Map exercise

GROUP MAP EXERCISE

This assignment asks you and a partner to trace out the genealogies and colonial legacies of African nations that continue to surface in the contemporary United States. The borders of nations in Africa are, in large part, the result of the so-called “scramble for Africa” and the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference, which divided the continent of Africa up among the European powers. In your two-person group you will create a map of contemporary Africa underwritten by these genealogies and legacies of colonial power. This requires you to do three things.

1. First, determine the date of independence for each of the countries below (year only). Most will be straight forward. A few will be more difficult to determine. Make note of these.

2. Second, determine from whom the country became independent. In other words, what colonial powers ruled the territory that became the nation? Many of these will be Britain and France. A few will be Portugal, Spain, Germany, or Italy. A few may have more complicated histories. Make note of these, also. Wikipedia or another encyclopedic reference should be sufficient for completing these first two parts of this assignment.

3. Finally, locate each country on the map. Using the included color code, color in each nation according to its colonial history—a few countries may need to remain uncolored. Then label each country with its name and date of independence. Add any important notes on dates and colonial powers in the margins. You’re done!

PLEASE NOTE: Be sure you are putting your labels on the right places. On the attached map, there is no land mass for São Tomé and Príncipe, Comoros, or Seychelles. The fillable map on Canvas has no land mass for Cape Verde or Seychelles. In either case, label the approximate site of each.

Algeria

Angola

Benin

Botswana

Burkina Faso

Burundi

Cameroon

Cape Verde

Central African Republic

Chad

Comoros

Côte d'Ivoire

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Congo-Brazzaville

Djibouti

Egypt

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Gabon

Gambia

Ghana

Guinea

Guinea-Bissau

Kenya

Lesotho

Liberia

Libya

Madagascar

Malawi

Mali

Mauritania

Mauritius

Morocco

Mozambique

Namibia

Niger

Nigeria

Rwanda

SADR (Western Sahara)

São Tomé and Príncipe

Senegal

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Somalia

South Africa

South Sudan

Sudan

Swaziland

Tanzania

Togo

Tunisia

Uganda

Zambia

Zimbabwe

“There was a vast amount of red—good to see at any time because one knows that some real good work is done there--a deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and on the East Coast, a purple patch, to show were the jolly pioneers of progress drink the jolly lager beer. However I wasn't going to any of these. I was going to the yellow. Dead in the centre. And the river was there—fascinating—deadly—like a snake.”

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, 1899

BRITAIN

FRANCE

PORTUGUAL

SPAIN

GERMANY

BELGIUM