Africa Alive Corridors A 4 billion year geological, biological - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Africa Alive Corridors A 4 billion year geological, biological - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sep 12, 2023 179 likes •348 views

Africa Alive Corridors A 4 billion year geological, biological & cultural biography of Africa Telling the biography of With everyone as co-custodians the mother continent of her unmatched heritage 19 13 12 14 15 20 7 8 9 2 16 1

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SLIDE 1

Africa Alive Corridors

A 4 billion year geological, biological & cultural biography of Africa

Telling the biography of the mother continent With everyone as co-custodians

  • f her unmatched heritage

J.M. Anderson & M. de Wit

10 2 1 7 12 20 14 16 15 3 8 9 13 19

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SLIDE 2
  • 1. Cradle to Cradle
(Swaziland-South Africa): 3,5 billion-present ‘Celebrating 3.5 billion years of life on Earth’
  • 15. Songhay’s Timbuktu
(Senegal-Nigeria): 700-1,600 AD ‘Key civilisations of the Niger and Senegal River Kingdoms’
  • 16. Mapungubwe-Zimbabwe
(SA-Zimbabwe): 900-1,700 AD ‘The rise and fall of a golden empire’
  • 3. Great Karoo
(Lesotho-South Africa): 325-175 Ma ‘Pangaea through the mother of all extinctions’
  • 2. Snowball Earth
(Gabon-South Africa): 1,000-500 Ma ‘From Snowball Earth to the biological big bang’
  • 10. Homo sapiens
(South Africa): 200,000 BP- present ‘Cradle of our species & of our culture’
  • 11. Khoisan Kalahari
(Namibia-Botswana): 60,000 BP-present ‘The Khoisan stem of our human phylogeny’
  • 6. Lemur-Chameleon
(Madagascar): 65 Ma-present ‘Born on a microcontinent’
  • 18. Zambezi River
(Zambia-Mozambique): 1800-2012 ‘The story of a southern African River and its wetlands’
  • 9. Western Rift Valley
(Uganda-Tanzania): 5 Ma-present ‘Extreme fjsh diversity in the Great Lakes’
  • 8. Eastern Rift Valley
(Ethiopia-Malawi): 5 Ma-150,000 BP ‘Our hominid trail from Ardipithecus to Homo’
  • 20. Sixth Extinction
(Somali-Sudan): 1940 AD-present ‘From dumping site to denudation to endless civil war’
  • 7. Lungs of Africa
(DRC-Tanzania): 10 Ma-present ‘Womb of our hominid family and of our sister pongids’
  • 14. Nubian Nile
(Sudan-Ethiopia): 3,000 BC-present ‘Of civilisations and cultures over 5 millennia’
  • 13. Valley of the Pharaohs
(Egypt-Sudan): 3,100-30 BC ‘Life-cycle of the classical Egyptian civilization’
  • 19. Carbon Footprint
(Algeria-Egypt): 1900-2012 ‘Oil deposits to carbon footprint across the northern Sahara’
  • 12. Saharan Paradise Lost
(Tunisia-Chad): 22,000 BP-present ‘The rock-art gallery traces desertifjcation’
  • 4. African Pole of Rotation
(Cameroon-Nigeria): 200 Ma-present ‘Africa across the Cameroon Hotspot’
  • 5. Colliding Continents
(Morocco-Tunisia): 200 Ma-present ‘Rifting, drifting, folding along the Atlas Mountains’
  • 17. Mirror of History
(Western Sahara-Nigeria): 1400-2012 ‘Mirror of global history since the Renaissance’ Africa; colossus amongst the continents Womb of our humanity & culture Fountainhead of our art Stem of human language Cradle of our hominin ancestors & of our primate ancestors. Heartland of Gondwana & Pangaea Centre of Earth’s geo-biodiversity Embracing Earth’s geodiversity hotspots & her terrestrial biodiversity hotspots Home of her only intact megafauna. But Continent of greatest human sufgering & place of our biggest dreams.

Autobiography of the continent told along 20 corridors

“For the children of today’s world and the children of tomorrow’s world” —Nelson Mandela (1999)

IMIZILA – Finding a new way forward!

Towards the dignity of all humans, & all other species! “...Telling the holistic geological-biological-cultural story of the Mother Continent...” “...With everyone as co-custodians
  • f over 4-billion years
  • f unmatched irreplaceable heritage...”

Creating a new tomorrow

John M Anderson & Maarten de Wit, AEON, South Africa, 9 Jan 2013 Graphic Design : Pieter Botes www.aeon.org.za tural for ate Sahara live, then dly Oldest evidence of Human activity: 7 million years
  • ld hominin fossils
(Chad) m other species ’ (Niger, Algeria, Libya, Chad): 20,000 BP to present; one of the

“...Telling the holistic geological-biological-cultural story of the Mother Continent...” “...With everyone as co-custodians

  • f over 4-billion years
  • f unmatched irreplaceable heritage...”

Creating a new tomorrow Africa; colossus amongst the continents Womb of our humanity & culture Fountainhead of our art Stem of human language Cradle of our hominin ancestors & of our primate ancestors. Heartland of Gondwana & Pangaea Centre of Earth’s geo-biodiversity Embracing Earth’s geodiversity hotspots & her terrestrial biodiversity hotspots Home of her only intact megafauna. But Continent of greatest human suffering & place of our biggest dreams. IMIZILA – Finding a new way forward! Towards the dignity of all humans, & all other species!

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SLIDE 3
  • 1. CRADLE TO CRADLE

Celebrating 3,5 billion years of life on Earth

Cullinan Kimberlite Pipe (1200) Vredefort Dome Bushveld Igneous Complex (2060–2055) 2023 Barberton Greenstone Belt (3560–3060) 3470 Witwatersrand Supergroup (3600–2714) 3000-2700 2061 Tswaing (220,000 BP) Cradle of Humanity (3,5–1.0Ma) 3,5-1,0 Ma

Karoo

Snowball Earth

Waterberg Transvaal Barberton Wits

Origin of Earth Ventersdorp (2714) Waterberg Grp. (1900–1700) Transvaal Supergroup (2714–2050)

Black Reef Fm. Timeball Hill Hekpoort Fm. Silverton Fm. Magaliesberg Fm. Moilmani Fm. (Dolomite) 2,1 2,3 2,2 Strubenskop Fm. Daspoort Fm.

Archaean Granitic Curst (3700–2700)

1

earliest bacteria Barberton Mts Barberton Mountains earliest continents Cradle of Humankind

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SLIDE 4

B W T W K Snowball Earth 1 billion 2 billion 3 billion 4 billion 4.6 billion Today

Maarten de Wit & Ditshego Madopi

GA EA AA

Africa Alive

‘Gondwana Alive, Earth Alive, Africa Alive’ Triptych

K —Karoo Supergroup W —Waterberg Supergroup T —Transvaal Supergroup W —Witwatersrand Supergroup B —Baberton Supergroup

EARTH TIME (SCULPTURE)

Earth Time

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SLIDE 5 4 7 6 18 19 17 16 15 14 13 12 20 11 10 9 5 8 3 2 1
  • 2. SNOWBALL EARTH

From Snowball Earth & extreme carbon sequestration to the Biological Big Bang

2

Paul F. Hoffman, USA B W T W K Snowball Earth 1 billion 2 billion 3 billion 4 billion 4.6 billion Today indicate fragments of future Africa

Supercontinent, 825 Ma Break-up, 600 Ma

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SLIDE 6
  • 3. GREAT KAROO

Pangaea through the mother of all extinctions

3

Drakensberg, Early Jurassic lavas

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SLIDE 7
  • 8. EASTERN RIFT VALLEY

Our hominid trail from Ardipithecus to Homo

Laetoli Trackway

LA T O hom f Ma)

Laetoli footprints Australopithecus afarensis, Tanzania;

  • ldest known hominin

footprints (at 3,6 Ma)

1 7 20 8

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SLIDE 8
  • 10. HOMO SAPIENS CORRIDOR

Our modern human sojourn since Mitochondrial Eve

10

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SLIDE 9

GOBEKLI TEPE

Human colonisation of the world in 3 waves:

  • 1. As hunter-gatherers from Africa
  • 2. As farmers from the Middle-East
  • 3. As industrialists from Europe
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SLIDE 10

Pyramids of Giza Mapungubwe

16 15 13

  • 13. Valley of the Pharaohs

Life-cycle of the classical Egyptian civilization Egypt-Sudan: 3,100-30 BC

  • 15. Songhay’s Timbuktu

Key civilisations of Niger & Senegal River Kingdoms Senegal-Nigeria: 700-1600 AD

  • 16. Mapungubwe-Zimbabwe

The rise and fall

  • f a golden empire

South Africa-Zimbabwe: 900-1700 AD

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SLIDE 11
  • 12. SAHARA PARADISE LOST

The rock-art gallery traces desertifjcation

tural for ate Sahara live, then dly Oldest evidence of Human activity: 7 million years
  • ld hominin fossils
(Chad) m other species ’ (Niger, Algeria, Libya, Chad): 20,000 BP to present; one of the

12

tural for ate

Sahara live, then dly Oldest evidence of Human activity: 7 million years

  • ld hominin fossils

(Chad)

m other species

’ (Niger, Algeria, Libya, Chad): 20,000 BP to present; one of the

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SLIDE 12
  • 20. SIXTH EXTINCTION

From dumping site to denudation to civil war

1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

from Al Gore (2006) (p.73) “An Inconvenient Truth”

  • 0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Cold Hot

BOXING-DAY TSUNAMI

20 19

  • 19. CARBON FOOTPRINT

Oil deposits to carbon footprint across the northern Sahara

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SLIDE 13

Supernova (2015)

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SLIDE 14

MiniMag (2008) For UNESCO’s “International Year of Planet Earth”, Tanzania

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SLIDE 15

“..away from the dangerous course

  • f business-as-

usual” “...the children of today’s world and the children of tomorrow’s world” “...a caring attitude towards the environment”

Kofj Annan Dalai Lama Nelson Mandela Strategy 72 of the 101 Earth Alive Strategies

For the children of tomorrow’s world

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SLIDE 16

IMIZILA—FINDING A NEW WAY FORWARD

Towards the dignity of all humans, & all other species!