Adapting to the Climate Regions of Sub-Saharan Africa Note taking Activity

Standard 7.4.1 Study the climate and relationship of vegetation zones of the forest, savannah, and desert to trade in gold, salt, food, and slaves. Objective: To be able to explore how people living in different climate regions in sub-Saharan Africa adapted to their environment.

 starter activity Look at these two images. Then answer the question below on a separate piece of paper. The Forest The Savannah In which location, the savannah or the forest, do you think a city was more likely to develop? Give two reasons for your answer.

 Your task- Note taking Chart Step 1: Analyze the following slides and take Cornell Notes about each of the four climate zones in Africa—tropical, savannah, semiarid, and desert. This activity is designed to help you to hypothesize about how people have adapted to climate zones in Africa. Step 2: Fill out the chart on the Climate Regions of Africa. Put in at least 3 facts for each topic. (25 points)

Tropical Rain Forest Slide A Tropical rain forests cover 8 percent of Africa and are located primarily along the equator in West Africa. Rain forests receive more than 60 inches of rain per year, with at least 2 inches falling every month. Temperatures in the rain forest are constant, rarely dipping below 70 degrees Fahrenheit or rising above 90 degrees. This warm, wet region supports the earth's most diverse and abundant flora (plant life) and is best known for its towering hardwood trees, such as teak and mahogany.

Tropical Rain Forest The constant rains wash away all of the forest floor’s soil, leaving behind clay that supports the lush jungle but will not support non-native plants, except in a few cultivated areas. The many fruits, nuts, seeds, and flowers produced by this dense vegetation attract a vast array of animals, many of which live in the high forest treetops. Few ungulates (hoofed animals such as horses, cattle, and deer) are present because of the deadly tse-tse fly. The bite of this blood-sucking insect carries sleeping sickness ,which is harmful to humans and most ungulates.

Tse-Tse Fly The tsetse fly has strongly influenced the history of Africa and will help to shape its future.

Sleeping Sickness Tsetse flies are a bloodsucking insect that can bite through canvas clothing and even the hide of a rhinoceros. One bite of the fly can be deadly to humans and animals. In humans, parasites carried by the fly enter the bloodstream causing “sleeping sickness.” Each year some 20,000 Africans fall victim to sleeping sickness. It begins with headaches, fevers, and joint pain. If it is untreated it enters the central nervous system and the victim succumbs to extreme sleepiness, lapses into coma, and dies. Until preventative measures were taken earlier in this century, sleeping sickness killed millions of Africans each year. There are 22 species of flies in Africa. Some are adapted to the Savannah and some adapted to the rainforest. This insect is responsible for slowing the thrust of Islam into Africa’s heartlands. The parasite enters the fly when it feasts upon an infected host. This fly can drink three times its weight in blood. The name of the parasite is trypanosomes. The above mother and child at an Ivory Coast clinic, have sleeping sickness, the boy received treatment in time and survived and the mother did not.

Life Cycle of Sleeping Sickness Sleeping sickness can be cured if treated with antiparasite drugs before the trypanosome can lodge in the central nervous system. The animal form, nagana annually kills three million cattle as well as other livestock, depriving subsistence farmers of food, draft power, and manure for crops. The fly only lays one larvae; unlike the housefly which can lay thousands at a time. The larvae burrows into the ground and emerges parasite free and picks up the parasite from an infected host.

Range of Tsetse Fly

What do you see in the slide? Slide B In this slide we see women carrying bundles walking through manioc fields in a rain forest in Zaire. What do you see in the slide? Like all Africans, rain-forest dwellers must adapt to their unique habitat in order to provide food for themselves and their families. Viable strategies include small-scale farming for root or tuber crops; collecting edible foodstuffs from the forest; and fishing, hunting, and trading downriver towards the sea coast or upriver towards the savannah for food that is unavailable in the rain forest. Though the rain forest supports abundant plant life, the soil is poor and scarce. Farming is limited to small plots because when large areas of rain forest are cleared, the unceasing rain erodes away the weak, spongy soil, exposing clay that is not receptive to non native plants.

When only small plots are cultivated, regeneration is possible. Farmers overcome this problem by shifting their crops to different sites. Root or tuber crops are raised for food in the rain forest because they require less intensive cultivation than grains. In slide B two Zairian women are transporting the roots of the manioc, or cassava, plant. The starch from the manioc root is used to make bread, and tapioca. In the Niger river basin yams—another tuber plant—are the staple food. Fruit and nuts also supplement the diet of rain forest dwellers. In West Africa, the nut or seed of the kola plant has long been harvested because it produces caffeine, which is used to flavor beverages. Bananas and plantains (cooking bananas) were brought from Asia in the first millennium A.D. and quickly became an important rain-forest food. The oils and saps of various palms are also collected for making cooking oils and wine. The tse-tse fly has had a treble effect on agriculture in Equatorial Africa. Beasts of burden cannot be used, which inhibits large-scale cultivation. Rain forest societies are not able to keep domestic livestock, nor are there wild ungulates to hunt. In ungulates, the bite of the tse-tse fly transmits a blood-born virus that induces a deadly disease called nagana, or sleeping sickness.

Guinea Worm Infestation Eradication Guinea worms have afflicted humans for millennia. We are looking forward to the end of the guinea worm disease in the next few years. It has been eradicated from Asia and it is slowly being eradicated from Africa. The larvae live inside the water flea that east the larvae. If humans do not filter the water they drink (using a simple piece of muslin or coffee filter) infested with the larvae, they will grow inside their human hosts (at the rate of an inch a week). In a year they will emerge slowly headfirst, usually from the legs or arms of the carrier, and causes disabling pain that keeps students from school and farmers from their fields. If the sufferer goes to the nearest lake or water source, the worms senses water and releases hundreds of thousands of larvae. The water flea eats the larvae and the cycle continues.

Much of the fishing is done by women and girls. Meat attained by hunting is an important part of the rainforest diet, especially to the nomadic and semi-nomadic pygmies who inhabit the Congo river basin. Hunters, using primarily bows and arrows, hunt for monkeys, squirrels, birds, and other arboreal animals. Male pygmies range far throughout the forest in search of prey, while the women gather fruits and nuts in the forest around their camp. Fishing also provides protein for people who live along the many rivers and lakes of this rain-forest region. Much of the fishing is done by women and girls. Trade in the forest takes place along the ubiquitous waterways, and diets are thereby supplemented by trade for grains, vegetables, nuts, and dried fruit that originate in the savannah or come to the river mouths at the coast. Settlements in the rain-forest zones are rarely permanent because of the shifting style of agriculture. Along rivers and lakes people construct buildings out of the hardwoods that are abundant in the forest, especially teak and mahogany. Pygmies, who are hunters and gatherers, build wooden homes or temporary huts out of branches and leaves.

Grasslands near Kafua, Zambia Slide C Grasslands near Kafua, Zambia Spreading north and south from the rain forest belt is Africa’s largest and most varied climate zone: the savannah, or temperate (seasonal climate) grasslands. In areas close to the rain forests, the savannah is heavily forested. Nearer to the deserts, the grasslands are more open and are dotted only with drought-resistant acacia trees. The temperate savannah, Africa’s most heavily populated region, receives its entire rainfall in one wet season, which is followed by a dry season of no rain. During the rainy period (four to eight months long), the savannah blooms with an abundance of tall, thick, rich grasses and flowering plants.

Savannah During the dry season, all but the heartiest trees and bushes die away, except in the wooded savannah where forests survive year round. The savannah supports huge herds of migrating ungulates (hoofed animals such as zebras, gazelles, and giraffes), and the large predators that feed on them such as lions and cheetahs. Heavily seasonal rains and proximity (closeness) to the rain forests provide the savannah with wide, slow-moving rivers in the west and south and a long chain of lakes in the east.

Slide D What do you see in the slide? In this slide you see Masai cattle traders in Kenya. What do you see in the slide? Food in the savannah can be produced and acquired through much more diverse strategies than in the rain forest. Most savannah-dwelling peoples either herd livestock, which is raised for meat, milk, and hides, or they farm crops that grow during and just after the rainy season. To a lesser extent, hunters follow huge herds of migrating animals that follow the rains across the plains. Along the banks of rivers and lakes, fishing provides a steady food source. Construction of edifices in the savannah is limited to the natural materials found near the housing site. People who must be on the move to provide food do not create permanent homes.

Botanists divide the savannah into three distinct regions: The savannah is Africa’s most diverse climate zone and therefore supports the greatest variety of human lifestyles. Botanists divide the savannah into three distinct regions: Woodland, or wooded savannah, which is characterized by thick undergrowth below a dense, deciduous canopy; Wooded grassland, or acacia savannah, characterized by smaller trees that occur at intervals in the midst of a continuous sheet of perennial grass two to four feet tall; Thornbush, or bushveld, characterized by towering baobob trees soaring over a mix of shrubs, like the desert rose, and succulents, such as the aloe plant. In this slide we see a group of Masai cattle traders with their livestock in the wooded grassland region that occurs in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. This region is Africa’s ,most densely populated, and Africans have developed many ways to survive throughout its vast plain.

Grains are the most important crops. Because rainfall is seasonal, and therefore somewhat predictable, farming is well developed. Grains are the most important crops. Before the introduction of alien plants by Europeans, millet, sorghum (which is like wheat and used to make flour and syrup), and rice were the staple crops of savannah farmers. Every village includes granaries, or storehouses, so that the harvest can be saved and used during the dry season. In the post-European intervention era, corn and cassava have become staples of some communities diets. Because the seasonal rains support luxuriant grasses in much of the savannah, livestock herding is another important form of food production. In the wooded grasslands many Africans, like the Masai shown in the previous slide, keep large herds of cattle, raising them for their milk, meat, hides, and for their representation of wealth and status. Cattle pastures can extend up to 50 miles from the Masai homestead. In the dry season, shepherds must take their animals to whatever pastureland can be found, moving them from one water source to another. This means some pastoral peoples in the savannah live semi-nomadic lives, moving during the dry season and tending their flocks oftentimes far from home during the wet season. Goats, sheep, and camels are raised in addition to cattle. Fishing comprises an important way of life for people who live near East Africa’s impressive chain of Rift Valley lakes. Just as in the agricultural regions of the savannah, settlements are more permanent along the waterways, and great cities have grown up in East Africa. In fact, the two most populated regions of Africa are the East African Lake areas and the Niger river basin. Both of theses areas combine fishing with agriculture to create stable, consistent economy.

Savannah dwellings, though greatly varied, can be characterized by the lack of western-style walled edifice subdivided into rooms. In much of African architecture each building operates as a separate room, each with its own function, such as kitchen, bedroom, or storehouse. The various buildings of each family’s homestead are joined or surrounded by a wall or fence. Homesteads are linked by common walkways or walls and fences, and a linked group of homesteads comprises a village or town. Buildings in savannah regions are constructed out of whatever natural materials are available. The most common type of building is made of mud walls shaped around a framework of wooden poles. The roof is usually thatched out of bundled grasses, or sometimes consists of hides pulled over a stick frame. When walls are used to link the buildings of a homestead, they too are constructed of mud over wooden frames. Solid fences made of wooden poles are sometimes used. The area inside the fence is often called a kraal.

Slide E Sahel area in Sudan Between the savannah and the deserts lies a band of harsh, barren grasslands called the semiarid zone. This region experiences very hot daytime temperatures for most of the year. (as high as 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer). Sparse seasonal rainfall of 10 to 20 inches a year is so unpredictable that destructive droughts occur often. Throughout most of the semiarid region water is so scarce that agriculture is only possible near oases or wells. In the northern semiarid strip called the Sahel, permanent water sources like the Niger River and Lake Chad make agriculture possible. In such areas, hearty plants like millet and peanuts can be raised. The semiarid regions supports well-adapted flora (plant life): thorny bushes that grow small waxy leaves, tufts of scattered stumpy grasses that can become thick in years with strong rainy seasons; and hearty trees that can survive droughts, like the 100-foot tall baobab tree. Fauna (animal life), such as tortoises and camels, survive in the grasslands by developing ways to find or save water.

What do you see in the slide? Slide F In this slide we see an Ayourou market on the Niger River, in the Niger Republic. What do you see in the slide? Life in the semi arid region revolves around water. Access to water is a year-round concern because the rainy season is unpredictable and droughts are a constant threat. People living in the semiarid regions use water in the following ways: where rainfall is sufficient, or enough to be stored, limited farming is employed; livestock can be grazed in those places where rainfall has been sufficient to produce sufficient vegetation; livestock can be herded to scattered permanent water sources such as water holes, oases near the edge of the desert, rivers, lakes, and wells; near lakes and rivers, fishing is done and trade is conducted.

Most people who inhabit the semiarid regions are pastoralists, herding flocks of cattle, camels, sheep, or goats. Most of these “desert-fringe” shepherds are nomadic, carrying their belongings with them as they lead their livestock to fresh water and sufficient grazing. When the pasture grasses or water is exhausted at one site, they will break camp and move to a new spot. Their edifices may consist of nothing more than wind breaks made from brush and sticks, or may be collapsible tents erected by placing hides or brush over a wooden frame. Many groups in the semiarid regions use ancient wells that dot their ancestral lands. These wells are usually dug deep into the earth, and some are operated by people actually descending staircases and passing sacks of water up to the surface. Sacks are made of animal bladders and leather. Rivers, streams, lakes, and waterholes are also used by herders as sources of water. Knowledge of the location of these sources, and of the potential status of their water level, is an important role of elders. Between the northern savannah and the Sahara desert lies the sahel, which means the “shore of the desert.”

Agriculture and fishing are the basis of the economy. Within the sahel there are two major permanent water sources: the Niger River and Lake Chad. The picture in slide F above shows a small village on the banks of the Niger River. The buildings in the background attest to the permanency of life near these bodies of water. Agriculture and fishing are the basis of the economy. Millet and rice are the traditional staple crops, and despite the scarce rain, irrigation makes farming profitable. The boats in Slide F are probably used for fishing, which is an important supplement to farming. On the shores of Lake Chad, peoples like the Baduma exist mainly by fishing. In the south, rivers like the Limpopo and the Orange provide Africans with similar possibilities. The Dinka of Sudan are an example of a semi-nomadic people. Cattle raising is their major industry, and they move about the sahel and savannah with their herds during most of the year. When the rains come, however, they return to permanent settlements where they raise crops such as millet and peanuts.

Aerial view of the Kalahari Desert Slide G Aerial view of the Kalahari Desert Hot, dry deserts cover nearly 30 percent of Africa. Deserts are located in the north and the south, isolating the interior of the continent from the northern and southern coasts. In order to reach the coast by crossing the desert, humans must survive harsh conditions. Daytime temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer months, and sometimes reaching as high as 140 degrees. Few people live in the harsh desert regions, where rainfall is less than 10 inches a year and evaporates quickly in the intense heat. In the Kalahari Desert, flora (plant life) is limited to hearty plants that have adapted to the lack of moisture. Trees and thick brush are located at rare water holes. Some animals are nocturnal (active at night) in order to take advantage of cooler night temperatures, while others survive by moving between scattered water sources during the day. Vast stretches of the Namib and Sahara deserts have no plant or animal life at all and are instead covered with rock or soft, shifting sand.

What do you see in the slide? Slide H A group of camels passing by a settlement in the Kalahari Desert, in Tshabong, Botswana. What do you see in the slide? Africa’s deserts are too vast, hot, and dry to cross on foot, therefore, Africans must employ camels to traverse these parched lands. People must cover as much of their bodies as possible to reduce loss of moisture through direct exposure to the sun. Food and water must be conserved and protected from the heat and sun. People who are unfamiliar with the desert must use experienced guides who know the quickest and safest routes across the desert, because few landmarks exist in the middle of the rocky expanses. Camels, called ships of the desert, are the perfect form of transportation because they can go long distances without water, they are strong enough to carry heavy loads and people, their feet do not sink into the soft, hot sand, and their eyes have long protective lashes that allow them to see in sand storms. The Tuareg people of the Sahara wrap themselves in full-length robes, and cover their heads. Oases can be used as stopovers during the crossing, where water and food can be replenished. And people who cross the desert do so in packs so that if one person is hurt or becomes sick, others will be able to help them to safety.

African deserts are sparsely populated because of their harsh climatic conditions. All three desert regions, the Sahara in the north, Kenya-Somali in the east, and Namib/Kalahari in the south, must be crossed if Africans want to move about the continent. Therefore, the challenge of crossing the deserts has long been a component of life in Africa. In slide H we see a group of Bantu-speaking people form Botswana passing a settlement in the Kalahari Desert. There are about 80,000 Bantu speaking people living throughout the Kalahari’s 100,000 square miles. These people inhabit towns of 20 to 1,000 people, living in mud homesteads constructed with thick walls around wooden frames. The thickness of the walls provides some relief from the scorching summer heat, which can rise to 117 degrees F. During the winter, when temperatures can fall up to 8 degrees F at night, desert inhabitants heat their homes by burning brush wood and animal dung. Many Kalahari dwellers herd livestock throughout the desert. Like the camels shown in this slide, animals in the desert must be able to withstand long periods without water. In the northern boundaries of the Kalahari lies the vast Okavango swamp, and some shepherds take their animals to its fringes to find precious grazing land and water. A traveler in the Kalahari would have better luck crossing the dangerous desert with a bushman as a guide. Bushman are hunters and gatherers who inhabit the Kalahari. The men hunt animals such as gazelles, wildebeest, and zebra with bows, while the women collect food from up to 34 different plants when the plants are in season. Because of the low amount of rainfall, these plants have a short growing season, and the women must have extensive knowledge of where to find different foods at different times of the year. Bushman have developed remarkable ways of collecting water. In the mornings they drain precious drops of dew off of plant leaves, and they know what types of plants store water in their roots or leaves. The Namib Desert is home to only about 1,000 people, who, like the Bantu speakers of the Kalahari, herd cattle. The Namib is 1,200 miles long and 120 miles wide, and is made up of enormous sand dunes and stretches of rocky wasteland. Some dunes reach a height of 800 feet and stretch across 20 miles. In the Nama language of southern Africa Namib means “place where there is nothing.” The Namib does not get as hot as other deserts, but its lack of rainfall along the coast has limited human encroachment. Nonetheless, the major port at Walvis Bay has made crossing the Namib an important feat for Africans. Coastal fisheries also attract people who may wish to return to central Africa with dried fish to trade. The Kenya-Somali Desert is more densely populated than the Sahara, Namib, or Kalahari. The Somali people who inhabit this desert are largely nomadic herders, leading their flocks of goats, cattle, sheep, and camels in search of water and pasture year round. The Sahara—whose name is an Arabic word that comes from the sound a parched traveler makes in the desert—is an enormous expanse of sand and rock wasteland, dotted with precious water holes at scattered oases. Crossing the Sahara has been for centuries the key to Mediterranean-African contact and trade. The harsh conditions and sheer size of the Sahara explain the limited influence of these two cultures on one another. Few people have mastered living in the Sahara. The Tuareg people are one of the few groups that have, and they continue to lead camel caravans from Morocco to Niger and Mali.