • Farming, overgrazing, cutting wood for fuel, and drilling for water all cause desertification. • Reforestation is a solution for desertification. • The Great Human Made River is the name of the pipeline that brings freshwater to Mediterranean towns. The aquifers can fill with salt.

7. The environment of Nigeria has been negatively affected by the oil industry because of spills, fires, explosions by bandits, as well as acid rain. • The Aswan High Dam was built to control the floods of the Nile, create hydroelectricity, help with irrigation, and create the world’s largest artificial lake for fishing.

8. The dam caused loss of alluvial soil downstream, increased salt on the desert, and trapped parasites in the lake. • Silt is the rich sediment deposited by flowing and flooding rivers. It is sometimes called alluvial soil.

9. East Africa • During the Industrial Revolution Europe turned to Africa for natural resources. • The Berlin Conference was called in 1884-5 to create rules for how to divide Africa. • The Europeans had no regards to ethnic lines while partitioning Africa. • During the 1990s, Rwanda experienced a civil war between the Hutus and the Tutsis • East African countries have created wildlife parks to encourage tourism.

10. North Africa • A culture hearth is a place where ideas and innovations come together to change a region. • Cultural diffusion is when a culture is spread. • Islam was the prominent religion of North Africa in the first century. • A souk is a north African marketplace. • Ancient Egyptian god kings were called Pharoahs.

11. West Africa • Trade in the ancient empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai was based on the gold and salt trade. • A stateless society is one in which people rely on family lineages to govern themselves rather than an elected leader or a monarch. • Sierra Leone produces some of the world’s highest quality diamonds. • West Africa has influenced types of music such as jazz, blues, and reggae, and rock and roll.

12. Central Africa • The island of Sao Tome’ was the location of the first slave trading center. • During the slave trade, most slaves were headed to the Americas. • Colonialism has contributed to the many languages spoken in Africa. • Separating ethnic groups during the partitioning of Africa caused ethnic disputes and civil wars.

13. The Europeans contributed to the African infrastructure by making transportation routes for resources, but no other roads or railroads. • Europe basically invested its time in Africa in the removal of resources. • The Central African Education system suffers from a shortage of trained teachers, high dropout rate, and a shortage of secondary schools.

14. Southern Africa • Apartheid was the separation of races in South Africa. • Some of the policies of Apartheid were segregated schools, hospitals, neighborhoods, and banned social contact b/w blacks and whites. • The main goal of the African National Congress was to fight for the rights of the native Africans.

15. When Nelson Mandela spoke out against apartheid he was imprisoned for over 28 years. • Mandela was released from prison and elected the first black president of South Africa. • Blacks have a very low standard of living even though South Africa has a high standard of living.

16. Foreign nations imposed trade embargos on South Africa during apartheid to encourage them to change. • One of the economies in Africa is that of the middle class educated whites, and the other class is the undereducated impoverished blacks. • The life expectancy has dropped in Botswana from 6 to 39 from HIV causing a shortage of workers and harming the economy.

17. Economic Development • Most of African nations’ economies are based on the removal of raw materials. • Because of the removal of raw materials in Africa, their people were sold into slavery, and many died from harsh working conditions. • Regionally, African nations have tried to promote trade, creating a common currency, and improving transportation and communication infrastructures.

18. African nations should diversify their crops so they are not dependent on one in case it fails. Also they need to diversify in industry to reach more markets. • Djibouti is using its location on the Gulf of Aden as a strategic port.

19. Health Care • Cholera is an often fatal disease that is caused by inadequate sanitation and lack of clean water. • Seventy five percent of deaths in Swaziland were from AIDS in 2000. • UNAIDS is a United Nations program that studies the AIDS epidemic.

20. Economist predict that Africa’s GDP will be 17% lower in 2010 because of HIV/AIDS. • Countries have done many things to help the epidemic such as same day HIV testing, and education programs, and building effective health care systems. DON’T FORGET ESSAY AND MAP!!!!!