Africa: Location, Position, Size and Political Division

Back to: GEOGRAPHY SS2

 

Welcome to class! 

In today’s class, we will be talking about Africa: location, position, size and political division. Enjoy the class!

Africa: Location, Position, Size and Political Division

Africa is located between latitudes 37^o N and 35^oS of the equator and 17^oW and 51^oE of the Greenwich Meridian.

POSITION: Africa is the second largest continent in the world after Asia. It is bounded in the north by the Mediterranean sea which separates Africa from Europe, in the south by the Atlantic ocean, in the East by Indian ocean and in the north-east by the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden which separates Africa from Asia.

SIZE: Africa is the second-largest continent in terms of land area after Asia. It occupies ¹/₄ of the total land area of the world. The total land area of Africa is approximately 30 million sq km stretching for about 8000km from north to south and 7,500km from east to west.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS OF AFRICA: Africa consists of about 48 mainland countries and several islands. Some islands in the Indian Ocean include Madagascar (the largest island) Zanzibar, Comoro, Mauritius, etc. While some islands in the Atlantic ocean include Sao Tome, Cape Verde, Principe, Canary and Equatorial Guinea.

EVALUATION

1. Describe the location of Africa.
2. Explain the size of Africa.

LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES

These are countries that do not share boundaries with the coast or oceans.

The landlocked countries in Africa include Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Central Africa Republic, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Sudan.

PROBLEMS OF LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES

1. They experience high freight cost.
2. They depend economically on other countries.
3. They depend politically on other countries.
4. There is always an insecurity of goods.
5. There is also political instability.

GENERAL EVALUATION

1. What are landlocked countries?
2. Mention some landlocked countries in Africa.
3. Describe the political division of Africa.
4. What is the size of Africa?
5. State problems affecting landlocked countries.

 

In our next class, we will be talking about Africa: Relief and Drainage.  We hope you enjoyed the class.

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