Chapter 12 Summary and Analysis

The African continent, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, is largely forgotten by the US. Although occasional events or issues, such as the AIDS epidemic, bring Africa to the forefront of American consciousness, for the most part, the cradle of humanity is of little consequence to the average American. By any standards - income, nutrition, infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy - Africa is the world's neediest region and it has been this way for centuries. There are many reasons for Africa's dire condition, some geographic, some social, but this condition has developed over 10,000 years of unfortunate events that has left sub-Saharan Africa in a realm by itself. When the Holocene interglacial warming period began about 12,000 years ago, the Sahara, which had enjoyed a cooler, wetter climate during the glaciation, began to warm and dry. By about 5,000 years ago, the region became an enormous desert...