Lessons 26–27 · 2 lessons · Sh. M. Sharipov, V. N. Fedorko, N. I. Safarova, V. A. Rafiqov. Geography (Applied geography), Grade 10, 1st edition. “O‘zbekiston milliy ensiklopediyasi” State Scientific Publishing House, Tashkent, 2017
26
Subregions of Africa
Textbook: pp. 111–114
GoalDescribe Africa's five subregions by nature, resources and economic specialisation; explain the continent's problems.
Africa has 54 independent states and an area of about 30 million km²; it is divided into the Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and Southern subregions. In North Africa most people speak Arabic, subtropical crops (olives, citrus, cotton), oil, gas and phosphate matter, and the Suez Canal is very important for sea transport. In West Africa Nigeria has the largest population on the continent, and plantation crops (cocoa, groundnuts, rubber) and mining are developed. Central Africa is rich in copper, cobalt, diamonds, oil and forests, but its resources are not fully used. East Africa has relatively few minerals; coffee, tea, spices and tourism in national parks are important. The Republic of South Africa is one of the continent's most developed industrial states. Problems: poverty, low literacy and weak health care, dependence on exporting raw materials from monocultures, conflicts linked to borders left by colonial times, and desertification.
Worked examples
Time difference: Tashkent is UTC+5, Johannesburg (South Africa) UTC+2. The difference is 5 − 2 = 3 hours. If it is 18:00 in Tashkent, it is 18 − 3 = 15:00 in Johannesburg.
The risk of monoculture: imagine a state gets 60% of its exports from one crop, cocoa. If the cocoa price falls by 20%, total export income drops by 60 × 0.2 = 12%. Dependence on one product makes an economy fragile.
Class activity
“Map of Africa”: each group takes one subregion and writes 3 of its states, 1 resource and 1 problem onto the map.
Practice
1
How many subregions are distinguished in Africa and which are they?