CHAPTER 8

SUBSAHARAN AFRICA

1. The physical geography of Africa is dominated by the continents plateau character, variable rainfall, soils of low fertility and persistent environmental problems such as desertification.

2. The majority of Africa’s people remain dependent on farming for their livelihood.  Urbanization is accelerating, but most countries population remain below 40 percent urban.

3. It’s inhabitants continue to face a high incidence of disease, including malaria, sleeping sickness and river blindness, AIDS and eboli are relatively new and virulent diseases.

4. Most of Africa’s political boundaries were drawn during the colonial period without regard for the human and physical geography of the areas they divided.

5. Considerable economic development has occurred in many scattered areas of Africa but much of the realm’s population continues to have little access to the goods and services of the world economy.

6. The realm is rich in raw materials vital to industry and industrialized countries.

7. Patterns of raw-material exploitation and export routes set up during the colonial period still prevail Interregional connections are still poor.

8. Africa has increasingly been drawn into the competition and conflicts among the world’s major powers.  The continent contains about one-third of the world’s refugee population.

9. Africa’s population growth rate is by far the highest of any continents despite of a difficult agricultural environment, numerous hazards and diseases and periodic food shortages.  Some of the best land is used to produce such cash crops as coffee, tea, cocoa and cotton for sale overseas.

10. Separated by the Sahara from lands to the north and by vast oceans from lands to the west and east, Africa is an almost insular continent.

11. Despite post-independent dislocations, civil wars and massive loss of life, some areas within the realm have shown relative stability, cohesion and economic growth.

12. In an area about one-seventh that of the inhabited world is spoken one-third of all languages by a population comprising less than one-twentieth the entire world’s population.

 The continent is squarely positioned astride the equator, reaching almost as far to the north as to the south.  It is a large land mass containing 20 percent of the earth’s land surface.  Most of Africa is far removed from maritime sources of moisture.  Even where adjacent to coastal areas of continent lies in the latitudinal belt of subsiding air (10^o-30^o  N and S) a small area of Africa receives adequate to excessive precipitation (higher elevations, 10o to 10o above 30o N and S).  Land masses block the movement of moisture laden air into other regions of the continents (i.e., like the Gulf of Mexico).  No comparable mountain range exists as in North America, Europe, Asia and South America.  The continent is dominated by a series of lakes and rift valleys stretching over 6,000 miles.  Rift valleys are formed when huge parallel cracks faults appear in the Earth’s crust and the strips of crust between them sink or are pushed down to form great linear valleys.  The rivers on the continent include the Niger, Zaire (Congo), Zambezi and Nile which follow somewhat erratic courses.   Africa is a plateau continent.  Almost the entire continent lies above 1000 feet above sea level and over half is over 2500 feet.  Africa’s unusual physiography was one of the pieces of evidence that Alfred Wegener used to construct his hypothesis of continental drift.  According to the theory of continental drift, the present continents were originally connected as one enormous land mass that has broken up and drifted apart over the last few hundred million years.  The drifting continues today, so that the contemporary position of the continents is not necessarily their ultimate position.  Wegener postulated a massive supercontinent which he called Pangea, having existed about 250 million years ago and then breaking up into several large sections that have continued to move away from each other.  Wegener accumulated much evidence to support his hypothesis, most notably the similarity in geologic features on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  Continental margins of the subequatorial portions of Africa and South America fit together.  Petrologic and paleontologic records on both sides of the Atlantic show many distributions that would be continuous if the ocean did not intervene.  The southern portion of this continent was Gowanda including Africa, South America, India, Antarctica and Australia.  Africa’s situation, at the heart of the supercontinent, explains much of what is presently seen in its landscapes today.  The great escarpment is a relic of the giant faults (fractures) formed when the neighboring land masses broke off.  Rift valleys are the most recent evidence of the pulling forces that affect the African plate.  The Red Sea is an advanced stage of this.  Breaking off of other continents and Africa’s motion remaining in place resulted in the continent experiencing more polling transitional forces rather than the pressures of plate collisions that generate the uplift of mountains.

 Africa is not a densely populated realm with less than one-tenth of the world’s inhabitants (530 million).  Large population clusters are few.  They include Nigeria, Lake Victoria, and South Africa.  Africa suffers from local and regional famines, diets are not well balanced.  Life expectancies are lower here then anywhere else.  Tropical regions are breeding grounds for infectious diseases.  Riverwater used carries the rectors that may be contaminated.  African soils and climates limit the range of food that can be produced locally.  Malaria is an epidemic to most of Africa with mosquito as the vector.  African Sleeping Sickness is transmitted by the tsetse fly affecting most of tropical Africa.  It also affects people’s livestock,  preventing cattle from being raised in tropical lowlands and pushed to fly free zones in marginal environmental areas such as the Sahel.  Yellow Fever is also spread by mosquitoes.  Shistosomiasis, though not fatal, is a painful disease carried via snails in slow moving or standing water.  River blindness is transmitted by flies in the Savanna region.  Locusts are a persistent and common problem.  AIDS and Eboli are new and virulent strains of viruses.

  Most African families still depend on subsistence farming for their living.  Farming often mixed with livestock raising pursuits-herding activity extends a long West African savanna-steppe transition zone. South Africa is a plateau.  Unfortunately agriculture productivity is declining, having fallen 10 percent in the last decade despite the development of more productive, higher yielding types of grains via the Green Revolution.  Little is known about early African society, however, earlier civilizations may have existed.  Agriculture societies built terraces in Nigeria and East Africa and irrigation canals in Kenya.  Great walls of Zimbabwe were created over 1000 years ago.  Goods whose origin from China and India have been found in the ruins, suggesting the existence of a trading civilization.  The West African city of Timbuktu was once a thriving trade city between desert and tropical rainforest.  Ghana, at the head of the Niger River, a stable state for a 1000 years, was conquered by Muslims in 1062. Slave trade from Europeans and Arabs ended the dominate interior societies with coastal cities coming to prominence.  Dahomey and Benin are states built on slave trade and when slavery was abolished these state declined.  African middlemen from the coast raided the interior for slaves and marched them in chains to the Arab dhows that plied the Indian Ocean and later Europeans to Europe and their colonies in the New World.  As many as 30 million people were forced away from their homelands in bondage.  European presence on the West African coast brought about a complete reorientation of trade routes.  It initiated the decline of the interior savanna states and strengthening the coastal forest states.  No colonies were established as the African Middlemen were strong enough to ward off any attempts for centuries.  European settlement occurred where African organization was weak, i.e., South Africa far from the well organized Bantu states or to coastal trading stations whose economic influence was strong.

  After more than four centuries of contact, Europe finally laid claim to all of Africa during the second half of the nineteenth century.  Competition and spheres of influence between the colonial powers led to a political conference in Berlin to settle the partitioning of Africa convened by Otto Von Bismarck.  Which was also a plan to expand German influence in Africa and play off the other colonial powers against each other to Germany’s advantage.  British influence the West, South and East African coasts while the French influence the Senegal River and north of the Congo Basin.  The Portuguese extend their coastal stations in Angola and Mozambique to the interior and Belgium to the Congo.  Germany influences were Togo, Cameroon, South West Africa (Angola) and East Africa.  Germany’s holdings were intended as a wedge to break the other colonial powers influence.  Boundary lines were drawn dividing unified African peoples, throwing hostile societies together, disrupting migration routes and hinterlands.  When independence came to Africa, the realm had acquired a legacy of political fragmentation difficult to eliminate or operate properly.

  European colonialism had far-reaching impacts to the geography of Africa.  Britain emphasized indirect rule.  Indigenous power structures were sometimes left intact and local rulers were made representatives of the crown.  Belgium’s colonial policy brought paternalism treating locals as children.  The French brought Assimilation-acculturation of Africans to French ways of life.  The Portuguese were exploitative.  Few colonies made a greater contribution, in proportion to their productive capacities, to the economies of their colonial masters then did Mozambique and Angola.

  The British possessed the most far-flung colonial empire in Africa.  British colonial policy tended to adjust to individual situations.  Colonies-white settler minorities had substantial autonomy (Kenya and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)).  Protectorates-rights of African peoples were guarded more effectively.  Mandate-British upheld League of Nations (later United Nations) administration.  Condominium-shared administration with another country (Egypt over Sudan).  France demanded uniformity among their colonial territories in subsaharan Africa.  France's colonial empire extended from Senegal eastward to Chad and southward to the former French Congo.  With France as an example, their colonies resembled centralized unitary states whose capital is the cultural political and economic focus of the nation.  The French brought their concept of centralization to Africa as well.  French West Africa was divided into administrative units, each centered on the largest town and all oriented toward the governor’s headquarters at Dakar.  Boundaries were drawn not on the basis of African realities, but for France’s administrative convenience.

  Belgium’s administration consisted of rule by several, sometimes competing, interests (Rwanda, Burundi, Congo (Zaire).  They are Belgium government, mining corporations, and the Roman Catholic Church.  Portugal, known for labor supply for the interior mines, transit functions and port facilities, agricultural production and minerals.  Very rigid control involving forced labor and compulsory farming of certain crops.  Movement and communications even within a single African ethnic region were kept to a minimum.  Portuguese colonial rule was often described as the harshest of all European colonial governments.

ppWest Africa occupies most of the bulge of Africa extending south from the margins of the Sahara to the Gulf of Guinea and from Lake Chad to Senegal. West Africa comprises four former British and nine former French dependencies. The British influenced countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Gambia are separated from each other while Francophone West Africa is contiguous. Internal connections between West African countries are poor while external ties between West African countries and their former colonial rulers are stronger.

ppWest Africa is Subsaharan Africa's most populous region. Nigeria (est. population 110 million) is Africa's most populous nation. West Africa claims regional idenity in that it constitutes one of Africa's major population clusters. The southern half of the region is home to the majority of the people , while the northern half of the region is home to Niger,Mali and Mauritania located in the environmentally marginal Sahel of Africa.

The most populous country of the region, Nigeria consists of three regions based on the major population clusters within its border. The western region is based around the Yoruba people who have an agricultural and urban tradition. Lagos, the country's largest city of 12 million,is one of the most polluted cities in the world and also suffers from crime and corruption. The eastern region,east of the Niger River, contains the countries substantial petroleum reserves. This region tried to secede in 1967 as a separate political entity but was defeated by the west in a costly civil war which ended in 1971. Nigeria's federal system has been modified since then to adjust to changing politcal circumstances.

ppThe third federal region was the Northern region consisting of Islamic and Christian elements. This is the most populous region of Nigeria. This three-region system changed after the civil war in 1971, with 30 states as well as the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja. The military takeover of the government in 1983 has led to a series of dictatorships that enriched the rulers and impoverished the country.

ppOil exploration in the Niger delta brought Nigeria prosperity particularly during the 1970's. Before the 1973 OPEC embargo, oil brought in $1.8 billion in revenue. Oil revenues soared to $7 billion in 1974 and $12.9 billion in 1980, falling back to $6 billion in 1986. With petroleum and petroleum produts accounting for more than 90 percent of the export total it is not difficult to imagine the impact of that growth and retreat. Initial growth in revenues changed the economy and heavy investments were made in made in roads, schools and other urban infrustructure. With drops inrevenue during the 1980's, much investment was halted and the economy went into a crisis.

ppDuring the 1990's, Nigeria became an example of a promising economy destroyed by military rule. In 1993, the military regime permitted an election but refused to accept the voters choice for president, imprisoning him instead. In 1995, a long-brewing conflict over land rights and environmental damage between radical leaders of the Ogoni People, who inhabit oil-rich areas of the Niger Delta and the military dictator General Abacha, had disastrous consequences. Nine Ogoni leaders were executed, followed by economic imbargoes from around the world. Eventually General Abacha died of a heart attack followed by the death of the president elect he imprisoned, Moshood Abiola. Riots now plague Nigeria which once a Third World success story, now seems on the verge of complete collapse.

ppThe Equatorial African region adjoins West Africa along with the crest of the Adamawa Highlands and across the Sahelian steppe in Chad. Equatorial Africa is the low-lyingpart of Africa's equatorial zone consisting of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo-again), Congo the Central African Republic, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, southern Chad and the southern region of Sudan.

ppThe country of Zaire, the largest in the region, contains a variety of natural resources, the regions largest cities and its greatest potentail for development. It has been hampered by lack of national cohesion, corrupt and autocratic rule,infrustructure problems, falling prices for international exports and fromdevoulutionary forces from within and without (especially nearby Rwanda and Burundi). with its borders touching ten different countries (see fig.7-10 de Blij and Muller), Zaire ocuupies a strategic position in Central Africa and could be a stable force in the region, rather than providing weapons which destablize the entire region.

ppZaire is a nation with diverse mineral resources and considerable agricultural potential. it has relied on the export of copper for its domestic revenue. Other mining resources include silver, iron ore, manganese, cobalt, oil and diamonds with much of this mineral wealth found inthe Katanga Plateau of Southern Zaire. Although agriculture (which includes coffee and palm oil) has not lived up to its potential, there exists a base for large-scale agriculture left behind by the plantations set up by the European powers (in this case, Belgium), which are no longer functioning. Consequently the country must import a majority of its food for domestic consumption.

ppZaire has the long term advantage of one of the world's largest hydroelectric power sites at Inga near the mouth of the Congo River. This energy source is the key to the development of the industrial economy including steel, polyvinyl, nitrogen fertilizer,aluminum smelters and caustic soda factories and other industrial complexes. Many of the projects are in doubt due to the countries internal chaos.

ppDespite the fall of the military regime of Moboto Sese Seko in 1997, the now Democratic Republic of the Congo is still suffering from internal and external chaos with elections to be held in the sometime distant future. the rich raw material base has not prevented the country from a descent into total anarchy. Even a stable government would have trouble unifying the regions over 200 cultural groups and poorlydeveloped infrasructure. Much of this can be blamed on the lingering effets of colonialism, but Congo's current ills have more to do with Africa's embrace of authoritarian governments. The current crisis is due to the despotic rule of Moboto and the nearby Rwandan-Barundi Civil War which spilled into eastern Zaire engulfing the military and innocent victims. The Democratic Republic of Congo may be that in name only, as the present rulers are suspicious of foreign influence and seem intent on reinventing the statist model of self-sufficiency that has proved unsuccessful in nearby African countries.

ppOnly two of the seven remaining countries of this region are landlocked: the Central African Republic and southern Chad. Southern Chad while physiographically connected to this region is politically tied to the Red Sea as the tributaries of the Nile connect it and Sudan to the north and east. The other four countries, Congo (not to be confused with the aforementioned Democratic Republic of Congo), Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon have coastlines on the Atlantic Ocean.

ppCongo lying west of the former Zaire, has few natural resources but does enjoy some locational advantages. Brazzaville, its capital was French Equatorial Africa's headquarters and Pointe Noire was its major port. This gave Congo a transit function that brought in revenues, but the country has little to trade. Its western neighbor of Gabon has better prospects, its economic geography includes oil reserves, manganese, uranium and iron ores as well as a productive logging industry. Exports have made this country an upper-middle income economy, unique in this poor and politically unstable part of the world.

ppCameroon's economy is similar to that of Gabon but not as diversified or as well off. Oil is the primary export, but low prices in the 1980's and 1990's have reduced revenues raised from export. The agricultural sector is promising and the country is self-sufficient in food with exports in coffee, cocoa, cotton and palm oil. Timber exports also help reduce the negative impacts of low oil prices. Western Cameroon centered on the capital of Yaoundé and the port of Doula are the economic core region of the country.

ppEast of Africa's Great Lakes Country, Africa becomes a savanna plateau continent. Volcanoes surround the rift-valley-dissected highland with Lake Victoria the region's largest lake at the center. Along with the highland regions of Ethiopia, this area consists of the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Here the Bantu peoples that form the great majority of the population met Nilotic peoples from the north including the Maasai. In Rwanda and Barundi, a stratified society developed in which the minority Tutsi, in their cattle-owning kingdoms, dominated the Hutu peasantry. Coastal East Africa witnessed the arrival of Islam and Chinese dynasty trading vessels, the Arab slave trade and competion from Turkish (Ottoman) Empires and later competion between European powers.

ppNeither the largest or the most populous, Kenya has been historically the most dominant country in the region due in part to its capitalist development and alignment with western countries. Tourism and agricultural exports provide the bulk of revenue unlike other African countries who rely wholy on mineral exports. Kenya's prosperity has been challenged recently due to high population growth, the AIDS epidemic, corruption in the government and poaching in its extensive National Park system. The Kikuyu are the ehtnic group in power (22 percent), but other peoples include the Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin and Kamba which constitute 50 percent of the population with the Maasi, Turkana Boran and Galla along the territorial margins of the country.

ppIn contrast to Kenya, upon independence Tanzania embraced a combination of socialism and African tribal society in a policy knowm as ujamaa-devlopment of individual, region and nation along communal and cooperative lines. Involving the people in the development process at a grass-roots level has produced genrally good results in creating a sense of national purpose and in improving social welfare, including basic education. But it has not been an economic success. In the late 1980's, Tanzania reversed course and is adapting to a market-oriented economy which has resulted in greater productivity. While still poor, Tanzania's prospects appear better than other countries in the region.

ppUganda contained the most important African political entity in the region when the British entered the scene during the second half of the nineteenth century. Upon independence from the British, the country had a well established hinterland, a large coffee export along with tea, sugar and cotton exports. Copper was mined in the southwest and an Asian community of 75,000 played a leading role inthe country's commerce. Resentment towards Bangda rule fueled a revolution and Idi Amin took over in 1971, who committed genocide against the population and destroyed the ecnomy and the opposition. In 1979, he was driven from power, but by then the damage was done with the country in ruins. Recovery has been complicated by the AIDS epidemic which has hit Uganda particularly hard. Ironically, Uganda was in better shape under British colonial rule than it is today.

ppIn terms of population, Rwanda ( 8 million) and ( Burundi 7 million) are not small by African standards. The population is stratified into three layers. Historically the first group, the minority Tutsi, have been dominant owning land and cattle and setting up kingdoms to perpetuate their power. The Hutu have been numerically superior (85-90 percent) but politically weak. The third group the Twa (Pygmy) consititute 1 to 2 percent and have been nearly destroyed by the genocide that has plagued the two countries.

ppBelguim was the colonial power of the two countries having won the two countries fom the Germans at the end of World War II. The Belgims used the indigenous peoples as a laber pool to work in the mines of nearby Congo (Zaire-now Congo again-confused? Arrrrgh!). When the Belgians withdrew in 1960, Tutsis and Hutus struggled for power in a series of battles that culminated in one of the greatest tragedies of the Twentieth Century. In 1994, as many as 500,000-some say up to 800,000- were killed in a civil war after the presidents of both countries were killed when their plane was shot down. Most of the people killed were Tutsi and "moderate" Hutus in an organized genocide campaign by Hutu militias. More than 2 million refugees fled into nearby Zaire and many succumbed to disease and continued fighting between Hutus and Tutsis. The fighting ultimately destabilized Zaire to the point of collapse of the government creating the Democratic Republic of Zaire.

ppThe East African region also encompasses the highland zone of Ethiopia, including the capital of Addis Ababa, the source of the Blue Nile, Lake Tana and the Amharic core area that was the base of the empire that survived the colonial onslaught unconquered and only lost its independece during the Italian invasion by Mussolini in the 1930's and 1940's. With a population of more than 55 million, Ethiopia is one of the most populous countries in Africa. It has not been able to translate its size advantage into a productive and growing economy. A combination of infrastructure deficiencies, archaic social and political forms, internal separatist movements and conflicts with neighboring Somalia have stunted Ethiopia's development. Although the country did not suffer any ill effects of colonialism, neither did it reap any benefits of infrastructure improvements and civil services.

ppIn addition to drought and war with Somalia, Ethiopia was divided by civil war which eventually resulted in the creation of Eritrea on the Red Sea coast in 1993. This effectively closed off Ethopia's Red Sea outpost and along with a hostile Somalia to the east, may force Ethiopia to develope commercial ties with Kenya to the south.

ppSouthern Africa, as a geographic region, consists of all the countries and territories lying south of Equatorial Africa's Congo and East Africa's Tanzania (fig.7-12 deBlij and Muller).

ppThis region comprises the countries of Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. Historically this region has been plagued by Marxist governments and interference from outsiders. Angola and Mozambique have been particullarly hard-hit by these repressive governments and civil unrest. By the 1990's both countries economies seemed poised for a turnaround as some of the worst fighting in Africa came to an end and Marxist economics have been abandoned.

ppIn comparison with other countries in Africa, Zambia is a moderately prosperous country. Today, copper still accounts for more than 90 percent of foreign-exchange earnings and is directly responsible for over 20 percent of government revenues. Cobalt, zinc and tobacco are minor export commodities. Ironically much wealth remains untapped because there is not yet a sufficient reservoir of trained technical and managerial workers to run the copper mines and other industries that were formerly run by colonial interests. In agriculture the situation is also changing, one success story is sugar: in 1960 all of Zambia's sugar needs were met by imports; by 1974, Zambia had become self-sufficient as the result of just one start-up project. Zambia has the potential to become a major exporter of meat and maize as well as fruit particularly pineapples and mangoes.

  Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho have one thing in common: strong ties to the Republic of South Africa.  Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa (an example of a perforated state); and Swaziland which borders Mozambique on the northeast, is met on three sides by South Africa.  not surprisingly, both countries are economically dependent on South Africa, with much of their imports and exports passing through their neighbor.  Namibia recently gained its independence from South Africa and Botswana and Zimbabwe have commercial and infrustructural ties to South Africa despite estrangement over the policy of Apartheid.  The dismantling of this social experiment has improved economic relations between South Africa and its neighbors.

  With a population of about 1.6 million people, Botswana has few significant towns.  The mineral industry has led to the establishment of a number of small towns, but the countryis essentially one of scattered small villages.  One of the world's poorest countries at independence in 1966, Botswana now boasts a per capita GNP of over $2500 as a result of economic growth of over 12 percent a year for twenty-five years.  Male migration to work in the mines of South Africa has long been a fact of life for many in Botswana.  But the development of the country's own mineral industry which is based on diamonds, coal and copper has reduced Botswana's reliance on South Africa for its economic well-being.  Botswana is a country where rapid economic growth has been accomplished by political stability and democratic institutions.  It is one of Africa's success stories in a region that is often notorious for economic and political distress.

  Formerly known as Rhodesia, Zimbabwe received its independence in 1980.  A small minority population of Europeans remain in the country, a remnant of its colonial past.  Zimbabwe's economy is more diversified than most African countries with thriving mining,  manufacturing and commercial agricultural sectors.  Zimbabwe is the world's second leading producer of chrome, has made significant investments in alternative sources of energy ( solar, wind and hydroelectric) and has a well-developed commercial agriculture which supplies many of the jobs for the population.  Severe drought during the 1990's coupled with overuse of communal lands (a legacy of the inefficient land-tenure system in place dring the colonial period), has upset the balance of power as the country continues to recover from its worst natural disaster in decades.

 South Africa is a large country, the largest in Southern Africa (471,000 square miles).  Its large population (over 44 million) and developed economy gives it the highest GNP of any country is southern Africa.  It is also the only sub-Saharan country that is not in the tropics.  Along with the altitude (mush of it plateau) produces soil and climate that are different from the rest of Africa.  This unique  climate is one reason why so many European descendents live in South Africa.  South Africa’s location also has influenced its human geography.  Founded as a waystation by the Dutch along the route to the Dutch East Indies in 1652, South Africa was settled by the Dutch and Asians from the East Indies to serve as domestics and laborers.  The descendents of the Dutch were referred as Boers and descendents of the Indonesians were called coloured.  When the British settled in the 1860’s they brought indentured laborers from the South Asian realm (mainly Indians) to work on the sugar plantations of the province of Natal.  Today there are over 1 million Indians in South Africa.

 South Africa was an area of European settlement and occupation long before the colonial penetration of Africa began during the late nineteenth century.  The Dutch moved into the high plateau country (or high veld) as the British took over control of the Cape Town area.  Here they involved themselves in extensive farming.  When gold and diamonds were discovered in these regions, the British challenged the Boers claims to these resources and the Boer Wart (1899-1902) erupted with the British ultimately victorious and took economic control of South Africa.  The Afrikaners (the Dutch word for African-they shed the Boer term) did receive favorable terms and retained much political power, which they wield when the British gave up their colonial holdings after WWII.

 African peoples were also warning over territory in South Africa.  The Xhosa nation was moving toward the Cape along the natural corridor and in the Natal province, the Zula nation became the most powerful empire.  Unlike Australian aborigines the native peoples of  South Africa had substantial numbers to insure their numerical survival.

 After the British withdrew, the Afrikaner led white government extended its policies and locked the country into a sociopolitical design of separate development better known as apartheid, an Afrikaner word that means “apartness”.  Under these provisions nearly 80 percent of South Africa was designated as white-owned and only 15 percent of the land was available to the 70 percent of the population which was largely black.  Apartheid took on several aspects.  “Petty apartheid” was similar to segregation in the American South as blacks were barred from restaurants, places of businesses, etc.  “Grand Apartheid” was the more sinister aspect (if that’s possible) of apartheid which created individual homelands for different ethnic and linguistic groups.  Each member of these homelands would be a citizen of these regions and would have to leave permits in order to work or visit other homelands.  The majority of the black population were crammed into these homeland or townships as they were called.  These townships became breeding grounds for crime, violence and organized opposition to Apartheid.  By the mid 1980’s international opposition to Apartheid resulted in economic sanctions to South Africa.  Economic difficulties were already undoing the financial propping of this regime.  Rising petroleum prices during the 1970’s (South Africa has no petroleum reserves) and falling precious metal prices during the 1980’s, devastated the South African economy that supported this politico-geographic policy.  Apartheid also damaged the economic geography by interfering with normal market forces by restricting free movement of people and goods.  The black populations skills were not utilized as the majority of the well paying jobs were not in Black townships, and may had to obtain permits to work in difficult conditions in South Africa’s mines.

 Nelson Mandela, the leader of the once outlawed African National Congress (ANC), was released from jail in 1990 as internal pressures to dismantle apartheid began to build in the 1990’s.  He became the primary African representative in negotiations with the white government for political and economic reform.  In 1991 President F. W. de Klerk introduced legislation to repeal all aspects of apartheid and this was followed by a political transition to majority rule.  The international community subsequently lifted all sanctions against South Africa.  In 1994, elections brought Nelson Mandela to power as head of the first ever inter-racial government.

 Several different scenarios are possible in post-apartheid South Africa.  Despite unity in overthrowing apartheid, confrontations now exist between different groups of black South Africans.  The ANC composed primarily of Xhosas and other tribal peoples, has had violent confrontations with the Inkatha, led by Chief Buthelezi and composed mostly of Zulus.  A commission called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has granted limited amnesty to human rights abuse committed during apartheid.  While there has been reconciliation between black and white, concern exists among Afrikaners that retribution will be taken against them.  Extremist groups on both sides have continued violence and there still remains difficult challenges to erase the legacy of apartheid.

 South Africa is the world’s leading producer of gold, antimony, platinum and diamonds.  It is the second leading producer of uranium, chromium manganese, vermiculite and vanadium.  It also has substantial reserves of copper, nickel and over 50 percent of the entire continents coal reserves.

 The country’s southerly location results in a strong competative advantage in the production of fruit and vegetables for markets in the Northern Hemisphere.  Sheep and cattle ranchers are also present as well as production of Mediterranean crops such as wheat and vineyards.  The lifting of economic sanctions promotes tourism as South Africa has some of the most unique ecosystems in the world with flora and fuana found no where else.

1.  Discuss Wegener's theory of Continental Drift and some of the evidence he used in order to make his hypothesis.  What are the dominant physical features in Africa?

2.  What are the environmental problems that plague Africa?

3.  Discuss in detail who the colonial powers were and how they spatially organized their individual colonies.  What  problems resulted from colonialism in general and specifically in countries such as Rwanda and Burundi and the Congo.

4.  Explain why Apartheid  was geographically incompatible with the economic geography of South Africa.

5.  Click on the "dictatatorship" link and outline the devolutionary forces that plague Nigeria.  Post your answer to the listserv.