Introduction to facts on Africa

0 Comments

The search for the origin and meaning of the word Africa goes back into ancient times. In the antiquity, Africa referred only to the area of today's Tunisia and the rest of the continent was called Libya. The name came from general Scipio Africanus (who then conquered Carthage). The name could be derived from a local trunk, or be based on Phoenician afar (dust), Greek aphrike (warm) or Latin aprica (sunny). The Latin word Afer ( plural: Afri ) which could be likened to " African, Carthaginian " is more likely to be the accepted, core-root of the coining of the word Africa.

The primary fact about Africa is that it is not a country, it is a continent. Unfortunately, many Westerners tend to regard or relate to Africans as people from one country. Africa is known as the "birth place of the human race." According to anthropologists, archaeologists and historians, the oldest evidence that supports the existence of human like creatures and people on earth came from bone and fossil materials discovered in parts of eastern and southern Africa.

It is from this evidence that most scientists reached the conclusion that the cradle of mankind is in parts of eastern Africa, and that its origin dates back to two and half million years ago. Africa is the second largest continent in size after Asia, and the third largest in population next to Asia and Europe. Africa covers almost one fifth of the world's land mass and is home to about eight of the world's population. The continent contains fifty-one independent countries and several other political units such as the Canary Islands, Madeira Islands, Reunion, Western Sahara, etc. Namibia (former southwest Africa) is the most recent independent African country.

The countries that make up the African continent vary in size and population. Sudan is the largest country, and the Island of Seychelles is the smallest. Nigeria is the most heavily populated African country, its estimated population is over 115 million people. Most other countries in Africa have populations under 5 million each.

The World Book Encyclopaedia described Africa as "a land of striking contrasts and great natural wonders."3 It contains vast areas of tropical rain forests, great tree tops and vegetation that shape into a "thick green canopy," the world's largest desert – the Sahara, the world's longest river - the Nile, and a great variety of animals and plants, some of which are native only to Africa.

The peoples of Africa
The population of Africa is over 700 million. The variety of people that inhabit Africa reflect the nature of the continent. Africans belong to a variety of racial, ethnic, language and religious groups.

Racial Groups
There are four main geographical racial groups in Africa, namely, (1) African geographical race, (2) the European geographical race, (3) the Asian geographical race, and (4) the Indian geographical race.4

In the first group are Black Africans who are native to the African continent. They are greater in population than the other geographical racial groups combined, and account for over "75 percent of the continents total population." The tallest and shortest people in the world belong to this race. They are the Nilotes who are as tall as 7 feet (210 centimetres) and the so- called Pygmies whose height range from 4 feet to 4 feet 8 inches (120 – 142 centimetres).

The second geographical race are the Europeans who in the 1600's migrated and settled in parts of Africa. There are at present about 4 to 5 million European Africans whose ancestral origins are British, Dutch, French or Portuguese. Most of them live in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

The third geographical race are the Asians whose ancestors migrated to the African island of Madagascar from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.5 Their population is about 21/2 million. The fourth geographical race are Indians whose ancestors came to Africa in the 1800's as indentured British subjects. There are about one million of them in the southern and eastern parts of Africa.

There is actually a fifth racial group but scientists seem to disagree on their classification. They are the Arabs and Berbers of North Africa. They constitute the major ethnic groups in the northern part of Africa. There are about 80 million Arabs inhabiting the countries of Egypt, Libya and northern Sudan, and 20 million Berbers who live in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The dominant geographical race, the Black Africans occupy mostly south of the Sahara, and consists of over 800 ethnic groups amongst them.

Ways of life
A greater majority of the people in Africa, especially Africa south of the Sahara live in rural areas (estimated figure is 65%). The structure of rural housing varies from country to country and community to community according to the climate, lifestyle and customs. Most houses are built of sun dried mud with roofs of thatches or straw, burnt brick and concrete blocks with sheet metal/zinc roofs.

City life
About 35% of the people in Africa live in cities. And city life styles vary widely from country to country, region to region and metropolis to metropolis. In most cities the architectural patterns reflect both African and European modern styles. Most people in the cities enjoy a higher standard of living as there are better opportunities for well-paying jobs in government, business, industry and public schools.

People who are wealthy and can afford it live in luxury apartments/flats or privately owned modern houses. A good number of cities in Africa, (again, this varies from country to country), have serious problems in providing sufficient housing and efficient public transportation systems. There are also serious water supply problems, sewerage and constant power failures. Because of the sharp increase in the number of rural people migrating to the cities, unemployment has also become a major headache.

Economy - Agriculture
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy of most African countries. In spite of the abundant untilled arable land, there have been persistent shortages of food and raw materials with declining agricultural exports. Nevertheless, African countries still lead the world in the production and export of cash crops like groundnut (peanut), palm oil and kernels, cocoa beans, cassava, cashews, vanilla beans, cloves and yams.Other major products are coffee, tea, cotton, bananas, rubber, sugar and sisal. Livestock is also important branch of agriculture. African countries produce two-thirds of the world's camels, almost a third of its goats, and about seventh of its cattle and sheep.6

In most countries of Africa, land is collectively owned, and small portions are parcelled to individual members of the community for their own use. This is why over half of the arable land in most areas is cultivated mainly for subsistence agriculture. On the whole, agricultural production in Africa is very low. A lot of factors are responsible for the low productivity of food. Some examples are lack of modern tools and equipment, and use of inefficient farming methods. In some areas, most of the soil is poor, and heavy rains in other parts wash away precious top soil. Also, periodic droughts and floods destroy crops and reduce their yields.

Minerals and Mining
 

Africa has an abundance of mineral wealth. The industries of the Western world depend heavily on a wide range of strategic minerals obtained from Africa. Very little of Africa's great mineral wealth goes to local industrialization. Africa's reserve of the world's important mineral wealth is enormous. "Africa has 90% of the world's cobalt, 80% of the world's reserves of chrome, more than 50% of the reserves of gold, nearly half of the planet's reserves of platinum,"

Africa's fuel mineral is also enormous. It has a third of the world's reserves of uranium, leads the world in the production of copper, phosphates, and radium. The continent's share of natural gas is growing fast, iron ore and tin are also produced in commercial quantities. Four African countries, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, and Gabon are members of the OPEC. South Africa is the world's largest producer of gem diamonds.In terms of other  minerals, Africa has 80% of the world's tantalum, its share of precious stones are diverse, ranging from sapphires to topaz, from malachite to opal, from rubies to tanzanite

The Western world is prime beneficiary of Africa's great mineral wealth. Mining provides about half the total value of Africa's exports, and it is dominated by the West's multi national corporations. The reason for this is because mining is capital and skill intensive. And in the absence of adequate local technological and managerial skills mining in Africa continues to be the preserve of the Westerners. Today, if Africa's mineral and mining resources were to be denied the world, the industries of the Western world would virtually collapse.

Manufacturing
his aspect of Africa's economy is not very well developed. In colonial times, emphasis was placed in the production of agricultural and mineral raw materials for industries in the West. Today, new African nations that have emerged from the yoke of colonialism still cannot afford to build expensive modern industries. And in places where attempts have been made, American and European industries have tried to discourage industrial growth in Africa.

In spite of the above, a lot of African countries have developed small industries that produce mainly consumer goods such as canned foods, cigarettes, beer, wine, hot drinks, furniture, shoes, soap, toiletries, and soft drinks. There are also factories that produce textiles and automobile parts. The most industrialized economy in Africa is South Africa. Other important and leading industrial economies of Africa are Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco.

Forestry & Fishing
frica has vast quantity of the world's forests. But only a small portion of it is used for lumbering, timber, plywood, and paper products. Africa's most valuable trees include such hardwoods as African walnut, mahogany, ebony, redwood, obéché, and iroko. Soft woods include eucalyptus, satinwood and okoumé. These African countries have an active forest industry; Nigeria, Congo, Cameroon, Ghana, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Zaire.

The Fishing industry is reasonably well developed, and much of it is done along the sea coasts. Fishing provides much of the needed protein diet food in many African countries. The export part of the fishing industry is mostly in the form of fish oil and fish food.

Transportation
well developed transportation system is a prerequisite for a prosperous economy. Most African countries don't have good roads. Africa has more than 8,000,000 miles (1,300,000 kilometres) of roads but only a small portion of them are paved and motorable all year round. In many areas, roads became impassable when the rainy season comes. In many parts of Africa, cars, buses and trucks are the means of transporting people, goods and services from city to city, town to town and village to village. Many people in the villages and cities also prefer to walk or ride bicycles. In other parts, north of the Sahara, donkeys and camels are used on a regular basis to transport goods and people. The railway system is very much developed in many parts of Africa.There are about 59,000 miles (95,000 kilometres) of railroad tracks in Africa. In African countries like Nigeria, railroads are falling into disuse because land transportation appears to be faster and more efficient.

Communication
Most African cities have well developed and efficient communication services. The same cannot be said for the rural areas. There are lots of locally published newspapers and magazines. And large quantities of them are also supplied to major cities in Africa from Europe and the United States of America.

Many African countries provide television services and most of them are state owned. Few Africans own TV sets, and those who own one are mostly in the cities. For the rural areas, radio appears to be the chief means of mass communication. While about 30 African countries provide TV services, every African country has a radio station. Even the remotest parts of Africa have radios and most people listen to news programs and world events.

Telephone service in Africa is not as common as it is in the Western countries. The supply of telephone service is limited to the cities and major towns. African countries such as Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa have most of the telephones in Africa. One remarkable fact is that telephone service between Europe, North American and Africa is efficient and more accessible than between African countries or within African cities.

International Trade
International trade plays a major role in the economy of African countries. Africa exports about one quarter of its total production, and its chief trading partners are Europe, North America and Japan. Ironically, very few African countries trade with one another. Perhaps, this is because the economy of all African countries is tied to the group of seven industrially developed nations. The major imports to Africa are food, machinery, finished products of all kinds and textiles.

Africa's major exports are petroleum, gold, gem diamonds, copper, uranium, coffee, cotton and cocoa. The economy of some African countries is tied to one major export. For instance, Nigeria and Libya produce mainly petroleum, Ghana is dependent on cocoa, Gambia on peanuts and Zambia on copper. This kind of situation renders these African countries helpless when there is a sudden change in world market prices. And it makes long term economic and development planning difficult. African countries should join hands and be very active in international efforts to control price fluctuations and stabilize trade terms. Nigeria, Libya, Gabon and Algeria are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – an association of oil-producing countries that try to control the world market price of oil.

 There is a lot more that should be written on all the issues reviewed in this historical overview, after all, Africa is a continent and not a country. But the scope of this project necessitates limiting the extent and depth of coverage of the issues presented.

Africans In Early Europe II

Add comment

You agree to our Comment Policy

Name (required)

E-mail (required)

Website

Title (required)

Notify me of follow-up comments

Refresh

Send

Cancel

JComments