Africa In Fact: Most Pressing Issues

• lesser developed economies

• lack of infrastructure

• AIDS & pestilence (disease)

• weakened governments, ethnic conflict, & war

• famine, malnourishment, & hunger

1. Predict the population growth rate for all of Africa?
2. What can be determined about Africa’s level of economic development?
3. Predict: literacy levels, levels of infrastructure, & key economic activities
4. How could this pattern of population growth impact the future?
5. What kind of issues do Africans face today?
 Africa In Fact

• world’s fastest growing

rate
–3.5% growth rate (U.S. 1.38%)
–71% under the age of 25; 43% under
the age of 15
–14% of world’s population; 2050 it will
be 34%
 Africa In Fact

• poorest continent
–66% dependent upon
agriculture (subsistence)
–50% live on less than $1/day
–32 of 38 heavily indebted nations worldwide
(IMF-WB)
E
c
o
n
o
m
y
 ECONOMY
• traditional
• dependence on
cash crops
– problems with this?
• contributes less
than 1% of world’s
industrial
production
• In which activities should African
government invest to improve the
economy?
Economy: Women’s Contribution

• help grow
crops

• help run
local
markets
 Economy: Lack of Infrastructure
• infrastructure is essential for the
development and growth of a
society.
– crucial: power and water supply, transportation
systems, information & communication system
– connecting farmers with local & regional markets
– providing access to school and health care facilities
– infrastructure enables communities to prosper.
 Economy: Lack of Infrastructure
• businesses suffer for lack of reliable power for industrial processes
• millions of threatened daily for lack of clean water or safe sanitation
• “Modern infrastructure is the backbone of an economy and the lack
of it inhibits economic growth…”
• African countries have to spend $ to build up infrastructure to
develop the economy
• “investing more funds without tackling inefficiencies would be like
pouring water into a leaking bucket. Africa can plug those leaks
through reforms and policy improvements which will serve as a
signal to investors that Africa is ready for business.”

• http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/aicd/highlight/Highlight-test-03
 http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
• Almost one-
third of the
estimated 1.6
billion people
living without
access to
electricity
worldwide live
in Africa

• More than one

third of the
people living in
sub-Saharan Afr
ica
have no access
to electricity

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/energy/stories/one-third-of-sub-saharan-africa-lives-without-electricity
 DISEASE in Africa
• reduces the size the of the workforce
– skilled and unskilled.
• reduces the number of future skilled
workers.
– For example, the early death of adult parents often
means that teenagers have to bring up their younger
siblings (brothers and sisters) instead of continuing their
education. This in turn
• tears apart the family unit
– 11 million orphans created by AIDS/HIV
 Malaria
Malaria kills over one million people each year worldwide. More than
80 per cent of these deaths take place in Sub-Saharan Africa and most
are among children under five years of age. An African child dies of
malaria every 30 seconds.
 DISEASE in Africa: AIDS/HIV
• 2/3 of the world’s HIV cases in Africa.
• 83% of the AIDS deaths have been in
Africa, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa

– At least 95% of all AIDS orphans have been African.

– In 1998 wars in Africa killed 200,000 people. AIDS killed
2 million on the continent.
– In Africa, especially Southern Africa the average life
expectancy is only 48 years; this being largely because of
the AIDs epidemic.
 “HIV and AIDS
dramatically affect
labour, setting back
economic and social
progress. The vast
majority of people
living with HIV in
Africa are between
the ages of 15 and 49
- in the prime of their
working lives.”
http://www.avert.org/aids-impact-
africa.htm
 DARFUR

SUDAN

Boundary between white and all

races area - S. Africa
South
Africa

APARTHEID
 Apartheid
• an official policy of racial
segregation in South Africa
(1948-1994)

–political, legal, and economic discrimination

–against nonwhites
 PURPOSE OF APARTEID
PURPOSE
• whites feared blacks; a means
to control them
– no reason to treat them equally or fairly

RESULT
• legalized racism
– whites took the best land
– blacks forced to live in townships (“slums/ghettos”)
Reality of Apartheid

• separate facilities &

townships
• non-citizens
• extreme poverty
 Apartheid: The Downfall
• outside forces
• international
sanctions

• internal forces
• protests
Nelson Mandela
• fought to end apartheid:
– protest
– civil disobedience
– negotiation with white
governments

• imprisoned for several

decades

• 1st Black
President of
South Africa
 “On 26 April 1994 (19) millions
of black South Africans
turned out to vote in the
country's first multiracial
elections. The world was
captivated by images of
South Africans peacefully
lining up to vote for the
first time.”

• 91% VOTE
• 60% voted in the last 3 US
presidential elections
• map representing conflict death tolls between 1990
and 2007
• square area of continents/regions corresponds to
their proportion of conflict death tolls
 Conflict in Africa: Causes
• NOT the differences of the ethnic groups

• colonial past
– boundaries that ignored ethnic groupings
– Africans not a part of democratic process
– “divide-and-rule” policies
• failed governments
• high levels of poverty
– “The big brute fact is that civil war is heavily concentrated in countries with
low income, in economic decline, and dependent upon natural resources”
• dependence on natural resources
– “lootable” by rebels to fund the rebellion (“blood diamonds”)
 Conflict in Africa
• Uganda, Burundi, & Rwanda
– ethnocracy: “The Belgians considered the Tutsis to be superior
to the Hutus. Not surprisingly, the Tutsis welcomed this idea, and
for the next 20 years they enjoyed better jobs and educational
opportunities than their neighbours. “
– genocide: 100 days of mass murder of the Tutsis (&
moderate Hutus) by the Hutus in 1994

• LRA & “invisible children” of Uganda

– YouTube - I'm Like A Lawyer(Me and You) - Fall Out Boy music video

• Darfur
– http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/primer & YouTube - Darfur BBC report
– YouTube - Darfur Awareness Video

• Sierra Leone & blood diamonds

 FAMINE
• drought/weather conditions
• poor agricultural practices that make arable land infertile
• impact of HIV/AIDS
– killing off millions of Africa's most productive farmers
• armed conflict or political strife
– fighting not farming
– Armies consume the food & destroy fields
– Mass migration from an area of conflict to another, interrupting local farming patterns or
use of practices not conducive for the region
• inadequate economic policies
– low prices of African farm exports on the world market
– too little investment in farming inputs, rural infrastructure or
essential social services