Geography of Africa

WaterAid work in Malawi Malawi is a country located within the continent of Africa. It is surrounded by Zambia to its North West, Tanzania to its North East and Mozambique to its South, South West and South East. Malawi is home to mountainous regions, which can be vital for the communities living near them, and its highest peak is Mount Mulanji.   Although Malawi is completely landlocked, three major rivers run through it and it is also home to lakes. The lake Malawi, which is located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania, covers around 20% of the country's surface area. This lake is important as it acts as a major drainage system for the people, it is also used for transport, a main water supply, and due to the huge diversity of fish, a good location for fishing. However, diseases can easily be transported through these contaminated lakes. This is one of the main causes for Malawi's low life expectancy. Due to many droughts, flooding and population growth, Malawi is f...

Cape Town- count down to day zero Cape Town is located in the country South Africa, within the continent of Africa. It is surrounded by Angola to its North West, Zambia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to its North East, Zambia to its West and Botswana to its North. Cape Town is also bordered by the South Atlantic Ocean, to its West and the Indian Ocean to its East. The coordinates of Cape Town are: -33.918861 latitude and it's longitude is 18.423300. Many tourists are attracted to Cape Town because of its location, along South Africa's southwest coast, which gives it beautiful beaches and weather. Cape Town also has many natural geographical features such as mountainous areas, islands, rivers, and its hilly slopes. Despite its appearance, Cape Town faces much crime, due to high poverty rates within the urban areas. This poverty is caused partially due to overpopulation, which is also a problem given its lack of resources. The four million residents of Cape Town have relied on da...

How does development vary throughout Africa?   Using the website 'Dollar street' I was able to review development through Somalia, South Africa, Kenya and other African countries. The website allows you to view People’s homes, their family and how they live, which exposed just how serious development is and the extreme conditions people are forced to live in. Using my findings, I am going to review the development throughout Somalia and South Africa. Somalia   Somalia is one of the poorest countries within sub-Saharan Africa, which is partially due to the civil war and political instability that have been detrimental to the country and its economy for decades. Some of the damage the war inflicted was the population growth overtaking the economic growth. In 2018, the world bank estimated that it's GDP was $6.2 billion, making it an officially low-income country. Compared to south Africa, with a GDP of $368.3 billion, it is evident how low Somalia's GD...

How developed is Africa? In this blog I'm going to explore the human geography of Africa and its development. Development refers to the standard of living for the people in a country. This can be measured in several ways: Wealth- This is indicated using GDP, which is the total value of all of the goods and services produced in a country. GNP can also be used to determine wealth. It is the gross domestic product, plus the earnings from foreign investment, and can be divided by a country's population, to find the GNP per capita. Jobs- The types of jobs people do differ between countries. For example, in an economically developed country, Tertiary jobs, in areas such as retail, tourism, education, health and banking, will be more common and Quaternary jobs in the field of ICT and employment are also popular.  However, countries within Africa are more likely to work in primary jobs, involving the extraction of raw materials, and secondary jobs such as manufactur...

Geography of Africa Comparing a range of maps, I noticed that Africa was presented roughly the same size of Greenland. This indicates that world maps aren't a reliable source when comparing countries sizes. In reality, Africa is a vast continent covering 30 million sq kilometers and Greenland is 14 times smaller in size (covering only 2 million sq kilometres). Because of how immense Africa is, I was able to fit China India and the US inside it. From researching into the different biomes across Africa, my perception of it has changed. I initially viewed Africa as huge flat and dry place, with little change in scenery. The misleading size of Africa on maps, may suggest to people that Africa is a much smaller place than it actually is, and therefore not so diverse. In fact, Africa has a range of biomes which all receive varying levels of precipitation , scenery and temperatures. Among more tropical regions, the climate is typically very hot, humid and wet. There is a rainy se...

Africa - base knowledge Africa is located in Southern Europe; it is the second largest continent, in the world, covering approximately one fifth of the world's land mass. Africa is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, to its west, and the Indian Ocean, to its east. It's unique location, with the equator and tropics of Capricorn and cancer running through it, give Africa an equatorial climate. Deserts and dry land prevail across Africa, however, some of its countries receive regular snow. One of the most brutal stereotypes regarding Africa is that it is a poor place full of famine, drought and unsanitary living conditions. Thoughts that come to mind regarding Africa are desiccated, poor, tropical and unhygienic. While Africa may have a low GDP rate, it is also home to many wealthy cities and it is advancing rapidly. Africa's poverty rate is falling and the number of people regarded as middle class is rising. Another common misconception is that all of Africa is hot, dry a...