African History Essay

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Physical Context of African History

Geography and Environment

Physical Features of the Continent

Most prominent feature of African continent is its size

Much larger than commonly imagined

Democratic Republic of the Congo: nearly the size of Western Europe

Physical Features of the Continent

Northern edge of the continent is bounded by Mediterranean Sea

From Algeria to Morocco the coastal strip enjoys “Mediterranean climate”

South of this coastal strip lies the Sahara

“Sahara” is the Arabic word for desert

Physical Features of the Continent

South of the Sahara is a vast savannah

Rainfall here is sufficient to support mixture of grass and trees

Enfolded in this vast savannah is an equatorial forest zone

Rain forests covered much of West African coast from modern-day Sierra Leone to the Volta River in modern Ghana

Physical Features of the Continent

At southern tip of the continent, south of the Kalahari & the Namib deserts, is a small pocket of Mediterranean climate

The Cape region has the same winter rains & mild climate found on the north coast

If there exists a typical African environment it would be the mixed grass and trees of the

savannah.

Map 1-1: African environments

Pygmy men in the process of felling a rainforest tree. Note the steel axe.

Pygmies do not live in isolation and obtain metal tools through trade.

Challenges of the African Environment

Despite myths about the fertility of tropical soils, most African soils

Are actually rather poor

The continent is geologically inactive

Rainfall is cyclical

Intertropical Convergence Zone

Challenges of the African Environment

Disease

Malaria and yellow fever

Plasmodium falciparum attacks central nervous system- cerebral malaria

Yellow fever has been far kinder to Africans but just as hard on outsiders as malaria

Diseases that primarily affect animals can still exert a powerful effect on human history, such as Trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)

Challenges of the African Environment

Economists interested in why some parts of the world are more economically developed than others concluded that Africa’s environment accounts for 2 - 4% drag on GDP

The African Environment in Global Perspective

Challenges posed by the African environment vary by region and reflect scale and diversity of the continent

Despite similarities of their environments, historical development of Australasia and Africa are quite different

The African Environment in Global Perspective

Other regions of Australasia follow historical trajectory similar to Africa’s

Java and Sumatra, like most of Africa, were close enough to Eurasia that they were able to participate in the exchange of ideas, crops, & technology for the last 6 or 7 thousand years in the Eastern hemisphere

The African Environment in Global Perspective

The part of the African continent with a history most like that of Australia is the distant southern tip of the continent.

Common misconception: the African environment is uniquely wild, pristine, and Edenic (untouched by humans)

The African Environment in Global Perspective

While Africa has many wild and sparsely inhabited places, these are no more characteristic of Africa than North America

Humans have lived in Africa longer than anywhere else in the world

Human impact on Africa’s environment is probably the same as on other continents