SSA - Sub-Saharan Africa Module Overview

Sub-Saharan Africa

Introduction

Africa is a large continent. Unfortunately, maps often fail to display the size of the continent properly. This results in people believing the continent to be smaller than it is. To develop an understanding of the size of the continent, take a moment to study the following image and the comparisons made within it.

Map showing the true size of Africa, a small contribution in the fight against rampant "immappancy" by Kai Krause. In addition to the well known social issues of illiteracy and innumeracy, there also should be such a concept as "immappancy", meaning insufficient geographical knowledge. A survey with random American schoolkids let them guess the population and land area of their country. Not entirely unexpected, but still rather unsettling, the majority chose "1-2 billion" and "largest in the world", respectively. Even with Asian and European college students, geographical estimates were often off by factors of 2-3. This is partly due to the highly distorted nature of the predominantly used mapping projections (such as Mercator). A particularly extreme example is the worldwide misjudgmemt of the true size of Africa. This single image tries to embody the massive scale, which is larger than the USA, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe....combined!

The continent of Africa is large and diverse. In fact, it is so diverse that it is often best to divide it into sections or regions by its climate, terrain, and culture. The northern portion of the continent will be explored with the countries of Southwest Asia. This groups the countries by their similar cultures, climates, and terrains.

Essential Questions

  • How do climates impact human settlement patterns?
  • How has Sub-Saharan Africa's colonial history impacted the development of the countries?  
  • How do perceptions of race and ethnicity influence government policies and how do the government policies influence the continuation of perceptions of race and ethnicity?

 

Key Terms

  • African Transition Zone - an imaginary division of North Africa from the rest of Africa based on climatic and cultural dynamics.
  • Aids - Acquired Immune Deficiency Disease Syndrome.
  • Animism - the worldview that animals, plants, and inanimate objects possess a spiritual essence.
  • Apartheid - the legally institutionalized policy which separated people into black, white, and colored (mixed race) racial categories.
  • Berlin Conference - Fourteen European countries and the United States divided Africa into countries at this conference.
  • Basin - A depression in the Earth's surface. The Congo River Basin is a river drainage basin. It is where the Congo River and its tributaries drain the land as they flow toward the mouth of the river.
  • Colonialism - control by one country over another area. It is the forcible taking of land by a political power from another territory and the subsequent exploitation of the land and its resources.
  • Fossil fuel - are hydrocarbons (hydrogen and carbon) such as: coal, fuel oil or natural gas. They are formed from the remains of dead plants and animals.
  • Horse Latitudes - located between the 30 and 35 degree latitudes north and south of the equator, the region is in an area of high pressure (also called a subtropical high) and causes the formation of deserts.
  • Lingua Franca - the language that people use to communicate with one another when they speak different native languages.
  • Mineral - a naturally occurring inorganic element such as: salt, gold, silver.
  • Plateau - a large flat area of land that is higher than other areas of land that surround it.
  • Rain shadow effect - the effect of mountain ranges on precipitation patterns.
  • Rift Valley - a long, steep valley. A lowland region that forms where the Earth's tectonic plates move apart, or rift.
  • Subsistence lifestyle - a lifestyle of little to no excess. A lifestyle in which people manage to have enough to survive and not much else.

 

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.