West Africa

West Africa

Landforms and Bodies of Water

1. The region has no major mountain ranges
2. Air Massif – group of mountains in central Niger where the Tuareg people graze their livestock
3. Tibesti Mountains – highest elevations in West Africa
4. Ennedi – desert plateau region
5. Jos Plateau – mostly open grassland and farmland
6. Fouta Djallon – highland region of savanna and deciduous forest
7. Guinea Highlands – densely forested region
8. Sengal River marks the border between the countries of Mauritania and Senegal
9. Black Volta River and the White Volta River originate in Burkina Fasso.
10. Akosomo Dam located where the two rivers meet.  Create Lake Volta
11. Provides irrigation and electrical needs
12. Lake Chad is also used for irrigation and electrical needs.
13. The Niger river – longest and most important river
14. During the rainy season it floods leaving fertile farmland
15. Benue River – joins the Niger and doubles its water volume
16. These two rivers provide water for irrigation and hydroelectric power
17. Main source of Mali’s fishing industry
18. Important transportation route

Climate

1. The climate of the region is diverse
2. Ranges from harsh, arid Sahara in the north to lush costal rain forests in the south
3. Between are vast stretches of grasslands
4. Key feature of the region is its distinct wet and dry seasons
5. From late November until mid-March, the Harmattan blows through the Sahara.
6. Rainfall in the region can range from 200 inches in some areas to as little as 20 inches a year.  This make life in the region difficult.

Resources

1. Nigeria – regions biggest producer of petroleum and natural gas
2. Chad – oil fields
3. Benin and Ghana have offshore oil fields
4. Ghana’s main source of electricity are two dams on the Volta River
5. Senegal River provides half the energy used in Mauritania
6. Toto and Nigeria also depend on hydroelectric power.

History of the Region

1. 10,000 years ago the Sahara looked more like a savannah than a desert.
2. Lakes, forests, large animals such as ostriches, giraffes, elephants, antelope, and rhinoceroses roamed the area.
3. As the area grew drier, people moved south.
4. Camels became important to the survival of the people.  They can carry heavy loads for long distances and can go for long periods without water.
5. They became the perfect domesticated animals for desert dwellers.
6. The Bantu people inhabited West Africa in Ancient times
7. 2,000 BC developed farming
8. 1000 BC a vast migration of Bantu people began
9. Wherever they moved to, they brought their culture.
10. For 1,000s of years, the Sahara was a barrier between West and North Africa.
11. 700 AD, Arabs controlled trade in the North.  They soon realized that West Africa offered opportunities for conversion to Islam.
12. The Berber People of North Africa, Almoravids – Fierce fighters that wanted to spread their faith.
13. Ghana was a powerful west African kingdom
14. Controlled gold-for-salt trade in the region
15. 1,000 AD the Almoravids conquered Ghana
16. Their rule brought about a decline in this kingdom
17. Desertification, lack of trade, and famine ruined the once thriving area.
18. Mali grew rich from the gold-for-salt trade after the decline of Ghana
19. It reached its height under the emperor Mansa Musa
20. Became a center for Islamic culture.
21. During the emperor’s pilgrimage to mecca the world learned of the powerful Mali empire.
22. Songhai replace Mali
23. A strong army and navy controlled the Niger River and trade in the region.
24. It also became a center for Islamic learning
25. It fell to the Moroccans by the end of the 1500s

Slavery in the Region

1. Slavery had been practiced in Africa for centuries.
2. Muslims from North Africa and Asia had bought enslaved people from south of the Sahara.
3. European colonists began to buy slaves to do the work in their colonies in the Western Hemisphere.
4. Small African kingdoms along the Atlantic coast became highly profitable in these kingdoms.
5. When Europeans outlawed the slave trade, the kingdom’s economies began to fail.

European Domination
What were some of the factors that aroused European interest in exploring and colonizing Africa?

1. 1807 – the British outlawed the slave trade
2. 1787 – Sierra Leone – a safe haven for runaway or freed enslaved persons.
3. 1822 – Liberia – founded by Americans as a home for freed American slaves.
4. To make up for the loss of revenue from the slave trade, Britain started to develop and then profit from the palm oil trade.
5. 1869 – Suez Canal opened and Diamonds found in South Africa
6. These two events increased European interest in the area.

Imperialism

1. Imperialism – the practice of seizing control of other places to create an empire.
2. 1884-1885 Berlin Conference to divide up Africa
3. Some colonies were ruled more harshly than others.
4. Settlers could force Africans off the best lands
5. Africans resisted violently, but to no avail.

Independence
1957

1. Ghana became and independent states.  Was the Gold Boast under British Rule
2. For many years it was troubled by conflict.
3. 1992 – adopted a new constitution.
4. Has become a model of political reform in West Africa

1960

1. Mauritania
2. Niger
3. Cote D’lvoire
4. Gamiba
5. Burkina Faso
6. Declared independence from France
7. 1914 – British combined the Igbo – Christian tribes in the south, and the Hausa – Muslim tribe in the North, into one country under the Nigerian Protectorate.
8. When Nigeria gained independence in 1960, tensions flared.
9. Thousands of Igbo in northern Nigeria were massacred.
10. 1967 – The eastern region became the republic of Baifra (they seceded, or withdrew formally)
11. Military forces invaded and reclaimed the region.
12. Millions of people were killed and the area was left in ruins.
13. Since then, Nigeria has been mostly under military rule.
14. 1978-consitution was written
15. 1999 – the first democratically elected president ruled the region.
16. Liberia and Sierra Leone have also been plagued by civil war and military coups.
17. Ethnic conflict in the region has been rampart.
18. 50,000 people lost their lives and 2 million people lost their homes in civil war and destruction.

Life in West Africa

1. Independence from colonial rule did not lead to peace.
2. Most countries maintained their colonial borders after independence.
3. This lead to ethnic strife in the region.
4. People in this region tend to identify more with their ethnic background than their national background.
5. Members of the same ethnic group may live in multiple countries.

Languages

1. Most independent countries continue to use the languages brought in by the colonist to this day for business and government.
2. Arabic is often a national language.
3. Most ethnic groups use their traditional African languages in the region.
4. This has created a pidgin language.  A simplified language used by people who cannot speak each other’s languages but need to communicate.
5. When two or more languages combine to create a new language it is called a creole language.

Religion

1. Islam was established in many parts of western Africa
2. In some parts, Christianity is also a prevalent religion.
3. Many other people continue to practice traditional African religions.
4. Animasts – people who believe a supreme creator or god created all things.  They believe in spirits – the spirits of their ancestors, the air, the earth, and rivers.

Settlement

1. The air is traditionally made up of scattered villages.
2. They are homesteads of extended families – families made up of parents, children, and other close relatives.
3. Population density is dependent on land sustainability.
4. In the north, density is low due to water shortages.
5. Most large cities are capital cities.
6. The largest city in West Africa is Lago, Nigeria with 10.5million people.

Culture and Arts

1. The area is cultural diverse.
2. Mali, Mauritania, and Niger are influenced by North Africa
3. People in cities are influenced by western culture
4. Village life is traditional to African culture.
5. Cities are ethnically diverse
6. Ethnic pride still causes conflict in rural areas.
7. Dance is used for healing
8. Music blends many sounds and combines traditional and modern instruments.

Challenges Facing the Region

1. Infrastructure – underlying framework of an area
2. Europeans did not invest in infrastructure in the area.
3. They also concentrated their development of the colonial economies around minimal resources.
4. Therefore, the area needs to develop additional resources and develop infrastructure in order for their economies to be successful.
5. Foreign investments in the area did not help.
6. They lead to corruption and mismanagement of funds and increased debt in the area.
7. Debt relief provided by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have been very important to the stabilization of the region.

HIV/AIDS and Education

1. Sub-Saharan Africa holds 22.9 million of the 34 million people in the world living with HIV or Aids.
2. People dealing with the disease have several challenges.
3. West Africa’s population is growing quickly.
4. The educational system must also grow to meet the needs of new generations.
5. A lack of funding for education means that some countries cannot afford to make update or improvements to their schools.