Sub-Saharan Africa

African Urbanization

SSA has always been one of the least urbanized regions, but since the 1960s they have been urbanizing and growing allowing limited opportunities. African cities are known to be creative engines of cultural change and centers of political and associational life

Apartheid

means "the state of being apart", it was a system of racism and segregation in South Africa enforced by the National Party from 1948-1994. The government was all white. Under this system, nonwhite South Africans (the majority of the population) lived separately, used separate public areas, and had limited contact with whites. There was strong opposition to this but it remained in effect for over 50 years. It was not until 1991 that President F.W. de Klerk began to repeal this basis for this system.

The two largest cities in Sub-Sharan Africa

Lagos (Nigeria) and Kinshasa (Congo)

Only two of the largest cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are megacities. They are:

Lagos and Kinshasa

Africas urban areas took form under constraints such as

-settlement developed on the coast, minimal impacts on the interior -many coastal settlements were used as transshipment points and lacked regular urban facilities, beside european housing or defensive port establishments -lack of European technology and culture spread to the interior's native centers

before 1500 in Africa, there were

atleast 5 major cities of urbanism

Pretoria came to be governed as part of a metropolitan municipality called Tshwane. Port Elizabeth came to be part of the Nelson Mandela municipality. What event led to this era of political reorganization and place re-naming in South Africa?

collapse of apartheid and beginning of democratic rule

the first european settlers in africa were

the Portuguese

The oldest region of urban settlement in sub-Saharan Africa was:

the upper Nile and Ethiopia