Compare and contrast the Sub Saharan region with the North African Middle East region Students will demonstrate the ability to Define regions by their physical or human geography or a combination of the two Highlight the major differences between regions this is comparison Highlight the extent of the major differences this is contrast Compose an engaging and articulate essay using clear coherent prose that utilizes the conventions of standard American English makes use of relevant examples and illustrations The grade will be based on the following criteria Criteria Evaluation Define regions under investigation how are they delineated physical or human geography criteria or combination of both 20 Systematic comparisons what are the main differences between the regions 30 Systematic contrasts what are magnitudes of the differences between the regions 30 Use of relevant and topical empirical examples when investigating comparisons and contrasts 10 Essay structure grammar spelling illustrations and appropriate references 10 Compare and contrast the Sub Saharan region with the North African Middle East region Sub Saharan Where Climate o he area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara According to the United Nations it consists of all African countries and territories that are fully or partially south of the Sahara 3 While the United Nations geoscheme for Africa excludes Sudan from its definition of sub Saharan Africa the African Union s definition includes Sudan but instead excludes Mauritania o The states of Somalia Djibouti Comoros and the Arab majority Mauritania and sometimes Sudan are however geographically considered part of sub Saharan Africa although they are members of the Arab League as well 4 o Sub Saharan Africa has a wide variety of climate zones or biomes South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular are considered Megadiverse countries It has a dry winter season and a wet summer season o The Sahel extends across all of Africa at a latitude of about 10 to 15 N Countries that include parts of the Sahara Desert proper in their northern territories and parts of the Sahel in their southern region include Mauritania Mali Niger Chad and Sudan The Sahel has a hot semi arid climate o South of the Sahel a belt of savanna the West and East Sudanian savannas stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ethiopian Highlands The more humid Guinean and Northern Congolian forest savanna mosaic lie between the savannas and the equatorial forests o The Horn of Africa includes hot desert climate along the coast but a hot semi arid o Tropical Africa climate can be found much more in the interior contrasting with savanna and moist broadleaf forests in the Ethiopian Highlands of West Africa and across most of Central Africa the Congo west of the African Great Lakes encompasses tropical rainforest stretching along the southern coast o In eastern Africa woodlands savannas and grasslands are found in the equatorial zone including the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya o Distinctive Afromontane forests grasslands and shrublands are found in the high mountains and mountain ranges of eastern Africa from the Ethiopian Highlands to South Africa o South of the equatorial forests the Western and Southern Congolian forest savanna mosaic are transition zones between the tropical forests and the miombo woodland belt that spans the continent from Angola to Mozambique and Tanzania o The Namib and Kalahari Deserts lie in south western Africa and are surrounded by semi deserts including the Karoo western South Africa The Bushveld grasslands lie to the east of the deserts o The Cape Floristic Region is at Africa s southern tip and is home to diverse subtropical and temperate forests woodlands grasslands and shrublands o According to the 2019 revision of the World Population Prospects 75 76 the population of sub Saharan Africa was 1 1 billion in 2019 The current growth rate is 2 3 Population o Why they are they there o Languages ethnic Afroasiatic With the exception of the extinct Sumerian a language isolate of Mesopotamia Afroasiatic has the oldest documented history of any language family in the world Egyptian was recorded as early as 3200 BCE The Semitic branch was recorded as early as 2900 BCE in the form of the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia Assyria and Babylonia and circa 2500 BCE in the form of the Eblaite language of north eastern Syria 86 The distribution of the Afroasiatic languages within Africa is principally concentrated in North Africa and the Horn of Africa Languages belonging to the family s Berber branch are mainly spoken in the north with its speech area extending into the Sahel northern Mauritania northern Mali northern Niger 87 88 The Cushitic branch of Afroasiatic is centered in the Horn and is also spoken in the Nile Valley and parts of the African Great Lakes region Additionally the Semitic branch of the family in the form of Arabic is widely spoken in the parts of Africa that are within the Arab world South Semitic languages are also spoken in parts of the Horn of Africa Ethiopia Eritrea The Chadic branch is distributed in Central and West Africa 89 Hausa its most widely spoken language serves as a lingua franca in West Africa Niger Ghana Togo Benin Cameroon and Chad 90 Khoisan The several families lumped under the term Khoi San include languages indigenous to Southern Africa and Tanzania though some such as the Khoi languages appear to have moved to their current locations not long before the Bantu expansion 91 In Southern Africa their speakers are the Khoikhoi and San Bushmen in Southeast Africa the Sandawe and Hadza Niger Congo The Niger Congo family is the largest in the world in terms of the number of languages 1 436 it contains 92 The vast majority of languages of this family are tonal such as Yoruba and Igbo However others such as Fulani Wolof and Kiswahili are not A major branch of the Niger Congo languages is Bantu which covers a greater geographic area than the rest of the family Bantu speakers represent the majority of inhabitants in southern central and southeastern Africa though San Pygmy and Nilotic groups respectively can also be found in those regions Bantu speakers can also be found in parts of Central Africa such as the Gabon Equatorial Guinea and southern Cameroon Swahili a Bantu language with many Arabic Persian and other Middle Eastern and South Asian loan words developed as a lingua franca for trade between the different