Professional Documents
Culture Documents
African Overview
African Overview
•Existed in early years in Africa in a
small way
•Arabs took slaves to Middle East,
1200’s
•Portugal began taking slaves in 1441
•Greatest number taken from the
continent during 1600’s and 1700’s
•Ended in Europe and Americas in mid
1800’s
• Continued in Arab
world until late 1800’s
• Still legal in
Mauritania (northwest
Africa) until 2007
• Still practiced illegally
in Sudan
European Colonial Rule of Africa
• Began in 1880’s to gain resources and trade
advantages
• All of Africa colonized by World War One
except for Liberia and Ethiopia
• Did harm to Africa
broke up cultures
created artificial boundaries
gave foreign countries control over African
decisions
tied Africa’s economy to world needs
• Did some good for
Africa
built modern roads
and ports
brought education
improved health care
Independence
• 1957 Gold Coast
becomes Ghana (from
British), starting
independence
movement for Sub
Saharan Africa
• By mid1960’s U.K, Belgium, and France
had freed all their colonies
• Portugal held colonies until 1975
• Now all of Africa is independent nations
governed by native Africans
Political Problems Since
Independence
• Too many ethnic groups under one
government
• Large ethnic groups divided between
countries
• Landlocked countries
• One party governments or military
dictatorships
Natural Resources of Africa
(Five countries South Africa, Libya,
Nigeria, Algeria, and Zambia control
80% of Africa’s mineral exports)
• diamonds
• gold
• uranium
• copper
• oil
• rivers (40% of world’s
hydroelectric
potential)
• forests
Reasons for lack of industrial
development in Africa
• Raw materials are exported
• No money to invest in factories
• Shortage of educated and skilled workers
Agriculture in Africa
•On grasslands
animal grazing
cattle, sheep, goats
nomadic or semi
nomadic lifestyle
•Plantation farming
East coffee, tea, corn
West cacao, palm oil,
bananas, yams
South of Sahara
cotton, peanuts
South Africa sugar
cane, fruit, grapes
•Subsistence farming
grow just enough to
feed themselves
often “slash and burn”
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Africa’s Geographical Problems
• Few natural harbors
• Falls and rapids make rivers unnavigable
• Tropics breed disease
• Poor thin soil
• Lacks wide continental shelf little off
shore oil, poor fishing
• Often experiences droughts