QUESTION

1. Write an essay in which you explain a) the region’s environmental characteristics, and b) how humans have purposefully or accidentally changed the environment.

2.Write an essay on the region’s cultural, political, and economic characteristics.  Explain what centripetal and/or centrifugal forces are significant in defining major current processes of change.

                                                       SAMPLE SOLUTION

The East Africa region can be separated in nature into three sub-regions: the Great Lakes region which entails Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi; the Horn of Africa includes Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti and Somali; and the Indian Ocean Islands of Comoros and Seychelles. The distinctions are based on their environment (vegetation, water sources and topography).  Horn of Africa holds more desert and semi-desert areas as compared to the Great Lakes regions that have more forests.

The climate ranges and it is amazingly serene as the results of its latitude, high altitude and the frequency at which the rain shadows off the westerly monsoon winds. The frequency at which rain is high i.e. the rain falls in two seasons, one around April and another in October or November. Lakes and rivers are geographical aspects used to access water in the East Africa region. The Nile River, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Victoria and Lake Nyasa are some of the major waterways in East Africa, accompanied by smaller lakes (Waithaka, & International Food Policy Research Institute, 2013). These water sources are rendered existent because of the availability of rainfall which varies from season to season and areas too. The rainfall has, however, declined in its amount causing periodic drought and famine, like the Ethiopian famines (McKnight, & Hess, 2006). Topography wise, East Africa region is very diverse. Much of the region’s setting is defined by global tectonic forces that formed the Great Rift Valley that runs from Ethiopia to Mozambique (Chen, 2013). It was created by the movement of two fault lines in the earth, arising in the formation of mountains, valleys and lakes throughout the area. Most countries in this region like Kenya and Uganda heavily depend on agriculture through crop production (bananas, tea, and coffee among others), fishing, forestry and ranching (Low, 2005).