Unit 6: Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa includes the countries south of the Sahara Desert and many of the countries in the Sahel, or African Transition Zone. This swath of land marks a climatic shift from the desert in the north to the savannas and tropics of the south. The geography and climate of this region play a critical role in the social and political life of its residents.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- distinguish between the Sahel or African Transition Zone and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa;
- describe factors that have led to desertification in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa;
- explain how the human history of Sub-Saharan Africa affected its ethnic and linguistic diversity;
- describe the pre-colonial landscape of Sub-Saharan Africa and the effects of European colonialism; and
- identify recent and historical barriers that have impeded economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, including the role of foreign countries and organizations.
6.1: Maps of Sub-Saharan Africa
Let's begin our examination of Sub-Saharan Africa by studying the physical features of the region, including the Sahel or intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ).
Before we get started, take a moment to study the map in Figure 6.1. The red dashed line indicates the approximate "border" of the Sahel and the southern boundary of the African Transition Zone. The location of the Sahel is inexact because it shifts according to the seasons. This is why many call it the African Transition Zone, a name that accounts for its changing location.
This shifting zone is where the subtropical high-pressure belt that contributes to the arid conditions of the Sahara Desert meets the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), an equatorial low-pressure zone that makes the tropics wet.
The African Transition Zone shifts due to the seasonal shifts of the ITCZ. It shifts north in the summer, making the conditions wetter, and shifts south In the winter, making the conditions drier. Variations to this pattern occur when the high- and low-pressure belts stall for various environmental reasons, leaving the Sahel with no moisture.Now take a look at Figure 6.2, which illustrates the seasonal movement of the ITCZ in Africa. Notice that the maps include two acronyms: Congo Air Boundary (CAB) and surface (sfc).
For thousands of years, humans in the Sahel followed the moisture. Unencumbered by political borders, the nomadic Bedouin people migrated north in the summer and south in the winter. However, the colonial powers curtailed the seasonal movement of the Bedouins and divided the groups by imposing political boundaries on the landscape. We can trace many of the ongoing conflicts in the Sahel to a clash between traditional practices and this interference from outside powers.
In this unit, we analyze the physical characteristics of Sub-Saharan Africa and explore the region before colonization. Then, we consider the impact of European imperialism on the indigenous peoples and their culture. We continue our study of the familiar themes of income inequality and globalization. We cannot escape the cultural, political, and economic impact of European colonialism around the world. This is particularly true in Sub-Saharan Africa, where life for many people has not changed much since achieving independence.
Study this map of Sub-Saharan Africa in Figure 6.3 so you are familiar with the locations of the countries and some of the major geographic features.
6.2: Sub-Saharan Africa's Physical Landscape
In addition to its role as a passage for climatic transition, the Sahel is a land of majestic physical transformation. Although Sub-Saharan Africa has high peaks and volcanoes along the Great Rift Valley in the east, it does not have the long chains of mountains we see in the other regions. Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Malawi are in the Great Rift Valley. The Nile, Congo, and Niger rivers are the main waterways. The Namib and Kalahari are the main deserts south of the African Transition Zone.
The authors of the next three resources highlight the challenges the people of Sub-Saharan Africa face as climate change and desertification intensify.
As you review the materials, make sure you can answer these questions.- What is the Sahel?
- Why is Lake Chad shrinking?
- Why is the Niger River so important?
- What is creating the Great Rift Valley, and how is it related to features like Mt. Kilimanjaro and Lake Malawi?
- Why are the lakes in the Rift Valley soda lakes?
- What explains where grasslands, savannas, and tropical rainforests occur?
- How does the Congo River Basin compare to the Amazon River Basin?
- How does the Namib Desert compare to the Atacama Desert?
- How does the Kalahari Desert compare to the Namib Desert?
- Where is desertification occurring, and what are the contributing factors?
- What are some of the other environmental challenges this region faces?
- Why do escarpments impede land and river movement?
- How do cataracts form?
- Where do the Blue Nile and White Nile Rivers originate? Where do they meet?
Read this text for the tectonic context for many of these features, an introduction to a few features beyond the rift zone, and a description of the environmental challenges of this region. Note that it calls Africa the "cradle of human civilization". Pay attention to the description of the livestock herders of the Sahel.
Watch this video for more detail on the features beyond the rift zone. It provides an overview of the region's resources and its endangered species and focuses on desertification. Pay attention to the description of the San peoples of the Kalahari Desert. Note that the speaker refers to the Drakensberg Mountains, which are actually an escarpment that forms the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment. The Great Escarpment is the edge of central southern Africa and slopes downward toward the narrow coastal plain.
The Great Escarpment is labeled Cape Ranges in Figure 6.1. This landform contributes to the arid conditions of the Namib desert on the west coast. The continent's latitudinal position and tectonic setting have played significant roles in the physical geography of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The rifting on the African continent, shown in Figure 6.4 and in the cross-section in Figure 6.5, resulted from the East African Plateau – the high, relatively-level ground in the rift zone. It has also produced the following geographic features.- Mt. Kilimanjaro – a dormant volcano in Tanzania.
- Mt. Kenya – an extinct volcano in Kenya.
- Lake Victoria – the world's largest tropical lake by area, located in Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. It is also the source of the White Nile, a tributary to the Nile River.
- Lake Tanganyika – the second oldest, deepest, and largest-by-volume lake in the world (second only to Russia's Lake Baikal) located in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Zambia.
- Lake Malawi – the sixth deepest lake in the world, located in Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique. It is also home to more fish species than any other lake in the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa's latitudinal extent creates the climate pattern shown in the thematic map in Figure 6.6. The climate varies from north to south, as it does in North America. The difference is that the Equator crosses Sub-Saharan Africa, intersecting the Congo River Basin. Remember that the Equator also crosses South America, intersecting the Amazon River Basin.
The Congo River Basin coincides with the large dark blue area in Figure 6.6 and the dark green area in Figure 6.7.The satellite image in Figure 6.7 provides a landcover perspective that aligns with the climatic zones in Figure 6.6. Notice the thin arc of deep blue lakes in the east-central part of the continent, which indicates the western part of the Great Rift Valley.
Given the large expanse of Sub-Saharan Africa from north to south, it is not surprising that its physical geography is so varied.
Watch this presentation to get a sense of what this vast region looks like. Photographer George Steinmetz has flown over many parts of the African continent at low altitudes to capture its incredible landscapes. Although he surveys the physical and human landscapes of the entire African continent, you will recognize the names of the places he photographs. Pay attention to his observations about Africa's cultural diversity in his photos of the Dinka of South Sudan, the rural population of Rwanda, and the Bozo along the Niger River.
6.3: Pre-Colonial Sub-Saharan Africa
As the birthplace of modern humans, the history of this region is far older than the regions we have explored thus far. Remember that we are providing a brief overview of a history that is hundreds of thousands of years old. The information in this unit is derived from several sources and contains some overlap. Identifying the information that repeats and filling in the gaps with the items that differ will help you create an outline of the lengthy and complex human geography of pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa.
This diverse human landscape included thousands of ethnic groups, languages, and dialects. The people formed Kingdoms, built fortresses and monuments, engaged in trade and agriculture, and fostered the arts with rich cultural traditions. The human population faced challenges due to the region's physical geography, but they were destroyed by slave traders and farmers from around the world who capitalized from their free, forced labor. Thousands were kidnapped, treated as if they were subhuman, and sold as chattel during the Atlantic Slave Trade from 1441 until the mid-1800s.
You should be able to answer these questions after you have completed this section on pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa.- Why is this region so culturally and linguistically diverse?
- Why were most of the pre-colonial Empires located in West Africa?
- What Sub-Saharan African countries retain the names of the pre-colonial Kingdoms?
- What role do symbols like the Golden Stool and the Nigerian Ife Heads play in the identity of population groups?
- Why was the location of Great Zimbabwe significant?
- What was the geographic extent of trade in pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa?
- How did land ownership and accession in this region differ from other regions, such as Europe?
- Where is Timbuktu, and why was it significant?
- What interaction was there between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe prior to colonization?
- What role did unused land play in the local agricultural system?
- Name some barriers to development in Sub-Saharan Africa following the early African Empires.
The map in Figure 6.8 provides a visualization of modern human dispersal from the African continent. Paleoanthropologists continue to seek more evidence regarding the exact location where modern humans originated on the African continent.
The Kalahari Desert may not be our only homeland; modern humans may also have originated from other places in Africa. Scientists are analyzing newly-uncovered fossils and applying sophisticated analytical techniques to fossils found decades ago to learn more about the timing of the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa.In addition to serving as the location for where the human species originated, Sub-Saharan Africa has an extraordinarily-diverse collection of ethnic and linguistic groups.
Read this text which introduces what we know about the human landscape in this region.Watch this video. The speaker begins to discuss the colonization of Africa, which we will explore in more detail in the next section. Watch from the beginning to 7:07.
Figures 6.9 through 6.12 illustrate some of the symbols and architecture Caseley-Hayford cites. The Golden Stool in Figure 6.9 is lying on its side on its throne. The seat is facing the viewer, and the base is against the back of the throne.
The Ife Head in Figure 6.10 was created between the 14th and early 15th centuries. It weighs 5.1 kg and is 35 cm high.
Figure 6.11 includes only a portion of Great Zimbabwe, which was a city that spanned over seven km and may have had a population of 18,000 people. Construction began in the 9th century and was abandoned in the 15th century.
The Sankore Madrasah of Timbuktu, shown in Figure 6.12, was one of the ancient centers of learning believed to be established by Mansa Musa, the ruler of the Mali Empire from 1307 to 1332. The Sankore Madrasah structure dates to 988 AD.
During the 15th century, Europeans expanded their interest in the coast of West Africa to include buying its people to sell as slaves to work on plantations in America. Watch this video to learn more about the impact of the slave trade through a Ghanaian lens.
6.4: The Colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa
The European powers divided the African continent among themselves – only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent. Their partition began during the Berlin Conference in 1884, which German Chancellor Bismarck hosted because he hoped to increase Germany's influence on the continent. Ironically, the diplomats met in Berlin to avoid war among themselves as they divided their spoils, but the decisions they made had a lasting impact on the indigenous people who were never consulted on the borders of their respective countries.
Most of Africa's current boundaries still reflect the economic interests of the European powers that controlled each colony in the 19th century. The Europeans essentially forced the population, which included 3,000 ethnic groups and people who spoke more than 2,000 languages, into 35 colonial territories. The European powers did not recognize or respect the physical geography or the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural differences that had developed in the region for hundreds of thousands of years.
Today, we see the repercussions of their singular focus on resource extraction. Although we see some promising examples, health issues, institutional corruption, and ethnic violence are pervasive in the region. As in Middle and South America, the effects of colonialism continue to be evident in Sub-Saharan Africa.Read this text to learn more about colonial Sub-Saharan Africa and its eventual independence.
Take some time to examine this map in Figure 6.13, which illustrates how the Atlantic Slave Trade (or Triangle Slave Trade) operated.
The human development index (HDI) measures average human achievement in terms of whether the population enjoys a long and healthy life, education, and decent standard of living. On the African continent, the pattern of military coups and peaceful transitions correlates with the HDI. See Figure 6.16. Generally, countries that have experienced fewer coups in northern and southern Africa have a higher HDI. Mauritius, an island country west of Madagascar, is the only country that falls into the highest HDI category.
It is not surprising that the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa continue to face challenges as they attempt to create successful states within the boundaries that were imposed on them. Establishing a legitimate government that meets the needs of a diverse population is difficult for most countries, and Africa's population did not have the opportunity to follow a nation-state model due to colonization.
Self-interest and tribalism frequently win and lead to voter fraud, mismanagement, corruption, coups, and civil unrest. However, several countries, such as Botswana, Ghana, and Namibia, have successfully increased transparency in their governing processes to foster democracy.
Read this article to learn more about the efforts of Mauritius and other countries to address the challenges of post-colonialism.- This map shows the countries of Africa using data from the 2020 Human Development Report from the United Nations.
6.5: The Modern Landscape of Sub-Saharan Africa
In this section, we analyze the human landscape of Sub-Saharan Africa and consider family size, fertility rates, and urbanization. We explore the region's strained healthcare systems and the prevalence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and the Ebola virus. In what ways did colonialism foster today's challenges to effective governance and ongoing ethnic conflicts?
Watch this presentation on some democracies that have prospered in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its narrative is still relevant, although the speaker describes an election that occurred more than ten years ago. It demonstrates how a relatively new country can achieve democratic governance. Ghana's subsequent presidential elections have been peaceful, free, and fair, an accomplishment that has contributed to its success.
Read this text on the human geography of today's Sub-Saharan Africa.
While Sub-Saharan Africa has not urbanized as quickly as other regions, this trend is beginning to change. Although the map in Figure 6.17 is ten years old, it shows some highly-populated areas that will likely become denser. In 2022, Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the Congo River, and Lagos, the Nigerian coastal city, are the 14th and 15th largest cities in the world. From 2021–2022 they grew more than any other city in the top 20.
The African Cities Research Consortium was created to address the challenges of Africa's rapidly growing cities.
Read this article by architect Ola Uduku and Taibat Lawanson, an urban planner. They discuss some issues city planners in Lagos must address.
In 1991, Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja to expand economic opportunities in the interior of the country. (In 1960, Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia for the same reason). Geographers consider Lagos a megacity because it is growing at such a rate that it is absorbing the land areas in the adjoining state and national boundaries.
We also call Lagos a primate city because it has nearly four times as many people as the next largest Nigerian city, Kano, and 12 times as many people as Abuja. Its economy more than quadruples its nearest rivals – across Nigeria and West Africa – in terms of productivity, capital, and infrastructure.The astounding growth of Lagos has exacerbated issues of inequality, a common problem in other regions we have studied. Slums are located along the economic periphery of urban centers across the region. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities increasingly attract rural residents due to rural-to-urban migration.
In addition to increasing urbanization, the population in Sub-Saharan Africa is growing due to rapidly-increasing fertility rates. Figure 6.18 illustrates fertility rates by country. Countries with darker circles have higher fertility rates, while the size of the circle indicates the life expectancy of the population. For example, people who live in Nigeria have a life expectancy of 54–59 years and a fertility rate of six children per woman. High fertility rates tend to correlate with low GDP per capita and low educational attainment. In general, the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have high fertility rates and low life expectancy.
The inability to access quality health care contributes to low life expectancy. Women have more children because they expect so many will die before they reach age five. According to UNICEF, the mortality rate for children under five in 2021 was 55 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa, higher than any other region in the world.The lack of access to quality healthcare poses a debilitating risk to the general population who suffers from hepatitis, hookworm, malaria, HIV/AIDS, the Ebola virus, and other diseases. Interestingly, immunologists predicted more people from Sub-Saharan Africa would suffer from the COVID-19 pandemic.
This article identifies several reasons why Sub-Saharan Africa experienced a much lower mortality rate than Western Europe from COVID-19. Two factors make the human geography of this region unique compared to other regions we have explored. Sub-Saharan Africa is less urbanized than Europe, Russia, North America, and Middle and South America. The population is also much younger than those of Europe, Russia, and North America, which are aging.
The author cites Matshidiso Moeti, the director of the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional office for Africa, who states that understanding the virus does not prevent disease transmission.Many of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have contended with violent conflict, civil war, and terrorism since they became independent. In 2022, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and South Sudan probably suffered the most. These conflicts have created humanitarian crises that have spilled over into their neighboring countries. In Ethiopia, many people suspect genocide is occurring in the ongoing war between Tigray rebel forces in the north and allied government troops from Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The Tigray region of northern Ethiopia (see Figure 6.19) is home to the ancient Aksumite kingdom, which dates to the early first century. The location of the Kingdom of Aksum is shown in Figure 6.6 of Section 6.2. Trigayans trace their ancestry to as early as 2000 BCE and account for about six percent of Ethiopia's population.
Despite their minority status, Tigrayans dominated Ethiopia from 1991–2018. They are no longer part of the governing coalition because they refused to merge with a new political party in 2019. The 2020 election was postponed due to COVID-19, extending the terms of elected officials beyond the October 2020 constitutional mandate. Tensions escalated when the Tigray rejected this extension.
Warming relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea further escalated tensions. At the forefront of the 1998–2000 Eritrean-Ethiopian War, Tigrayans do not hold Eritrea in high regard. Fighting began in November 2020 and has continued through June 2022. The conflict has spilled over into Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan.
Ethnic violence exacerbated the political conflict when some of Ethiopia's ethnic groups – the Omoro, Amhara, and Tigray – began to target each other. War crimes have been reported on both sides of the conflict. The Ethiopian and Eritrean governments have accused Tigrayans of genocide, while Ethiopia's ethnic groups have made similar claims against each other.Unlike most of the African continent, Ethiopia remained independent. Ethiopia's current boundaries resemble those that existed during the reign of Emperor Menelik II (1889–1913). Unfortunately, this status has not spared the country from violence. Ethiopia's boundaries represent the subjugation of people who have never been part of Ethiopia. Subjugated populations often retaliate for past oppression, even if it occurred in the distant past. What sets Ethiopia and other war-torn countries in Sub-Saharan Africa apart from those in Europe is the attention they receive from the global community.
Read this article for an analysis of the current situation in Ethiopia.
6.6: Economics and Globalization in Sub-Saharan Africa
In this section, we discuss the economic conditions of Sub-Saharan Africa, including the role foreign countries and investors have played in its economic development. The theme of core-periphery is relevant according to two scales.
From a global perspective, Sub-Saharan Africa is peripheral in its supply of resources to the core areas of the world. Regionally, attempts have been made to extend the infrastructure of Sub-Saharan Africa's core areas to its periphery. However, there has been little progress in improving peripheral infrastructure at the regional level.The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the foreign debt burden in this region. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest gross domestic product (GDP) of any region in the world, according to the map we studied of GDP in 2022 (see Figure 4.16 in Unit 4).
Read this article for an overview of the current economic situation in the Sub-Saharan African countries Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The authors make recommendations for managing debt, such as practicing good governance and paying attention to the social, human, and environmental impacts of debt restructuring. Given the existing strain on many of these governments, this will be difficult to achieve.Just as the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa must function in a nation-state governance model their European colonizers imposed on them, they must participate in a global economy that is not of their design. Interestingly, today's digital tools are facilitating a sharing economy that has long existed in Africa.
Watch this video for some examples.
As we saw in the Amazon rainforest, indigenous communities have much to teach outsiders about conserving their valuable resources. Age-old practices from people who traded in the marketplaces of West Africa and Nigeria offer many lessons for today's global economy.
Examples from a "bottom-down economy" point to ways we can alleviate income inequalities that have resulted from "top-up capitalism".
The map in Figure 4.13 in Unit 4 illustrates Robert Neuwirth's observation that .003 percent of the Nigerian population control one-fourth of Nigeria's GDP. Meanwhile, 0.01 percent of the Kenyan population controls three-fourths of Kenya's GDP.
Many of Sub-Saharan Africa's countries have the highest Gini coefficients in the world. For example, the Gini coefficients for Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa are greater than 60. Colombia has the highest Gini coefficient in Middle and South America at 53.5.
Unit 6 Assessment
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