IIPM Dare to thing beyond

Presented bY :-

Aqib Farooq

AFRICA

THE DARK CONTINENT

4Africa, The Dark Continent

Introduction The Dark Continent. Europeans knew little of sub

Saharan and called it Dark Continent.

So huge that part of Sahara is almost as large as the who North America.

Centuries Euros on knew the coast (Gold, Ivory, Slave), Nile, Niger, Congo Rivers.

People black but very diverse physically, culturally (over thousand languages).

Craftsmanship in arts, bronze sculpture, gold, weaving.

In the North was Islam, other areas were traditional religions People lived mainly in villages, agricultural or cattle raising.

Timbuktu was one great city ancient kingdoms were weakened by intertribal wars, slave trade like Ottomans.

Africa came under European assault when it was in a weakened state.

Before 1750 there were no white settlements in sub Saharan Africa later, there were as many as seven million people of European descent.

Opening of Africa Livingstone and Stanley First opened up to

missionaries, explorers and adventurers

1841 Scottish David Livingstone as a medical missionary doing humanitarian and religious work

Occasionally traded and explored (but had no economic, political aims)

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Geography of Africa Northern

Mediterranean. The Sahara The Sahel. The Niger, Congo, and

Nile Systems. The Rift Valleys and the

Great Lakes. South Africa.

Main Ideas Fertile soil along the Nile River encouraged

the rise of great civilizations. Many geographic features in Africa have

prevented contact, trade & unity among peoples.

Many of these same features limit European knowledge of Africa “the Dark Continent”.

The Dawn of Humanity The Out of Africa”

thesis and Leakey's. “

The Rise of Homo Sapiens.

The Rift Valleys. Agriculture and

Sedentary Society. The Green Sahara.

The Bantu Migrations The Khoi and the

San. Iron Age technology

and the Nok. Hiving-off and

linguistic derivation. Leaving the cows

behind the Tsetse belt.

The Indonesian Connection.

Early African Empires Egypt: African or Near

Eastern? Kush and the

domination of Egypt. Meroe and Iron working. Kleptocracy and

underdevelopment. Axum and the Lion of

Judah. Adulis and Hellenistic

trade.

African Social Life The primacy of

states Kinship structures Informal relations of

gender The role of religion

and African shamanism

The “Big Man” system of rule

Varieties of state formation

Interesting Statistics 2nd largest

continent- - 1,17,00,000 square miles!

i.e 20.2% of the earth

And 3x the size of the USA

77,80,00,000 people 55 countries

Topography Deserts 40% of the land surface of Africa slows cultural diffusion - does not totally

prevent it Sahara -- North Africa 1/3 of the continent (= to the USA!!) majority is rock and gravel Kalahari--Southwest Africa

True desert spreads into semi-arid regions

P rob lem : D esert ifica tion

m a ln u trit ion s ta rva tion p overty

S ah e l D es ert(s ou th S ah ara)

Desertification - Causes Farmers use semi-arid land next to desert -

yields poor crop Overgrazing by cattle and goats Overcutting of trees for firewood With no grass or tree roots, the topsoil

blows away, the desert advances

Solutions Crop rotation Terracing to prevent soil from washing

away Tree belts to stop erosion and hold soil in

place

Mountains East Africa- section of the land sank - causing the

Great Rift Valley Atlas (NW) Drakensberg (SE) Ethiopian Highlands Famous peaks - Mt. Kenya & Mt.

Kilimanjaro

Rivers Depth varies depending on the season Plateaus prevent easy navigation

Therefore, the interior of Africa remained largely unexplored

4,180 miles long (world’s longest!!) flows NORTH Source - - Lake Victoria Delta - - Egypt Floods annually One of the most densely populated region

in Africa

Waterfalls and rapids prevent easy navigation

Congo - 3000 miles long Niger - ancient civilizations flourished here Zambezi - Victoria Falls, used for hydro-

electric power

Coastline Smooth Few natural harbors - hard to land ships

Climate - determined by rainfall, latitude and

elevation Savanna - 40%, safari!! Tropical Rainforest - 8%, Desert - 40% Mediterranean - 12%, good farm land

About 85% of the land is not suited to farming

Climate

Natural Resources Farming peanuts, cotton, cocoa, coffee Minerals diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt Water hydroelectric power

Where are Boundaries drawn Between States

The shape of a state controls the length of its boundaries with other states.

The five basic shapes are Compact, Prorupted, Elongated, fragmented, and perforated

Why do boundaries between states cause

problems? One state with many nationalities, e.g., Russia.

One nationality on more than one state, e.g., the Kurds.

Internal organization of states

HEALTH-AFRICA:Neglected Diseases Under the Microscope

Of the 1,556 new drugs developed between 1975 to 2004, only 1.3 percent were for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

Despite these ailments accounting for 12 percent of the global disease burden, according to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi).

A non-governmental agency committed to researching and developing new and improved treatment for NTDs. 

The diseases in question account for the deaths of 500,000 people annually, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, but drug development is biased towards the prospect of high profits, which diseases of the poor like sleeping sickness and visceral leishmaniaisis are unable to offer. 

14 neglected tropical diseases:-

Buruli ulcer -Leishmaniasis -Chagas disease – Leprosy -Cholera/Epidemic diarrhoeal diseases-– Lymphatic filariasis -Dengue/dengue haemorrhagic fever -Onchocerciasis - Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease) -Schistosomiasis -Endemic Treponematoses (yaws, pinta, endemic syphilis) -– Soil-transmitted helminthiasis - Trachoma-– Human African trypanosomiasis.

Conflicts in Africa

There have been over 9 million refugees and internally displaced people from conflicts in Africa.

Hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered from a number of conflicts and civil wars.

If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation.

slavery

slavery

African slaves became part of the Atlantic slave trade, from which comes the modern, Western conception of slavery as an institution of African-descended slaves and non-African slave owners.

Despite its illegality, slavery continues in some parts of the world, including Africa.

Elikia M’bokolo, April 1998, Le Monde diplomatique. Quote:"The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes.

Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth)."

He continues: "Four million slaves exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean.

If this scale of destruction and fighting was in Europe, then people would be calling it World War III with the entire world rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise try to diffuse the situation.

Yet here, as mentioned in the media section of this web site, and noted by Virgil Hawkins, the western mainstream media does practically nothing to raise this awareness (or, perhaps it is not deemed important enough to report extensively about).

Hawkins did a year long study (see above new world maps link) on some major western media outlets in 2000 to see what percentage of their media focus fell where.

Disappointingly, and unsurprisingly perhaps, Africa did not even figure in 10% of the coverage.

After the arrival of the Europeans there was a sharp decline in the local population of most of the islands in the Caribbean Sea.

This created a problem for the Europeans as they needed labour to exploit the natural resources of these islands.

Eventually the Europeans came up with a solution: the importation of slaves from Africa.

By 1540, an estimated 10,000 slaves a year were being brought from Africa to replace the diminishing local populations. 

At the end of the 14th century Europeans started to take people from Africa against their will.

Initially they were mainly used as servants for the rich. The Europeans justified the taking of slaves by arguing that they were providing an opportunity for Africans to become Christians.

By the 17th century the removal of slaves from Africa became a holy cause that had the full support of the Christian Church. The people living in the Americas resisted the attempt by the Europeans to take over their land.

One of he most important struggles took place in Cuba in 1512. The Cubans, led by Chief Hatuey, were eventually defeated by the superior weapons of the Spanish. 

Friction and Rivalry between the Powers

Colonial Race in Africa 1885-1900 war almost broke

out over Africa Portuguese annexed huge part

in Angola and Mozambique, Italians took Somaliland and Eritrea but were unable to take Ethiopia

Bismarck reluctantly established colonies in East Africa and Cameroon and Togo along with German Southwest Africa

French dreamed of a solid belt across Africa from Dakar to Gulf of Aden

British Cecil Rhodes dreamed of a connection (RR) “from the Cape to Cairo”

He established Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

Cape to Cairo 1890 Cecil Rhodes, prime

minister of Cape Colony, was principal sponsor of the Cape to Cairo dream but ran into independent Transvaal and Orange Free State

Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch of 1600s had made a “great trek to escape British rule (started 1815)

Boers (Dutch for farmer), as English called them, were simple, obstinate, old fashioned

The South African War Diamonds were then

discovered in Transvaal Transvaal refused to pass

legislation needed for mining 1895 Rhodes sent armed

irregulars to start a revolution but were stopped

William II, German emperor, congratulated president Paul Kruger of Transvaal, for defeating the bully British

African as an excellence tourist destination

South Africa’s Welcome Awards Nothing sells a country more than a big,

warm welcome, matched with service excellence at every stage of a visit. The South African tourism industry’s growing understanding of this fact is illustrated by its enthusiastic competition for the Welcome Awards, a programme which celebrates service providers who exceed customer expectations.

South Africa Attractions and Destinations / South Africa is one of the most diverse and enchanting countries in the world.

Exotic combinations of landscapes, people, history and culture offer the traveller a unique and inspiring experience.

South Africa is a heady mix of third and first world cultures - along with the best and least crowded beaches in the world.

Throw in wildlife parks such as the Kruger National Park, Eight World Heritage Sites, beautiful natural scenery, a great infrastructure and a stable post-apartheid environment 

Rich in Flora and Fauna

There are many types of animals in Africa including: hyena, meerkat, lions and warthogs.

South Africa is famous for its many Safari animals !

The meerkat is a species of mongoose that lives in southern Africa. A social mammal, the meerkat is one of the few animals that practises group care for its young.

Green Mamba

Mammals

Africa has a wide variety of habitats and plants. Some 300 genera are widely distributed throughout the continent and just over 100 of these appear to be confined to Africa. These wide genera are either essentially tropical in character or, like the genus Protea, are predominantly found in southern Africa.Some regions are very rich in species and very highly specialized.

Flora

Minerals

relief where large volcanoes have developed.  Most of central, western and northern Africa Africa is

predominantly a continent of plains and plateaus with intervening escarpments which are the result of millions of years of erosion and planation (the grading or general flattening of an area by erosive processes). 

The major area of rifting in eastern Africa has some areas of high topographic is at elevations mostly in the range of 1000 meters or less while most of eastern and southern Africa is at elevations greater than 1000 meters.

Some of the largest, and richest,  mineral deposits in the world have been found in Africa. 

For much of the last half of the 20th century little mineral exploration and development work was done in Africa, except for southern Africa, even though there is significant potential for the discovery of new deposits. 

By the mid 1990's modern exploration started to spread across much of Africa and many new deposits have been discovered and developed and some of the old major deposits are being renovated. 

An excellent summary of mineral resources of Africa and of individual African countries is available at the MBendi website.  

Good summary information about individual countries, including mineral resources, mining and exploration is available at this site making it an excellent source for summary information.

SOUTH AFRICAN BANKING & CURRENCY

The unit of currency in South Africa is the Rand and is issued in notes and cents.

One hundred cents (c) = one Rand (R)

Bank Notes - R200, R100, R50, R20 and R10

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•Lighting Up West Africa

•Reffered by :-Amita Tondon

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