A life goal of mine is to tour/journey through Africa. A lot of times I think when people think of Africa they only think of desert or savanna. The Sahara, which means desert in Arabic, is the worlds largest desert at 3.3 million square miles. That is 25% of the continent of Africa. Only 5% of the world's landscape is covered in desert.The savannas are home to diverse cultures and a great population of animals. I had an opportunity to go on a safari at the end of the summer. When I think of the desert I think of something plain, dry and arid. I hate a bunch of sand but the way the sun hits the dunes here make it cool and I don't think I'd mind walking through it. The first picture has an Oryx Antelope in it. The second picture is of a Wodaabe Nomad. Traditionally they are nomadic cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel. Their migrations stretch from the western borders of Niger and Nigeria, south to Cameroon and east to the Central African Republic. In 1983 the number of Wodaabe was estimated to be 45,000. They are known for their beauty (both men and women), elaborate attire and rich cultural ceremonies.

Africa becoming global petroleum exporter

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Shell, BP, Engen & SDCEA (2006) Pt1

Conflicts and tensions in the Middle East have made countries look for a new source of petroleum, and with the rise of nationalist governments in Central and South America Many countries in Africa are stepping in as the new dealers. The upside for Africa is there has been an upsurge in oil prices. This creates an influx of income from petroleum exports. Unfortunatley, in many cases the environment suffers and some nations become allocation states. Allocation states rely on foreign companies to mine the resources and to provide the workforce to do so. Their income comes primarily from the trade of their resources and not from tax revenues. These countries many times also lack a central bureaucracy. These are the top ten oil producing countries in Africa using statistics published by the US Energy Agency for 2005:
10) Gabon (Production: 226,000 barrels per day)
9) Congo Brazzaville (Production:227,000 barrels per day)
8) Chad (Production: 249,000 barrels per day)
7) Equatorial Guinea (Production: 356,000 barrels per day)
6) Sudan (Production: 363,000 barrels per day)
5) Egypt (Production: 579,000 barrels per day)
4) Angola (Production: 1,250,000 barrels per day)
3) Libya (Production: 1,600,000 barrels per day)
2) Algeria (Production: 2,080,000 barrels per day)
1) Nigeria (Production: 2,600,000 barrels per day)

The Life Expectancy index,education index and GDP index averaged equals HDI (Human Development Index). The Life Expectancy index is based on the infant mortality rate,the education index deals primarily with school enrollment and the literacy rate of adults in a country, and GDP index deals with a nations level of household income.

The West (Europe and North America) sits atop the HDI statistics consistently. Africa as a continent has the lowest numbers consistently. Norway has the highest HDI value (.971), Japan has the greatest life expectancy at birth (82.7 yrs), Australia the highest gross enrollment (114.2%), and Liechtenstein the greatest GDP per capita (85,382 in US$).

Africa has a serious history of colonialism and ratial exploitation that still are effecting Africa today. The national borders outlined by European powers as they divided the contintent up are mainly unchanged in the modern world today.These borders were and are oblivious to the cultural, tribal, and linguistic groups in Africa. These groups clash over resources for their own very survival and kids are not safe from the battle lines drawn. The poor literacy rate is a sign of a lacking educational system, but kids also must acutually be in school for their to be progress. Africa has not only had to deal with history and external struggles but as it has tried to establish itself globally Africa has also had to deal with dictators, civil wars (ethnic divisions), and the abuse or lack of natural resources. Without a homegrown workforce or economy foreign corporations will reap the greatest benefits from the resources in Africa.