AFRI 101-001 INTRODUCTION TO AFRICA Professor Nzongola Fall 2008 COURSE OUTLINE LESSON 1: THE GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA PART ONE: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY Africa as the World’s Second Largest Continent Area: 30,335,000 sq. km or 11,712,434 sq. miles; second largest continent after Asia Major Physical Features (Map 2.1 in Gordon & Gordon, p. 17) Africa’s topography is less extreme than that of other continents, with the core of the continent being a massive plateau of ancient rocks Mountainous areas: Atlas Mountains, the Highlands of Eritrea and Ethiopia, the Great Rift Valley (in which Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa), and the Great Escarpment Deserts: the Sahara (including the Libyan Desert), the Kalahari, and the Namib The Sahel (Arabic for “border”): semi-arid region between the Sahara and the rain forest Major Rivers: the Nile, the Congo, the Niger, the Zambezi, the Volta, the Limpopo, the Orange Major Lakes: Victoria, Tanganyika, Malawi or Nyasa, Chad, Albert, Edward, Kivu, Mweru, and two human-made lakes: Kariba on the Zambezi and Nasser on the Nile The ITCZ as the main meteorological phenomenon responsible for rainmaking in the tropical world; and the impact of its north-south movement on seasonal variation in Africa. Africa’s climatic extremes Environmental Challenges for Africa’s Development Discussion of the last section of Ch. 2 in G&G PART TWO: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY Africa as the World’s Second Most Populous Continent Population: 922 million in 2005; second only to Asia. But more people live in India alone than in all of Africa. Africa as the cradle of humanity How Africa became black (Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, Ch. 19) Bantu Expansion in Central, East and Southern Africa Bantu Africa and its Civilizations North and Northeast Africa as Melting Pots Peoples and Cultures of West Africa The Contemporary Map of Africa: Countries and Capitals (Map 2.6 in G&G, p. 22) Knowledge...