CGG3O

• The “oldest” continent in terms of human history (over 100,000 years)– Humans first evolved in Africa

• Some very advanced civilizations existed at various points in Africa, but the Sahara desert cut off communication, trade, and travel between east and west, north and south

• The Egyptians– Along Nile river in Eqypt around 3150 BCE– Conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE– Became a Roman province in 30 BCE

• The Carthaginians– Carthage (in Tunisia) found in 814 BCE by

Phoenicians– Defeated by Rome in 202 BCE and absorbed

into Roman Empire• Egyptian influence spread along the Nile

– Nubia/Kush (Sudan) 1000 BCE - 300– Axum (Ethiopia) 100 - 700

• Arabs conquer Egypt in 642, take over Tunis and Carthage soon after to control North Africa

• Converted North Africa to Islam – only Ethiopia remains Christian, but is cut off from Europe by Muslims

• Arabs sail down east coast and found more Arab states

• During the middle ages, kingdoms established in rest of Africa.– Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Zimbabwe, etc.

• Meanwhile the Portuguese were exploring the coast of Africa– Azores in 1431– Mouth of Congo River in 1445– Sail around Cape of Good Hope in 1488

• And establishing colonies (Mozambique and Angola) in the 16th century

• The Dutch found a colony in South Africa in 1652• Other European powers (especially Britain and

France) had already claimed vast areas of Africa and Asia, and emerging imperial powers like Italy and Germany had done likewise on a smaller scale

• Expand empire (pride in controlling vast territories many times the size of the homeland)

• Obtain resources (minerals, furs, fisheries, spices, etc.)• Spread Christianity• The “White Man's Burden”

– Take up the White Man's burden--Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child.• Rudyard Kipling

• In the 16th century Europeans began to transport African slaves across the Atlantic

• In the 18th century ships from Europe took manufactured goods to Africa. They took slaves from there to the West Indies and took sugar back to Europe (Triangular Trade)

• Slavery had existed in Africa long before the arrival of Europeans

• The slave trade would have been impossible without the co-operation of Africans (many of whom grew rich on the slave trade)

• In the 19th century the slave trade was banned by the European powers, but colonization continued

Africa 1913

• In the early 20th century attitudes to imperialism began to change in Europe

• In Africa churches provided schools and increasing numbers of Africans became educated

• The movement for African independence became unstoppable and in the late 1950s and 1960s most African countries became independent• In 1960 alone 17 countries gained their

independence (Mozambique and Angola did not become independent until 1975)

• Many of the new independent states were failures• Inexperienced governments did not know how to

manage their economies and ended up deep in debt• Tribal rivalries re-emerged and led to civil wars• Brutal dictators seized power and held onto it

through violence, while exploiting their natural resources to their own personal benefit

• Many African countries are crippled by massive debt, which limits their ability to develop

- Economy in trouble (usually due to falling commodity prices)

- Country borrows money from IMF/World Bank to cover costs

- IMF/World Bank impose structural adjustments (open borders to trade, privatization, less gov’t spending on healthcare and education)

- Structural adjustments only serve to help western companies further exploit the country and cripple it further

- Gov’t meanwhile keeps accumulating interest on the debt

• Example: Nigeria– Borrowed $5 Billion– Has now paid back $16 Billion– Still owes $28 Billion

• Example: Zambia– In 1997, Zambia spent 40% of its total

budget to repay foreign debt, and only 7% for basic services like vaccines for children

• If debt had been canceled in 1997 for 20 of the poorest countries, the money released for basic health care could have saved the lives of about 21 million children by the year 2000, the equivalent of 19,000 children a day

• The failure to cancel debts leaves the poorest countries in the world with nothing to spend on basic needs and much needed infrastructure, leaving millions in poverty and destitution

• The developing world now spends $1.3 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants

• 7 million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis

• In 1999, $128 million was transferred from the poorest countries to the richest for debt repayments - EACH DAY– Of this, $53 million was from East Asia and

the Pacific, $38 million from South Asia and $23 million from Africa

• Africa is home to about 14.5% of the world's population

• It is estimated to be home to 67% of all people living with HIV and to 72% of all AIDS deaths in 2009

• Between 1999 and 2000 more people died of AIDS in Africa than in all the wars on the continent

• Each day, 6,000 Africans die from AIDS. Each day, an additional 11,000 are infected

• 33.4 million living with HIV • 2.7 million new infections of HIV • 2 million deaths from AIDS • Approximately 7 out of 10 deaths for

2008 were in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region that also has over two-thirds of adult HIV cases and over 90% of new HIV infections amongst children

• Separated from Europe to the north by the Mediterranean

• Separated from Asia by the Red Sea• Inland two major plateaus (southern and

eastern)• North Africa is dominated by the Sahara

desert — the largest desert in the world, covering 9,000,000 km2

• Middle of Africa dominated by grasslands (the Savannah)

Highest point: Mount Kilimanjaro 5,995m (Tanzania)

Longest River: Nile 6,738 km (Egypt, Sudan, Uganda)

Biggest Lake: Lake Victoria 69,484 km2 (Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya)