2. Outline
Facts and Statistics
Contemporary Africa
Colonialism
The Scramble For Africa
Decolonization
Redrawing the Map of Africa
3. Facts & Statistics of Africa
The second largest Continent on Earth covering an area of approximately 11,724,000 square
miles (30,365,000 square km)2010 Population Estimated at
surrounded by the Mediterranean to the North, Both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea
alongside the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, The Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the
Atlantic Ocean to the west
Africa is a land that encompasses a number of varying Landscapes each with their own
unique climate and Ecology
Africa has widely been accepted by Scientists to be the origin of Homo Sapiens some 200, 000
Years ago
4. Contemporary
Africa
Africa today consists of 54 sovereign
states.
The total Population of Africa
equaled 1,022,234 000 (2009)
At the national level, the languages
of Africa is largely distributed
between seven official languages.
While countries do possess native
African languages as co- official, the
Majority of recognized languages
consists of English, French, Spanish,
Portuguese, Arabic, Afrikaans,
Swahili.
Christianity and Islam, as well as
small pockets of traditional African
religions make up the religious
make up of contemporary Africa
Things to consider……..
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Re
ligion_distribution_Africa_crop.png
http://www.zonu.com/fullsize-en/2009-11-18-
11151/Official-languages-in-Africa.html
5. History of Africa:
Colonialism
The roots of African Colonization by Europeans can be traced back to the 15 th century with the arrival of
Portuguese explorers attempting to find a trade route to India
Many other European powers including, the Spanish, the French, the Dutch and the British would follow
suit between the 15th and 18th century and began exploring The coastal areas of Western Africa
The exploration of coastal regions of Africa gave way to the Atlantic slave trade in which hundreds of
thousands of Africans from various tribes and kingdoms were systematically captured and taken by
European settlers and brought to the new world in order to be used as labour to expropriate natural
resources for the emerging European powers.
The African slave trade was the first step in how the Map of Africa would be redrawn from its original state
at the hands of European colonizers.
The slave trade was abolished in the mid to late 19th century by European powers.
The slave trade allowed European powers to expand their economies and form into Capitalist societies at
the hands of the African people.
Marx argued that the slave trade was part of what he termed the 'primitive accumulation' of European
capital, the 'non-capitalist' accumulation of wealth that preceded and created the financial conditions for
Britain's industrialization
6. The Scramble
for Africa
The scramble for Africa was the process
of invasion, occupation, colonization and
annexation of African territories by
European imperial powers
The scramble for Africa between 1880-
1914.
As trade no longer became exclusive
along the coast, European powers began
expropriating resources within the
interior of Africa
In 1879 over 90 percent of Africa was
ruled by Africans. By 1900, all but a tiny
fraction of Africa was governed by
Europeans.
In 1884, The berlin conference divided
Africa up between imperial powers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu6-
TLC0NRQ&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL
CA66B1335CC7CC36
7. The Impact of Colonialism in Africa
The immediate effects of colonialism in Africa was the depletion of natural resources and raw
materials for the benefit of Europeans powers at the expense of African societies.
At the linguistic level, Regions of Africa under imperial control were Promoted to speak the
imperial powers respective language. The standardization of imperial languages over African
peoples native tongue would have an irreversible effect on their language resulting in the loss
and extinction of hundreds of African languages
At the religious level, Christian Missionaries brought education, literacy and hope for the
disadvantaged. However, the spread of Christianity in its rigid European form, denied people
pride in their culture and ceremonies. Christianity's ability to spread across the masses led to
the decline of traditional African religions
At the Cultural Level, Europeans desire to alter the physical landscape in order to create a
desired landscape would displace native African tribes and kingdoms, who’s languages,
beliefs, customs, traditions, and religions relied and were fundamental to there cultures.
8. Impact of
Decolonization
The demise of European imperial
powers at the end of World War II
began the process of decolonization
Growing resentment in Africa
towards colonialism led to a stream
of uprising movements such as the
Mau Mau uprising
As colonial regions won
independence, arbitrary lines of
demarcation that overlooked,
linguistic, ethnic and religious
differences were established by
colonial rulers.
Civil war, military dictatorships
economic and social opression
would be the outcome.
The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 is a
prime example of an ethnic conflict
directly linked to Colonial influence.
9. Redrawing the
map of Africa
Constant contact with influence of
civilizations from outside of Africa
have made it near to impossible to
envision an accurate remapping of
Africa.
Africa is a continent Rich in
diversity
Africa Contains thousands of
different languages, Hundreds of
traditional African religions as well
as hundreds of different ethnicities.
The most effective way of redrawing
the map of Africa is to map each of
these contributing factors and
attempt to combine them with equal
consideration into a nation
http://worldmap.harvard.edu/africa
map/
