撒哈拉以南非洲
维库，知识与思想的自由文库
Sub-Saharan Africa is the term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara desert. Geographically, the demarcation line is the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Many countries such as Chad, Mali, Sudan, Niger, and Mauritania thus belong to both regions, and for this reason some object to the term in its entirety.[1] Since the end of the last Ice Age, the north and sub-Saharan regions of Africa have been separated by the extremely harsh climate of the sparsely populated Sahara, forming an effective barrier interrupted by only the Nile River. The modern term sub-Saharan corresponds with the standard representation of North as above and South as below. Tropical Africa and Equatorial Africa are alternative modern labels, used for the distinctive ecology of the region. However, if strictly applied, this term would exclude South Africa, most of which lies outside the Tropics.
[编辑] HistoryIn 19th Century Europe and the Western world, the area was sometimes referred to as "Black Africa." Africa as a whole was commonly known as "the Dark continent", a term that was usually intended to refer to the Sub-Saharan region. This was partly due to the skin color of its inhabitants and partly because much of it had not been fully mapped or explored by Westerners. These terms are now obsolete and often considered to be pejorative. Further, they are misleading, as dark-skinned Africans are indigenous to much of North Africa, as well. [2] [编辑] Critique of the term
Some object to the usage of the term and see it is as misleading and a racist colonial way of viewing Africa. [1][3][4] [5] Academic and cultural writer Owen 'Alik Shahadah states "…This barrier of sand hence confined Africans to the bottom of this make-believe location, which exists neither linguistically, ethnically, politically or physically...Somalia and Djibouti are part of the same political Islamic alignment just like many so-called Arab countries." (See Arab League). Others such as Okoth P Godfrey, Department of History University of California, states that European travelers and geographers created the concept of "two Africa’s," sets up the removal of African contribution to world civilization.[5] [1] Many scholars reject these critiques. David Gress, a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, feels that "In this era of galloping anti-intellectualism... such accounts, and the political circumstances in which they appear, raise some important questions about scholarship and propaganda in the academy and, a fortiori, in what remains of the general culture." According to Gress, such critiques are based on deception and appeal to anti-intellectual activists. Gress feels that the allowance of such mythicizing is due to academe "suffering severely from anti-European cultural arrogance, or, to speak frankly, from black racist attempts to impose indoctrination in the place of teaching and scholarship."[1] [编辑] EconomiesGenerally, sub-Saharan Africa is the poorest region in the world, still suffering from the legacies of colonialism, slavery, native corruption, and inter-ethnic conflict. The region contains many of the least developed countries in the world. (See Economy of Africa.) Sub-Saharan Africa, especially East Africa, is regarded by some geneticists as being the birthplace of the human race (the genus Homo). Mitochondrial Eve, from whom all humans alive are descended, is thought to have lived in present day Ethiopia or Tanzania. Sub-Saharan Africa has been the site of many empires and kingdoms, including the Axum, Wagadu (Ghana), Mali, Nok, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, Benin and Great Zimbabwe. Up to and including October 2006 many governments face difficulties in implementing policies aimed at mitigating the effects of the AIDS-pandemic due to lack of technical support despite a number of mitigating measures. [2] The population of sub-Saharan Africa was 622 million in 1997. [3] [编辑] Health careIn 1988, Bamako was the location of a WHO conference known as the Bamako Initiative that helped reshape the health policy of sub-Saharan Africa.[6] The new strategy dramatically increased accessibility through community-based healthcare reform, resulting in more efficient and equitable provision of services. A comprehensive approach strategy was extended to all areas of health care, with subsequent improvement in the health care indicators and improvement in health care efficiency and cost.[7][8] [编辑] Nations of sub-Saharan AfricaThere are 42 countries located on the sub-Saharan African mainland. The 6 island nations include Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. Mauritius is generally not considered to be a sub-Saharan African island because the ethnic make up of the country is predominantly East Indian, Chinese and French. [來源請求] According to this classification scheme, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa are: [编辑] Central Africa[编辑] East Africa
[编辑] Southern Africa[编辑] West Africa
[编辑] African island nations
[编辑] Territories, possessions, départements[编辑] Notes
[编辑] External links[编辑] Political maps of Sub-Saharan Africa
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
