Geography of West Africa

1. Geography of West Africa Sahara, Sahel, Savannah, and Rainforest

2. Objectives • What divides Africa into two major areas? Who lives to the north and who lives to the south of this great divider? • Identify the area people mean when they say “West Africa.” • Name the greatest river in West Africa. • Name the religious idea in which people believe that spirits inhabit trees, animals, bodies of water, and even rocks.

3. Terms and People Rifts are valleys formed when tectonic plates pull apart. • Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the continent south of the great desert. • Sahel is the border or the desert. Little grows here. • Savannah is an open grassland with scattered trees. Where is the African rainforest? Where are the major savannah areas of Africa? • Rain forest is a moist, densely wooded area.

4. Extended family is not just parents and children, but grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Terms and People • animism is a belief in the spirits of water, forest, and animals.

5. When people talk about West Africa, they don’t generally mean this area: Nor do they mean this area: Generally, when people talk about West Africa, they mean this area:

6. North of the Sahara live Arabs and Berbers. The Sahara Desert divides Africa into two ethnic areas. The Sahara Desert The Sahara Desert is difficult to cross and has divided people for thousands of years. South of the Sahara live many different peoples.

9. Most early African kingdoms were in west Africa. Here flows the great Niger River. Civilizations grew up around the Niger River.

11. Animism is the belief that all parts of nature have spirits: water, trees, rocks, as well as animals. Before the arrival of Christianity and of Islam, most of the religious or spiritual beliefs here focused on animism.

12. Masks are important to animism. When a participant in a ritual wore a mask, he was taking on the identity of a spirit or inviting in the spirit into his body.

15. Poverty continues to plague Sub-Saharan Africa.

16. The Sahara Desert has almost no population. Nigeria Ethiopia The Congo Basin has a low population. The Lakes South Africa

17. What landform divides Africa into two major ethnic regions? Which religion believes that trees, rocks, and bodies of water have spirits of their own? The Niger River The Sahara Desert Animism The rainforest The Nile Delta Who lives to the north of the Sahara Desert? What is the name of the geographical feature in which water flows downward and inward? Arabs and Berbers A rift valley A basin What great religious change began 500 years ago and is still occurring in Africa? A delta A savannah Islam is driving out animism. Animism is driving out Christianity. Christianity is driving out Islam. Animism is driving out Buddhism.

18. Around what geographical feature did most of Sub-Saharan Africa’s early civilizations develop ? What is the name of the geographical feature in which the Earth’s plates pull away from each other? The Niger River A rift valley The Sahara Desert A mountain The Great Rift Valley A volcano The central rainforests A savannah What large land feature makes living and travel difficult in central Africa? The Great Rift Valley The Congo Basin The Nile Delta The Great African Savannah

21. Sahara Desert Rift Valleys