link to background pic - http://www.eoi.es/blogs/lauraambros/files/2012/01/Map_-_Africa_LRG.jpg
Land Use
The main way that they use the land is farming. They do lots of subsistence farming this causes them lots of money problems because they only provide crops for their personal use and not to sell and make money off of it. If they did more commercial farming they would make more money because they would be farming in a larger scale and sell the crops to make money.
Natural Resources
Africa has lots of natural resources for example gold and diamonds . They have half of the world's gold that they Mine.
Democratic Republic of Congo
In the Democratic Republic of Congo there are lots of natural resources to be more specific there is lots of gold there, even though the country is very poor. The issues that this country is having is that there are armed rebel groups that force people to work in gold mines especially women and children. They then smuggle the gold and sell it to make more money. With this money they buy more weapons and bribe government officials. These officials do not kick the groups out of Dem. Rep. of Congo because they want the bribe money.
GDP Per Capita
5 nations with the highest GDP per capita and their value are Mauritius- $12,800, South Africa - $11,100, Botswana - $9,200, Seychelles - $7,800, and Namibia - $7,300 . 16 nations that have a GDP per capita below $1,000 dollars in value. The higher the GDP the higher standard of living is because they have better tech, better healthcare, better education , better transportation, more natural resources , and trade more.The ones with a GPA per capita under $1,000 is because they don’t have better tech, better healthcare, better education, better transportation, and they don’t have a lot of natural resources.
Life Expectancy
Out of the 31 countries with low life expectancy 28 of them are from the Sub-Sahara region. This is because of HIV and AIDS. There is a lot of these diseases in these areas. HIV and AIDS, are very deadly diseases.
Trans-Sahara Trade Network
The Kingdom of Ghana, Kingdom of Mali, and the Kingdom of Songhai all participated in the Trans-Sahara trade network. These kingdoms where in charge from 800 CE to 1600 CE. The Trans-Saharan trade network was used to trade lots of things , but mainly salt and gold.The West African people trade gold, and the North African people traded salt.
King Mans Musa of Timbuktu
King Mansa Musa was the king of Timbuktu, and is worth 400 billion dollars. King Mansa Musa took a famous Hajj to Mecca. On this Hajj he took 60,000 people, 500 slaves, 24,000 plus pounds of gold, 80 camels, and 500 attendees. On his way to Mecca he gave away lots of gold. In fact he gave away so much gold that the value of gold actually went down in north Africa for a little bit. This Hajj started in 1324 and ended in 1325. When he returned to Timbuktu he brought back Muslim Scholars. He also brought back architects to build cities, Mosques, and schools in Timbuktu. The city of Timbuktu was also the center of Islamic learning. These Islamic scholars studied religion, history, math, music, law, and literature.
Slaves on the Trans-Sahara
Muslims traded for African slaves because Muslims cannot enslave other Muslims, According to the Quran. Muslims use African slaves to serve in the military or the war . The Muslim way of slavery were much better than the European slavery because slaves were treated much better Also some slave can own their own properties, and work as generals in the army.
IBN Battuta : Explorer
Ibn Battuta is an and explorer who began his journey from Tangier, Morocco at the age of 21. He traveled in total 75,000 miles through Africa and Asia. He also spent a total of 29 years exploring. When his travel was over he wrote about his travels in what became the first travel book called the Rihla. He sadly died at age 64.