Africa – It’s Not A Country

• Second Largest continent in the world• 800 million people• 15% of it is considered desert• 10% of it is considered tropical rainforest• 35% of it is considered savanna/grasslands• Climates consist of Mediterranean,

mountain, tropical wet and dry, rainy and mild, wet and mild

Size and Climate

• 800 Ethnic Groups (this includes Asians, Europeans, and Arabs)

• 100 languages are spoken in Africa (40 of which have more than one million speakers)

• Over 40% of Africans practice a wide variety of traditional religions. (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism are practiced in Africa)

Population and Diversity

• Following crops are the main ones grown in different regions of Africa – Rice, wheat, maize, root crops(yams, sweet potatoes), oil palm, tea, cocoa, coffee, wine, sugar, tobacco, cotton, sisal (fiber for making rope or twine)

Agricultural Diversity

Largest country – AlgeriaSmallest country – SeychellesLargest city – Cairo (9.2 million)Highest point – Mt. Kilimanjaro (19,340ft)Largest lake – Lake Victoria (second –largest

in the world)Deepest lake – Lake Tanganyika (second

deepest freshwater lake in the world after Lake Baikal)

Facts and Figures

Malaria – 90% of all malaria cases are in sub-Saharan Africa

3,000 children under the age of five die each day from malaria in Africa

1-5% of GDP in Africa covers costs of malaria control and lost labor days

17 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have died of AIDS

25 million people in Africa are HIV-positive12 million children have lost their parents to AIDS

Health

• Nile River – longest river in the world (4,132 miles) and Africa. Originates at Lake Victoria

• Great Rift Valley – 3,000 miles from Syria to Mozambique – two branches – the Eastern Rift and the Western Rift

Facts and Figures

Location•Which hemisphere is Africa located?

•What major bodies of water surround the continent of Africa?

Africa is the only continent in the world that is located in all four hemispheres!

Atlantic Ocean

Mediterranean Sea

IndianOcean

Red Sea

Quiz time ….Which country is the only country to border both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean?

Which country is the only country to border both the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean?

Morocco

South Africa

Cape of Good HopeCape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas – southernmost point of African continent and dividing line

between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

Place (What makes Africa different from

other places?)

•What types of climate does Africa have?

•What types of physical features are there in Africa?

Mediterranean

Mediterranean

Desert

Desert

Desert

Rainforest

Steppe

Savanna

What are the major physical

features of Africa?

Physical features of Africa

Atlas Mountains

Sahara Desert

Kalahari Desert

Namib Desert

Horn of Africa

Great Rift

Valley

Sahel

Namib Desert

Stretching 1,200 miles in length, but averaging a width of only 70 miles, the Namib Desert is home to the highest sand dunes in the world. Nicknamed the

“world’s oldest desert”.

Dune 7, the highest sand dune in the world

• Dunes along the Namibian coast

Nile RiverNiger River

Congo RiverLake Victoria

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Nyasa

Major rivers and lakes

Zambezi River

Lake Victoria

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Nyasa

The Great Lakes of Africa

Longest lake in the world

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika –As seen from space

Lake Tanganyika• Second largest lake of Africa• Longest lake of the world 481 miles• Deepest lake on the African continent• Second deepest in the world (Lake

Baikal in Russia is the deepest) 4,800• Oldest lake in Africa and perhaps in

the world

Victoria Falls

Located in Zimbabwe

on the Zambezi

River

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls is twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara

Falls

Thus creating the largest curtain of

water in the world!

The Zambezi River flowing into Victoria Falls

Mountains of Africa

Ethiopian Highlands

Drakensberg Mountains

Mt. Kilimanjaro

The snow-capped

mountain is located in Tanzania and is the

highest point in Africa.

However, Kilimanjaro may not always be snow-capped! The glaciers of Kilimanjaro are melting at an alarming rate!

Why? Humans … global warming, deforestation, and honey!

Tribal people collecting honey smoke the bees out of the hives, often starting fires. The loss of foliage reduces moisture in the air, thus reducing much

needed cloud cover, thus letting in more sunlight that melts more ice!

If the current rate of melting continues, scientists predict that the glaciers that have covered Kilimanjaro for over 12,000 years will be totally gone by

2020 – less than 15 years from now!

Glaciers retreating on Kilimanjaro

African tectonic plate

Arabian tectonic plate

Great Rift

Valley

•Vast geological feature that runs north to south for 6,000 miles

•From Syria in Southwest Asia to Mozambique in East Africa

As the tectonic plates continue to break apart,

the rift will become bigger and bigger until finally breaking off from the rest of the continent of Africa … in

about 20 billion years! Thus,

creating a whole new island continent!

A few other aspects to look at …

…enclave, exclave,

and landlocked

What is an enclave? A country that is entirely surrounded, or mostly surrounded, by another

country. Lesotho and Swaziland are examples.

Lesotho

Swaziland

So, what is an exclave? Territory of

a country that is

separated from the

main part of the country by foreign territory. Cabinda is an exclave of Angola.

Landlocked

Shut in completely by land … having no direct access to the sea …

Rwanda and Uganda are examples

• The world’s largest diamond was the Cullinan, found in South Africa in 1905. It weighed 3,106.75 carats uncut.

• With a population of more than 113 million, Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and the 10th most populated in the world.

• An African elephant possesses such manual dexterity in his-her trunk that he/she can actually turn the pages of a book with it.

Miscellaneous

• An elephant can weight up to 6 – 7 tons and has no natural enemies

• An elephant can drink up to 160 liters of water per day and a mature elephant can carry up to 6.8 liters of water in its trunk

Miscellaneous

• South Africa has a penguin colony• The largest seal colony in the southern

hemisphere is at Cape Cross in Namibia• The world’s biggest frog is found in Cameroon –

the “Goliath Frog” – body can be as long as a foot

• The Nile crocodile is Africa’s largest living reptile• The African elephant is the largest living land

mammal

Miscellaneous

Did you know that the tongue of a giraffe can be as long as 45 centimeters?

The tallest animal on earth is the giraffeThe Gorilla is the largest of the living

primatesThe cheetah is the fastest land animal (70

mph)The world’s largest and heaviest beetle, the

Goliath Beetle, is found in tropical Africa. It can reach a length of 5 inches and weigh up to ¼ lb

Miscellaneous

Words and places to know…