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Slide 1: Sub-Saharan Africa Current Geographic Issues: Economy and Politics Sociocultural Issues Environment Human Well-being
Slide 2: 5 Reasons Why Africa Has Struggled For The Last 50 Yrs. 1. Colonialism positioned the region as a cheap supplier of raw materials and labor   Competition with other such regions No knowledge of fair allocation of power, resources, opportunity  Corruption, non-democratic leadership 2. Inexperienced political leaders 3. Civil unrest/wars, intensified by outside powers 4. Steep oil prices (1970s) forced nations into debt to pay for needed fuel 5. IMF and World Bank influence—SAPs cut off funding for badly-needed education and health programs
Slide 3: Some hope…    New leaders, esp. women New sources of investment money Oil resources are bringing in cash  But…may have other negative consequences  Economic diversification  Grassroots activism and political participation is increasing  Educated migrants returning home to help
Slide 4: Agricultural Production  Subsistence agriculture  A high percentage of people produce all or most of their own food  Supplemented by hunting and fishing  Also, cash crops for sale  Crop rotation and some permanent cultivation  Soil fertility issues
Slide 5: Agricultural Production  Mixed agriculture  Pastoralism/herding  Drought and the spread of field agriculture taking their toll
Slide 6: Urban Agriculture
Slide 7: Sustainable Development
Slide 8: GDP per capita Total market value of all goods and services produced in a country within a certain period of time (usually a year) GDP = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports) Highest: Luxemborg ($69,420) Lowest: Burundi ($90)
Slide 9: One-Commodity Countries
Slide 10: Raw Materials Jwaneng diamond mine, Botswana
Slide 11: The Cases of South Africa and Zimbabwe
Slide 12: Debt and SAPs
Slide 13: Potential Solutions to the Debt Crisis? HIPC Initiative Highly Indebted Poor Countries In order to get total debt relief, a country must: 1. Qualify economically 2. Must implement SAP’s for a number of years before partial debt relief 3. More years of monitoring by IMF, countries eligible for total debt relief
Slide 14: International Debt How did poor countries become so indebted? High interest rates, oil price shocks, recessions in industrialized countries HPIC Initiative 600 million people live an average of 7 years less than citizens of other developing countries, with half living on less than $1 per day
Slide 15: Life Expectancy Rate Lowest: Swaziland, 29.9 Botswana, 33.9 Lesotho 34.3 Andorra, 83.5 Highest: Japan, 82.8 Hong Kong, 82.2
Slide 16: High rates of unemployment
Slide 17: The burden of the refugee
Slide 18: Large-scale agriculture and poverty
Slide 19: The African Woman’s Double-Double Day
Slide 20: Foreign Investment… …where should the $ go?
Slide 21: Investment in Education: A High Rate of Return
Slide 22: Adult Literacy Rates Least literate: Burkina Faso (12.2%)
Slide 23: Educating Women With each year of school, wages go up 10-20% Educated women start new business ventures, building economies from the ground up Natural population increase drops (birth rates, number of children per woman)
Slide 24: Education Can Bring About Innovative Solutions
Slide 27: Sub-Saharan Africa Economic and Political Issues Sociocultural Issues Environmental Issues
Slide 28: Economy:  The informal economy  An “escape hatch from the hardships…[of] SAPs”  2/3 of the economy  Diminishing returns; no taxes  Out-of-work men displacing women in the marketplace
Slide 29: Trade organizations: Overcoming trade barriers  Regional economic issues  Infrastructure and other trade barriers  Some countries too small to be an economic force  Regional trade organizations overcome some issues  May also act to reduce conflicts  Is continental unity (EU-style) possible?
Slide 30: The African Union (AU)  Includes all countries and islands of Africa  Loose, active union  Pan-African Parliament  Promotes economic cooperation and social welfare, including women’s rights, environmental conservation, and peacekeeping
Slide 31: Grassroots Development  From the bottom (the roots) upward—individuals in a society promote their own development (self-reliance)  Small-scale self-help projects , as opposed to large-scale development projects run by governments or NGOs  Gov’ts. then send less $$ to successful areas Hair weaving class at a beauty school in Ghana, West Africa
Slide 32: Does African infrastructure development mean roads?  Not necessarily.  Sometimes it just means buying a woman a bicycle…
Slide 33: Technological Development  Reversing the brain drain  Developing techno-businesses  Cell phones  Positive effects  Overcoming the lack of landlines  Increasing business and communication  Negative effects  Politics—“sending a message”  Encouraging conflict, inciting violence
Slide 34: Politics: Democracy in Africa  “The elites argued that the open political debates of Western democracies were incompatible with African traditions of communal identity and collective decision making,” as well as “African traditions of patronage,” and claimed it created unwieldy, corrupt bureaucracies. (pg. 381)
Slide 35: Democratically-elected Governments as of 2000
Slide 36: Sociocultural Issues: Settlement Patterns  Where do people live?    Small rural villages vs. dense, low-rise cities >65% of sub-Saharan Africa is rural Region has some of the fastest-growing urban populations in the world  Lagos, Nigeria:  1950— 250,000 people  2000—11,000,000 people!
Slide 38: Rural Villages  Despite an amazing variety of forms, there are certain similarities  Collections of extended-family compounds  Each compound is an economic unit  Houses surround a common activity space  Subsistence agriculture is important  Divisions of labor dictated by tradition  People may also work seasonal jobs on commercial farms, sell surpluses at market, or participate in the informal economy
Slide 39: Rural Villages Masai village compound, East Africa
Slide 40: Rural Villages Dogon Village granaries and homes, Mali
Slide 41: Rural Villages Ndebele village, Zimbabwe—no place in Africa is untouched by modern life
Slide 42: Urbanization  The city is nothing new to Africa  Founded on maintaining social and economic continuity with the countryside  Rapid modern growth outstrips the ability of rural surrounds to supply the cities and importation cuts off the hinterlands  Increases migration  Rural people come looking for jobs, opportunities  Think they’ll gain money and prestige in the city
Slide 43: Changes  Some industries building housing developments for workers  Habitat For Humanity  NGO building “self-sustaining communities”  Some city governments attempting to deal with migrant issues
Slide 44: Religion: Animism, Islam, Christianity
Slide 45: Religion: Animism, Islam, Christianity  Animism  Oldest religions in the worldAncestral spirits inhabit features of the environment, act as intermediaries between humans and the forces of the natural world, and the ill will of others  Those alive today link past and future spiritual worlds through children, stories, rituals, and offerings  Adaptable, pragmatic  May survive by blending with other faiths
Slide 46: Animism
Slide 47: Christianity
Slide 48: Christianity  Christianity   4th Cent., Ethiopian Coptic Church 1800s—second spread with Methodist and Roman Catholic missionaries; limited where Muslim tribal leaders were aiding the colonial movement  1980s—Anglican Church (Church of England) grew rapidly  Churches also funded health care and education  Evangelical movements growing (see: “The Gospel of Success”, p. 389) among recent urban migrants
Slide 49: Religion: Animism, Islam, Christianity  Islam   Spread began in the 600s Extended to regions where Islamic traders were active  Islamic tribal leaders given power by colonial powers (esp. British)  Islamic political powers today are, in many places, descended from these early political elites
Slide 50: Islam
Slide 51: Religion: Animism, Islam, Christianity
Slide 52: Religion, death, art, economy, popular culture… The coffin carvers of Ghana
Slide 53: Gender Issues  Division of Labor  Pre-colonial  Marriage was a blending of two families  Men and women spent most of their time with others of the same gender, sharing duties  Relationships were generally more equitable  Post-colonial  Europeans thought women should care for the home and men should deal with the wider world  Women’s lives became severely limited
Slide 54: Division of Labor  Women             carry water and firewood maintain the household prepare the food care for children, the sick, the elderly tend the fields tend flocks (50%) harvest and process most of the crops (except cash crops) transport and sell surpluses in the marketplace prepare the fields for planting harvest cash crops tend the flocks (50%) migrate for seasonal, urban, or mining jobs  Men
Slide 55: Gender Issues  Religion and Gender Roles  Muslim women are more limited than Christian women, though both are expected to limit activities to those things related to the domestic sphere  Polygyny predates Islamic influence and is found in relatively few places, among low populations
Slide 56: The case of Eritrea “In this Italian-built factory in Asmera, Eritrea’s capital, women make shoes for foreign markets. Eritrea has new laws guaranteeing gender equality: women now have the right to divorce, to vote, to acquire and own land, and to work outside the home.” WRG (3rd ed.)
Slide 57: Female “Circumcision”  Predates Christianity and Islam  Both symbolic and literal meanings (virginity, lack of interest in any man other than husband, right of passage, etc.)  Considered an extreme human rights abuse  Leads to chronic pain and increased risk of death in childbirth (for both mother and child) and increased risk of HIV transmission  Education / eradication programs have proved largely successful
Slide 58: The Role of Language
Slide 59: Environmental Issues
Slide 60: Mangrove swamps: the key to fisheries. Taken in Mar Lodj, Senegal, this water is a mix of the ocean and the Saloum river
Slide 61: Djénné, Mali on the Bani River, a tributary of the Niger
Slide 62: Human Development Index A measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for countries (often uses GDP) Measures human well-being, especially taking child welfare into consideration
Slide 63: HDI 2004
Slide 64: HDI’s Top 30
Slide 67: Pop Quiz – Chapter 7 1. Which of the following is a good general description of the land shape of the African continent? a. It resembles a raised platform—a high plateau surrounded by very narrow coastlines and few natural harbors. b. It looks like a rumpled carpet with many high mountains and narrow valleys. c. It resembles a bowl, with a sunken interior surrounded by low mountains. d. It appears as an inclined plane, sloping from east to west.
Slide 68: Pop Quiz 2. What are the names of the African deserts found at roughly 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south of the equator, respectively? a. The Arabian and the Gobi b. The Sahara and the Namib c. The Great Sandy and the Great Victoria d. The Atacama and the Mojave
Slide 69: Pop Quiz 3. True or False? The term carrying capacity can be defined as the maximum number of people a given territory can support sustainably. 4. What is genocide?
Slide 70: Pop Quiz 5. How has Botswana’s wealth from the diamond industry been distributed? 6. True or False? In sub-Saharan Africa, heterosexual women are represented more than any other group in the population infected with the AIDS virus.
Slide 71: Pop Quiz 7. Explain what the concept of the double double day means to many women living in Sub-Saharan Africa. 8. True or False? Prior to European colonization, sub-Saharan Africa was home to several wealthy and powerful kingdoms and empires.