Much of the African Coastline is smooth and regular with few natural habours meaning large ships cannot dock there
Technology has in some cases, overcome the issue of small habours
Many of Africas countries are landlocked
Landlocked countries find it tricky to trade as its often expensive with other countries placing trade tariffs
Most African countries have a great amount of natural resources such as iron, copper, gold and cobalt
The DRC has the biggest cobalt resource in the world, but lacks political stability to extract it
This means cobalt in the DRC is often exploited for low prices and bribes by large tech companies
At almost the size of the USA, the Sahara is the worlds largest dry desert
About 8% of world trade passes through the Suez Canal every day
Africa is full of rivers – but sadly they aren’t good transport due to massive waterfalls
The rivers of Africa are great for Hydro Electric Power
The use of HEP could lead to conflict – with Ethiopia’s Great Renaissance Dam potentially stopping the water supply to the Nile (Egypt)
Farming is hard in many parts of Africa due to poor soil and drought
The Sahel is a dry rocky strip of land south of the Sahara that stretches for 5,000 miles
Nigeria is Africa’s largest producer of oil, pumping 2million barrels a day
More than half the oil produced in Angola is exported to China
In many civilisations, farming was the start of development, however, farming in Africa has been hard due to poor soils, jungle, deserts, swampland etc
Most continents like Europe have had animals suitable for hunting, but African nations less so, hard to hunt a lion!
Africa has lots of rivers like Europe – but sadly many have waterfalls every few miles – which prevents trade
Colonial powers too advantage of Africa’s resources and exploited as much as possible
Even today, China continues to exploit Africa nations for their resources
The Europeans didn’t just steal Africa’s wealth, they divided the continent between them
In the nineteenth century Europeans carved up Africa, with no say from the African people, they just drew lines
Many waring tribal groups were suddenly told they were a country of a name they had never heard of and told to get along
After the Europeans left, the borders stayed the same but now waring tribes had to rule one nation
Most African nations have, at some point, gone into civil war
Genocide has taken place in two countries: Rwanda and Sudan as a result of tribal hatred and corrupt governments
Today, many Africa cities are thriving hubs such as Nairobi, Dar es Salam and Kinshasa
Most African countries now have control over their natural wealth – meaning there is a positive future ahead
Healthcare, education and women rights is improving in nearly every single African country
