Week One
Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.368 #2-9
a) Why, after over 30 years of independence is the political landscape of the Sub-Saharan Africa characterized by instability and chaos? How have the triple heritage, foreign intervention, and the colonial legacy exacerbated Africa's political problems?
b) How did Zaire's (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) changing geostrategic importance contribute to its political chaos?
c) Why did South Africa's independent homelands or Bantustans never stand a chance at real statehood? Why were they created?
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Week Two
Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.33: # 1- 6 and number 7 as it relates to soils of the 1) humid ecological zone, and 2) of the arid and semiarid ecological zones.
a) The complexity and diversity of Africa's physical landscapes and its climatic, vegetational, and biogeographical attributes offer a number of assets on the one hand, and some inherent liabilities on the other hand. What are the assets and liabilities of rainforest and the semidesert and desert environments in terms of development?
b) How does the spatial distribution of vegetation belts in West Africa correspond to the distribution of cultural groups and economic strategies?
c) How have the colonial legacies of independent infrastructure, national borders, and different administrative traditions acted as obstacles to pan-regional development in West Africa?
d) How has climate influenced the distribution of European settlement in South and East Africa? Explain in terms of latitude and altitude.
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Week three
Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.84 1-4, 6, & 5 as it relates to the three periods outlined in lecture.
a) Describe the spread of Islamization and Westernization in Sub-Saharan Africa.
b) What role did Africans play in the slave trade? What role did they play in its abolition?
c) How did the spread of iron technology influence the development of African civilization?
d) Describe how the traditional spatial economies of African countries have been transformed and maintained by a variety of inherited colonial legacies.
e) Why are African economies are characterized by duality, dependency, and unfavorable terms of trade? What role do multinational corporations play today in this peripheral linkage to the world economy?
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Week four
Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.218 #1-7
a) How do new urban immigrants cope with the problems of overurbanization and meet their needs for shelter and employment?
b) How has government policy and planning changed to accommodate such informal survival strategies?
c) How does the informal sector subsidize the formal sector? How are both sectors linked?
d) What has led to the growth of the informal economy in Sub-Saharan Africa? How did the people of Dar Es Salaam try to informally change the government's rules regarding allocation of public transportation?
e) Describe the "Growth Pole" strategy of development and its track record in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Week five
Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.118 #1, 4-8 Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.283 #1-8
a) What contributions has Africa made to American and New World Culture?
b) What influence does urbanization in Africa have on kinship ties and the extended family ties?
c) Is the diffusion of development and modernization hierarchical or contagious?
d) Describe an example of how the clash of Western and traditional African values creates considerable cultural confusion for Africans.
e) How does GDP account for subsistence agriculture and housework?
f) When discussing local food production in Africa, why is it so important to focus on women?
g) Why have structural adjustment programs and austerity measures in Africa resulted in the feminization of poverty?
h) Resources are cultural appraisals of what is useful for development. What conflict exists between the Himba Tribal Leaders and the Namibian Government over the appraisal and definition of the Kunene River as a resource? How do the Himba's measures of progress and development differ from those of the government?
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Week six
Discussion Questions in Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa Text: p.258-259 #1-8
a) What are the strategies and goals of structural adjustment programs in terms of the efficiency and health of a country's economy?
b) What changes did Rostow believe were necessary in order for an economy to develop?
c) How does development diffuse hierarchically in urban and rural Africa?
d) Give an example of "efficiency-oriented growth strategies" in African development.
e) How does export processing contribute to African development?
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