Geography
Eastern Africa is a place full of geographical unhappiness. From Uganda, to Djibouti, to Ethiopia all the way to Ghana, there are geographical issues. Issues that cannot be fixed, problems that are impossible to solve because of what was there long before any Africans arrived. At first glance, the area looks like a beautiful place, and the people look happy, but in reality there are some unsolved inconveniences that will not be going away anytime soon. West of Kenya and just east of Central Africa is a land slightly smaller than Oregon, filled with tropical rainforests, plateaus and mountain tops. Uganda. Uganda has many natural resources: copper, gold, limestone and cobalt with a very tropical climate, you would never imagine this country to have issues with freshwater. This well-watered country with many lakes and rivers is one of the last places on earth many people would assume to have difficulties with receiving freshwater. Although, Uganda is having environmental problems with freshwater! Uganda is also having issues with wetlands for agricultural use, deforestation, overgrazing, and soil erosion. Djibouti is just one of the other countries located in Eastern Africa experiencing difficulties with their natural features. Djibouti borders both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, which makes it far from land locked (unlike many African countries). If you are looking for the relative size of Djibouti, it is slightly smaller than Massachusetts, which makes it about 23,000 square kilometers. Only 20 of those square kilometers are water. Djibouti is made up of mostly desert and is very dry, which explains its geographical issues with inadequate supplies of potable water, limited arable land, desertification, and endangered species. Djibouti also has trouble with natural hazards such as: earthquakes, droughts, and occasional flash floods. Ethiopia is our next stop on our Eastern Africa geographical tragedy trip. Ethiopia is a landlocked country just west of Somalia and about twice the size of Texas. A little background on Ethiopia’s climate is that it is tropical monsoon, but has a wide “topographic-induced variation,” (Weidner 2). Ethiopia has an active Great Rift Valley, which is very susceptible to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and often has droughts. Ethiopia has issues similar to those of Uganda: deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, water shortages, overgrazing and poor management. Last but not least, Ghana. Ghana is a warm and tropical country, but decently dry along the southeast coast. Ghana is hot and humid in the southwest and hot and dry in the north. Ghana is covered with low plains (mostly) and a plateau in the south-central area. Ghana experiences geographical issues with it being so dry and dusty all the time. Harmattan winds are dry and dusty West African trade winds, that occurs for January to March in Ghana. These winds cause many homes to be destroyed and many droughts to take place. These droughts affect agricultural activities, and sometimes even cause overgrazing, soil erosion, deforestation, water pollution and habitat destruction (which threatens wildlife populations). These four Eastern African people are affected everyday by the geographical issues that the countries in which they live in have. The geographical issues of these countries are just a few of the many geographical drawbacks that the people of Eastern Africa, and Africa as a whole have to take on every single day. |
Imperialism
Imperialism had gained ground in Eastern Africa, and Somalia, a country in Eastern Africa, had been affected around the ideas of imperialism too. These ideas have caused famine in the region that has affected the people of Somalia for years. Throughout its existence, it has been hit by other countries and their own government that caused this famine. This horrible accomplishment has caused economic and social demolition within the communities in Somalia, and all of this is based on imperialism. Somalia had gained independence from the Europeans on July 1, 1960. From that point in time, the country has struggled tried to gain an economic standard of living and against their legacy. They attempted to unify the nation and nationalize governmental structures such as the banks of Somalia and so on. The government, run by Siad Barre in 1969, tried all they possibly could to make Somalia profitable and a wealthy country in Eastern Africa. Before they could do that, however, their progress was halted by imperialism. In 1977, border disputes from Somalia and Ethiopia was manipulated by imperialism into causing a war with the other country. Somalia’s policy mistakes caused a weakened military force and wrecked the economy with it, as well as losing support from the Soviet Union. In all of the struggle and strife of the war, a silver lining appeared. Somalia during the downfall gained the support of the US, who was their friend and savior at the time. Even with the support, Somalia was in a dark period. Their central authority was gone, which caused a civil war in the Eastern African country. That’s when imperialism starts taking play. Because of their past wars, economic downfall and vanish of civil peace, the country is in no place now to deal with a drought. Now, a drought is a natural disaster but the famine that comes with it is man-made. Even though Somalia has the support of the United States, they aren’t doing anything to help with food aid. Due to the feud between the U.S. government and Al Shabaab, who is a negative influence in Somalia, the U.S. refuses to send help to Somalia. U.S. imperialism didn’t only use starvation as a tool to gain the control of this region. Several attacks have occurred between Somalis and the U.S. to ensure their rule. The CIA, in some reports, is to the reporters an “anti-terror” headquarters, but also an underground prison for Somalis who are suffering rendition. A pattern has appeared in the countries that are slightly close to imperialism, which is affecting Eastern Africa in horrible ways. Somalia and their famine is just the tip of the iceberg, for there is more imperialism to go around in the area than just Somalia. |