Imperialism Feedback

• The buliding of railways and transport systems, which today fuel the economies
• the introduction of new ways of life. ex: religion
• introducing Africans to modern ideas and technology
• new efficient farming techniques

• discovery of minerals and natural resources

Cons:

• treatment of the African people
• the destroying of culture
• introducing new diseases
• more ethnic tribal disputes
• these groups having to work together by force
• none of their resources actually belonging to them
• slavery

Personally, I believe that there were more negative net effects on Africa than positive ones.

Africa Current Event #4

http://allafrica.com/stories/200811040005.html
Who?
Two young boy aged 6, and seven months.

What?
They are infected with yellow fever, a disease that causes headache, muscle pain, fever, loss of appetite, nausea/vomiting.

Where?
The Ouahigouya district of Burkina Faso.

Why?
This is a disease carried and spread by mosquitos, which there isn't much protection against in the poor areas of Burkina Faso.

When?
The boys were diagnosed in early October, but no action has been taken till now, despite the UN program World Health Organization which has reached over 85% of children in that area.

Africa Feedbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

1.) The main visual elements are the big African continent, and the white footprint walking on it.

2.) I think this political cartoon refers to the fact that Africa is letting itself be pushed around and "walked all over" and that the white people are getting all the power.

3.) I think they're a very mad person. They're mad at the Europeans because they are pushing Africa around and taking what is not rightfully theirs. But he's also mad at Africa because it's being a total doormat and letting the Europeans push it around.

4.) The visual evidence of this is that there is a huge white footprint over the whole of Africa. I think the visual evidence that supports the fact that he's actually mad though, is that he's made it the only thing on the page and hasn't tried to soften the message with a joke like a lot of political cartoonists do.

5.) I actually think visually this is perfect. It gets the message across in a concise, serious, no nonsense kind of manner, and I think this is exactly how the illustrator feels about this issue so I don't actually think that changing any thing would help it.

West African History

West Africa used to be ruled by great kingdoms thousands of years ago. Some of the largest were the Ghana kingdom, the Mali kingdom and the Songhai kingdom. Through the power of these kingdoms many great trading cities in the Sahara were developed and the region was wealthy from trading. But the trading cities were soon demolished as the Europeans began trading by sailing along the coast, not coming into the desert. Another obstacle in the history of West Africa was the slave trade. It ripped apart families and killed and enslaved millions of West Africans who were transported to America. In West Africa, your ethnic group is more of an identity than your nationality. The largest groups in this region are the Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo groups. The different tribal languages are good for communicating within your ethnic group, but the languages of the colonists, such as French or Portuguese makes it easy to communicate with people outside your group. The main religion in West Africa is Animism, the belief that water, animals, trees and other natural objects have spirits. Today though, a majority of this region practices Islam. West Africa is a region rich with history, culture and variety and has a very advanced cultural environment for a place that has been so heavily colonized.

Scramble for Africa

The strategy we used was buying huge chunks in the same places and then seizing the smaller parts of land in that area by force so that we owned an entire area, not just spread out little bits. The factors we considered were what our card told us we wanted to gain and which countries had those resources, also making sure that if we shared a border with another country we had more surrounding them then they had surrounding us so that they couldn't win if they attacked us. In our class, I think Germany won, because they also used to strategy of buying up lots of land in one place and owned almost the entire south of Africa. In our class I think it was Portugal that lost, but it may also have been Belgium. I'm not 100% sure.

Africa Current Event 2

http://allafrica.com/stories/200811111130.html
Who?
The people of Dakar, Senegal.
What?
More and more of the population have resorted to alcoholism, and alcohol is creating a huge problem in the Senegalese society.
When?
Over the last five years, over consumption of alcohol has noticably grown around Dakar.
Where?
Mainly the capital,Dakar, but all through Senegal.
Why?
As the unemployment and school drop out statistics continue to increase, so does the alcholism amognst the population. They are also greatly influenced by the fact alcohol is so available and cheap to anyone.
How?
How this is effecting to population is that it is cuasing more unessicary violence and unease throughout Senegal. Alcohol has been the fuel of many cases of rape, murder, gang violence, and everyday fights recently in Dakar.

I think this is news worthy information because though alcoholism is very serious it is very rarely given the amount of attention it needs and the treatment facilities for those addicted. It is important that this news is made public to the world so that the government and UN can "nip thi s in the bud" before it causes many more social and cultural problems around Senegal. I know that in Australia, much of the culture of the Aboriginal people has been wiped out due to over consumption of alcohol by the ethnic group. It would be a shame if the African officials let their culture go to waste as well.

Africa Feedback #2

Personally, I think we can trust the information in "To Be A Slave". My reasoning for this is mainly, though there may be some exaggeration on the recounts of the slaves, why would the slaves themselves make things up? They just wanted people to know about the grueling, difficult lives they lead. Another reason I think that these are valid stories, is that many of the stories are the same, or have similar notes in them. These are slaves spread out all over the US, from Louisiana to Virginia, and I don't think there was ever a big slave conference where they all decided to tell the same stories over and over again to get validity.
Also there is an extensive bibliography in the back of the book, and all the names of the slaves are quoted as well as the Library of Congress, which I think lends a certain level of trust to the book.