Regional Issues in Modern Africa

1/7/2018

As a final assignment to our week-long unit on Pre-Columbian Exchange Africa, I would like you all to do just a small amount of research. You and members of your corresponding row will be assigned to one of the 5 regions of Africa. Your task is to find a modern issue that people in that region are dealing with today. You do not have to become an expert nor do you have to do any sort of presentation for this research-based assignment, but you do have to learn and synthesize! What this means, as we have said in class numerous times in the past, is you are to research a fairly large topic, and then teach it to me in your own words...in other words, learn something! Take my example in class about the gold mining in the Congo Basin; an "issue" could be lots of things [social, political, interaction, cultural, economic, etc). We will define modern in this assignment to be anything from 1990 to today. onus point if you can figure out why I selected the year 1990 as the cutoff (periodization!). Keep your responses to no more than a paragraph and make sure that everything is your own work / words...ummmkay? And remember that your post must be read and approved by me before it appears, so don't, like, trip if you do not see it right away. Also, always good to copy / paste your reply from another source lest you fall victim to timing out.

Due Friday 19th at 11:59 PM

34 Comments

Bruce Bemoll

1/14/2018 03:23:00 pm

Many of the modern problems that West Africa faces today is due to political issues. Whether that be from terrorism to war to political violence and widespread protests. As you may remember in 2014 there was an outbreak of Ebola which turned into an internet meme. Fortunately the meme did die out, unfortunately Ebola didn't. Within the last two years there has been 28,652 confirmed cases of the virus as well as 11,325 deaths. With many cities in West Africa there tends to not be much stability and safety within these provinces, thus causing concern over the development of this region.

Ryan Webster

1/17/2018 06:50:22 pm

Regional Issues in Modern Africa
One problem in modern Africa today is that they are plagued with many problems. Their lives are filled with poverty, hunger, poor education, ill health, and violence. Africa is a nation of extreme poverty. 217 million people in 1990, predominately women live on $1.25 or less a day. This number increased to 290 million in 2000. Africa has awful nutrition, out of the 20 countries in the world with the worst food and nutrition security, 19 are in Africa. Furthermore, Africa struggles with education. 38 million children are currently not being educated. Without education, African children have a dim future. Next, Africa has very ill/bad health. Malaria kills 3,000 kids every day. The aids/HIV problem has made many kids orphans, 12 million children in sub-Saharan have lost a parent to aids. Lastly, Africa is a very violent nation. Wars among civilians has created an environment where children become soldiers in many regions in Africa. In 1994, the Rwandan Genocide killed 500,000-1,000,000 people. The Genocide happened because the Rwandan president died, due to his plane being shot down above Kigali airport on April 6, 1994.

Ashley Polson

1/18/2018 04:03:49 pm

Along with extreme poverty, hunger, child mortality, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. The West African region faces many challenges today. One of it's biggest problems is armed conflicts. West Africa has experienced several armed conflicts resulting in political instability. Many places in West Africa have rebels fighting against troops. In December 2008, soldiers took over power of Guinea Conakry. Then in 2010 troops in Niger captured the countries president. This is leaving people in the region to feel unsafe, deprived, and insecure.

Donna Miller

1/18/2018 04:53:07 pm

The conflict I researched was a war in East Africa that was between Eritrea and Ethiopia that had faught a civil war that lasted from 1961 to 1991. This new conflict was caused by Eritrea that broke a international law and caused a war by invading Ethiopia this war was called Eritrean- Ethiopian War. It lasted for just over two years it started May 1998 to June 2000. The war end with Ethiopian forces victory.

Cici Barraza

1/18/2018 09:18:47 pm

One modern issue in Africa is its health. Many diseases are one of the leading causes of death. Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds. It's also easily spread by mosquitos. Most of the world are lucky enough to provide babies with a polio but in some countries like Nigeria still have outbreaks of polio. They don't have access to a lot of vaccines and medicines to get the sick better. Urban areas are more likely to have healthcare while rural areas don't. Many communities also lack hygiene and don't have clean water or sanitation facilities. Since lots of people in Africa don't have education, it's hard to employ enough medical staff to treat all the people who need care.

TJ Faucher link

1/18/2018 09:47:30 pm

One of he modern issues Africa is dealing with today is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Africa (specifically Sub-Saharan Africa) has the most HIV/AIDS diagnosed/deaths than anywhere else in the world. They have around 790,000 new HIV infections and 420,000 AIDS related deaths. Women have a higher HIV/AIDS infected rate then men and is a social issue because it affects the way they are able to live their lives as well as an economic issue because they are not able to pay for the medication that is needed to prevent this disease. To try and prevent the disease from a constant spread, they have conducted HIV testing for the people of Sub Saharan Africa so that they can at least know who has it and doesn’t even if they can’t get proper treatment.

Mikayla Wilkie

1/18/2018 10:29:06 pm

The modern issue of illegal fishing in West Africa is causing a loss of billions of dollars in trade. An ocean that once thrived with fish and provided majority of nutrition to the community has now depleted immensely. Just one decade ago fishermen could support their families, now they cannot. The waters of West Africa are now despoiled with foreign ships registered under flags of convenience. This allows for unregulated activity like overfishing and destruction of marine environment.

litzy navarro

1/18/2018 11:32:11 pm

You’ve probably seen those bs commercials that show disturbing images of African children who are visibly malnourished and are living in poverty, that say if you give them one cent a month you can save them. While I still think that’s a bs statement, those children do exist. Due to corrupt government using any money they have on anything but those children and their families, those families continue to live in poverty. Quality of life is ridiculously low, for everyone except those who have money. This can possibly add a thought on the question, does money buy happiness. But anyway I digress… inflation is a grand issue, inflation is when the value of common goods increase. Obviously if these people have little money to begin with, increasing the prices on goods makes it significantly hard and even impossible to get any food. Inflation is a cause of droughts and different issues that interfere with the getting food and goods in the first place. Inflation is said to increase 10% every year. Another issue that contributes to many living in poverty is lack of good education. If anyone gets a good education they get the hell out of there, which leaves everyone else helpless. This leaves those who are seen as vulnerable to be taken to become slaves, to make rich people in Africa richer. In conclusion, families living in poverty is very real and can be the cause of many factors.

Fabian trejo

1/19/2018 03:31:05 pm

Well, thanks to us humans treating the earth like our own personal dumping ground, global warming threatens the very base of any civilization. Food. Without food, nothing lives. The Grasslands in Africa along with every grassland is so fertile that almost anything can grow there. Due to global warming and incorrect farming techniques, these grasslands are in danger of disappearing. The people in Africa shouldn’t have to deal with the possibility of their home being desertified

Sara Riley link

1/19/2018 04:49:00 pm

A modern issue in Africa today is corruption. Corruption is when someone that has made a crime and paid a bribe to get out of trouble and get set free secretly. For example say a so and so shot this person and the person is in critical condition. The guy that shot the person can pay a bribe to the police or courts. About 75 million people in Sub Saharan Africa has paid a bribe in he last year. Corruption makes exclusion and poverty. And corrupt people live with a great life and Africans are needing basic needs. Corruption is a big problem or issue because people shouldn’t get away with the stuff they did wrong, they should not be able to pay a bribe and just get let off secretly.

Mya McCoy

1/19/2018 05:06:56 pm

A modern issue in Africa is poor education. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest education exclusion in the world, meaning a small amount to even no children are receiving some type of education or learning system. Girls are more likely to not receive any type of education. Nine million girls, ages six to eleven, will never go to school, compared to six million boys. As girls not going to school isn’t the only problem. Only 25% of primary school teachers are actually trained. While we want more children to learn, we also need a higher demand in teachers who qualify to teach. Each child should be learning the same thing as the other children. We also don’t want crowded classrooms, seeing as that is also an issue. Africa has a rising demand for education, the problem will get worse if not fixed.

Bridgett Contreras

1/19/2018 06:01:44 pm

In 1998 was where is took place, on east Africa, a war between Ethiopia and Eritrea for territorial changes. The war happened between the border of these two places. The reason why this happened was Eritrea broke a law which lead to the war, by invading Ethiopia . People of both nations, Ethiopia and Eritrea , spent thousands of dollars and more. But both of these countries where the poorest. The war continued for three years, all the way two 2000. At the end Ethiopia won, due to their winning there was some changes not a big change in the border, expanding their territory.

Alex Stangel

1/19/2018 07:02:56 pm

Africa today has many issues, one being education, I'll start with the fact that 40% of African adults cannot read or write, and approximately 57 million African kids don't have a school to go to, this is a major problem as what did these children deserve to not be able to learn or get a education all because they live in a poor region, what makes it worse is that we continue to let it happen and only several fundraiser's to get these kids books and pay teachers to give these kids a future and to not be prevented by poverty, this is a huge issue in modern day Africa and should be looked into by those who can give to those who can't.

Abel Orozco

1/19/2018 07:40:57 pm

A major issue concerning modern Africa is corruption. Most of the people of Africa do not have proper medical care, education, or even jobs. These are all factors of the poverty stricken continent of Africa. Jobs in aren't all that well, for example mines; many hours of back-breaking work for little to no pay. Attending school is a privilege, only 40% of children ages 15-17 are not in school! One of Africa's most known issues are the spreading of STDs. Not so fun fact: there is so much cases of AIDS, HIV, etc. Luckily, there is a fundraiser named (RED) which donates in helping this unfortunate epidemic.

Amiyah bartley

1/19/2018 07:43:07 pm

Mr. Sherer I don't rember you assigning my row to a specific region, so is there any region in particular that you would like us to do?

Sarina Bell

1/19/2018 08:33:20 pm

There are multiple issues that people in Central Africa are dealing with today. Central Africa is one of the world's most poorest countries. An issue that people in this region are facing is the water crisis. The water crisis is the lack of basic foundation and political instability of providing clean water for the people. The majority of Africans in this region without clean water are women and children. They have little to no access to clean water or sanitation. The infant mortality rate is 10 percent, with the average life expectancy at 50.7 years, which is very low. The water the people were drinking looked like a yellowish color instead of being clear and transparent. The lack of clean drinking water had resulted in the spread of waterborne diseases in the area, leading to the cholera outbreak. Other diseases spread as well, such as tuberculosis, malaria, polio, shigellosis, etc. The rivers and lakes were found to be contaminated with an abundance of waste disposal and human activity. This resulted in the water pollution to get worse, having serious health risks to the residents of this region. Due to the low level of rainfall and low agricultural production, it threatened the food supply and needs of the local population. They depend on local water pumps for their daily needs, which gives residents no choice but to force themselves to drink the dirty and contaminated water. In conclusion, the water crisis in Central Africa is a critical situation that needs to be dealt with urgently. The only way to solve this plight is with the assistance of international aid organizations and water sanitation initiatives by the government.

Leah Evangelista

1/19/2018 08:39:04 pm

In the region of South Africa was a huge problem with unemployment. The rates of people who are unemployed are extremely high & have been quite some time. It's also not just not the rates of recently unemployed people but the citizens who have been unemployed long time. This problem has been going on for years & still has not been resolved

Tyler J. Rivera link

1/19/2018 08:40:18 pm

Africa, just like the rest of the world, has been experiencing concerning changes in it's climate during the 2000's and 2010's, and with it, Africa as a whole. Multiple floods have cause millions of dollars and thousands of people to perished. Water supplies have been dropping in areas such as Ghana, which has been forced to rely on the Akosombo Dam, and the water that is there in places such as the Niger River has been polluted, causing many people to go without clean and proper water. East Africa experienced the worse drought it had experienced since the 1950's, causing millions of people to starve. However, even though all of this has hit Africa, one after another, the people of the continent still survive and flourish, and even fix their own mistakes. For example, Cape Town (a well sized city that is located in the bottom south of Africa, famous for it's harbors) and dozens of other cities have declared to divest from fossil fuels in an attempt to slow/stop pollution once and for all in 2018! Zomba has decided to use solar powered street lights! Africa is staying strong, and are coming back better and ever. I heard someone say something along the lines of "Chaos and Order are not good or evil. Chaos destroys a path, and Order comes to rebuild it stronger than ever. So whenever an event or a catastrophe strikes, just know that we will come back stronger than ever." -I forgot his name.

Jocelin ortiz

1/19/2018 08:51:32 pm

A modern day issue happening today includes of human trafficking. Even though this is a serious crime and a violation to human rights it still occurs today in which about 20-30 million people are being used as slaves in the world, being more common with women and children.These people are being transported and forced to exploitation such as doing forced labor, prostitution and even used for having organs removed. Victims live in harsh conditions and are limited to a lot of things. Eventually victims are held captive and are transported to both national and international borders for trade. This is a very common issue that is going on in the world and is difficult to control this issue.

Hailey Ball

1/19/2018 09:23:46 pm

Africa is facing serious population groth issues. Today women around the world, on average are to have 2.5 chilren each, U.S, included, although in Africa women are expected to have 4.7 children each!! That is a incredible difference. These women can have so many children but they continue to suffer. With the lack of job opportunities and food sources the life expectancy rate is very, very low. By 2050 Africa is expected to double the word's population, surpassing China who currently holds the highest population at 1,268,301,605(5.7 children each family).

Marcuss Borja

1/19/2018 10:04:21 pm

One of the biggest issues in Africa is the recruitment of child soldiers to fight for many groups like the LRA which is the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army. There are mainly 2 ways a child can get recruited to fight. One is if they are kidnapped/abducted from their village and the other is if they are born into the violence. It is estimated that there are 120,000 child soldiers in Africa alone. These child soldiers are forced to fight and kill mindlessly on a tremendous scale, destroying families and villages as a whole. The child soldiers are not only robbed of their innocence, but also their childhood and they are scarred for life. Child soldiers are one of the many issues in Africa happening right now.

Jenalyn Silver

1/19/2018 10:12:30 pm

Africa has been experiencing extreme population growth. The average amount of children barred by women in this continent is 4.7. The rest of the world's average is just a mere 2.5 infants per female. With this consistency of increase, it is predicted that Africa with become 54% of the world's total population by 2050. The rest of the earth was able to maintain fairly well family programming, but Africa has yet to have much success in this department. Africa is in threat of going on a downfall with the pressure of having such a large group of people running on resources so sparse.

Estefany Zorrero P.4

1/19/2018 10:14:37 pm

In Algeria,North Africa there are millions of Africans who are suffering from slums area. Slums are urban streets that have been overcrowded by very poor people. This is a very serious issue because with the increasing population people in 2010 North Africa had 12 million people living in the slums. This has lead to diseases spreading through the slums which leads to people dying. The disease start from the poor people using poor resources for example the people having to drink water that isn't very clean and them not being able to afford electricity. Without these resources the people can keep their self clean and healthy and with them producing more and more their children wont be able to survive in these harsh areas. This is one major issue that i feel is happening in modern Africa and how it is impacting the civilization.

Jared Espinoza

1/19/2018 10:17:59 pm

An issue all over Africa is rapid climate change. This affects Africa because it increases the amount of volatile weather such as flooding and droughts. Climate change also throws off the routine of African people and farmers, with climate change affecting the grazing grounds plus crops being grown in Africa, hindering the food production. Climate change also will eventually lead to areas of Africa becoming uninhabitable, leading to mass migration and possibly causing over population of other areas.

Jolié Isabell link

1/19/2018 10:53:24 pm

As of cultural; there is a word that has been greatly followed mostly in South Africa. Ubuntu, meaning the phrase, "I am who I am, because of who we all are". It was used through tribes as "We are all one family". They depended on each other with their lives, they are who they are because they had others to teach them how to be. To them, Ubuntu was the way of life. Unfortunately now, Ubuntu isn't as looked up to in Africa. Many parts of Africa are poor today and many people there die from disease, hunger, etc.

Juan Farias

1/19/2018 10:58:52 pm

One of the biggest issues in Africa is poverty. Poverty has become such a big problem because there are multiple factors that cause it and it leads to other negative issues. For example one issue that comes from poverty is hunger. One of the main reasons is people don’t have enough money to buy food. Notably 47 percent of people in 2012 make about $1.90 a day or sometimes less. Back to my point that poverty Is such an issue because there’s many reasons it occurs one of those reasons is violence/conflicts. The pure threats of death or violence make people move away from there homes causing them to loose everything they have which leads to poverty which leads to hunger. One way to look at it is if a country has a history of conflict or is currently dealing with it poverty percentages will go up.

Johnathan Lazcano

1/19/2018 11:24:31 pm

One of the most major issues Africa deals with is poverty. Africa’s population growth rapidly raises which means more and more people that suffer from poverty. As a result of poverty, healthcare and education is at its worst. Health in Africa is one of the worst and most adults can’t read or write. Out of the 20 worst countries with food and nutrition, 19 of them are in Africa. 🤯

Angel Corona P.6

1/19/2018 11:36:07 pm

Africa is a very large continent that has a lot of wild life but, the wildlife has been impacted from hunters. But these hunters don't hunt for food they mostly hunt these animals for their valuable resources. For example the African rhinos have been poached which means that they are illegally hunted or cached. In 2016 1,054 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2016. With this situation occurring many wildlife animals are in danger of becoming instinct. This is was serious issue happening in Africa.

Emiliano alfaro

1/19/2018 11:37:46 pm

One of the major problems in Africa is there lack of resources.They have such a a big population , there are about 1 million people in Africa. It is one of the most populated continents in the world. The problem with that is since the population grows so rapidly they aren’t able to produce as much food, since women have twice as more kids then they do in any another continent. The people in Africa aren’t able to produce as much food with all the drought. In conclusion Africa has a hard time making ends meet due to their lack of resources.🤯

Pauline Tipanero

1/19/2018 11:48:09 pm

Throughout history, corruption embedded itself to become the most prevalent political and social issue in the world. It fuels largely on poor leadership, insufficient knowledge and involvement of the public in the government and the simple greed & selfishness of human nature. It perpetuates inequality, mal-education, crimes, and a whole lot of poverty; all problems heavily encountered in Africa. As a result, the well-being of the entire continent suffers; favoring mostly the rich and forsaking the poor. It varies from paying the police to get away from a traffic violation to bribing the government to disregard violations of human rights like rape, human trafficking, slavery and extrajudicial execution, giving zero justice to the victims and continuing the cycle of corruption in the continent. Following the collapse of Apartheid, a system of segregation founded on racism and discrimination in South Africa from 1948 to 1991, there was a hope for a modern and brighter future for Africa. However, did it really come to fruition?

Milana S.

1/19/2018 11:52:00 pm

The political climate of Southern Africa, is made up of differing opinions and problems that make up modern day society. One example is between the white European Boer people and the mixed black tribes of South Africa. The issue between both groups is the racial tension, the black South Africans dislike the Boers, due to the belief of black supremacy and the Boers owning 80% of the land. That belief causes them to act out and subsequently torture or murder the Boer people. For instance, the farm attacks that the South Africans instigated, barely anything was necessarily stolen it was more of a “rape your women and kill anyone”--type of
attack. The Boer people were intimidated of a possible racial war and created one of the largest civil defenses called the Suid Landers; however, there were two Boer wars. This major racial issue is not necessarily helped by the government; however, one politician stated to the South African tribe that if they kill all the Boers they cannot have their land to farm, so naturally everyone would result in famine.
Bonus: The cut off was 1990 because that is when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and Africa became somewhat of a democracy.

Mackenzie Nelson link

1/19/2018 11:58:45 pm

A big issue that almost all of the regions of Africa struggle with is population growth. The African continent has some of the highest averages for fertility rates and population growth in the whole world. The statistics alone paint a gigantic scale of challenge now and years to come. While the average world fertility rate is 2.5 children per woman, in Africa it is 4.7 children per woman. The current population of the continent is 1.2 billion people up from just under half a million people in 1980. The UN projects that by 2050 the annual growth increases of the continent will increase by 42 million people EVERY year and the total population of the continent will have doubled. As growth rates in the rest of the world will decrease, Africa will contribute 54% of the overall world population growth by 2050. This means that there will be 3.5 million more people per month, or 80 additional people per minute. At this point, African population growth would be able to re-fill an empty London five times a year! Overall life expectancy has also risen. The 12 million Africans born in 1955 could expect to live only until the age of 37. Now, the 42 million Africans born this year can expect to live to the age of 60. That’s almost double! While the population growth points to recent medical advancements and improved conditions to increase life expectancy and lower infant mortality, the challenge is meeting the needs of this population explosion.

Brandon Estrada link

1/22/2018 07:31:38 am

Things that are that Africa is facing that we face as well are diseases. That’s something that we can’t control or even sometimes escape. That is a big problem globally, that’s something that we have all to deal with when we are brought to this world as infants. That’s a big major issue that we have and that Africa has. Africa is also facing other things besides all that and that is corruption I say. Well it’s a 50/50, the reason why I say this is because it’s hard to get Medicare. That is something that we face as well as. Getting Medicare is now like a mission to get. Cause everybody doesn’t have any type of job or money to help them.

Quinton Knight

5/20/2018 11:25:20 pm

The relationship Diamonds essay and the Ted Talk is that they are both showing results of what happened in the past. We are and were destroying destroying the earth with all of our advancements. One example is a factory; it gives off so much pollution which affects the air and water. In Easter Island many people of the old times were advancing that nobody could and still can not seem to figure it out what happened. Just as how the stone statues really got their locations and figures on the island. What we can realize from the essay and Ted Talk is that we need to put our money into the environment as well as our surroundings before it is to late because we are ending the worlds span of life quicker. We can find a way to slow what we started and make the earth healthier. As an example just us people alone cutting down on the pollution we put in the world that contaminate our air and water by just disposing of things in the right way. We can try to go back to older ways where we were more civil and less selfish while needing all the other excess of the products we make. It would make the world a better place to live if we could get one form of government and language to share so we can communicate better and have the world become one to make the world healthier.

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Regional Issues in Modern Africa

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