Sub-Saharan Africa

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Sub-Saharan Africa
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Introduction

• Cultural complexity
• Language, religion, ethnicity, colonialism
• The worlds fastest growing region
• 45 of population is younger than 15 years old
• Low economic output
• 1 of global output with 11 population
• Mounting debt ? structural adjustment programs

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Environmental Geography
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• Elevated landmass

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Plateaus

• Escarpment
• Forms when plateau abruptly ends (eg. falls)
• ? impedes river navigation ? low connectivity in
  this region
• Great Escarpment refers to coastal escarpment in
  south
• ? narrow coastal plane ? few human settlement in
  the coast
• Mountain range
• Volcanic mountains in southern half of the Great
  Rift Valley (eg. Killimanjaro, Mount Kenya)
• ? created in divergent plate boundary

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Divergent plate boundary
The Rift Valley

• In the Eastern Africa, this geological forces
  produce gash along the boundary (eg. Lake Nyasa,
  Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria)
• ? fertile soil, abundant water ? dense settlement
  in eastern Africa

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Watersheds

• Congo River (or Zaire)
• The Second largest river
• Bndry. betw. Rep. of Congo and Demo. Rep. of
  Congo
• Nile River
• The Longest river
• Lifeblood of Egypt, Sudan
• Connects between North and Sub-Saharan Africa

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Watersheds

• Niger River
• Critical source of water for the arid countries
• Mali, Niger, Nigeria
• Historic city Tombouctou (11th century)
• Zambezi River
• Major supplier of commercial energy
• Kariba Res, Cabora Bassa Res.
• Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique

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Soils

• Relatively infertile
• ? cant support intensive agriculture
• Soil fertility explains patterns of settlement
• Rift valley
• Rwanda, Brundi, Ethiopia, Kenya
• Nigeria

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Climate
Mostly tropical climates (Af, Aw, BSh, BWh)
except for South Africa
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Tropical forests (Af)

• Warm to hot temperature year-round precipitation
• Relatively intact (cf. SE Asia, Latin America)
• Low population
• Oil exports
• Political chaos

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Savannas (Aw)

• Wrapped around rain forest
• Mixture of trees and tall grasses
• Critical habitat for large fauna
• Eg. Masai Mara Natl Park, Kenya

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Deserts

• Sahara Desert, Namib Desert, Kalahari Desert

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Midlatitude climates

• South Africa
• Southwestern
• Mediterranean climate (Csb)
• ? wine production
• Eastern coast
• subtropical climate (Cfa)

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Highland

• Exhibits altitudinal zonation
• Montane zones
• Rift Valley zone
• Drakensberg Range

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Desertification in the Sahel

• Sahel
• Between Sahara Desert and Savanna southward
• Transhumance
• Movement of animals between wet-season and
  dry-season pasture ? adequate precipitation is
  essential for livelihood
• Drought (1968-74)
• Desert-like condition began to move south
• Threaten the livelihoods of farmers and
  pastoralists

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What causes the Sahelian drought?

• Human-induced environmental degradation
• Expansion of agriculture
• ? loss of natural vegetation, declines in soil
  fertility
• eg. peanuts production during the French colonial
  rule
• Overgrazing
• Expansion of animal production after WWII
• eg. wells digging to supply water
• Climatic fluctuation

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Deforestation

• Often occurs in Savanna rather than rain forest
• ? shortage of biofuel Green Belt Movement

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Deforestation

• Central Africas Ituri rain forest
• Deforested for logging
• Madagascars eastern rain forest
• ? endangered biodiversity

Lemur
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Wildlife conservation

• Diseases kept people and livestock out of the
  areas ? Survival of wildlife
• Wildlife reserves are in
• East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania)
• Southern Africa (Zimbabwe)
• Poaching (eg. ivory trade) is a problem

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Population and Settlement
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• Overall, not densely populated
• Similar to that of U.S.
• Young population, large families
• ? population growth
• ? family planning policies in the 1980s
• High child mortality, low life expectancy
• ? low access to basic health services

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Population density

• Crude population density
• Population / area
• Physiological density
• people per unit of arable land
• Agricultural density
• farmers per unit of arable land

Even though Sub-Saharan Africa has low crude
population density, it has high agricultural
density
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Family size

• Large families are encouraged by
• Rural lifestyle
• Seen as a source of labor, and social security
• Ethnic rivalries
• More number is affiliated with high political
  influence
• High child mortality rates
• Limited education to women

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Family size

• Recently growth rate has weaken due to
• Government policies
• Urbanization
• AIDS

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Population concentration

• West Africa, Highland East Africa
• ? Fertile soil, permanent agriculture
• Eastern half of South Africa
• Urbanized economy based on mining
• Forced relocation of black South Africans into
  eastern homelands

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Subsistence crops

• Poor tropical soils ? shifting cultivation (or
  swidden) ? cant support high population density
• Staple crops (millet, sorghum, corn, and tubers)
  all over the region
• Yam in West Africa (eg. Ibo southeastern
  Nigeria)
• Irrigated rice in West Africa, and Madagascar

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Plantation crops

• Coffee Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Brundi, Tanzania
• Peanuts Sahel
• Cotton Sudan, Central African Republic
• Cocoa Ghana, Ivory Coast
• Rubber Liberia
• Palm oil Nigeria

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Herding and livestock

• Extremely important in semiarid zones
• Camel, goats in Sahara cow father south of
  Sahara
• Symbiotic relationships with neighboring farmers
• Manure of stocks can fertilize the soil
  exchanged for grain
• But often pastoralists independent of agriculture
  (eg. Masai)
• Difficult environment for raising livestock
  because of infestation of tsetse flies (eg.
  Central Africa)

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Historic cities

• Axum, Ethiopia (1st century)
• Capital of ancient empire
• Tombouctou, Gao in the Sahel (11th century)
• Trans-Saharan trader centers
• Zanzibar(Tanzania), Mombasar(Kenya) (12th
  century)
• established by Arab traders
• Rooted in Swahili language

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West African cities

• Ibadan, Nigeria settled by Yoruba (12th
  century)
• Lagos, Nigeria 12 million, Yoruba

Lagos
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• Accra, Ghana settled by Ga (16th century)
• Colonial administrative center in the late 1800s
• Division along income lines

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South African cities

• Colonial origin unlike that of west Africa
• eg. Lusaka (Zambia), Harare(Zimbabwe), and
  metropolitan areas in South Africa ? rich
  minerals
• South Africa
• eg. Johannesburg, Durban, and Cape Town
• Reflects the legacy of apartheid

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Racial segregation in Cape Town
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Cultural Coherence and Diversity
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• No institutionalized form of religion
• No widespread unified language
• Many of African are multilingual
• Lacks a history of widespread political union
• Common history of slavery and colonialism

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African language groups

• Can be divided into two types
• (1) Associated with other parts of the world
• Afro-Asiatic (North Africa, Ethiopia, Somali) ?
  Islam
• Austronesian (Madacascar) ? indonesian settlement
• Indo-European (French, English, Afrikaans) ?
  colonialism
• (2) Unique to the region
• Nilo-Saharan (Southern Sudan, Sahel)
• Khoisan (Kalahari)
• Niger-Congo ? Bantu migration

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Bantu Migration
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Religion

• Combine animist practices and ideas with their
  observances of Christianity and Islam

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Introduction of Christianity

• A.D. 200
• Northern Ethiopia Coptic form of Christianity
• 1600s
• South Africa European settlers and missionaries
  (1600s)
• Dutch settlers
• Mid 1800s
• Former British colony Protestant Christianity
• Former French, Belgian, Portuguese colony
  Catholicism
• U.S. Pentecostal, Evangelical, Mormon

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Introduction of Islam

• 1000 years ago introduced to Sahel from North
  Africa
• Later, southward spread from Sahel

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Interaction between religious traditions

• Unlike other regions, religion is not a source of
  political conflict in the Sub-Saharan Africa with
  the exception of Sudan
• Coexistence
• Nigeria Hausa (north) Igbo, Yoruba (south)
• Eritrea Half Christian, half Muslim
• Eastern coast Eastern Islam Hinterland Animist
• Conflict
• Sudan Muslims in north vs non-Muslims in south

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African music tradition

• Slave trade ? melding of African cultures with
  Amerindian and European ones
• eg. Rumba, jazz, bossa nova, the blues, rock
  roll

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Congos Authenticity Movement

• Introduced by President Motutu
• Subsidies to musical groups
• Francos OK Jazz band rumba Congolese folk
  music
• Soukous dance step music style
• eg. Papa Wemba

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Music as political conscience

• Singer Fela Kuti was voice of political
  conscience for Nigerians struggling for democracy
• Lyrics critical of military government

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Geopolitical Framework
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• Long duration of human settlement
• Ethnic conflicts after the colonial era

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Indigenous kingdoms

• Influenced by Egypt and Arabia
• B.C. 2000 Nubia (northern Sudan)
• A.D. 200 Axum (northern Ethiopia, Eritrea)
• The first Indigenous African states in the Sahel
• Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu
• City-states in the Gulf of Guinea
• Ife/Oyo, Benin, Dahomey, Ashanti
• Later profit from the slave trade in the 16th,
  and 17th century

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Early Sub-Saharan states and empires
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European colonization

• Failed/limited due to diseases until mid 1800s
• Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique
• Dutch in South Africa
• Quinine made colonization possible
• Scramble for Africa in the 1880s
• British seizure of Egypt (1882)
• Empire-building

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Berlin Conference

• Gathering of 13 countries in 1884 in which
  Sub-Saharan Africa was carved up and traded
  around
• No Africans participated
• Borders drawn with disregard for African cultures

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European colonization in 1913
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Establishment of South Africa

• Dutch settlement (1652) in Cape Town
• Became Afrikaner or Boer
• Slowly expanded towards north and east
• Developed social system based on racism
• British seizure of Cape district (1806)
• Afrikaner migration (1835-43?)
• Afrikaner establishment of two republics (1850s)
• British incorporated the Zulu (1900)

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Establishment of South Africa
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Establishment of South Africa

• Boer War (1899-1902)
• British-Afrikaner tension over mineral wealth in
  Transvaal (South African Republic)
• The British annexed two republics to form the
  union of South Africa
• South Africas independence (1910)
• Afrikaners National Party gained control (1948)
• Introduced apartheid
• Construction of black homelands by ethnic group

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Establishment of South Africa
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Establishment of South Africa

• Townships
• segregated neighborhoods for nonwhites, located
  on outskirts of cities
• Opposition to apartheid during 1960s 1980s
• Free election (1994)
• ? Elimination of Homelands

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Establishment of South Africa
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Decolonization and independence

• Beginning in 1957, smooth transition
• Organization of African Unity (OAU) (1963)
• Continent-wide organization
• Mediate disputes between neighbors
• Former Portuguese colonies Angola, Mozambique
• ? armed resistance
• Socialist-oriented rebel movement during Cold War

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Enduring political conflict

• Lack of institutional framework for independent
  government lack of higher education
• Difficult to establish cohesive states because of
  legacy of Berlin Conference
• European colonial powers have drawn boundaries
  without regard for cultural and political
  geographies

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Enduring political conflict

• Refugees
• People who flee their state because of a
  well-found fear of persecution based on race,
  ethnicity, religion, or political orientation
• 3 million Africans (2000)
• Internally displaced persons
• People who flee from conflict but still reside in
  their country of origin
• 13 million Africans (2000)

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Ethnic conflicts

• Rwanda (1994)
• Democratic Republic of the Congo (1996)
• Liberia (1989-96)
• Sierra Leone (2000)
• Somalia (early 1990s)

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Secessionist movements

• Republic of Katanga (1960), Congo
• State of Biafra (1967), Nigeria
• Eritrea (1993), Ethiopia
• Province of Equatoria, Sudan

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Postcolonial conflicts
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Big man politics

• Occurred when presidents refuse to let go of
  reigns of power
• Military governments, one-party states, and
  presidents-for-life are the norm
• Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia
• Corruption of political institutions
• Disproportionate spending on the military
• 1990s saw growth in multi-party states and free
  elections

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Economic and Social Development
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Roots of African poverty environmental factors

• Infertile soil
• Erratic patterns of rainfall
• Paucity of navigable river
• Virulence of tropical diseases

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Roots of African poverty historical and
institutional factors

• Slave trade ? depopulation, flee into refuges
• Colonization
• little investment in infra., rather interested in
  natural extraction
• ? Impedes internally dynamic economy
• Failed development policies
• economic nationalism ? less competitive
  industries
• Agricultural and food policies
• low prices of crops ? opted for subsistence
  agriculture
• Focus on export crops ? failure to meet staple
  food needs
• Corruption kleptocracy

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Links to the world economy

• Major export import E.U., U.S.
• Low connectivity
• But expansion of mobile telephone
• More aid than investment
• Little foreign investment ? too poor and unstable

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Debt relief program

• Given to countries that are determined to have
  unsustainable debt burdens
• States qualify for different levels of debt
  relief provided they present a poverty reduction
  strategy
• Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique

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South Africa

• Largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Well-developed, well-balanced industrial economy
• Healthy agricultural sector
• Worlds mining superpowers
• Gold production
• Worst distributions of income in the world

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Oil and mineral producers

• Oil
• Nigeria, Gabon, Cameron
• Republic of Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Mineral resources
• Diamond - Namibia, Botswana

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Leaders of ECOWAS

• Nigeria
• Second largest economy
• Oil money ? urban growth
• Ivory Coast, Senegal
• Commercial centers
• Economic downturn in the 1980s
• Ghana
• Economic recovery in the 1990s
• Debt relief negotiation (2001)

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East Africa

• Kenya
• Good infrastructure by African standars
• 1 million foreign tourists
• Agricultural exports of coffee dominate economy
• Tanzania
• Built African form of socialism Ujaama
• Worlds largest per capital recipient of foreign
  aid

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Poorest states

• Sahel
• Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad
• Horn of Africa
• Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia
• Conflict-afflicted states
• Burundi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola,
  and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Etc.
• Malawi, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, and Zambia

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Low life expectancy

• High child mortality rate ? paucity of health
  care
• Extreme poverty
• Environmental hazards (drought)
• Environmental and infectious diseases (malaria,
  cholera, SIDS, and measles)

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Women and development

• Invisible contributors to local and national
  economies
• Dominates informal sector which accounts for 30
  to 50 of GDP

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Status of women

• No social liabilities
• cf. South Asia, SW Asia, North Africa
• Discrimination
• Prevalence polygamy, practice of bride-price,
  denial of property inheritance
• Practice of female circumcision, or genital
  mutilation