Alien Land: East Africa That's In Dallol, Ethiopia

When I began reading Chapter 1 of “Mistaking Africa,” it reminded me of our first class meeting. Professor Crowley asked us to do the same exercise Curtis Keim talks about in the text. Professor Crowley asked us what comes to mind when we think about Africa. It is a great exercise and allow us to express our perceptions of Africa. Even in class, it took me time to think about what comes to mind when I hear the word Africa, because I have not really heard much about it besides the common misconceptions: “Africa is a primitive place, full of trouble and wild animals, and in need of our help” (5). I frequently see the UNICEF commercial with Alyssa Milano, who asks her viewers how it would feel to be able to save a child’s life for fifty cents a day. The commercial precedes to play really depressing music and shows a slideshow of undernourished children, who fend for themselves in

Focusing on micro examples in order to explain a macro concept is the basis of what Donald Wright wanted to do with his book “The World and a Very Small Place in Africa”. In this text, Wright explores the concept of globalization in the small country of Niumi, a country in West Africa with the Gambia river flowing through it’s land. With it’s position in Northern West Africa, Niumi was a major part in the expansion of Europeans for a great part of world history. This expansion impacted the civilization of Niumi during the European Colonial era, and after the colonial era. Globalization, a major theme in our lectures, was a controlling theme and major concept Mr. Wright discusses throughout this book. His micro connection with Niumi & globalization can apply to other

Seafloor spreading when new oceanic crust is being created where two tectonic plates are diverging from one another. One of the largest examples of this is the East African Rift Valley. “In simple terms, a rift can be thought of as a fracture in the earth 's surface that widens over time, or more technically, as an elongate basin bounded by opposed steeply dipping normal faults” (geology.com). The East African Rift is a 3000 km long feature that began developing millions of years ago. The rift travels up through the lakes on the eastern side of Africa up towards the Arabian Peninsula and down through Mozambique and Zimbabwe(britannica.com). It is “the southern part of the Great Rift Valley, one of the most tectonically active regions in

People of the early African kingdoms were able to create successful trade routes with Europe and Asia, become very wealthy from conquering and gaining land, and were able to have a strong central government. All of this was done before the Europeans had reached Africa. Trade flourished on the East African coast, especially when trading was established with India and Arabia. African kingdoms were prosperous, because of their success with not only trading but also with their ability to conquer land. A governmental structure is key to allowing any kingdom to thrive, and the African people were able to achieve this.

During the nineteenth century, Europe was scrambling to colonize Africa. Before the year 1880, Europe controlled only ten percent of Africa. However, due to the Industrial Revolution and its inventions, Europe obtained the means to go into Africa and take what they wanted. Some countries wanted the raw materials from Africa while others thought that by taking control of the land, it would show how they were superior to other nations and would gain respect. Some Europeans thought that because they were superior it was their duty to help the Africans. European powers scrambled to colonize Africa because they wanted respect, to strengthen the economy, and to civilize the Africans.

The post classical and classical eras were a complex but crucial example of syncretism with multiple cultures, religions and thought processes crashing. The major players during this time included Afro-Eurasia, in which the expansion of Islam introduced a new concept, the Islamic caliphate to Afro-Eurasian culture. Within the  Americas, powerful civilizations developed in Mesoamerica and the Andean region. The main groups in America and Afro-Eurasia were Han China, the western Roman Empire and Tawantinsuyu (The Incan Empire of Mesoamerica). Although contact between them did not occur until 1492 with the voyage of Christopher Columbus, they both innovated, grew, learn and conquered in their respective territories.

During the Eocene epoch, 47,000,000 years ago, one of our ancestors lived in what is now Germany. She was still young, her baby teeth still intact and probably less than a year old. This little girl came to a lake’s edge for a drink of water; cupping the water with her hand she slowly drank the water while holding onto a branch with her other hand. Our ancestor died there when she was overcome by an underground gas bubble that erupted, the fumes leaving her unconscious; she fell into the water and drowned. Her body slowly drifted to the bottom of the lake with a myriad of other creatures. The lake where she was buried eventually filled with mud and algae that turned into oily shale

Ishmael is a wonderful young man who becomes a victim of a devastating civil war in Sierra Leone. Like most other civilians, he is a victim of a terror campaign on the part of both sides of the war. Millions of civilians die in this conflict and in that way, Ishmael is lucky, because he lives. However, he comes out of the experience as a boy soldier badly damaged. He has lost his family to the rebel atrocities just before he has the chance to be reunited. He sees friends and comrades die the most horrible deaths before his eyes, he lives in horrible conditions day in and day out, and most of the time, he sees little hope that his existence will ever change.

Military regimes that favor Islamic-situated governments have controlled national politics since Sudan gained freedom from Anglo-Egyptian co-rule in 1956. Sudan was entangled in two post-independence civil war amid the greater part of the rest of the twentieth century. These wars were based on the northern Muslims, Arabs economic, political, and social control of the more largely populated non-Muslim, non-Arab southern Sudanese. The first war ended with the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement, which granted significant regional autonomy to southern Sudan on internal issues. (CIA 2015)

A unique land in Africa could hold extreme life forms. The land called Danakil doesn't look it belongs to Earth. The evaporating water makes colorful layers of volcanic minerals and salts, making the rocks look other worldly. The water it holds is deadly due to the volcanic gases, making it highly acidic. The air is filled with a toxic, yellow gas that would burn a person's airway and lungs if breathed in. This land is one of the most ungiving places on the planet.

A region in East Africa called Dankill looks like an Alien Land. The water looks very pretty with its emerald green color but it is highly acidic, with volcanic acids and would probably burn your skin if you were to swim in it. Extreme little microbes live in this type of water that is very hot and very acidic. All the very colorful rock that that have been eroded by the acidic water and it makes it turn yellow and makes it smell like stinky rotten egg gas.

The Out of Africa Theory is a widely renown theory describing the origin of the human race and their early dispersal throughout the world. According to this theory, humans have a monogensis, or a single and common origin; Africa. The concept was first introduced in 1871 by Charles Darwin but was deliberated for years until further studies of mitochondrial DNA and evidence ”based on physical anthropology of archaic specimens” was added.

Human origins, evolution, and diffusion are important for understanding the history of Africa. African historians take pride in the fact that Africa is most certainly the birthplace of humanity. There is evidence showing that humanity began in Africa by remains left behind by human groups and societies. They have retrieved fossils of living organisms, and even written records, like cave drawings. Dating back millions of years ago Africa provides the best time line of human development because other parts of the world do not have evidence dating back as far as in Africa. Where did humanity and human history begin? There are theories supporting both that, humans evolved from various parts of the world, and that humans rose in Africa then migrated to other parts of the world and continued to develop. The theory that has the most support is that humanity rose in Africa then moved to other regions of the world. Africa is indeed the home of humanity but because Africa is where humanity began they were not able to be at the top of the evolutionary ladder because their global location did not allow them to develop faster. Human history in general is difficult to understand but we can look at the past to learn more about where we came from and how our societies have developed.

Geographical location: Ancient Africa is nearly 5,000 miles from north to south, Africa that lies south of the Sahara desert is the second-largest continent and was the home of some of the earliest and most advanced cultures of the ancient world. Most of the rivers and streams in the Sahara are seasonal or intermittent, the chief exception being the Nile River, which from its origins in central Africa, crosses the desert underground before emptying into the Mediterranean.

In recent years, Kazakhstan, the wealthier of the two nations that border the Aral Sea, has tried to maintain at least some of the former lake by repairing irrigation canals to improve water flow. More importantly, they built a dam to separate the North Aral Sea from the South. Since the dam was complete in 2005, water levels in the North Aral have risen by 8 meters, fish stocks are starting to come back, and the lake’s salinity has decreased. There are even signs that the local microclimate is improving, with increased precipitation. Work is being done to restore in part the North Aral Sea. Irrigation works on the Syr Darya have been repaired and improved to increase its water flow, and in October 2003, the Kazakh government announced a plan to build