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Human geography in Sub-Saharan Africa People originated in Africa also known as the “cradle of humankind”. There are fossilized footprints of Homo sapiens’s earlier ancestors called the hominid Australopithecus, which is the evidence that humans have been in this region the longest. Genetic evidence shows these humans are the ancestors of all modern humans. Because people have lived here the longest there are more diseases. Several of these diseases can be transferred from insects or animals to humans such as malaria which is transmitted from mosquitoes and the tsetse fly that causes leeping sickness (trypanosomiasis).
The disease malaria affected more than 174 million people in 2010 and more than 655,000 died. HIV/AlDs spread rapidly through the sub-Saharan African since it emerged in 1981 and has been the cause of more than 15 million deaths. These diseases cause people to be unable to work which keeps the economy at a standstill because the people will be unable to bring up the economy until these diseases are dealt with. People in this region have figured out ways to manage their environment when it comes to agriculture.
They use many techniques such as shifting agriculture which is using a plot of land until it is no longer fertile then moving on to another location. Slash and burn also go along with this process where the area is burned then the ash is used to fertilize the crops. Another method is intercropping which is planting several crops together in a single field to reduce erosion, evaporation, and nutrient loss in the soil. One of the biggest modern problem this region is facing when it come to the animal wild life is the possible extinction of many of the animals such as the Black
Rhino, the White Rhino , the African Elephant, the Lemur, the Mountain Gorilla, and the Western lowland Gorilla. In different parts of the region there have been efforts made to protect the ecosystem and wildlife. This effort has put tension on the local people, conservationist and tourists. It can harm crops, bush meat consumption, and park crowding. The problem is the enforcement to leave these animals alone due to poachers. Elephant have been hunted for their ivory tusks, also known white gold, for centuries.