Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa is the second largest of the earth's seven continents, covering about twenty-two percent of the world's total land area. From its northern most point, to its southern most tip is the distance of nearly five thousand miles. Africa is both north and south of the equator. The Atlantic Ocean is located west of the continent, and the Indian Ocean is on the east. Width of the continent is also nearly five thousand miles. Although Africa is so large, much of it is inhabitable. Desert soils, which have little organic content, cover large areas. The Sahara Desert, in the northern part, covers more than one fourth of Africa, and the Kalahari Desert is in the southern part of the continent. These two deserts are a natural detriment to the African continent because they make it difficult to reach the inland where most of the people live. Although Africa is relatively close to Europe, travel by land over the Sahara desert is very prohibitive. Another topographical feature that also isolates the central region of Africa is the coastline.
Africa has a regular coastline characterized by few indentations. Because of the smooth coastline, natural harbors were non-existent. Today, however, there are important coastal cities, such as Lagos and Dakar. With the exception of the Mediterranean coast, most of the coastline is low-lying , generally narrow and rising sharply to high elevations. The African climate and topography varies greatly. Although temperatures are usually high, due to being so close to the equator, rainfall, soil quality and elevations are of various degrees. Because most of the African continent has not been covered by water for millions of years, soils have developed according to their weathering e...
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...bances began to emerge, and the economy began to drop. Unrest cost many lives, until demands for change were heard and the political system was revised. In 1994, the South African people went to the polls for the first time and held a democratic election in which Nelson Mandela became president. The country of South Africa has made strides in healing their broken country.
Economic ways started in the nineteenth century, still have a hold on the countries of the sub-Sahara today. These countries are all impoverished and have seen horrific civil wars, however, the general consensus is that they are making slow improvements in their economy. The starvation, overpopulation and health problems are still very evident. Perhaps continued assistance coupled with education and protection will keep them on the road to stability and more rewarding lives for their citizens.
South Africa was positively affected in the way that before the Dutch and British, South Africa had been split up into many different tribes, who though they were free were not united. Through the centuries of hardship South Africa came out of apartheid very strong and the ANC has maintained a popularity of 60% popularity for all the elections since 1994. Economically South Africa has blossomed and is the 2nd largest economy in all of Africa and has managed to triple its GDP even though it has been less than 30 years since it has left apartheid, established democracy and freed itself from many international sanctions. South Africa’s economy still has many issues though for it is still an underdeveloped country which suffers from lack of education, employment, and crime. Socially South Africa remains strong as it is united under one goal of making its nation once again great, and it has maintained its heritage and culture. In fact, a quick look at a South African site will show many articles and memorials, of days in the past remembering the struggle for freedom. Politically, South Africa has remained strong and united with the ANC still carrying the vast majority of the votes and uses a governmental system quite similar to ours with a separation of powers and a thriving democratic system. Luckily, political diversity has also started to appear with many other groups appearing making the most out of South Africa’s democracy and all of which pledge freedom and are led by native
In 1990, South Africa became a totalitarian state. Apartheid is still in full effect. There is extensive racial violence in the streets. The country is economically suffering from sanctions from many other countries in protest of Apartheid.
After spending twenty-seven years in prison, Nelson Mandela was released from prison on February 11, 1990. In 1991, Nelson Mandela was chosen to become president of the African National Congress. In 1993, Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk announced an agreement that the African National Congress and the National Party form a transitional government, effectively ending apartheid and opening the political process to all South Africans (Williamson). Mandela was elected President of South Africa in 1994, and de Klerk became his first deputy. However, even with apartheid abolished, South Africa was still a divided country. Mandela’s legal adviser, Nicholas Haysom, said, “South Africa in 1994 was a country that was split, historically, culturally, racially, and so many other ways.” Within South Africa, there was a vast division between blacks and whites, and Mandela’s job was to bring them together.
South Africa has a long history with europe, the Dutch, Portuguese, and finally the British have controlled this land. The country is home to many different groups, from white to black. South Africa is a new country, liberated by the british in 1934. Its history has been dominated by white power and ignorance. When the british left in 1934, The White South Africans were placed in power puting in Apartheid. They separated blacks from whites and oppressed the african people. Many movements started the most famous being lead by a man named Nelson Mandela. Mandela was inspired by the peaceful protest of Mohandas Gandhi and implemented many of his teachings, to one day become south africa’s first black president.
White and black people were separated, but groups of non-white individuals were too. Laws were created that completely divided the races, along with employment and health. Every race was different and was never treated as equal. Apartheid finished, since the government truly couldn't control the nation. The violence rate rose to outrageous numbers. Nelson Mandela, whom was discharged from jail in 1990, tried to patch up South Africa's issues, making the ANC who won the primary vote based race in, 1994. Mandela at that point progressed toward becoming the leader of South Africa. Among the explanations behind the finish of apartheid were Nelson Mandela and Frederick de Klerk. They both needed South Africa to come together as a nation and not be kept down by apartheid. Without the general population of South Africa, however, this would not have been conceivable. The general population needed correspondence for everybody because the laws that were initially proposed to make one gathering of individuals better turned out, then just keep them
Works Cited Attoh, Samuel Aryeetey, ed. Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa. 3 rd. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc., 2010. Book.
Africa, also know as the “dark continent” encompasses the second biggest landmass but it has only twenty-two percent of the earth’s land surface. (The United States could fit within the Sahara desert alone).
In this particular region of Africa, it is hard to ignore the impact that environmental degradation has. As climate change ramps up, there are new issues and new problems that will face all parts of the Earth. No region will be unaffected as the environment continues to change and current trends persist into the future. Sea level rise will affect coastal communities, warming trends will affect crop yields, and pollution will make some areas unlivable. Though the entire planet feels at least some effect of environmental change and global warming, there are particular regions where the effect is greatest. In these regions, environmental change or degradation can add to an already unstable and volatile situation. Increased environmental hardship or unpredictability can be the final factor that leads to a conflict.
Supporting fact two: The economy of the country continued to grow, despite the sudden change of power. South Africans salaries increased: there used to be 12% of workers payed 2$ a day and after the abolishment of the apartheid, it went down to 5%. (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-23041513)
Miracle Rising: South Africa is the epic legacy of South Africa's political transformation that finished in the first free and reasonable elections in April 1994. Described through the individual records, it looks at how South Africa kept away from a civil war and moved towards, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu instituted the expression, a rainbow nation. From the abhorrence legacy of politically-sanctioned racial segregation to the triumphant first just elections, Miracle Rising: South Africa moves past negligible sequence and dives into the hearts and brains of the leaders and individuals of South Africa, reaching a state of perfection in the exciting in the background occasions of the elections that brought about the happy inauguration of President
Finally in 1990 De Klerk, president of South Africa unbanned the ANC (‘History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). In 1994 the first free multiracial elections were held and the people voted to end apartheid (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Nelson Mandela was elected president (Wright, 66). The opposition to apartheid helped turn things around in South Africa.
There are many different land features found in the East African region. Some parts of this region are quite mountainous. One of the most well known mountains in East Africa is Mount Kilimanjaro, which is located in Northern Tanzania. Mount Kilimanjaro is not the only land feature with high altitude in Ea...
Africa has more than 800 languages native to its continent. African cultures are so diverse that they are different from any other culture of the world. African cultures contain many different languages. African languages range from common French to languages unheard of to most people such as Swahili. African arts are much different than American arts. Their art involves much more creative pottery, masks, and paintings. Africa has a very interesting culture. Reasons being the people are very creative and like to express their individuality. The most diverse cultures in the world belong to Africa.
Throughout the centuries Africa has been a continent of agricultural achievement and plenty. Agrarian practices and technologies developed in Africa were emulated by the world’s great civilizations and radiated to every corner of the world. It’s speculated by many naturalist (most notably Charles R. Darwin) that modern agriculture originated in Africa. Ancient cave paintings discovered by archeologist in Africa are certainly some of the earliest evidences of plant and animal domestication. Arabic and European historical accounts agree that African diets were varied and abundant from the beginning of recorded history up until the middle ages. The African continent is rich with natural and intellectual resources. Northern Africa has rich oil deposits that, once discovered, have made billions of dollars. Sub-Sahara Africa is rich with deposits of precious minerals such as gold and diamonds. Throughout much of history Africa has been thought of as a rich land. But the Africa we know today as being plagued by famine, poverty and war came about at a much later date. These tragic circumstances could have been partly caused by the massive economic dislocation caused by the slave trade and colonization of the 19th and 20th century (Hopkins 13). Colonial powers representing outside interest setup “extractive institutions” across Africa. These “Extractive Institutions” refer to those entities that exist for the sole purpose of pull resources out of a country. Now that many of the colonialist powers have left, these “European-style institutions” still exist well into the turn of the century.
The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest desert area. The word Sahara comes from the Arabic word sahra’, meaning desert. It extends from the Africa’s Atlantic Ocean side to the Red Sea and consists of the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan. It is about 5,200 miles long. Overall, the Sahara Desert covers 3,500,000 square miles. The geography of the desert is varied. In the west, the Sahara is rocky with varied elevation. It does contain underground rivers, which sometime penetrate the surface, resulting in oases. The central region of the Sahara has more elevation than the other areas, with peaks such as Emi Koussi and Tahat. Even though the area lacks rainfall, these peaks are snowcapped during the winter. The Eastern part of the Sahara, the Libyan Desert, is dry with very few oases.