Africas Image

Africa is portrayed to be a very poor continent. However, they have many resources that would make Africa be a very wealthy continent if only the government was not corrupt. The government and politicians take everything for themselves instead of bettering Africa as a whole.

 

When you see images of Africa you see things such as starving children, violence, aids, diseases, and shacks as homes. Starvation is not something that is very common anymore. Violence is something that happen no matter where you are. We have violence in the United States as well but it does not become our "image" of our country. Many diseases develop in Africa, this is something that has been shown to have truth behind it. I think that this is the reason why there are so many doctors and nurses wanting to travel to Africa in order to help out the people. They do not have the funding for medical supplies such as vaccinations, medications, and tools. Africa actually has very beautiful building and amazing architecture. There are certain areas that do have very nice homes, for example in South Africa. I attached a picture of a home in South Africa, it is not the typical image of African houses. This just shows how much the media likes to portray things in a certain light.

Size of Africa

Africa is the second largest continent. Six of the ten fastest growing countries in the world in 2000-2010 were African. Africa is 11.67 million square miles. Angola itself had grew faster than anywhere else on the planet! When you think of how big Africa actually is, its amazing! Until we talked about the size of the continent I know for myself I never really understood just how big it was. It is amazing to me that the size of the United States is only a portion of the size of Africa.

By reading different articles it has made me very aware of the fact that Africa is continuing to grow immensely. There are individuals from different continents and countries coming because of all the opportunities with the natural resources. For example, look at the doctors that go to Africa to help out. Although Africa is lacking in the medical field, it has the potential to be better. It again comes down to the fact of the government taking all the profits for themselves instead of bettering there home. Once the day comes when Africa booms with the great resources they have, they will only grow more and more. People will move from all over the world to work for all of the companies that will expand. I feel like as time goes on, there will be endless opportunities for Africa.

Africas Natural Resources

Something that we have talked about in class discussions is the amount of natural resources Africa actually has. This is something that just amazed me because it is not anything you hear about. We never hear about the positive things that contribute to Africa. A big question people have is; are they saving these resources for when our world is in need of them? It often seems to be this way because of the corrupt government that Africa suffers from.

Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, and Angola make up a huge amount of the oil productions. If we look at all of the natural resources that make up Africa, it is amazing. Oil, gas, gold, diamond, copper, and manganese are the top resources. So why is it that Africa is still considered "poor"? There is so much money that they are making just off of oil let alone but it is going straight to the government instead of making schools better or establishing housing communities. This is the reason Africa has negative images to represent Africa as a whole.