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Africa:
I. Regions A. Northern Africa - Five countries, relatively homogeneous Islamic/ Arabic culture. Average income is triple the Sub-Saharan average, supported by mineral resources and convenient ports. B. West Africa - largest region in Sub-Saharan, including Nigeria and 16 other countries. C. Central Africa - dominated by D. R. Congo (former Zaire), has the lowest average income. D. Southern Africa - with mineral wealth and unique polity, Republic of South Africa is richest. E. East Africa - many troubled countries, some showing new signs of stability and growth under new political leadership. II. History A. Indigenous Cultures 1. Egyptians of the Old Kingdom - hieroglyphic writing, broad education, developed mathematics, plotted movement of stars and planets, prepared 365-day calendar, built massive stone monuments. 2. Kingdom of Kush - wealthy merchants of ebony, ivory, perfume, and gold. During the 8th century B.C., conquered Egypt and controlled N.E. Africa for 80 years. After retreat from Assyrians, discovered how to make iron for themselves; developed a major industry and spread technology to other regions of Africa. 3. Kingdom of Ghana- First major power of West Africa, based in modern Mauritania and Mali during 5th C., A.D. Most people were farmers, but wealth derived from gold mining and iron production. King regulated mining to maintain a high external prices. Iron production supported military power, tribute from neighbors. 4. Mali Empire - Replaced Ghana empire during 13th C; gaining control of the gold-salt trade. Led confederation of 3 states and 12 provinces.
5.
Songhai Kingdom
- Based on Niger River, gained control of gold-salt trade from Malis in
late 1300s. By end of 15th C., built largest empire known in W.
Africa. Established efficient provincial government and enforced system
of weights and measures. Timbuktu became center of Islamic learning. B. Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 1. Developed after Americas were discovered in 1492, native populations were decimated, and plantation agriculture created labor shortages. Slaves first exported from Africa to the West Indies in 1510. Continued more than three centuries. 2. Africa lost 23 million able-bodied men and women to the slave trade, including many skilled workers and craftsmen.
3. The trade was
abolished in England, the U.S., Holland, and France during the early
1800s, and strengthened the ban in 1842. Sierra Leone and Liberia provided
settlements for returning slaves. C. The Colonial Period 1. Short period of "legitimate" commerce between Africa and Europe during mid-1800s. 2. During 1870s-1890s, all African territories except Ethiopia and Liberia divided into 23 colonial possessions, held by 7 European countries. Africans adopted languages and legal systems colonizers. 3. Results of colonialism: a. Focus on low-cost extraction of primary products. Each colony became dependent on exports of a small number of commodities. b. Transport routes were built for a single purpose—to move the products of mines and plantations to their external destinations. c. Dual pattern of export enclaves in the center, migrant labor in periphery. d. Political boundaries ignored African ethnicities; interrupted indigenous nation-building. e. Little attention devoted to education of Africans. f. Little infrastructure built in rural areas, where most of the population lived.
D.
Independence, State Ownership, E. Socialism, Capitalism, and Authoritarianism III. Agriculture A. Farming Practices 1. Shifting cultivation 2. Settled cultivation
3. Colonial cash-crop
production B. Land Tenure Systems 1. Tribal communalism 2. European private ownership 3. Gradual transition to African private ownership IV. Industrial Organization and the Informal Sector V. The Labor Market VI. Debt, Poverty, and Structural Adjustment A. African leaders met in 1980, under the auspices of the Organization for African Unity, and formulated the (unsuccessful) Lagos Plan of Action: 1. achievement of food sufficiency through domestic food production; 2. satisfaction of critical needs for food, safe drinking water, clothing, housing, health care, education, and transport; 3. elimination or alleviation of poverty; and
4. achievement of
effective regional integration through national and collective
self-reliance. B. Structural Adjustment Programs 1. Exchange rate liberalization 2. Trade Liberalization a. From small “positive list” to small “negative list” b. Tariff simplification 3. Financial Liberalization—liberalize interest rates, make them positive for price rationing 4. Privatization and SOE Reform a. In Côte d'Ivoire, government accepted proposals from e private sector to purchase almost any SOE. b. Performance contract plans in Francofone countries. C. Performance of Structural Adjustment Programs 1. From the early 1980s to the years between 1987 and 1991, six countries that implemented SAPs most aggressively were able to raise their annual growth rates of GDP per capita from negative levels to a modest average of 1.1 percent. By 1996, per capita growth rates in these countries increased to a more respectable 2.0 percent. 2. Improvement in former-socialist Tanzania
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