Genocide in Africa

World Geography Genocide in Africa: Vocabulary Builder At the Berlin Conference of 1885, Europe’s most powerful countries met to divide Africa into spheres of influence. This marks the official beginning to the age of colonialism in Africa. Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal and others carved up the continent to establish colonies. They created new boundary lines throughout Africa. Sometimes these boundary lines cut tribal lands in half. Other times, the boundary lines forced opposing tribes to live together as citizens of the same colony. European countries used these tribal differences to their advantage. They ignored (and at times encouraged) tribal disputes, because it prevented the native Africans from uniting and fighting back against European imperialism. Even though the age of colonialism ended in the 1960s, the effects of colonialism are still being felt in Africa today. Border disputes (fighting over land) are quite common. There is much civil unrest in many countries due to long standing tribal tensions. There have been times when these disputes have erupted into genocide. For the next couple of days we are going to be studying the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and the recent genocide in Darfur, North Sudan.

Building a Common Vocabulary…

Genocide: the systematic (planned) destruction of a group of people based on their religion, nationality, race, ethnicity or culture.

 Can you name a genocide which has occurred in the past? Jewish Holocaust, Armenian Genocide, Cambodian Genocide

 Why do people commit genocide? Fear (anti-Semitism, xenophobia, etc…), to gain power (or appear to be powerful) Coup d’etat: an event in which a government is taken over by a person (or group of people) within the government

 Can you name an example of a coup d’etat? Fidel Castro’s take-over of Cuba in 1959 was a coup d’etat that we have studied this year because he was a Cuban who overthrew the Cuban government (Batista) and established a new communist government Diaspora: A forced migration or scattering of a group of people from their homeland

 Can you name any examples of Diaspora? The Native American diaspora caused by colonialism, the African diaspora created by American slave trade, the Jewish diaspora caused by the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe Refugee: A person who has fled his/her homeland to avoid persecution or other dangerous conditions.  Can you name an example of a country that is experiencing an event that has created lots of refugees? Pakistan (refugees from Afghanistan)