Exam 2: Sub-Saharan Africa

Question 1

Where are the highest elevations in sub-Saharan Africa found?

Answer 1

along the eastern edge

Question 2

What is an escarpment?

Answer 2

a steep slope or cliff that separates two areas that are relatively level but with different elevations

Question 3

Does rainfall or temperature have more influence on vegetation belts?

Answer 3

rainfall?

Question 4

What are the 3 main biomes?

Answer 4

Tropical forests, Savannas, Deserts

Question 5

What makes people in this region highly vulnerable to environmental changes?

Answer 5

Most of the population is rural and derives their living from the land

Question 6

What is desertification?

Answer 6

expansion of desert-like
conditions due to human-induced degradation

Question 7

What are some potential threats the region faces due to climate change?

Answer 7

-African coast is only area expected to be at major risk of sea-level rise
* High temperatures may increase areas of vector-borne
diseases
* Wildlife populations are at risk

Question 8

How does SSA’s population density compare to the US?

Answer 8

same/similar

Question 9

What is the region’s total fertility rate? How does it compare to the TFR in other parts of the world?

Answer 9

-4.6
- significantly higher than other parts of the world

Question 9

What are some reasons for high fertility in the region? How does urbanization affect family sizes?

Answer 9

• Women marry young and often have little formal education
• Urbanization results in smaller family sizes

Question 10

What are zoonotic diseases?

Answer 10

infections that can spread between animals and humans

Question 11

What region has most of the world’s malaria infections and deaths?

Answer 11

Sub-Saharan Africa

Question 11

How is HIV typically transmitted in SSA? What are some major reasons for its spread?

Answer 11

*Mostly transmitted via unprotected heterosexual sex, the birth process, and breastfeeding

*Contributors to spread: seasonal male labor migration + lack of education and testing + disempowerment of women

Question 12

Where was Ebola first identified?

Answer 12

first identified in 1976 along the banks of the Ebola
River in the DRC

Question 13

Why is it difficult for many sub-Saharan African borrowers to get mortgages?

Answer 13

low income?

Question 14

In what ways are colonial influences still evident in cities?

Answer 14

• British colonies with substantial white settlement
  developed more highly segregated urban
  settlement patterns with stricter building rules and
  land law
• Cities with significant white populations tended to
  have larger investments in infrastructure (from
  colonial states) and industrial development (from
  the private sector)

Question 15

For what different purposes are indigenous/trade/colonizer languages spoken?

Answer 15

Indigenous vs. trade (Swahili, Hausa) vs.
colonizers (mainly French, English, Afrikaans)

Question 16

18. When did Christianity arrive in NE Africa? When did European settlers and missionaries start showing up?

Answer 16

1600s

Question 17

When was Islam introduced?

Answer 17

~1000 years ago by Berber traders from N. Africa

Question 18

Why were Liberia and Sierra Leone created?

Answer 18

Liberia and Sierra Leone
were established as colonies for free Black people from the US and Nova Scotia/the British Caribbean, respectively

Question 19

What gave European colonizers the upper hand in the 1880s? What was the “Scramble for Africa”?

Answer 19

• machine guns & antimalarials

-

Question 20

What was the Berlin Conference?

Answer 20

• The Berlin Conference was held in 1884
• Divided continent into parts that were traded “like pieces in a game of Monopoly”

Question 21

Which SSA country was the first to gain its independence from Europe?

Answer 21

Ghana? S. Africa

Question 22

Was decolonization mostly a peaceful process? Was this the case everywhere?

Answer 22

• yes it was mostly peaceful but not everywhere
• Southern Africa was more violent, in Rhodesia & Angola & Mozambique

Question 23

What was apartheid?

Answer 23

government-enforced racial segregation in S. Africa from 1948-1994

Question 24

Did colonizing powers adequately prepare their former colonies for independence? How did the borders that were drawn up affect the situation?

Answer 24

-No
- Put people from different ethnic groups forced into the same state despite their diff. languages/religions/cultures

Question 25

Why couldn’t the maps just be redrawn?

Question 26

What is the difference between refugees and internally displaced persons?

Answer 26

• Refugees: people who flee their home states due to a well-founded fear of persecution
• Internally displaced persons: people who have fled from conflict but are still within
  their country of origin

Question 27

What are “blood diamonds” and how have they contributed to conflict in Liberia and Sierra Leone?

Question 28

How do most countries in the region fare on the Human Development Index?

Answer 28

High poverty, very low rank

Question 29

What are some contributing factors to poverty in SSA?

Answer 29

• Corruption/poor political and physical infrastructure
• Physical environment (infertile soils, erratic rainfall, lack of navigable
  rivers)
• Tropical diseases/limited public health resources

Question 30

What are some signs of economic growth?

Answer 30

• Standards of living are rising
• Internet access is increasing/pioneer in mobile payments!

Question 31

What are “industries without smokestacks”? What did the Economist video we watched say about
economic growth and education for girls

Answer 31

-no factories: tourism, horticulture, IT