Our World

3/20/2006

The trivia question today was, who is Kwame Nkrumah? He was the founder of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the leader of Ghana's independence movement, and also the first president of Ghana. We worked on the Sub-Saharan Political Map and took notes. Homework is to read pages 159-166 and finish political map. Notes are below:

Cultural Coherence and Diversity: Unity Through Adversity

• Language Patterns
  -Complex pattern includes local, African trade, and European and Asian languages
• African Language groups
  -3 groups unique to region: Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan
• Language and Identity
  -Ethnic identity in the region has been fluid
  -tribes: consist of a group of families or clans with a common kinship, language, and definable territory
• European Languages
  -Francophone, Anglophone-Also Afrikaans (Dutch-based) and Arabic

African Language Groups and Official Languages (Fig. 6.22)

• Religion
  -Indigenous religions tend to be animistic
• The Introduction and Spread of Christianity
  -Entered northeast Africa around 300 AD
  -Coptic Christians in Ethiopia and Eritrea, other Christians in Sudan
  -Dutch brought Calvinism to South Africa in the 1600s
• The Introduction and Spread of Islam
  -Introduced around 1,000 years ago
  -Today, orthodox Islam prevails in most of the Sahel
• Interaction Between Religious Traditions
  -Religious conflict most acute in northeastern Africa
  -Sudan: conflict between Muslims in north and Non-Muslims in south

Extent of Islam (Fig. 6.25)

• Globalization and African Culture
• Role of Slavery
  -Estimated 12 million were taken from Africa and sent to the western Hemisphere from 1500-1870
  -Enslaved Africans sent to Europe, North Africa, Southwest Asia
  -African rhythms found in music around the world

Geopolitical Framework: Legacies of Colonialism and Conflict
-Before the arrival of Europeans, Sub-Saharan Africa had a complex pattern of kingdoms, states, and tribal societies

• European Colonization
  -It took Europeans centuries to gain control of this region
• The Disease Factor
  -Malaria and other tropical diseases made it difficult for Europeans to establish colonies
  -Quinine made colonization possible
  -The wealth of the region made colonization desirable
• The Scramble for Africa
  -Berlin Conference: 13 European countries in 1884 divided and traded Sub-Saharan Africa; No African nations
  -Ethiopia remained unconquered
  

European Colonization in 1913 (Fig. 6.28) Geopolitical Framework: Legacies of Colonialism and Conflict (cont.)

• Establishment of South Africa (cont.)
  -Dutch (Boers) and British settlers conflicted
  -1948 Afrikaner’s (Dutch) National Party gained control of government
  ~Instituted Apartheid: formalized racial segregation
  >Petite, meso-, and grand apartheid
  >Homelands- nominally independent states for blacks
• Decolonization and Independence
  -Decolonization began in 1957
  -Organization of African Unity (OAU)- a continent-wide organization whose goal includes mediating disputes between neighboring states

posted by Anonymous @ 3/20/2006 07:34:00 PM