Africa facts and reality

The continent of Africa is three times the size of the United States (all 50 states).  There are 56 countries in Africa.

What sets Africa apart from all other continents? Because Africa straddles the tropical latitudes, there is no severe winter as experienced in Northern Europe, Asia or North America.  This is referred to as the “winter-gap.”

Of all the major land masses or continents, Africa has been the least subject to major earthquakes, tremors, typhoons, hurricanes and other forms of devastation.

It is one of the ironies of European penetration of Africa that it was not the wild and gigantic beasts of eastern and southern Africa which frightened Europeans away; it was in fact the tiny insects of the west coast and central Africa which made Europeans nervous.  “Not by the roar of the lion but by the buzz of the mosquito were the fears of the white man aroused.” (quote from "The Africans - A Triple Heritage" by Ali A. Mazrui, BBC Publications, 1986)

The Sahara Desert is almost the size of the United States.  Only 15% of the Sahara Desert is covered with sand dunes.

From 5,000 to 7,500 years ago Africa’s Sahara Desert was lush and green with plentiful wildlife and a great network of trade routes linking the Mediterranean coast with that of West Africa.  From about 4,000 years ago (2,000 B.C.) the climate began to change and the Sahara was transformed to what it is today.

The SAHEL is the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. “Sahel” is derived from an Arabic word meaning “shore.”  The Sahel is defined by annual rainfall – an average of 8 inches in the north to 24-28 inches in the south.  It is prone to frequent  and prolonged periods of drought.  It is across this narrow band of the continent that destructive locust swarms periodically destroy the inhabitant’s already meager crops.

The Sahel Region of Africa

For many centuries, Arab traders and nomads have crossed the Sahara Desert by camel and on horseback to expand the word of Islam.  Why did their influence stop at the Sahel?  Why didn’t the early western explorers find camels, horses, and Arab traders among the cultures and tribes of central, eastern and southern Africa.

There are two main reasons. . . .

1. The mosquito and the mosquito-borne disease malaria, and

2. The tsetse fly and the diseases it transmits to humans      

    (Sleeping  Sickness) and livestock (Nagana).

Malaria is very prevalent in regions which have significant amounts of rainfall and consistent hot temperatures.  These warm, consistent temperatures and moisture provide mosquitoes with the environment they need to breed continuously.  The malaria parasite is injected into the blood stream by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito and multiplies within the red blood cells.   After an incubation of 7-14 days there will be loss of energy, headache, muscle pains and vomiting.  The individual will have cold and shivers, then high fever and sweating.  Untreated, malaria carries a significant mortality.  A traveler can avoid malaria by taking anti-malaria drugs, such as Malarone.  Mosquitos are active in the evening so long sleeves, insect repellent and mosquito netting are good precautions.

The Tsetse Fly is the root of Africa’s poverty.  No other region of the world suffers the same animal health problems as the tsetse fly imposes on Africa.

Tsetse fly infested areas of Africa

Sleeping Sickness and Nagana are diseases transmitted by the Tsetse Fly.  According to the deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "It is no accident that the concentration of much of the world's most acute poverty is in regions of sub-Saharan Africa infested with tsetse." Some experts say that Trypanosomiasis (the pathogen that causes sleeping sickness and nagana) helps create African "green deserts" -- 10 million square kilometers of otherwise lush and fertile land that is not in production because of the tsetse fly. This includes land in 32 of the world's poorest countries. 

The presence of the disease, Nagana, which is deadly to most cattle, prevents rural villagers from using cattle or horses as draft animals which could improve their agricultural productivity by 25 to 45%. "Allowing more African farmers to own livestock would have a profound impact on hunger and poverty in the continent, but that cannot be achieved without the elimination of the tsetse fly." Native breeds of cattle (Zebu) are only somewhat resistant to Nagana.  Cross-bred cattle whose milk production is NINE times the native breeds, cannot survive in tsetse fly areas.

Ironically, it is the presence of the tsetse fly (and the diseases that it carries) across great tracts of Africa that protected land from over-development during the last century of European settlement and expansion.  This enabled both the colonial rulers and subsequently the governments of independent states to develop their wildlife resources by establishing National Parks and Wildlife Management areas. The Game Reserves of Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana almost certainly would not have been set aside for the conservation of wildlife had they been of economic value for ranching and crop production.

The tsetse fly thrives in an environment where there are large populations of wildlife providing an unlimited and year-round supply of essential mammalian blood on which they must feed to survive and reproduce.      

     

In 1996, the IAEA assisted in the development of a technique of sterilizing the male tsetse fly using radiation. Large numbers of sterilized males are released into the countryside.  The female fly only mates once in her lifetime, and so the larvae that she lays once every week to ten days does not live. In a trial conducted on the isolated island of Zanzibar, off of the East African coast, the tsetse fly population was eradicated and farming productivity rose dramatically in the years following this trial.  The use of this technique on the African mainland holds hope for similar results, but campaigns would require large financial and human resources, and close cooperation across borders and government jurisdictions to achieve long-term success. 

Additional information from WHO (World Health Organization) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention):

Nearly 45,000 cases of sleeping sickness were reported in Africa in 1999.  After continued control efforts, the number of cases reported in 2009 has dropped below 10,000 for the first time in 50 years.

There are two subspecies of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei that cause infection.

(1) T. brucei gambiense is found in west and central Africa.  This form currently accounts for over 95% of reported cases of sleeping sickness.

(2) T. brucei rhodesiense is found in Eastern and Southern Africa and represents under 5% of reported cases.

Tsetse flies bite during daylight hours.  They are attracted to bright, dark colors.  Permethrin impregnated clothing and use of DEET repellent may reduce the number of fly bites.

Early bite swellings are usually an allergic reaction and not a sign of sleeping sickness infection. Tanzania is reporting fewer than 100 new cases per year, mostly among rural farmers in central Tanzania.

For reasons that are unexplained, there are many regions where tsetse flies are found, but sleeping sickness is not. Infection of international travelers occurs but is extremely rare.  On average, a single case per year is reported among U.S. travelers to all areas of Africa.