The Geography of

Africa
By: Eleanor Joyce
City of Salem Schools

Main Ideas

Fertile soil along the Nile River encouraged

the rise of great civilizations (ex. Egypt)
Many geographic features in Africa have
prevented contact, trade & unity among
peoples
Many of these same features limit European
knowledge of Africa the Dark Continent

Physical Geography

PHYSICAL
FEATURES
Sahara Desert
smooth coastline
lack of navigable rivers
Great Rift Valley
high plateau

RESULT
Groups are kept
separate - 800 different languages
are spoken in modern
Africa

Desert

Rainforest

Desert

Savanna

Black line shows the Great

Rift Valley

This is what Africa will

look like in about one
million years. Notice that
the Persian Gulf does
not exist and the horn of
Africa is a separate
peninsula. This is caused
by the movement of
tectonic plates.

Diversity leads to Imperialism

Raw materials and resources lead to

European interest in Africa
Africas geographical divisions prevents the
Africans from cooperating to resist

Interesting Statistics

2nd largest continent- 11,700,000 square

miles!
Thats 20.2% of the
earth
And 3x the size of the
USA
778,000,000 people
55 countries

Topography

Deserts

Sahara -- North Africa

40% of the land surface of Africa

slows cultural diffusion - does not totally prevent it
1/3 of the continent (= to the USA!!)
majority is rock and gravel

Kalahari--Southwest Africa

Desert spreads into semi-arid

regions
P r o b le m : D e s e r t ific a t io n
S a h e l D e s e rt
(s o u th S a h a ra )
m a ln u t r it io n

s t a r v a t io n

p o v e rty

Desertification - Causes

Farmers use semi-arid land next to desert yields poor crop

Overgrazing by cattle and goats
Overcutting of trees for firewood
With no grass or tree roots, the topsoil blows
away, the desert advances

Solutions

Crop rotation
Terracing to prevent soil from washing away
Tree belts to stop erosion and hold soil in
place

Mountains

East Africa

caused by volcanic activity

section of the land sank - causing the Great Rift
Valley
Atlas (NW)
Drakensberg (SE)
Ethiopian Highlands
Famous peaks - Mt. Kenya & Mt. Kilimanjaro

Atlas Mountains

Ethiopian Highlands

Mt. Kilamanjaro

Drakensburg
Mountains

Rivers

Depth varies depending on the season-if its

the rainy season or the dry season
Plateaus prevent easy navigation due to
water falls.
Therefore, the interior of Africa remained
largely unexplored

Can you name the

rivers?

Niger

Nile

Congo

Zambezi

4,180 miles long (worlds longest!!)

flows NORTH
Source - - Lake Victoria
Delta - - Egypt
Floods annually

One of the most densely populated region in

Africa

Waterfalls and rapids prevent easy navigation

Congo - 3000 miles long
Niger - ancient civilizations flourished here
Zambezi - Victoria Falls, used for hydroelectric power

Coastline

Smooth coastline
Few natural harbors - hard to land ships
Narrow continental shelf

Climate - determined by
rainfall, latitude and elevation

Savanna - 40% of the land, safari!!

Tropical Rainforest - 8% of the land,
Desert - 40% of the land
Mediterranean - 12% of the land, good farm
land
About 85% of the land is not suited to farming

Natural Resources

Farming

Minerals

peanuts, cotton, cocoa, coffee

diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt

Water

hydroelectric power

Diseases in Africa

Tropical climate creates incubator for disease

Poverty spreads disease

polluted water
open sewers
bathing in parasite infected water
poor medical care

Diseases in Africa

Ebola
Encephalitis
Guinea worm
Sleeping sickness
Aids
Malaria
Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease
transmitted by the sand fly, is almost always
fatal if left untreated.

Diseases in Africa

Ebola- is one of the deadliest viruses in the

world, killing up to 90% of its victims in days.
The disease begins with high fever, diarrhea,
bleeding from the nose and gums, and can
eventually induce massive internal
hemorrhages.

Diseases in Africa

African Sleeping Sickness

(Trypanosomiasis) : This disease occurs in
several countries of Central and East Africa.
Most risk to tourists occurs when visiting
game parks. Travelers to rural areas should
take measures to prevent insect (tsetse fly)
bites.

Diseases in Africa

Arboviral Fevers : Few if any cases of

dengue are reported from North Africa.
Sandfly fever is widely distributed, especially
in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Rift Valley fever
and West Nile fever are significant risks in
Egypt.

Diseases in Africa

Cholera occurs in areas with inadequate

sanitation, such as urban slums and rural
areas. Travelers should consider vaccination.
Prevention consists primarily in adhering to
safe food and drink guidelines.

Diseases in Africa

Many diseases are carried by mosquito bites, rodent

bites or tick bites.
World Bank officials say diarrhea causes the deaths
of more than 800 000 African children each year.
Many of the deaths are in West Africa, where
intestinal illnesses claim more young lives than
malaria or AIDS.
Programs are in place that encourage people to
wash their hands with soap after using the toilet.

Diseases in Africa

Guinea Worm
Guinea worm disease is caused by a threadlike
parasitic worm that grows and matures in people.
Worms grow up to 3 feet long and are as wide as
a paper clip wire.
People get infected when they drink standing
water containing a tiny water flea that is infected
with the even tinier larvae of the Guinea worm.
Inside the human body, the larvae mature,
growing as long as 3 feet. After a year, the worm
emerges through a painful blister in the skin,
causing long-term suffering and sometimes
crippling after-effects

Guinea Worm

Guinea Worm

Guinea Worm

Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping Sickness

African sleeping sickness affects as many as

500,000 people, 80 percent of whom
eventually die, and the bite of the fly causes
more than $4 billion in economic losses
annually.
The tsetse fly has turned much of the fertile
African landscape into an uninhabited "green
desert," spreading sleeping sickness -- and
killing 3 million livestock animals every year

AIDS
IN AFRICA

AIDS IN AFRICA

Two orphaned children stand next to the

graves of their parents who died from
the AIDS virus.

An infected mother with her child

who has the disease as well.

70% of the worlds estimated

40 million people living with
HIV/AIDS are located in
Sub-Saharan Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa is home to

90% of the worlds
HIV infected children.

Of 30 children born in
sub-Saharan Africa10 will acquire the virus
simply by being born4 will be infected from breast
feeding .

Most of these children will not

live to see their 5th birthdays.

12 million African children

have been orphaned due to the
AIDS virus.

17 million Africans have

already died since the
epidemic began in
the late 1970s.

In recent years the government

budget for Health care per person
in Kenya has dropped from
$9.50 to less than $3.00.

Within 10 years the average

life expectancy in 11 countries
in Africa will drop below 40 as
HIV/AIDS continues to
shorten life spans.