The Geography of
Africa
By: Eleanor Joyce
City of Salem Schools
Main Ideas
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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
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PHYSICAL
FEATURES
Sahara Desert
smooth coastline
lack of navigable rivers
Great Rift Valley
high plateau
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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
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Raw materials and resources lead to
European interest in Africa
Africa’s geographical divisions prevents the
Africans from cooperating to resist
Interesting Statistics
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2nd largest continent- 11,700,000 square
miles!
That’s 20.2% of the
earth
And 3x the size of the
USA
778,000,000 people
55 countries
Topography
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Deserts
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Sahara -- North Africa
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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
Problem: Desertification
Sahel Desert
(south Sahara)
malnutrition
starvation
poverty
Desertification - Causes
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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
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Crop rotation
Terracing to prevent soil from washing away
Tree belts to stop erosion and hold soil in
place
Mountains
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East Africa
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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
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Depth varies depending on the season-if it’s
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
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4,180 miles long (world’s longest!!)
flows NORTH
Source - - Lake Victoria
Delta - - Egypt
Floods annually
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One of the most densely populated region in
Africa
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Waterfalls and rapids prevent easy navigation
Congo - 3000 miles long
Niger - ancient civilizations flourished here
Zambezi - Victoria Falls, used for hydroelectric power
Coastline
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Smooth coastline
Few natural harbors - hard to land ships
Narrow continental shelf
Climate - determined by
rainfall, latitude and elevation
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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
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Farming
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Minerals
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peanuts, cotton, cocoa, coffee
diamonds, gold, copper, cobalt
Water
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hydroelectric power
Diseases in Africa
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Tropical climate creates incubator for disease
Poverty spreads disease
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polluted water
open sewers
bathing in parasite infected water
poor medical care
Diseases in Africa
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 world’s estimated
40 million people living with
HIV/AIDS are located in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to
90% of the world’s
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
th
live to see their 5 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 1970’s.
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.