Africa By Kofi Awoonor Analysis

Africa is the second largest of the earth's seven continents, covering about twenty-two percent of the world's total land area. From its northern most point, to its southern most tip is the distance of nearly five thousand miles. Africa is both north and south of the equator. The Atlantic Ocean is located west of the continent, and the Indian Ocean is on the east. Width of the continent is also nearly five thousand miles. Although Africa is so large, much of it is inhabitable. Desert soils, which have little organic content, cover large areas. The Sahara Desert, in the northern part, covers more than one fourth of Africa, and the Kalahari Desert is in the southern part of the continent. These two deserts are a

The Scramble for Africa, taking place nearly three decades after the Berlin Conference regarding Africa, was an event where several, major European powers attempted to colonize areas in Africa. As European powers tried to enforce this imperialism, they were met with heavy resistance from the Africans, violently and non-violently, however some chose to give in to European demands; Document 5 is an example of the violent resistance from the natives of Africa while Document 2 shows non-violent resistance by co-operating with the British, and Document 1 gives an example of submission to the British through a contract of sorts. The Berlin Conference marked the beginning of the “Conquest of Africa”. This conquest partitioned Africa into territories

Sub-Saharan Africa, being a tropical region, ranks as one of the hottest regions on earth. This area receives more solar insulation than several other tropical regions. Thanks to technological advancements, hot temperatures do not cause a serious problem in the developed world. In these developed areas, heat only causes problems when power supply has been knocked out by storms or other hard-to-avoid occurrences. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, millions of people do not have access to electricity from grid connections. This means that these persons live in one of the earth’s hottest regions, yet have restricted access to the technologies that would have made life bearable.

James Tooley responded to the question of, will money solve Africa’s problems, by responding with, Yes it will. (Tooley 9) Tooley uses his response to convince his audience of his view of only letting individuals invest in the African school system. At the end of his response he says that the rich need to send money to the poor through charities and buying African made objects. (Tooley 9)

Belonging to a group and possessing some form of identity has been the drive to keep people unified within nations. As Empires expanded, many rulers realized that a unified people would prove less difficult to govern. Therefore a common trend amongst states battling to establish their colonies was to integrate the beliefs of their nation into those they had conquered. The aftermath, though destructive in numerous areas, was rather effective. People were easier to organize when they believed in the same things, something that proved fatal in the lives of many cultures, such as the African culture during the era of decolonization. However, the cause of rebellions and wars for freedoms, many nations decided on rebuilding their scattered people. Instead of conquering foreign lands, which proved more and more difficult to maintain with technology advancements and globalization, states are now more content with collaborating than expanding their empires. Yet while such movements have quelled the hunger for creating vast empires, conflicts within states, particularly ethnic

As early as 70,000 years ago, humans and their ancestors have felt the need to expand. Scientific evidence supports the Out of Africa theory, which suggests that all humans have common ancestors from Africa who migrated to other continents over thousands of years. The necessity to expand continues to this day, with a mission to send humans to Mars underway. Human movement (an act of changing physical location) has influenced the development of civilizations (the stage of human social development and organization that is considered most advanced) studied this semester. Religious, political, and economic development of civilizations were influenced by the migration of humans.

What can be so appealing about the continent Africa? Well it has been studied that Africa has many resources such as wheat, millet, ivory, copper, metals, routes, basins, and most importantly, its unlimited availability of strong laborers (pgs. 44-45). These are resources that are useful in early trade markets that added to wealth as well as the distribution of power. These resources are abundant in Africa and it is not surprising that the group of countries who wanted it the most were European countries. This imperial power mostly lay in the hands of the French Empire and Great British.

“Don’t become a mere recorder of facts, but try to penetrate the mystery of their origin” (Ivan Pavlov). Origin refers to the point or place where something is derived in which our origin, the beginning of humans, is a mystery that many have been trying to unravel. The theory of out of Africa is a hypothesis that attempts to pinpoint the geographical origin of homo sapiens, modern humans, to be in East Africa. Although there are proofs to support the out of Africa theory, there are still many speculations as to where the true origin of humans subsists. Now, the real mystery consists of if the proof to support the theory outweighs the contradicting proofs.

According to Martin & O’Meara, Nkrumah later became a fascinating symbol, inspiring his character as “the Father of African Nationalism” every time he was incarcerated (p. 163). Nevertheless, after been overthrown by the armed forces in 1966, the country faced economic and political insecurity. However, with the appearance of Jerry Rawlings, and general support from those around him, Rawlings personally dealt with the problems of Ghana, putting things in the right order. Which lead to Ghana becoming one of Africa success stories in 1999, when it came to economic restructuring and improvement.

All men and women can be traced back through DNA to two homo sapien sources, one male and one female both in Africa. This strongly supports the out of Africa theory. Also there is wider genetic diversity among those in Africa compared to those in the rest of the world. This shows that there is a larger genetic pool in Africa which again points to the out of Africa theory.

Life for children in Africa is difficult and they face many problems. Some such as education, natural disasters, crime and famine. These are just a few of the challenges these children face. I believe that all though life is rough, these children find ways to lighten the burdens of their problems. Music and sports are good for the children because it gives them distractions and it gives them something to live for. Even though many bad things are put upon these children, few good things help them get by.

Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is an excellent piece of literary work that addresses the history of post-colonialism in Africa. The writer intentionally situates a colonized people as the cultural norm while portraying the colonizing people as outsiders, or as “the other”. Achebe’s work is meant to correct people’s misconception that African culture and society is savage and primitive by narrating the story of the colonialization of the Igbo people from an African point of view. The novel depicts the tensions and conflicts within the Igbo society as well as being under colonial rule. The justice system of the Igbo people impacts the lives of everyone within the community. They have complex social institutions that delivers

The prime minister of Ghana and the first African head of a West African country freed from colonization, Kwame Nkrumah, followed a pan-African ideology and hoped to be the one who would guide Africa in a unified direction, leading an independent Africa that was industrialized and powerful (Muehlenbeck 2012: 17). Despite his ambition, or maybe because of it, his policies virtually bankrupted Ghana through a focus on large industrial projects that did not form a good base for the industrialization he hoped for in his country. Additionally the discrepancies between the ways he handled his political relations in private and in public for the sake of protecting his image contributed to the trouble Ghana faced.

Some of the world’s poorest countries, with some of the highest child labor and illiteracy rates lie in Sub Saharan Africa. People generally associate the region only with poor economic conditions and all of the social disorder that goes along with 3rd World Status. While some of this reputation is deserved, many people are also failing to see the vast potential for this part of the world. There are several factors that African governments should look into if they want to effectively and efficiently revamp this areas quality of life. One way to do so is by improving the more crucial aspects to healthy functioning region, for example, allowing children to possess their natural rights to a decent education. This could influence an increase

Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart marked a significant turning point not only for literature, but the world, because the novel is an attempt to blend the conflicting identities and ideologies of Africa in the wake of colonization. The novel depicts the destructive tension that arises between the traditions of the Igbo people and white colonizers, but, perhaps contrary to the reader's expectation, it does not present either side as holding the ethical high ground. Rather, the novel suggests that both the Igbo and the white missionaries perpetuate repressive ideologies, and furthermore, that the destructive effects of these ideologies are visited upon both Ikemefuna and Okonkwo. Okonkwo's larger narrative arc actually suggests an ideal third path that discards the , because the novel blends elements of African and Western literature in order to tell a story that is simultaneously a tragedy in the Greek sense and clearly, essentially African. By examining Okonkwo's story in detail, it will be possible to see how Achebe uses the particular narrative elements of Things Fall Apart in order to demonstrate a potential bridge between the two societies which in the novel are seemingly so far apart.