Africa: the White man's burden????

Originally posted by Surmount The rest of Africa is of the same black negroid race

The only difference is the very top countries of north Africa was Arabized

Arabization is the gradual transformation of an area into one that speaks Arabic and is part of the Arab culture. It can also mean the replacement or displacement of a native population with Arabs, although this rarely happened in ancient times, as there weren't nearly sufficient numbers of original Arabs to replace or displace existing populations.

The rest of Africa is of the same black negroid race

No

The only difference is north Africa was Arabized

Arabization is the gradual transformation of an area into one that speaks Arabic and is part of the Arab culture. It can also mean the replacement or displacement of a native population with Arabs, although this rarely happened in ancient times, as there weren't nearly sufficient numbers of original Arabs to replace or displace existing populations.

The rest of Africa is of the same black negroid race

Originally posted by Surmount All it means is south of the sahara

But there is more meaning to it than that. The Sahara acted as a natural barrier to trade and population movement between North Africa and the rest. North Africa was largely isolated from the rest, with the exception of the Nile and some trans-Saharan traders. North Africa was therefore influenced by one of the greatest conduits for cultural and population transportation the world has ever known: the Mediterranean Sea. It was this channel of water which linked North Africa to the civilisations of the Middle East and Europe, which have provided by far the greatest influence on the development of civilisation in North Africa.

Originally posted by Surmount And there is no difference between sub-Saharan Africa and northern Africa as far as being a continent. That's just a label that was put on Africa. It just means south of the Sahara desert. But Africa is Africa.

And there is no difference between sub-Saharan Africa and northern Africa as far as being a continent. That's just a label that was put on Africa. It just means south of the Sahara desert. But Africa is Africa.

Originally posted by Almazy  just ignorance and nothing else truth is africa had many civilizations and created kigdoms waaay before "the white man" came. the reason why africa has so much problems today is because of colonialism.

Well, I suppose that in the 1960s, with many new states being set up and the grip of colonialism finally falling away, the nations just wanted to modernise, despite what would have happened afterwards. The other problem is the governmental structure - when the colonials left, the old states of Africa (which were now being run in a pseudo-colonial fashion) which the Africans were familiar with, were doing fairly well. But when nationalism set in, however, and people began to set up their own states, they did so without any european assistance and thus the entire framework for the states was flawed. Also, tribal warfare and competition crept into these new states, with nepotism and corruption in the government being rifle.

One of the big problems for Africa, ironically enough, has been the introduction of more intensive agriculture ushered in under the Green Revolution of the 1960s.

The new agriculture was more mechanized and required more inputs in the form of credit - causing many farmers to be displaced from their land and ushering in agribusiness, which employed only a small fraction of the more labour-intensive agriculture.

The overall result was an increase in food supply and lower food prices, but, less access to employment and the disruption of the subsistence economy. Since little industry was available to provide new forms of employment, the subsistence economy was not really replaced with anything for millions of former small farmers - they ended up living in squalid conditions in the cities.

Greater food supply also increased populations, which led to some localized ecological problems, including droughts which resulted in famine.

Edited by edgewaters - 23-Jul-2007 at 07:32

Well, at least it's a start... One good thing is that it could help reduce the problem of fundamentalism occuring in the northern Muslim areas. Also, another great piece of news is that a huge lake has been discovered undernearth Darfur which could end the conflict by making more land ariable.