World Regional Geography

GEG 101-001
Sub-Saharan Africa -- Outline

LINKS:

BACKGROUND / REVIEW / ETC.

 How to study World Regional Geography:

 

  • Read the first part of the chapter (called "Defining the Realm") to learn the physical, cultural, economic, and/or historical criteria (characteristics) used to define the realm? Why are the boundaries drawn where they are?
    • How do the physical, cultural, economic, and historical characteristics of the realm differ from the characteristics of neighboring realms?
    • Do the realm boundaries tend to run through areas of sparse population?
    • When reading the chapter keep the four themes in mind and take notes You may want to print this realm worksheet and keep track of the characteristics in the chart as you read and study the chapter. You may want to review the lecture on REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY and maybe re-read the INTRODUCTION chapter of the textbook.

 

  • See the list of "Concepts, Ideas, and Terms" at the beginning of each chapter. For each term be able to:
    • DEFINE the term
    • GIVE AN EXAMPLE from the realms studied in the chapter
    • BRIEFLY explain your example.
    • Many of these examples are discussed in the second part of the chapter (called "Regions of the Realm").

     

  • Take lots of notes in class. Many of your notes can be written right on the realm maps. Extra maps will be available in the classroom.

 

From the textbook - Chapter 6:

 

MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE REALM

DEFINING THE REALM

  • Differentiate between the following
    • Realm: Sub-Saharan Africa
    • Region: Southern Africa
    • Country: South Africa

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY - Africa's Unique Physical Geography

 

  • Unique:
    • large size / consequences
    • no mountain chain
    • linear great lakes cluster
    • erratic rivers
    • platean continent with escarpments and rift valleys
    • mostly tropical
    • climate and vegitation symetrical about the equater
    • major deserts

     

  • Why?

     

  • Natural Environments
    • tropical but elevated
    • symetrical about the equator G-8)
    • steep decline in annual rainfall (G-7, G-8)
    • tropical rain forest / savanna / steppe

     

  • Population
    • population of ALL of real = 1/2 that of China
    • NOT densely populated (G-9, G-10)
    • some good soils, water, - but small
    • "land of corn (maize), millet, and root crops (yams, casava, sweet potatoes)
      • not high yielding rice and wheat
      • green revolution
      • lower yields

       

 ECONIMIC GEOGRAPHY

  • Measures of Economic Development

 

 

  • Environment and Health

 

 

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

  • Introduction
    • "cradle of humanity"
    • little is known
    • absence of a written record
    • colonial policies

     

  • African Genesis
    • Early Trade - West Africa and regional complementarity (G-7, G-8)
    • Early States
      • West African Culture Hearth (figure 7-3)
      • Early Africa (figure 6-5)

       

  • The Colonial Transformation
    • Early European contact - coastal stations
    • Slavery - moved activity from the inland savanna to the coast
      • some slave trade earlier
      • European took perhaps 30 million (figure 6-7)
      • Why so many to Brazil?
      • stong role of African middlemen kept Europeans on the coast except in southern Africa
    • Colonization
      • EUROPEAN COLONIAL OBJECTIVES
        • A port along the West African coast
        • A water route to South Asia and Southeast Asia
        • 1500's - looking for resources; Slaves
        • 1850 - industrial revolution occurs in Europe
        • Increased demand for mineral resources
        • Need to expand agricultural production
      • BERLIN CONFERENCE 1884 (figure 6-8)
        • 14 states divided up Africa without consideration of cultures
        • Results of superimposed boundaries
          • African peoples were divided.
          • Unified regions were ripped apart.
          • Hostile societies were thrown together.
          • Hinterlands were disrupted.
          • Migration routes were closed off.
        • When independence returned to Africa after 1950, the realm had already acquired a legacy of political fragmentation.
      • COLONIAL POLICIES (figure 6-8)
        • Great Britain:
          • "Indirect Rule"
          • Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe
          • Indigenous power structures were left intact to some degree and local rulers were made representatives of the crown.
        • France:
          • "Assimilationist"
          • Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, etc
          • Enforced a direct rule, which propagated the French culture through language, laws, education and dress (acculturation)
        • Portugal:
          • "harsh direct control"
          • Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique
          • First to enslave and colonize and one of the last to grant independence
          • Maintained rigid control; raw resource oriented
        • Belgium:
          • "ruthless exploitation"
          • Rwanda, Zaire, Burundi
          • "paternalistic" ?? -- Treated Africans as though they where children who needed to be tutored in western ways; did not try to make them Belgium
          • Raw resource oriented; ignored the development of natives
          • as many as 10 million killed
      • THE LEGACY- What are the lasting effects of colonization?
        • boundaries still in place
        • expoitative transportation systems hinder development
        • location of African cities
        • African "elites" during colonization retained their power = authoritarian rule and military takeovers
        • Demecoracies: Ghana, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa, nigeria (?)
        • European lingua franca and offical languages
        • Antagonism between tribes (e.g., Rwanda)
        • Low level of development is linked to colonization
        • Dual economy remains intact; most states rely on a single crop or mineral and are vulnerable to world markets.

 

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

  • Introduction
    • colonization had little impact on the lives of most Africans
    • 70% subsistance farmers
    • thousands of languages (figure 6-6)
    • "most complex cultural mosaic on Earth"

     

  • African Languages (figure 6-9)
    • importance of language in defining the realm (figures g-2 and 6-9)
    • language families
    • thousand of languages
    • only about 40 are spoken by more than 1 million people
    • only about a half dozen spoken by more than 10 million people (Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibo in Nigeria, Swahili in the east and Zulu in south Africa)
    • lingua franca (plural: linguae francae)
      • French and English
      • Hausa in West Africa
      • Swahili in East Africa
      • Pidgin languages along West Africa's coast
    • Multilingualism
      • a centrifugal force in many countries
      • Nigeria: English is the official language, about 250 languages total

       

  • Religion in Africa (figure 7-2)
    • traditional religions clashed with Islam and European religions
    • Christianity
      • first entered Africa in Nubia and Axum in the fourth centruay A.D.(figure 6-5)
      • Ethiopia has been Christian area ever since
      • Colonization
      • transculturation (vs. acculturaltion)
    • Islam
      • Penetrated Africa much earlier than Christianity (except for Ethiopiea in the horn of Africa)
      • Leaders of West African states converted
      • Spread through the savanna to what is now northern Nageria, Ghana, and the Ivory coast
      • encircled the christians in Ethiopia and spread downt he horn through Somalia
      • Kenya and Tanzania coast, Zanzibar
      • Islamic Front (figure 6-10 and 6-19)
      • Problems / Conflicts between Islamic North and Christian/Animist South (figure 6-19)
        • Nigeria (figure 6-18)
          • Africa's most populous state
          • 3 major nations and 250 other peoples
          • figure 6-19 misleading - not all of Nigeria is 50-70% Islamic
          • figure 7-2 is better
          •  return to demaocracy in 1999 elections
          • Sharia (Islamic) law proclaimed in twelve northern States
            • severe criminal penalties including amputation, death by stoning
            • schools segregated by gender
            • many Muslim driven taxis won't pick up women
            • cetain jobs reserved for men only
          • riots, many Christians fled to the south
        • Ivory Coast
        • Sudan (p. 344)

 

REGIONS OF SUBSAHARAN AFRICA (figure6-10)

 SOUTHERN AFRICA (figure 6-11)
  • 10 countries
  • 6 landlocked states
  • Northern zone marks limit of Congo basin
  • Plateau country
  • Rich in natural resources
  • Agricultural diversity

 

EAST AFRICA (6-15)

  • Lies astride the equator
  • Mainly highlands
  • Cooler and generally drier conditions
  • Ethnic diversity

    EAST AFRICA - KENYA

    • Dominant state in region
    • Capitalist approach to development
    • Nairobi (2.6 million)
    • Coffee, tea, tourism revenues
    • Swahili is the lingua franca
    • 1980s - world's fastest growing populations
    • AIDS

     

EQUATORIAL AFRICA (6-16)

  • Astride the equator
  • Mainly lowland country
  • Vast areas of rainforest
  • Environment is a mixed blessing?
  • Delineated from Nigeria by physiographic as well as cultural breaks
  • The Adamawa Highland coincides with the border between British-influenced Nigeria and French-acculturated Cameroon.

    EQUATORIAL AFRICA - REGIONAL FEATURES

    • Dominated by Congo River and Basin
      • Equatorial rainforest
      • Impeded in transportation and communication
    • French is predominant in most states except Sao Tome and Principe
    • The most underdeveloped region in this realm
    • Resources
      • Copper (Democratic Republic of Congo)
      • Timber, oil (Gabon, Cameroon)
      • Gold, manganese and uranium

WEST AFRICA (6-17)

  • NIGERIA
    • At independence, Nigeria was composed of three regions (based on regional tribal bases of the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Ibo).
    • In 1967 interregional rivalries led to civil war when the eastern region tried to succeed as Biafra.
    • Regions were subdivided and rearranged to ensure a civil war did not occur again.
    • Currently - a Federal State under a military government
    • Capital city moved from Lagos to Abuja

 

AFRICAN TRANSITION ZONE (figure 6-19)