Africa Vocab Flashcards
Bazaar
An open air market; A street lined with shops and stalls
Fellaheen
An Egyptian farmer; a peasant or farm laborer in Arab countries
Pharaoh
A ruler of ancient Egypt
Basin irrigation
And old system by which water and silt was controlled by an embankment and time-released to irrigate farmlands
Reservoir
A body of water collected in a natural or artificial lake
Perennial irrigation
An irrigation system that provides necessary water to the land throughout the year
Capital
Wealth in the form of money or property owned or used in business; Wealth in whatever form used to produce more wealth
Wadi
A gully, or usually dry riverbed, cut in the earth by running water after downpour in arid regions of the middle east and north Africa
Caravan
A large group of merchants who join together to travel in safety
Medina
The old section of a north African city, usually centered around a mosque
Souk
A market in an Arab community
Shifting agriculture
A type of agriculture in which a site is prepared and used to grow crops for a year or two, at which point the farmer moves on to a new site
Forage
Food for grazing animals
Deforestation
The process of stripping the land of its trees
Desertification
The loss of all vegetation; The transformation of arable land into desert either naturally or through human intervention
Refugee
A person who flees his or her country to escape invasion, oppression, or persecution
Landlocked
Almost or entirely surrounded by land; Cut off from the sea
Inland Delta
An area of lakes, creeks, and swamps away from the ocean
Coup
The sudden overthrow of a ruler of government, often involving violent force, or threat of force
Ancestor worship
The belief that respecting and honoring one’s ancestors will cause them to live on in the spirit world after death
Animism
The religious belief that such things as the sky, rivers, and trees contain a spirit, or a soul
World Bank
An agency of the United Nations that provides loans to countries for development projects
International monetary fund
An agency of the United Nations that provides loans to countries for development projects
Structural adjustment program
Program to reform the structure of an economy
Watershed
A dividing ridge between two basins
Mercenary
A person who works as a soldier purely for financial gain; a professional soldier hired by foreign country
Barter
The exchange of goods without money
Harambee
A policy of cooperation adopted in Kenya after independence to encourage economic growth
Pyrthrum
A pesticide produced from certain flowers
Malnutrition
Disease caused by lack of proper food; In adequate nutrition resulting from an unbalanced diet or insufficient foods
Strategic value
Importance of a place or thing for nations planning military actions
Ethnocracy
A system of government in which one ethnic group rules others
Villagization
A political movement by which rural people are forced to move to towns and work on collective farms
Apartheid
An Afrikaans word meaning “apartness”, Formerly in the Republic of South Africa, The policy of strict racial segregation and discrimination against non-white
Segregation
The act of imposing the social separation of races
Sanction
An action taken by the international community to punish a country country for unacceptable behaviors and to bring pressure on that country to reverse it’s policy
Enclave
A country completely surrounded by another country
White flight
The departure of trained white administrators and technicians from a region
Land redistribution
A policy by which land is expropriated from those who own large amounts and redistributed to go to have little or none
Sahel
Region in Africa south of the Sahara
Colonialism
A system where countries have colonies to secure sources of raw materials and markets for products
Plateaus
An area of high, flat land
Escarpment
A steep cliff that separates two level areas of different elevations
Chaparral
Vegetation adapted to Mediterranean climates
Small evergreen trees and scrub
Savanna
Tropical grassland with scattered trees, by the equator
Oral history
History passed down by word-of-mouth
Nomadic herding
Moving flocks to different pastures throughout the year
Leaching
Dissolving and washing away of nutrients in the soil
Land degradation
Reduction in the productive potential of the land
