Chapter 22: North and West Africa
By: Alejandra Ferrera 9th A
Egypt
Even though some Egyptians live in modern cities and others live in rural areas, most are unified by their faith in Islam.
Egyptians is across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia, where the messenger of Islam, Muhammad, was born. The Islam is now the mayor and official religion.
Muslims believe that the laws of Egypt should be based on Islamic law, but there's some disagreement among Egyptians.
One of the subject's of disagreement is the public behavior of women.
Algeria
While Algeria's two main ethnic groups, the Berbers and the Arabs, have similar cultural traditions, important aspects of their cultures set them apart.
The Berbers have lived in North Africa since of least 3000 B.C. Family is so important to them that their village government is based on it. Most rural Berbers do a living by farming and herding.
Their way of life changed in the A.D. 600s, when Arabs spread across North Africa.
Later on, gradually over the years the Arabs conquered North Africa. Peace came when the Berbers accepted the Islam.
Their traditions are alike in many ways, like they both live with extended families, yet they differ in things like the Arab created a central government based on the Islam while the Berbers tradition is for each village to govern itself.
Nowadays, they have mixed some things, like they both are Muslim and many of their people speak French.
Nigeria
Nigeria is Africa's most populated country, with many ethnic groups that have learned to cooperate and unify as one independent nation.
Because they are multiethnic, they don't speak just one language, they speak more than 250 languages.
The most widely spoken languages are: Hausa, Yoruba, and Ibo.
In 1914, Great Britain took over the government of Nigeria, but it was until 1960 when Nigeria became independent that ethnic groups that had always lived separately became part of one nation. In 1991, to help unify the country, the government moved the nation's capital from Lagos, in the south, to Abuja in the central portion of the country.
Ghana
While facing many challenges, the people of Ghana strive to maintain democratic government.
Back in time, Ghana was called the Gold Coast. From 1874-1957 Ghana was controlled by Great Britain, but in 1947 a man called Nkrumah returned to Ghana from the U.S. and saw how all the wealth that was of the country didn't go to its people and instead was taken away by Great Britain. In that moment he thought that was unfair and that it was enough so he decided that he wanted to help the country get and keep what they deserved so he began to try to convince people all over the country to demand independence.
In 1957, Ghana became independent. Nkrumah was Christian, but he also believed in parts of the traditional African religion. His respect for old and new ways helped him govern when Ghana became independent.
Nine years after being thought of as a hero, Nkrumah's government was thrown out by a military coup. This happened because of some economic problems that people decided to blame on Nkrumah. After this, the government alternated between military and democratically elected governments.
When Nkrumah died in 1972, he was hailed as a national hero once again because many felt like he had done his best to try and help Ghana.