Land Use
The main way they use their land is subsistence farming. It is causing a big problem because they do not sell the food they grow they just eat it. They also only make enough for themselves and families to eat, not enough to sell.
Natural Resources
They have two types of Valuable natural resources they are gold and silver. Half of the world's gold and silver supply is mined in Africa.
Democratic Republic of Congo
The problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo is that there is unequal wealth among countries (countries who have more are wealthier, ones without are poor), corrupt government leaders take bribes to let others have access to the mines, and there are wars over access to the resources.
GDP Per Capita
The five nations with the highest GDP per capita and their dollar values are; Mauritius-$12,800, South Africa $11,100, Botswana- $9,200, Seychelles- $7,800, Namibia- $7,300. There are 16 nations that have a GDP per capita lower than 1,000. Some reasons why the nations with the 5 highest GDP per capita have higher ones than the ones under 1,000 are ; better technology , better healthcare , better education , better transportation, highly skilled workforce, more natural resources, and that they trade more.
Life Expectancy
The life expectancy in Africa is early 30's to early 40's. This is because most of them have HIV/AIDS. This doesn't cause them to die but it kills their immune system and so when they get a cold or a sickness, their cells that fight against the sickness and help them get better are gone so they die from that. If that isn't bad enough, 28/31 countries with the lowest life expectancies are from Sub-Saharan Africa.
Three Kingdoms of West Africa
The three West African Kingdoms are; The Kingdom of Ghana- 800-1054 C.E., The Kingdom of Mali- 1200-1400 C.E., The Kingdom of Songhai- 1350-1600 C.E. The trade network all three of them participated in was the Trans-Sahara trade network. The two commodities they traded were gold and salt. West Africa traded salt and the North traded Gold.
Slaves on the Trans-Saharan Trade Network
The North African Muslim tribes traded for African slaves because in the Koran it says that they can’t use other Muslim slaves and is a Muslim law. Muslims and African slave traders primarily used slaves for military purposes. The Muslim and African enslavement of Africans was different from European enslavement of Africans because Muslims treated them better than Europeans. The Muslims also allowed them to have property, be generals, and it is easier to have freedom.
King Mansa Musa and Timbuktu
Mansa Musa the king of Mali was estimated to have almost 400 billion dollars. When the King Musa went to his famous Hajj he had 60,000 people, 80 camels carrying 300 lbs. of gold each, and 500 slaves carrying a 4 lb. gold staff. He also gave away a ton of gold.
Ibn Battuta: Explorer
Ibn Battuta was only 21 years old when he began his travels. He first set out from Tangier, Morocco. He traveled about 74564.543 miles across Africa and Asia. He spent almost 30 years exploring. He wrote about his travels and the book became the first travel book. It was called the Rihla. He later died when he was 64 years old.