Whoever Said Diamond’s Where A Girl’s Best Friend Might Have Been In Africa in 1870.

South African-Start Your Expedition

Africa nature, history and global economic system have all in my opinion deprived Africans of much potential wealth and well-being. This week I have focused on just on part of the continent, since there are so many ethnic groups and languages; I wanted to start in a particular area then move onward to understand this amazing fragmented nation-states with a problematic environment, exploring population and political issues but after reading this article I found myself rather confused but not surprised. Laying the foundation to support the information I have found is that if you look at the giant continent of Africa moved your eyes to the bottom of the continent. Under the soil of Southern Africa is a very old huge rock. This rock is called the Kaapval craton. Kaapval craton is The oldest preserved rock formation dates occur south of the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa and Swaziland. This massive formation is over 2.6 billion years old; and is the most stable continental formations on the planet. Let me explain why I think this rock is so special in relation to Africa. The Kaapval craton contains some of the world’s richest minerals deposits, including gold, and diamonds not excluding other raw materials. This rock has made its presence know and shaped the modern history of Southern Africa. Could you imagine living in 1870, and discovering this gigantic deposit of diamonds near the town of Kimberley in South Africa? Then moving forward in our time machine, just 16 years later, the world’s largest deposits of gold were found at Witwatersrand in central Transvaal region. California Gold Rush followed, not really but the region boomed. Unfortunately, as humans we tend to fight over several areas religion, money, and politics in America. No different to follow these discoveries was conflict between white and black people. Competition for land grew. So as you can image, since the beginning of man we have been placed with prejudice and separation. South Africa was influenced by white landowners and mine owner’s demands. They requested special privileges that started small then escalated. By, 1910 according to the article, what followed was a series of laws were introduced to restricted black ownership of land and limit skilled, high paying mining jobs to whites. This lead to the foundation of Apartheid; a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party governments of South Africa between 1948 and 1994. So as racial segregation disbanded, the struggle to overcome the past lived on. Despite a legacy of racial and economic disparity, wars and ravages of mining; it is not the worse Africa including South Africa has to fear. Biggest Fear: AIDS. South Africa particularly has the world’s highest rates of HIV infection. Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22.9 million people are living with HIV in the region - around two thirds of the global total. The fight continues to overcome this new epidemic, but lots of work left to be done, Southern Africa’s courage amidst adversity faces new infinite potential of what is to come of this Nations within a Nation. Article Provided by: PBS