Africa Video Facts

Last class, we watched the Deserts of the worls Video that focused on African deserts, and specifically the Sahara. Here are a few notes from the movie to keep in mind for the map quiz and the final exam.

>The Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert is a great desert area, North Africa, the West portion of the broad belt of parched land that extends from the Atlantic Ocean eastward past the Red Sea to Iraq. The entire desert, the largest in the world, is about 1600 km wide and about 5000 km long from East to West.

The total domain of the Sahara Desert is more than 9,000,000 sq. km, more than 3,500,000 square miles. Of which some 200,000 square km. Some 80,000 square miles, consist of partially fertile oases.

>The Nile River
Unlike most rivers, the Nile is North flowing. The valley of the Nile River and the mountainous area of the Nubian Desert to the East of the Nile are geographically, part of the Sahara. However, the irrigation afforded by the Nile transforms the desert into fertile agricultural land throughout much of Egypt.

The Nile still supports much of the population living along its banks, with the Egyptians living in otherwise inhospitable regions of the Sahara. The river flooded every summer, depositing fertile silt on the plains. The flow of the river is disturbed at several points by cataracts, which are sections of faster-flowing water with many small islands, shallow water, and rocks, forming an obstacle to navigation by boats. The Sudd wetlands in Sudan an obstacle for navigation and flow of water.

>Importance of Ports

With Africa being such an expansive continent, one will notice an interesting trend in the shapes of the African countries. Many of them have a narrow band of land to enable them to have a seaport. This enables them to participate in international commerce without paying tariffs/ fees to other countries.

>Mt. Kilimanjaro

Due to Kilimanjaro's equatorial location and high elevation, almost every climate type on earth is represented, including a year-round snow-topped summit.

The summit of Kilimanjaro is covered by a GSM mobile phone network, and was previously the highest point in the world with mobile phone service.

Kilimanjaro with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is an inactive stratovolcano in north-eastern Tanzania rising 15,100 ft from its base and approximately 16,700 ft from the plains near Moshi. This is the highest peak in Africa at 19,330 ft, providing a panoramic view of the surrounding area.

>Conflict in Africa

There are two main causes of the conflicts that arise on the African continent. One is due to the political boundaries of countries that we arbitrarily founded by outside parties. This has led to many cultures and tribes being poorly defined.

In addition, while the African continent is very resource rich, those resources are not equally distributed. The conflict in the DRC (formerly known as Zaire) has involved seven nations. There have been a number of complex reasons, including conflicts over basic resources such as water, access and control over rich minerals and other resources and various political agendas. This has been fueled and supported by various national and international corporations and other regimes which have an interest in the outcome of the conflict.

If you have any questions regarding these 5 topics, please email me at tsilwick@yahoo.com