The physical landscape of Africa and its long history of habitation have contributed to a variety of cultures and human experiences. These tropics are areas of high atmospheric pressure creating dry conditions. The Sahara stretches across much of northern Africa creating a formidable barrier and dividing Africa between a Muslim, Arab North and traditional African cultural groups in the south. Since North Africa is so similar to Southwest Asia in terms of culture and political history, the two are discussed together in a separate chapter.
Around million years ago, Pangaea began to break apart, drifting and colliding and forming the continents as we know them today. Africa was situated at the heart of this supercontinent. The Sahara stretches across much of northern Africa creating a formidable barrier and dividing Africa between a Muslim, Arab North and traditional African cultural groups in the south.
Since North Africa is so similar to Southwest Asia in terms of culture and political history, the two are discussed together in a separate chapter. Around million years ago, Pangaea began to break apart, drifting and colliding and forming the continents as we know them today. Africa was situated at the heart of this supercontinent.
Today, many of the physical landforms found in Africa were formed from this tectonic plate movement. That might not sound like a lot, but after years, the rift would have expanded by two feet! Lake Tanganyika, for example, is the second-largest and second-deepest freshwater lake in the world, dipping down to 1, m 4, ft. East of the rift valley is the Horn of Africa , a protruding peninsula that contains the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia. In addition to the rift valley, Sub-Saharan Africa contains a number of highland and plateau regions as well as large, tropical basins, the largest of which is the Congo Basin.
This watershed is considered a biodiversity hotspot and its forests support around 40 million people. However, there is serious concern in the region regarding deforestation. It is regarded by most as the longest river in the world. The Nile has, historically and in modern times, been a key way to transport people and goods throughout the region and its floodplain enables farming in an otherwise arid environment.
The Sahel is a transitional region connecting the dry Sahara to the tropical regions of the south. It is mostly grassland and has traditionally supported semi-nomadic livestock herders. The Sahel is at the front line of one of the most pressing environmental concerns in Africa: desertification see Figure 6. Desertification refers to the process of previously fertile land becoming desert and occurs for a variety of reasons including climate change and human activities.
Overgrazing, for example, can rid land of vegetation causing the erosion of fertile topsoil. Warming temperatures due to global changes in climate can change precipitation patterns and increase the speed of evaporation.
Desertification in the Sahel has caused the Sahara to expand and has led to conflict as northern farmers have migrated to the south in search of fertile soil. In addition to an array of landforms from rift valleys to mountains to deserts, Sub-Saharan Africa contains a wide variety of climate zones and precipitation patterns.
In general, the continent is relatively hot with temperate climates in the higher elevations. Some areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the tropical rainforests of West Africa, receive upwards of 3, mm inches of rain each year, while other areas such as the Namib Desert receive less than 10 mm 0.
Africa has a long history of human habitation giving rise to numerous cultural and linguistic groups. Early humans were primarily gatherers, and there is evidence of people gathering nuts, grasses, and tubers around 16, BCE in the highlands of Northern Ethiopia. Around 10, years ago, the domestication of the first crops and livestock developed in Africa and the practice of settled agriculture began. In pre-colonial Africa, women were, and still are in many areas, the primary agriculturalists.
It was the responsibility of women to understand the seasonality of crops and this, along with the role of bearing and rearing children, gave women an important role in African society. Many early religions placed a strong emphasis on female goddesses reflecting the central role of women in society.
Men were primarily the hunters and gatherers. For early Africans, the family was the basic and most important social unit. It was the family unit that owned and accessed land rather than individuals.
Furthermore, land could not be bought or sold, but instead was passed down through the tradition of partible inheritance, meaning land is divided among the heirs. Elsewhere in the world, such as in the United Kingdom for much of its history, land was passed down to the firstborn male, known as primogeniture.
With partible inheritance, however, no landed aristocracy developed since every male was given an equal share rather than just the firstborn. If the family was the basic social unit in African society, it was the extended family that was the most important politically. Tribes , consisting of groups of families united by a common ancestry and language, controlled distinct tracts of territory.
In pre-colonial Africa, there were over distinct ethnic regions — and some of the ethnic regions identified by anthropologists actually had multiple distinct cultural groups within them. Tribal groups sometimes coexisted peacefully, and other times, warred over territory. Pre-colonial Africa was also the site of a number of large empires see Figure 6.
The rulers of the kingdom minted their own currency, built religious monuments, and established trading routes. The Empire of Ghana had a large capital city, markets, and a system of taxation. The second was the start of the transatlantic slave trade in the 15th century CE. Slavery was present in Africa long before European conquest, however. In some pre-colonial African societies, as in other parts of the world, slavery was a part of the local community.
Slaves might be taken from conquered groups or given as gifts. In general, though, slavery represented a relatively small segment of ancient African society and economy. Rain Forest Most of Africas native rain forest has been destroyed by development , agriculture, and forestry. Today, 80 percent of Africas rain forest is concentrated in central Africa, along the Congo River basin.
Africas rain forests have a rich variety of animal life; a 6-kilometer 4-mile patch could contain up to bird species, butterfly species, and 60 species of amphibians. Important mammals include African forest elephants, gorillas, the black colobus monkey, and the okapi, a donkey-like giraffe.
The driver ant is one of Africas most aggressive rain forest species. Driver ants move in columns of up to 20 million across the rain forest floor, and will eat anything from toxic millipedes to reptiles and small mammals. The African rain forests plant community is even more diverse, with an estimated 8, plant species documented. More than 1, of these species are endemic, or found nowhere else on Earth. Only 10 percent of the plants in the African rain forest have been identified.
As the African continent separated from Saudi Arabia, large, deep cracks were created in the Earths surface. These cracks were later filled with water. This geologic process created some of the largest and deepest lake s in the world.
Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, is the southern source of the Nile River, the longest river in the world. The African Great Lakes region has a diverse range of aquatic and terrestrial animal life. Fish include the kilogram pound Nile perch and the 2. Migrating savanna animals, such as wildebeest, use the lakes as watering hole s.
Hippos and crocodiles call the region their home. The Great Lakes abut everything from rain forest to savanna plant communities. However, invasive species like the water hyacinth and papyrus have begun to take over entire shorelines, endangering animals and plants. Southern Africa The region of Southern Africa is dominated by the Kaapvaal craton , a shelf of bedrock that is more than 2.
Rocky features of Southern Africa include plateaus and mountains, such as the Drakensberg range. Southern Africa is the epicenter of Africas well-known reserves, which protect animal species such as lions, elephants, baboons, white rhinos, and Burchells zebras. Other important animal species include the impala, a type of deer, and the springbok, a type of gazelle that can spring several feet into the air to avoid predators. Southern Africas Cape Floral Region is one of the richest areas for plants in the world.
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Middle Africa is also where the Congo River, the second longest river in all of Africa, is found. East Africa consists of 18 countries. The mountainous Horn of Africa , which includes the countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti is the northernmost part of the subregion. Two tributaries of the Nile River, the longest river in Africa and second longest in the world, flow through East Africa.
The Zambezi River, the fourth longest river in Africa, also flows through several countries in East Africa. Southern Africa is the smallest of the Sub-Saharan African subregions. It consists of 5 countries, with South Africa being the largest and Eswatini being the smallest. Most of Namibia and Botswana are part of an arid lowland region called the Kalahari Basin, which also covers a large, northwestern part of South Africa.
The longest river in Southern Africa, and the fifth longest in Africa as a whole, is the Orange River. It begins in the small, landlocked country of Lesotho.
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