AFRICAThe Plateau Continent

PHYSICAL FEATURES

Much of central Africa is a high, dry plateau

Sahara – world’s largest desert

Nile River – longest river in the world

Lake Victoria – world’s second largest freshwater lake

Lake Tanganyika – longest freshwater lake in the world

SAHARA DESERT

DESERTIFICATION

GREAT RIFT VALLEY

MOUNT KILIMANJARO

CLIMATE ZONES

What landform dominates Northern Africa?

What is the climate type found along the equator?

RAINY SEASON

POPULATION DENSITY

Largest Cities:•Cairo, Egypt•Lagos, Nigeria

1. Where is most of the population concentrated in Egypt?2. Have you noticed a pattern in the northern part of Africa?

MWANZA, TANZANIA

ECONOMICACTIVITY

What natural resource is found mainly in the southern part of Africa?

What land use dominates most of Africa?

What land use is the least common in Africa?

WORKERS PAN FOR DIAMONDS

COUNTRIES OF AFRICA

53 countries Largest: Sudan Smallest:

Seychelles At least 2,000

languages spoken in Africa

Swahili and Arabic are two of the most common languages

EUROPEAN COLONIALISM

Africa was divided up by 8 countries in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Europeans wanted power and strategic advantage, exploited the resources of Africa, established settlements, and converted Africans to Christianity.

In general, Europeans took what they wanted from Africa with very little concern about the quality of life for Africans.

AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE

Africans fought European imperialism since its beginnings, but this opposition gained strength after World War I and again after World War II.

Many Africans resented European presence.

Africans desired self-rule because they were generally treated as second-class citizens by Europeans.

The World Wars also demonstrated that Europeans were imperfect and raised questions about European racism.

Finally, many African soldiers were exposed to other places and they saw that European powers were weakened by the wars in Europe.

AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE

In 1945, many prominent leaders of Africa met in Manchester, England and drafted a resolution as an appeal to their colonial powers and a warning of what would come if this appeal was ignored.

By 1960, Africa had 27 independent states. That number grew to 39 six years later, and the number became 47 by 1975.

TRIBAL TRADITIONS

Social life revolves around the extended family.

Extended families are linked to clans, kin groups, and tribes.

Religion and language is closely tied to the group that one joins by birth.

LANGUAGES OF AFRICA

Niger-Congo: spoken by one out of every two Africans, spread by Bantu migrations

Afro-Asiatic: second-most-spoken on the continent, mainly in North Africa

Nilo-Saharan: western bend of the Niger River through the Sahel region into parts of east Africa

Khoisan: smallest number, found in Southern Africa, known as “the click languages”

Because there is usually such a wide variety of languages spoken in one country, trade languages, such as Swahili, Hausa, Fulani, and Creole have developed for cross-cultural communication.

AGRICULTURE

Africa is largely a rural continent.

Many young Africans are moving to the cities to find work, however, many Africans stay in the rural villages and practice subsistence farming and livestock raising.

RELIGION

46 % are Christian (mainly in West, East, Central, and Southern Africa)

40% are Muslim (mainly in North and West Africa)

Over 100 million practice indigenous religions