AFRICA NOTES
Africa is approximately: 1/5 of the land surface of the earth
1/10 of the world’s population
PANGAEA: Heart of the continent- as continent broke apart, deep rifts on the Earth’s surface were formed in East Africa. Ex: Red Sea
Plateau Continent: -Most places at least 1000 ft. +,
-no dominant mountain range
HISTORY:
-Little is known of early civs b/c there is no written record
-Early States: Kush, Axum, Mali/ Songhai, Ghana
-Slave Trade- based on the West Coast
Up to 30 million people transported
Strong coastal kingdoms grew from the slave trade
-Cape Town, South Africa: settled by Dutch in 1650 and the heart of "White Africa"
-1885: Africa is carved up between European powers at the Berlin Conference
France, Britain, Belgians, Germans, and Portuguese are the main colonizers.
Independence attained for most countries by 1970
AFRICAN REGIONS: 1. West Africa 2. Equatorial Africa
3.East Africa 4. Southern Africa
AFRICAN LANGUAGES: 1/3 of the world’s languages
Arabic North of the Sahara
Sub-Saharan Africa has approx. 1500 Lang.
Ex.: 250 langs. in Nigeria- use English as the Lingua Franca (common language)
STUNTED DEVELOPMENT: Due to physical geography
Tropics breed diseases: Malaria (mosquitoes), Sleeping Sickness (Tetse fly), bilharzia (snails), river blindness (parasitic worm)
AFRICAN RELIGION: Islam in North, Christian/animist in South
