Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- ONE AFRICA NORTH OF THE EQUATOR
- TWO AFRICA SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR
- THREE THE OPENING UP OF AFRICA: (1) FROM THE NORTH-EAST
- FOUR THE OPENING UP OF AFRICA: (2) FROM THE MAGHRIB
- FIVE WEST AFRICA BEFORE THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1800–1875
- SIX WESTERN CENTRAL AFRICA, 1800–1880
- SEVEN EASTERN CENTRAL AFRICA, 1800–1884
- EIGHT SOUTHERN AFRICA, 1800–1885
- NINE THE PARTITION OF AFRICA ON PAPER, 1879–1891
- TEN THE PARTITION OF AFRICA ON THE GROUND, 1891–1901
- ELEVEN COLONIAL RULE IN TROPICAL AFRICA: (1) POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS, 1885–1914
- TWELVE COLONIAL RULE IN TROPICAL AFRICA: (2) SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS
- THIRTEEN THE INTER-WAR PERIOD, 1918–1938
- FOURTEEN NORTH AND NORTH-EAST AFRICA, 1900–1939
- FIFTEEN SOUTH AFRICA, 1902–1939
- SIXTEEN THE LAST YEARS OF COLONIAL RULE
- SEVENTEEN THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (1) NORTH AND NORTH-EAST AFRICA
- EIGHTEEN THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (2) AFRICA FROM THE SAHARA TO THE ZAMBEZI
- NINETEEN THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (3) CENTRAL AFRICA
- TWENTY THE LONG ROAD TO DEMOCRACY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
- TWENTY ONE THE POLITICS OF INDEPENDENT AFRICA
- TWENTY TWO ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY IN INDEPENDENT AFRICA
- TWENTY THREE INTO THE THIRD MILLENNIUM
- EPILOGUE
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Index
ONE - AFRICA NORTH OF THE EQUATOR
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Maps
- ONE AFRICA NORTH OF THE EQUATOR
- TWO AFRICA SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR
- THREE THE OPENING UP OF AFRICA: (1) FROM THE NORTH-EAST
- FOUR THE OPENING UP OF AFRICA: (2) FROM THE MAGHRIB
- FIVE WEST AFRICA BEFORE THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1800–1875
- SIX WESTERN CENTRAL AFRICA, 1800–1880
- SEVEN EASTERN CENTRAL AFRICA, 1800–1884
- EIGHT SOUTHERN AFRICA, 1800–1885
- NINE THE PARTITION OF AFRICA ON PAPER, 1879–1891
- TEN THE PARTITION OF AFRICA ON THE GROUND, 1891–1901
- ELEVEN COLONIAL RULE IN TROPICAL AFRICA: (1) POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS, 1885–1914
- TWELVE COLONIAL RULE IN TROPICAL AFRICA: (2) SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENTS
- THIRTEEN THE INTER-WAR PERIOD, 1918–1938
- FOURTEEN NORTH AND NORTH-EAST AFRICA, 1900–1939
- FIFTEEN SOUTH AFRICA, 1902–1939
- SIXTEEN THE LAST YEARS OF COLONIAL RULE
- SEVENTEEN THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (1) NORTH AND NORTH-EAST AFRICA
- EIGHTEEN THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (2) AFRICA FROM THE SAHARA TO THE ZAMBEZI
- NINETEEN THE ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE: (3) CENTRAL AFRICA
- TWENTY THE LONG ROAD TO DEMOCRACY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
- TWENTY ONE THE POLITICS OF INDEPENDENT AFRICA
- TWENTY TWO ECONOMICS AND SOCIETY IN INDEPENDENT AFRICA
- TWENTY THREE INTO THE THIRD MILLENNIUM
- EPILOGUE
- Suggestions for Further Reading
- Index
Summary
The Sahara and Islam: The Bonds Unifying Northern Africa
The geography of the northern half of Africa is dominated by the Sahara desert. Throughout its vast area, 2,800 km (1,700 miles) from north to south and nearly 8,000 km (5,000 miles) from east to west, rainfall is less than 13 cm (5 inches) a year. Except around a few oases where underground supplies of water reach the surface, agriculture is impossible, and the desert's only inhabitants have been nomadic herdsmen, breeding camels and moving their animals seasonally from one light grazing ground to another. To the north of the desert lies the temperate Mediterranean coastland – its rainfall concentrated between January and March, with wheat and barley as its main cereal crops and sheep, the main stock of its highland pastures. Southward are the tropics, the land of the summer rains, favouring a different set of food crops from those grown around the Mediterranean. In the desert and northward live Berbers and Arabs, fair-skinned peoples speaking languages of the Afroasiatic family. South of the desert begins the ‘land of the blacks’ – to the Greeks; ‘Ethiopia’, to the Berbers, ‘Akal n'Iguinawen’ (Guinea); and to the Arabs, ‘Bilad as-Sudan’.
The desert has always been a formidable obstacle to human communication, but for two thousand years at least – since the introduction of the horse and the camel made travel easier – people have persevered in overcoming its difficulties. Before the days of the motorcar and the aeroplane, it took two months or more to cross.
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- Africa since 1800 , pp. 1 - 17Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005