Central Africa

Central Africa

Basic Geography

• Africa as a whole has two major distinct regions: North Africa (‘Arab Africa’) and Sub-Saharan Africa (‘Black Africa’).

• Sub-Saharan Africa is comprised of traditional African cultures and societies. North Africa, on the other hand is claimed to be dominated by the Arab culture & language. The 'Arab' people are culturally and socially are not African, with their roots in western Asia (Middle East

Sudan

• Sudan, once the largest and one of the most geographically diverse states in Africa, split into two countries in July 2011 after the people of the south voted for independence.

• The government of Sudan gave its blessing to an independent South Sudan, where the mainly Christian and Animist people had for decades been struggling against rule by the Arab Muslim north

Cameroon

• Cameroon, in West Africa, is a mixture of desert plains in the north, mountains in the central regions, and tropical rain forests in the south.

• Approximately 250 ethnic groups speaking about 270 languages and dialects make Cameroon a remarkably diverse country.

• The Republic of Cameroon is a union of two former United Nations trust territories—French Cameroon, which became independent in 1960, and southern British Cameroons

Fill in the Blank

The Congo __________ is the second largest in the world behind that of the Amazon.

The Congo River Basin (Rainforest)

•  At 500 million acres, it is larger than the state of Alaska and stands as the world’s second-largest tropical forest

• A mosaic of rivers, forests, savannas, swamps and flooded forests, the Congo Basin is teeming with life. Gorillas, elephants and buffalo all call the region home. 

• The Congo Basin has been inhabited by humans for more than 50,000 years and it provides food, fresh water and shelter to more than 75 million people.

Congo Rainforest

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7LgCOBrK1U

Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C)

• DR Congo is a vast country with immense economic resources and, until recently, has been at the centre of what some observers call "Africa's world war", with widespread civilian suffering the result.

• The war claimed an up to six million lives, either as a direct result of fighting or because of disease and malnutrition.

• Some militias fight on in the east, where a large United Nations force is struggling to keep the peace.