D geo ch 6
Terms
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- kleptocracy
- A state where corruption is so institutionalized that the politicians and beaurocrats cyphon off a huge percentage of a countries wealth.
- Berlin Conference
- The 1884 conference that divided Africa into European colonial territories. The boundaries created in Berlin satisfied European ambition but ignored indigenous cultural affiliations. Many of Africas civil conflicts can be traced to ill conceived territorial divisions crafted in 1884.
- desertication
- The spread of desert conditions into semi-arid areas owing to improper management of land.
- tsetse fly
- a fly that is a vector for a parasite that causes sleeping sickness. a disease that especially effects humans and livestock. Livestock is rarely found in those areaas of sub-saharan Africa where the tsetse fly is common
- clans
- A social unit that is typically smaller than a tribe or ethnic group but larger than a family based on supposed descent from a common ancestor
- genocide
- The deliberate, systematic killing of a racial, political or cultural group by a state.
- Horn of Africa
- The north western corner of sub-saharan Africa that includes the states of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritria and Djibouti. Drought famine and ethnic warfare in the 1980s nand 90's resulted in political termoil in this era
- structural adjustment programs
- controversial but widely implemented programs used to reduce government spending and encourage the private sector and refinance foreign debt. Typically these IMF and World Bank policies trigger drastic cutbacks in government supported services and food subsidies which disproportionately effect the poor.
- biofuels
- Energy sources derrived from plants or animals through out the developing world: wood, charcoal and dung are primary energy sources for cooking and heating.
- internally displaced persons
- groups and individuals who flee an area due to conflict or famine but still remain in their country of origin. These populations often live in refugee like conditions but are harder to assist because they typically do not qualify as refugees
- swidden agriculture
- also called slash and burn agriculture. a form of cultivation in which forrested or brushy plots are cleared of vegetation burned then planted to crops only to be abandoned a few years later when soil fertility declines
- refugee
- A person who flees his or her country because of a well founded fear of persecution based on race ethnicity religion ideology or political affiliation
- tribe
- a group of families or clans with a common kinship, language, and defineable territory but not organized state
- homelands
- Nationally independent ethnic territories created for blacks under the Grand Apartide Scheme. homelands were on marginal land, overcrowded, in the post apartide era they were eliminated
- coloured
- A racial category used through out South Africa to define people of mixed European and African ancestry.
- apartheid
- The policy of racial seperateness that directed the seperate residencial and workspace for whites, blacks, coloreds and indians in south Africa for nearly 50 years. It was abolished when the African National Congress came to power in 1994.
- African Union
- founded in 1963, the organization grew to include all the states of the continent except South Africa, which finally was asked to join in 1994. In 2004 the body changd it's name to the African Union. It is mostly a political body that has tried to resolve regional conflicts.
- Sahel
- The semidesert region at the southern fringe of the Sahara, and the countries that fall within this region, which extends from Senegal to Sudan. Droughts in the 1970's and early 80"s caused widespread famine and dislocation of population
- Great Escarpment
- a land form that rims Southern Africa from Angola to South Africa. It forms where the narrow coastal plains meet the elevated plateaus in an abrupt break in elevation.
- tribalism
- allegiance to a particular tribe or ethnic group rather than to a nation state. Tribalism is often blamed for conflicts within sub saharan states.