Transcript African Features

African Features
Background
 Africa is the world’s second largest continent.
 It is home to 54 countries, 1,000 different
languages, and 797 million people.
The Sahara
 The Sahara is the world’s largest desert.
 It is bordered on the north by the Atlas
Mountains, a mountain range that
stretches from southwest Morocco to
northern Tunisia.
 The mountain range acts as a barrier
between the desert, the Mediterranean
Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The Sahara
 Because of its location between the
Mediterranean Sea and the more
populous areas of Africa, the Sahara
Desert has historically been a trade route.
 Nomadic traders crossed the Sahara on
camelback to transport goods between
European and African nations.
The Sahara
 The Sahara region is defined by its
climate, not by its national borders.
 Several countries straddle both the
Sahara Desert and a region called the
Sahel.
The Sahel
 The Sahel is a strip of semi-arid land south of
the Sahara.
 Some areas of the Sahel are rich in natural
resources.
 Chad has natural reserves of gold, uranium,
and oil.
 However, because of internal conflict and poor
living conditions, most people do not gain
much from the profits of these exports..
The Sahel
 Because it depends on farming, the Sahel
region can be devastated by bad weather.
 In the 1970s, the area suffered a drought.
Almost 200,000 people died from starvation.
 The famine prompted many people to give up
farming and move to the cities.
 However, the region’s cities are too poor to
accommodate the population increase.
 Many people continue to live without electricity,
running water, or proper sewers.
Ethiopian Highlands
 The Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged,
mountainous region that covers parts of
Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia.
 The mountains are divided by the Great
Rift Valley, a geological fault system that
stretches 3,000 miles, from Asia to Africa.
Ethiopian Highlands
 Ethiopia is one of the poorest nations in the
world.
 Ethiopians largely depend on subsistence
farming.
 However, deforestation, bad farming practices,
and drought have often led to food shortages.
 The nation’s main export is coffee.
 The country is landlocked and has a very poor
network of roads, which also hampers trade.
The Savannah
 Africa’s savannahs, which are tropical
grasslands with scattered trees, are
home to an amazing variety of wildlife.
 The most famous savannah is the
Serengeti, a migration area for 1.5 million
animals like buffalo, gazelles, and zebras.
Rainforest and the Great
Lakes
 Western Africa is home to a tropical
rainforest, which is a dense evergreen
forest with an annual rainfall of at least
60 inches.
 Unfortunately, the rainforest has shrunk
substantially because of deforestation
and destructive farming practices.
Rainforest and the Great
Lakes
 Part of the rainforest is in Ghana, an
agricultural and mining nation.
 Ghana’s most profitable crop is cocoa.
 It also has a long history as a gold and
diamond exporter.
 Poorly maintained roads make
transportation difficult in Ghana, which
has slowed the growth of the timber
industry.
Rainforest and the Great
Lakes
 Rainforest covers almost two-thirds of the
land in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, where the economy is based on
mining crude petroleum.
 Neighboring Rwanda’s economy is based
more on farming.
Rainforest and the Great
Lakes
 Rwanda and the Congo are also considered to
be part of the Great Lakes region, along with
Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.
 There are 15 lakes in this region.
 Lake Victoria (bordered by Uganda, Kenya,
and Tanzania) is the largest.
 Lake Tanganyika (located between the DRC
and Tanzania) is the deepest.
 The Congo River, which feeds into Lake
Victoria, is the second longest river in Africa.
Southern Africa
 At the southern tip of the continent is South
Africa, a major producer of gold, coal,
diamonds, and platinum.
 Despite having these natural resources, many
South Africans live in poverty.
 Wealth from the mining industry has historically
been controlled by a white minority.
 People of color are often paid very little.
 Bordering South Africa is Zimbabwe, another
gold exporting nation.
Southern Africa
 They are home to many game reserves
and national parks.
 Another notable feature of the region is
the Kalahari Desert, which covers
360,000 square miles.
Summary
 Write a paragraph describing each of the
geographic regions that are in your
notes. (6 in total)