Unit One: Why Study Africa?

Teacher Discussion:

This activity is intended to be a class discussion. Ask students to study the map on the computer, on an overhead projection, or as a handout, and answer the question provided above.

Image 1 shows a typical trader in a typical market in West Africa. Note the tropical fruits that he is selling. Think about what kind of a climate he must live in to grow such fruits! This trader might be selling his own produce, which would make him both a farmer and a businessperson, or he might be selling produce, which would make him just a businessperson.

Image 2 shows a farmer's carefully planned and laid-out field This farmer benefits from an irrigation scheme (hence the little stream with the plank bridge), so he usually has water for his crops. However, many farmers in Africa have to wait for the rain to water their crops.

Image 3 shows people plowing a field in West Africa in order to plant their crops. Note the big cattle (sometimes called "oxen") they use to help with the plowing. People use animals in this way in many parts of the world, particularly where they don't have access to technical machinery such as tractors. While such methods may be harder and more time-consuming than using tractors, they don't require gasoline and they don't pollute the air!

Image 4 shows two typical businesswomen outside the company where they work in Southern Africa. It's important to remember that in some places in Africa, many people work in the formal employment sector of the economy, and they work at jobs very similar to the ones that the students' parents do here in the United States. The women in this picture are executive secretaries. Point out that they dress much like career women here in the U.S. do.

Image 5 shows a copper mining company in Central Africa. This region has very rich copper deposits, and the people living in this region, especially the men, often gain formal employment in the mines, either directly mining the ore, or working in the processing plants, or working in the many businesses and industries that support the mines. Where people work in such jobs, they sometimes enjoy the same kind of lifestyle that people in the U.S. do, with a nice home, and a car or two, and even television and satellite dishes! Historically, and even in some places today, some men who worked in mining jobs were not so fortunate. They lived together in dormitory-like buildings called hostels, and their families lived far away.