Education

Good education is very hard to come by in Africa due to the amount of poverty that the continent faces. The money that Africa is making as a continent in whole does not go to benefit and grow schools. This goes back to the corruption that the government faces. Many children are not getting a proper education behind them because there are not the resources to do so. We all hear about Americans going to Africa to help with healthcare, educational problems, and trying to make Africa a better place. Not just for the fun of it but for the sake of these children. In the past women were never allowed to go to college or further there education but there are now programs to help women become as educated as they would like to be. Although education isn't the best that it can be, it is improving. It is a slow process but we cant make things magically better, it all takes time.

Children of Africa

When people think of the children of Africa they begin to feel sorry for them, automatically thinking that there life is terrible because poverty is a very big struggle. Truth of it is though is that children can still be happy, even if they are not wealthy. Children in Africa have chores, just like many of us have had in the United States. Chores could be looking after there siblings, helping in the fields, or even gathering food. With this being said though, many children in Africa do not live a happy, fun life. Depending on the culture, there are strong hierarchy's. In many situations children become the main source of income. In many instances adults will treat them kindly but then again there are many instances where adults will abuse them. A good way to determine what kind of life the child is living is to base it off of their family. You can also get a good idea of life expectancy, education, and things to this sort.

African Rainforests

When we think of Africa, rainforests do not instantly come to mind. To be honest I had no idea Africa even had any rainforests. Africa actually has the second largest rain forests in the entire world. In western Africa, the rainforest contain leopards, buffaloes, elephants, antelopes, monkeys, and many more animals. In the Liberian rainforests there are over 260 tree species such as mahogany, walnut, and teak. The coastal areas of Ghana, Nigeria, and Equatorial Guinea have rainforests as well. These forests are actually the home to the worlds largest monkeys called patas monkeys. The democratic republic of congo has the second largest rainforest in the world, following the Amazon. It contains 11,000 plants, 450 mammals, 1150 birds, 300 reptiles, and 200 amphibian species. It is amazing to read about how many rainforests and species are among these rainforests. This is another example of not knowing what Africa truly has to offer.

 

Sports of Africa

There are many different sports that are played in Africa. However, soccer, rugby, and cricket are the most popular sports overall. We don't tend to hear about a lot of sports in Africa. When it comes to the Olympics we hear about African's doing extremely well in the track and field sort of sports but we don't realize just how good they are at soccer, cricket, or rugby.

Soccer is by far the most popular sport in Africa. The soccer team in Africa is nicknamed Bafana Bafana (meaning the boys, the boys/GO BOYS GO BOYS).



Cricket  is traditionally the sport that is most popular among the white and Indian south African communities. However, many different races now are a part of cricket. The national cricket team is nicknamed The Proteas.



Rugby is most popular amongst persons of Afrikaner descent. The rugby team of Africa,  The Springboks, have had much success since the early 20th century.

Gender Roles in Africa

Traditionally the male if the provider and hold most of the power in the household. The man is to do the "manly" duties; farm, build, and many other types of work. Men look more powerful when they have more wives in Africa. It gives them a sense of power, to put in terms it makes them look better. Power is a great deal of importance when it comes to the men of Africa. They want to be able to grow the most crops, have the most land, and have many wives.

In a traditional setting, women are meant to do the housework and be able to produce off spring. Being able to have several children was a very important "duty" of theirs. It was almost looked at as a job which is terribly sad. Women were to take care of the household duties and raise the children. Women weren't educated, now a days more women are becoming educated so they do not need to find a husband to take care of them. The women were abused, if they did not "obey" or listen to their husband, the man did have the power to punish them for it.

Now that women are able to get more education, it is threatening the mans power. I think that this creates a lot of violence. The men tend to feel like they are not as powerful when the women has any sort of power or education behind them. They do not look at it as everyone should be treated as equals.

African Weddings

Marriage is a very sacred thing in Africa. There are many things that take place, starting as young girls, to teach young women about their duty of one day becoming a bride. Young women will go to schools and take classes about things to expect when they become a bride and what is expected of them. Weddings are very elaborate in Africa which consists of feasts for days or even to the extent where multiple couples get married that same day. This is very interesting because this is not something that you see happening in the United States at all. I think that we are a bit more selfish and want that day to ourselves, we don't want to share. Weddings in Africa are much more of a sacred thing. Although here in America we take our wedding vows seriously, it is to a whole different extreme in Africa. As you look through pictures of weddings that occur in Africa, you can see how their heritage and culture plays a huge role into clothing and activities. Many Africans follow the traditional role and really go with how things once were but you can also see that many modernize the traditional aspect of African heritage.

Diseases of Africa

Africa is well known for being a disease bearing continent. Diseases in Africa have taken many lives because they are so deadly. They mainly are effecting woman and children because they are so much more vulnerable to these diseases. If proper sanitation and hygiene was being used many of these diseases could be prevented. This goes to show how much better Africa would be if they had a better healthcare system.

Some of the most common and most deadly diseases that you find among Africa are syphilis, meningitis, tetanus, measles, malaria, and  HIV/Aids. These are only to list a few.

Syphilis is a rash or boil that is passed on sexually or can be transmitted during the birth of a child. This is so common in Africa due to there not being much sexual education and there are no preventative measures when it comes to these issues. Studies have shown that in major African cities around 10% of the population is infected with this disease.

Meningitis is a killer disease in the world as a whole. This disease allows swelling of the brain and spinal cord leading to swelling of there tissues. The reason this is so bad in Africa is because they do not have proper vaccinations to help prevent this deadly disease.

Tetanus is a disease that is due to negligence. People who are infected with this disease and survive is very low. Tetanus occurs from breaking of skin that gets contaminated. Sub-Saharan African countries record about 84,000 deaths a year due to this.

Measles can spread very quickly. Although there are vaccinations for measles now, having enough to reach all of the villages in Africa is very difficult. With that being said measles is still a leading cause of death in Africa.

Malaria causes swelling of the spleen to occur. There was a study done is 2012 stating that when it comes to Malaria, it kills twice as many people every year then formerly thought.

HIV/Aids is primarily spread through unprotected sex. I believe that a big reason why Africa deals with this issue is because the lack of knowledge of healthcare and also the idea that women need to reproduce so much to gain back the population of what they have lost in slavery.

Its very sad to think about the fact that these are only a few of the deadly diseases that are found in Africa. However, hopefully the government will want to establish better healthcare and be able to educate there people so they can live longer, healthier lives.