Sub-Saharan Africa

1. Sub-Saharan Africa

2. Geography – key points Complex ecosystem – highly sensitive to climate change Lack of arable land over many parts of Africa – Saharan, Kalahari, Namib, Horn of Africa deserts. Untamed rivers that flood and can’t be navigated (Nile, Zaire (Congo), Zambezi, Orange). Population explosion in 20th century. 100 million people in Africa in 1900, now nearly 1 billion. Malnutrition is a major problem in some areas.

3. Ethnic diversity – hundreds of ethnic groups with different languages, beliefs, traditions. Lots of countries that do not reflect ethnic boundaries and lack a sense of national identity. Christianity and Islam have replaced traditional belief systems in many areas.

6. Ancient African Civilizations

7. East African, South African, West African Civilizations

9. Kingdom of Kush, Nubian Dessert 1500 BC-325AD Great Pyramids at Merowe

10. Kingdom of Axum (Aksum) 400BC-10th Century AD Axum Stele

11. Great Zimbabwe 1250-1629 Ruins of Great Zimbabwe Spread of Bantu languages- Swahili

13. Kingdom of Mali Mansa Kankan Musa 1312-1337 Sundiata 1230-1255

14. Ancient Manuscripts Mosque, walls Timbuktu

15. Kingdom of Songhai 1468-1591 Askia Muhammed 1493-1528

16. The Maghrib - The West The Songhai Dynasty was eventually conquered by the Sultinate of Morocco in 1591

17. Arrival of Europeans In 1500 AD, the continent of Africa housed a wide variety of languages, cultures, and political and economic arrangements.  Important new developments during the 15th century were the presence of ships along the Atlantic and Indian coasts carrying European traders and missionaries from Portugal, Holland, Spain, and England.  Initially, the Europeans established trading and supply centers along the coast, making little or no effort to move inland.  Their presence constituted the first step toward involving Africa in a new and expanding global trading system that would be created and dominated by Europeans. 

18. Its estimated that over 12 million Africans were taken to the New World and beyond as part of the slave trade. Many did not survive arduous middle passage to get there. Although Britain abolished slavery in 1833, along with other European states, the subjugation of Africa continued. Colonial powers moved inland claiming territory, extracting resources in an effort to fuel their industrial revolutions. The African Slave Trade

19. The process of colonization moved rapidly. The discovery of diamonds in South Africa in the 1860s initiated what became known as the “scramble for Africa”. In 1870, only about 10% of Africa was colonized In 1910, only about 10% was not colonized. (only Liberia and Ethiopia escaped colonization – although Italy conquered Ethiopia in 1935 it never had the chance to set up a colonial system). Many of the political boundaries of modern African nations were decided somewhat arbitrarily at the famed Berlin Conference of 1884, where Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain divided up Africa according to their military strength and effective occupation. Hence, these boundaries did not correspond to any geographic, national, or ethnic logic.

21. Colonial Africa British practiced indirect rule – relying on agreements with traditional rules, but backed with superior military force, to keep traditional rulers in line. Hence, in the former British colonies, there were powerful political families and dominant ethnic groups in politics to assume control. The French engaged in direct rule. By centralizing power under French control, they eroded traditional power structures. France also emphasized cultural assimilation. They viewed their colonies as extensions of France and the people as evolues - “people evolving” into French citizens.

22. France and Britain are responsible for the major division of Africa into the Anglophone and Francophone worlds. In many African nations, English or French remain official state languages and are continually taught and spoken as a mother tongue. Former British and French colonies also still have important ties to one another. Most former British colonies remain a part of the British commonwealth and French West African countries share a common currency.

23. Portuguese (Angola, Mozambique), German (Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon –lost after WWI to Britain and France), and Belgian (Congo, Rwanda, Burundi) colonies were most oppressive. The Portuguese however, were unique among colonists in that they encouraged mixed marriages (as in Brazil) producing a new important social group called assimilados (similar to mestizos). In all cases, European settlers gained control over Africa’s natural wealth and resources, including large areas of land for plantations, ultimately displacing many indigenous peoples, or forcing them into servitude.

24. Legacies of Colonialism Politically, there’s the problem of the territorial boundaries. Economically, most African economies are still based on resource extraction of a single or small group of commodities. Much of the population is still rural and survive on subsistence agriculture. Most economies are way behind in the development of industrial production. Culturally, Africa has been effected in a number of ways. Most states are multi-ethnic and multi-lingual. Colonialism has made the concept of national identity very complex and difficult to maintain.

25. National Independence Movements National independence movements begin to strengthen after WWII. Following the signing of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, African nationalists began to demand decolonization in the name of universal self-determination. African nationalism drew its strength from an emerging but small African middle class, who resented the social structure of colonialism where the highest positions of power and privilege went to European settlers. They also would become inspired by the success of the US civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

26. Independence In 1960, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1514, demanding an end to colonization. In that year alone 26 African colonies gained independence. In 1963 newly independent states created the Organization for African Unity (OAU) to push for greater freedom and cooperation on the African continent. The OAU was united by a spirit of pan-Africanism, the belief that Africans must unite against colonialism and reinvigorate traditional life and custom. The pan-African movement was led such revolutionary leadership as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. By 1969 a total of 42 colonies were now independent states.

29. Pan-African, Independence leaders Kwame Nkrumah Ghana Julius Nyerere Tanzania

30. Pan-African, Independence leaders Jomo Kenyatta Kenya Leopold Senghor Senegal Kenneth Kaunda Zambia

31. Organization of African Unity (OAU) 1963-2002 Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique met with the most resistance to independence and fought for years before achieving it.

32. Failures of Democratization Following independence, many African nations took the first step toward democratization by establishing constitutions and holding open elections. However, most quickly reverted to authoritarian rule. Some argue that African nationalists abandoned the democratic process because they wanted to reestablish some sense of traditional African values. The movement had anti-western beliefs and in some cases rejected liberal capitalism for that reason. Another explanation preferred by the nationalists is that African countries after independence were deeply divided socially. What these countries needed, they argued, was a unifying factor.

33. Rise of Strong-man Authoritarian rule In most cases the unifying factor became strong man patrimonial leadership under one-party rule. The alternative of multi-party competition was seen as divisive and dangerous in a new state. In many cases, however, the dominant party/strong man provided benefits only to the country’s main (majority) ethnic/religious groups at the expense of others. In the 1990s, democracy began making a comeback in Africa, but many nations were still under authoritarian control or embroiled in ongoing civil wars.

34. Conflict in the 1990s

35. Authoritarianism in Africa

38. Languages of South Africa

39. South Africa’s historical trajectory is rich and complicated. Originally colonized by the Dutch East India Company with the founding of the Cape Colony in 1648. Dutch East India Company

40. By the 19th Century, the British were the dominant European power in South Africa. The abolition of slavery in South Africa by the British brought them into conflict with the Dutch settlers (the Boers or Afrikaners) in 1838. The Afrikaners also fought off a major indigenous uprising in 1838 by the Zulu nation under King Shaka. King Shaka of the Zulu nation

41. By the mid 19th century, British control of South Africa expanded, but the Afrikaners set up their own independent republics known as Transvaal and the Orange Free State.

42. With the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1867, thousands of new settlers arrived from Europe seeking their fortunes. This led to increasing conflicts between English and Dutch as many of the diamond mines were located in Boer territory. Dutch “Boer” settlers

43. The Boer Wars 1898-1902 The last major Dutch resistance was stamped out in the Boer war 1899-1902, in which British soldiers under governor Cecil Rhodes committed numerous atrocities.

44. South Africa would be come independent in 1910 but within the British Empire. Afrikaner resentment of British rule persisted, and much of the anger was transferred over onto South Africa’s black population. Afrikaner’s formed the National Party in 1914 to advocate on their behalf. Cecil Rhodes and the Rise of Britain in Africa

45. White domination and black protest By 1948, the Afrikaner-led National Party gained power in an all-white election. The National Party demanded Afrikaner control of southern Africa as a matter of destiny. Policies of apartheid began to be systemically implemented. Everyone was registered according to race (70% African, 10% mixed, 20% white in 1960). Further race mixing and interracial marriage was forbidden. Blacks were segregated from whites in many ways similar to the American south.

46. Apartheid Apartheid means “separateness” in Afrikaans, the language of the descendants of Dutch and French settlers of southern Africa known as Afrikaners

47. More than just colonial domination, apartheid was a systematic division of the country’s peoples based on race and ethnic origin

48. Henrik Verwoerd’s “Grand Apartheid” Partition South Africa into distinct homelands or reservations for indigenous black ethnic groups. These reservations would be legally distinct entities, and the black populations would not be entitled to South African citizenry or voting rights outside of their respective homelands. Verwoerd was assassinated in 1966 by a white man who had wanted to marry a women of color but was forbidden under South African law. Afrikaner National Party leader Henrik Verwoerd PM 1958-1966

49. At the same time, black resistance to apartheid and black nationalism were growing in South Africa. On March 21, 1960, in the township of Sharpeville, the first black protests start, and were met with brutal crackdowns by South African military and police. Sharpeville Massacre 1960

50. The African National Congress (ANC)—the organizational arm of the anti-apartheid movement—was banned, along with other black organizations. Its leader Nelson Mandela was convicted of treason and imprisoned in 1962. Resistance to apartheid continued, and riots in the 1970s sparked international condemnation of South Africa. In 1977, United Nations imposed an arms embargo. Nelson Mandela and the ANC