Africa Overview Flashcards
What physical feature divides Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa?
The sahara desert.
What cultural features explain why Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa are studied separately?
Different religions: North Africa -Islamic, South Africa - Christian and Animist Different racial descents: North Africa - Arab, South Africa - Black African
Consider the climate and vegetation in Sub-Saharan Africa. How does it most likely impact the region’s economic development?
People can make money off of rainforests near the equator by slash and burn agriculture, resources from trees like sap and medicinal plants, and logging. In a desert, most people don’t look to make big money, but instead look towards trade and substance farming to be sustained. Because of this deserts are less developed.
What is an escarpment And how do escarpments impact economic development?
Escarpments are long, steep slopes. Africa has these along the coastline caused by Africa, basically being a big plateau. This impacts development because these garments cause cataracts which prevent transportation shipping and trade ships from reaching inland.
Consider the native wildlife of sub-Saharan Africa. How did it historically help or hurt the regions economic development? How does it now help or hurt the regions economic development?
Africa is home to many well-known rare animals. These animals now help their tourism industry, but historically it limited early agricultural development because of these violent animals that could not be domesticated.
Why is knowledge about early African kingdoms limited?
Early African kingdoms relied on oral history or the passing down of knowledge by speaking or singing. Because there was little written down when empires collapsed. The knowledge of their societies was never passed down.
Where did merchants from early African kingdoms travel and what goods did they trade?
Early merchants traveled from North Africa, Africa, bringing salts and copper to West Africa in exchange for slaves.
How was Europe’s view of slavery different from traditional African view on slavery?
European saw slaves as property and slavery was focused on race which created a more destructive long lasting effect. Traditional Africans viewed slaves as people and more like servants rather than things to be owned.
What economic, political and social impacts did the European slave trade have on Africa and Africans?
Economic: the slave trade disrupted economies because the most capable workers were shipped off to the American colonies as slaves. Political: because European slave trade was based on race, a social divide between kingdoms and tribes was made. Social: families were split up as members were moved to the America’s cultures were destroyed as a slave people had no way to pass on culture to Africans.
Why was sub-Saharan Africa explored and colonized after the Americas?
Africa was unexplored because European ships could not sail up rivers due to cataracts and traveling into east or central Africa was hard because of the tropical climate and diseases after the colonization of the Americas medications to fight tropical diseases, such as malaria were more accessible.
What caused Europeans to start considering taking over Africa by the early to mid 1800s? How did Europeans goals regarding Africa change?
Europeans began the industrial revolution and the 1700s. There is a significant increase in the need for raw materials now Europeans now didn’t just want more slaves but they wanted to take and grow Africans natural resources to use in factories. They also wanted to grow cash crops and they used Africa’s land to do so.
What was the Berlin conference of 1884 and who is not invited to it?
The Berlin conference of 1884 was a meeting to divide the land of Africa to prevent European leaders from going to war. Of course no Africans were invited to discuss the separation of their land.
How did the European land grab contribute to conflict between ethnic groups and sub-Saharan Africa?
When Europeans divided the continent, they placed opposing and conflicting ethnic groups together as harmonious groups got divided this led to tensions between ethnic groups even after independence these tensions led to conflicts such as the genocide and Rwanda and south Sudan breaking away from Sudan.
What does it mean to be landlocked and why does being landlocked hurt a countries economy?
To be landlocked means to be completely surrounded by land and to have no access to the ocean. This means that a country that is landlocked will probably spend more exporting and importing goods, and those goods will be more expensive. Also a country will have limited development.
Why have African countries frequently struggled to develop despite having large amounts of natural resources?
These natural resources are unevenly distributed, and some countries has very limited resources. European legacies did not provide help to distribute natural resources but instead encouraged exports to X colonizer countries.
Describe farming in Africa what type of farming is seen and how does it impact African economies and people?
Most of the farming in Africa is substance farming, and the remainder of arable land is used for commercial farming, cash crops commercial farming provides jobs while money can boost economy.
What legacies of colonialism encourage trade with former colonizers instead of regional neighbors?
Legacies of European imperialism, such as infrastructure that was mainly designed to export goods out of Africa. This infrastructure includes roads and rail roads. Also, African countries often shared a language with their European colonizers and not their regional neighbors.
How is the HIV/AIDS epidemic producing a similar demographic outcome as the European slave trade which took places hundreds of years earlier? How are they similar on their impact on Africa and Africans?
They both shared commonalities of high younger dependence because of high infant mortality rates, low life, expectancies, poor healthcare and high population growth rates that were inflicted upon Africans.
What is the Chinese belt and road initiative and how is it both good and bad for African economies?
The Chinese belt and road initiative is an investment on China’s part, focusing on building infrastructure in Africa while connecting its economy to China’s. This initiative increases foreign investment builds infrastructure and expands foreign connections. On the downside, the top jobs made by this initiative go to Chinese workers and Africa has to pay off loans or face China taking control over major facilities.
How did the people of South Africa and Rwanda recover from their major racial/ethical issues of an apartheid and genocide?
Both South Africa and Rwanda used forgiveness. These countries use forgiveness to dramatically, increase their economy and grow institutions like government.
What are Nigeria and Botswana doing to strengthen and grow their economies?
Botswana and Nigeria, both have stable governments to take action like fighting terrorists and conserving the environment.
What is the AU and how is it strengthening Africa?
The AU is an economic and political union of all the countries in Africa to promote peace and political and economic stability. The AU has worked on issues, revolving around peace, security, science, technology, social affairs, and much more.
What is Africa’s high highest point?
Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
What is the main type of farming practiced by the majority of Africans?
Substance farming
Which African countries were not taken over by the Europeans? Why?
Ethiopia and Liberia. Ethiopia had the Ethiopian highlands to their advantage. Liberia had a stable government and institutions.
What is desertification and why is it happening in the Sahel? What is being done to stop it?
Desertification is the growing of deserts and it is happening because people are over, grazing their animals and stripping the land other nutrients. Senegal has started the great green wall initiative which involves planting a line of trees along the growing desert to stop it.
Which countries were the main colonizers in Africa?
Britain and France
Does Africa have more or less landlocked countries than Latin America?
More
How does corruption lead to a country being unable to develop?
Corruption prevents the state from being able to afford to build infrastructure. Corruption means the state cannot maintain good institutions like police, education, health, and transport. Corruption removes money from the state and gives it to individual leaders.
Clan based thinking, requires leaders to hire the best of qualified workers rather than family members or friends. (True or false.)
False
How does being located in the tropics directly hurt development?
The temperature not regularly getting below 16°C means that disease spreading insects do not disappear seasonally. Tropical diseases and insects, weaken and kill domesticated animals and people. Tropical plants are less packed with carbohydrates and soil is poor.
Why is having lots of natural resources not necessarily a good thing?
Easily transportable resources allow elites to grab money without requiring the whole cooperation of the society.
The people of states that are struggling to develop should be blamed entirely for those struggles (true or false).
False.
Which of the following descriptions best describes the great green wall
A wall of trees being planted across Africa to slow desertification.
What are the causes of the great green wall initiative?
Increasing hunger issues, drought, desertification nomadic hers got too big and ate too much grass. People cut down trees for firewood so there weren’t enough trees to hold the soil.
What are the effects of the great green wall initiative?
More food can be produced. Desertification can be reversed higher humidity levels well refilling jobs are created less immigration, higher attendance in school.
What are challenges to successful completion of the great green wall?
It is not enough to plant trees as people have also have to be educated not to cut the trees down. It is very expensive to plant trees across all of Africa. It takes a lot of workers to plant and maintain the trees. It requires agreement across many countries for the great green wall to be completed.
True or false : since independence, but Swan’s leaders have been from the same political party as a result they clearly do not have free and fair elections.
False
Botswana success can be attributed to what
Their government has been stable and embraced education, role of law and economic freedoms
What are all the ways bees play role in solving the problem with elephants and farmers
Beehives are hung on fences around farms. Elephants are scared of bees and leave when hives are disturbed.
What do elephants do that? Make it hard for farmers
Elephants can step on and ruin crops and break fences
What makes a mineral a conflict mineral
Selling minerals provides money that pays for violent activity. Most of these minerals are easy to transport and smuggle.
What role does the physical geography of Congo region play in creating supporting this illegal trade of minerals
Challenging physical landscapes make prevention hard while providing good places for smuggler to hide/escape
What role do the economic conditions in the Congo region play in creating and supporting the illegal trade of minerals?
Less secondary jobs and less chance to earn money through substance agriculture/herding means more workers are likely to work in the illegal trade
What were the impacts of apartheid on black South Africans
Restricted job opportunities, forced to live in slum, like townships or homeland, forced to be segregated in public facilities and schools that were lower quality than those for whites, deprived of quality land, forbidden from social contact with whites, not allowed to vote, sign, significant economic inequality, relative to whites.
US sanctions embargos and boycotts
Economic consequences
South Africa forced to leave the Commonwealth
Political consequences
South Africa banned from Olympics and World Cup
Social consequences
Who won the Noble peace prize for their work and ending a apartheid
Nelson Mandela and FW de Clark
What impact did and is inflation having on Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean people
Limited access to food and basic necessities, limited access to products, collapse of economy
What was Mandala’s policy?
Compromise and unity
What was the impact of Mugabe policies?
Economic collapse
What was the Mongabe policy?
Removing whites from economy
What was the impact of Mandela‘s policy?
Economic growth
How were apartheid in South Africa and inflation and Zimbabwe both legacies of European imperialism?
apartheid and inflation were the results of Europeans: rule’s inequality and racism
What are the correct endings to the following sentence: “ Apartheid in South Africa, Africa, and inflation in Zimbabwe were both legacies of European imperialism because…”
…apartheid was created to keep descendants of white European settlers in control in South Africa and inflation and Zimbabwe is the direct effect of black African response to similar policies in Zimbabwe.
… both apartheid in South Africa, Africa, and inflation in Zimbabwe happened due to the presence of white European settlers who traveled there as a part of a takeover of the region by European states.
True or false: the people of the states that are struggling to be developed, should be blamed entirely for those struggles
False
Tribal identity is often considered to be more important than national identity. Why do Africans connect more to their tribes and their country?
Tribes have been around a long time, while countries are European creations that are relatively recent. Countries are also multinational, with much diversity in language, ethnicity, and sometimes religion, so people tend to gravitate towards others with whom they share similarities - their tribes.
Which African countries were not taken over by the Europeans during the scrabble for Africa? Why not?
Liberia was not taken over because it was conquered in the mid-19th century (1800s) by the United States, for use as a colony for former, now freed, slaves. Ethiopia effectively resisted European conquest because of its favorable physical geography - the Ethiopian Highlands - and a modernized army.
What type of agriculture and farming is primarily used in the rainforest what are the pros and cons of that style of agriculture?
Slash & burn agriculture is primarily used in the rainforest; it has the benefit of clearing land for agriculture and providing fertilizer from the burned trees, but it has the negatives of destroying rainforest and that the land is not arable for long.
What type of natural resources does Africa have? Why aren’t Africa’s natural resources consumed primarily by African Economies?
Africa has diamonds, gold, oil, and many other precious minerals, in addition to valuable lumber, but since it has very few factories and limited manufacturing, most of the resources are exported out of Africa for processing.
Many Africans learn the language of the European state that controlled their land. Is this diffusion innovation, acculturation or assimilation?
This is an example of acculturation (taking on limited new elements of culture). An example of assimilation would be that the French worked to get North Africans to become French and take on all elements of French culture. An example of diffusion would be that Christianity spread to Africa during the period of European imperial control. An example of innovation would be the various technological improvements in medicine that have helped reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in some parts of Africa.
Describe the typical levels of economic development and economic activity in Africa what are some reason reasons why they are what they are?
Most countries in Africa are developing, and most people work at the primary level of economic activity. This is due to African countries’ long-term exploitation by Europeans, their limited level of infrastructure, the limited level of human capital due to limitations in education, conflict and government corruption, and the population challenges caused by slavery and more recently HIV/AIDS.
What are three assets for African countries? Which African countries are doing particularly well Economically, And why?
African countries have the assets of growing populations, valuable primary resources, and a valuable situation (location) near major trade routes and trade partners. South Africa and Rwanda are models of recovery from conflict, as they engaged in reconciliation and forgiveness rather than continued cycles of violence. Nigeria and Botswana have large and growing economies, and are receiving significant foreign investment.
