Why sub saharan africa

Warming temperatures due to global changes in climate can change precipitation patterns and increase the speed of evaporation. Desertification in the Sahel has caused the Sahara to expand and has led to conflict as northern farmers have migrated to the south in search of fertile soil.

In addition to an array of landforms from rift valleys to mountains to deserts, Sub-Saharan Africa contains a wide variety of climate zones and precipitation patterns. In general, the continent is relatively hot with temperate climates in the higher elevations. Some areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the tropical rainforests of West Africa, receive upwards of 3, mm inches of rain each year, while other areas such as the Namib Desert receive less than 10 mm 0.

Africa has a long history of human habitation giving rise to numerous cultural and linguistic groups. Early humans were primarily gatherers, and there is evidence of people gathering nuts, grasses, and tubers around 16, BCE in the highlands of Northern Ethiopia.

Around 10, years ago, the domestication of the first crops and livestock developed in Africa and the practice of settled agriculture began. In pre-colonial Africa, women were, and still are in many areas, the primary agriculturalists. It was the responsibility of women to understand the seasonality of crops and this, along with the role of bearing and rearing children, gave women an important role in African society.

Many early religions placed a strong emphasis on female goddesses reflecting the central role of women in society. Men were primarily the hunters and gatherers.

For early Africans, the family was the basic and most important social unit. It was the family unit that owned and accessed land rather than individuals. Furthermore, land could not be bought or sold, but instead was passed down through the tradition of partible inheritance, meaning land is divided among the heirs. Elsewhere in the world, such as in the United Kingdom for much of its history, land was passed down to the firstborn male, known as primogeniture.

With partible inheritance, however, no landed aristocracy developed since every male was given an equal share rather than just the firstborn. If the family was the basic social unit in African society, it was the extended family that was the most important politically. Tribes , consisting of groups of families united by a common ancestry and language, controlled distinct tracts of territory.

In pre-colonial Africa, there were over distinct ethnic regions — and some of the ethnic regions identified by anthropologists actually had multiple distinct cultural groups within them.

Tribal groups sometimes coexisted peacefully, and other times, warred over territory. Pre-colonial Africa was also the site of a number of large empires see Figure 6. The rulers of the kingdom minted their own currency, built religious monuments, and established trading routes. The Empire of Ghana had a large capital city, markets, and a system of taxation. The second was the start of the transatlantic slave trade in the 15th century CE.

Slavery was present in Africa long before European conquest, however. In some pre-colonial African societies, as in other parts of the world, slavery was a part of the local community. Slaves might be taken from conquered groups or given as gifts. In general, though, slavery represented a relatively small segment of ancient African society and economy.

European contact with Africa was initially focused on establishing a port along the West African coast, a place to resupply along the long trip to South and Southeast Asia. Beginning in the 15th century, however, this objective shifted to gaining resources. Portugal was the first of the Europeans to begin buying enslaved Africans.

Portugal then brought in slaves to help cultivate the sugar. The Spanish then began buying slaves to send to the New World in the early 16th century, bringing them first to the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. Initially, Europeans raided coastal African villages in order to secure slaves, but over time, began purchasing slaves from African rulers and traders. Europeans developed military alliances and beneficial trading partnerships with some of these groups to ensure a steady supply of slaves.

By CE, around 50, slaves were being shipped out of Africa each year, and though it is difficult to know the exact total number of people sold into slavery, it is estimated that around 12 million Africans were shipped to the New World.

During this time, many African groups practiced a form of agriculture known as shifting cultivation , where one area of land is farmed for a period of time and then abandoned until its fertility naturally restores. Eventually, farmers return to the abandoned plot of land after many years, which is now overgrown, and often burn the vegetation, known as slash-and-burn, in order to return the nutrients to the soil. Because of this, much of the land in Africa looked unused, but was actually part of a larger agricultural system.

Colonial empires took over these fragments of unused land to set up their own agricultural systems. For some time, European empires had this relatively piecemeal approach to Africa, taking resources, land, and slaves without directly controlling territory. Europeans had little interest in the interior of Africa and were primarily focused on the coastal areas. This would completely change beginning in the late 19th century as European powers scrambled for control of the continent.

As the Industrial Revolution was spreading across Europe, colonial empires were seeking to expand their colonial holdings in order to gain mineral resources and expand agricultural production. As Europeans began exploring the interior of Africa, and recognized its resource potential, competition among European empires grew fierce.

France, Italy, Britain, Portugal, and Belgium all raced through the interior of Africa trying to expand and strengthen their territories. Increasing international concerns over global food security are driving the development of African arable land and investment in agricultural infrastructure and associated industries, with significant investment from sovereign wealth funds via the Gulf Arab states.

Your privacy is important to us. Trade and Investment Queensland collects your personal information and handles it in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By submitting this form, you are agreeing to this policy. You can unsubscribe at any point by emailing privacy tiq. Economy Despite a recent slowdown due to the sharp decline in global commodity prices, regional economic growth is forecast to pick up to 3.

In Kenya , in March , President Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga reached an agreement known as the "handshake", which ended the blockade after the presidential elections in The KAS's work in Kenya focuses on the promotion and consolidation of democracy, the decentralization process initiated by the new constitution, the strengthening of civil society and the promotion of the social market economy.

Examples of democratic renewal can be found in southern Africa. Presidents or dictators who ruled for decades were forced to resign along with their patronage networks in order to make room for democratic reforms e. Especially in connection with the "election year " with presidential and parliamentary elections in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi, new starting points for the work of the KAS arise.

In Zimbabwe , the political and economic situation remains volatile in the second year after the fall of Mugabe. Nevertheless, KAS country office makes use of the new political space in order to carry out political education work with new cooperation partners, e.

In addition, measures in the area of the social market economy are increasingly being implemented. Although the political situation in Namibia is largely stable, the economic situation is stagnant with high unemployment and social inequality. The work of the KAS focuses on the one hand on the area of parliamentary cooperation and on the other hand on the promotion of women.

Another focus is on regional integration. South Africa is regarded in many respects as the engine for the African region. It is precisely for this reason that it is important to promote regional networking in order to be able to deal efficiently with transnational issues.

Our work focuses on political education, constitutional development, promotion of the multi-party system, social coherence and, through a liaison office in Cape Town, cooperation with parliament. Head of the Department Sub-Saharan Africa. Africa - European and International Cooperation. Sub-Saharan Africa. Please click here to view the contents.

Join our discussion under AfricanDemocracy on Facebook and Twitter. Print Send via mail Share. Notwithstanding regression in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia, for example, Africa as a whole has become politically more open; the participation of the people in political processes through elections has increased. Political transformation has tended to have little effect effect on the accountability of regimes; many political systems continue to be characterized by neopatrimonialism.

The policies and service delivery undertaken by African countries have been inadequate. This is true both of basic social and economic services and of governance in the security sphere.