Kyambogo University

Department of Geography and Social Studies

COURSE CODE: AGG 2101
COURSE TITLE: DEVELOPMENT GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA
CREDIT UNIT: 3 + 1
LECTURER; Cosmas Nicholas Walyaula WATSUSI
CONTACT: Email: cwatsusi@[Link]; wwatsusi@[Link]
Tel: +256 772564006; +256758334954;
OFFICE: FACULTY OF ARTS BUILDING 1ST FLOOR ROOM 108:

AGG 2101: DEVELOPMENT GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA

Purpose
This course is a systematic approach to the physical and human geography of Africa. It focuses
on the physical-environmental, socio-cultural and development dimensions. The learner is
expected to apply the knowledge of physical and human geography in solving the environmental
and socioeconomic challenges of the African Continent.

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

The learner should be able to:
i. Assess the impact of the physical environment as well as the political, socio-cultural and
economic aspects on the development of the African Continent.
ii. Critically examine and analyse the interactions of the physical and human spheres of the
African Continent
iii. Use the knowledge acquired to find solutions to the continent’s environmental, political
and socio-economic problems
iv. Explain contemporary ideas, theories, and concepts in African geography, and their
applicability to “real world” situations.
v. Explain major aspects of the African environment such as the causes and consequences
of deforestation and desertification.
vi. Explain the concept of Triple Heritage in relation to indigenous heritage, Islamic
influence, and Western influence in Africa.
vii. Explain the dynamics of population change in Africa.
viii. Critically assess major problems facing African agricultural and urban systems and offer
possible solutions

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COURSE OUTLINE
Course Details and Lecture Notes

Section One: Physical Environment

1): General Affairs, Status of Africa
2): Origin and Geological Formation of the African Continent
3): Physiographic Characteristics of Africa
4): Climatic Conditions of Africa
5): Soil Types and Characteristics
6): Vegetation Cover of Africa

Section B: The Human Realim

7): Population, Origin, Size and Distribution in Africa
9): Agricultural Systems in Africa
10): African Industry and Trade
11): Transport and Communication in Africa

Methods of Delivery of Content

Content will be delivered using the following methods:
i. Face to Face Lectures
ii. Online instructions
iii. Class discussions

Evaluation Methods
Learners will be evaluated as follows: Two (2) COURSE TESTS for Continuous Assessment
(30%) and Final Examinations (70%)

Core Readings
Aryeetey-Attoh, S., MaDade, B.E., Godson, C.O., Oppong, J.O., Osei, W.Y., (2020 Ed):
Geography of Sub-Saharan Africa. Third EditionPearson EducationPublishers ISBN 978-0-
13605631-7
Heidi G. F. (2016): Geography and the Study of Africa. Doi: 1093/9780199846733-0090
Robert Stock, (2012): Africa South of the Sahara, (3rd Ed): A Geographical Interpretation. ISBN-
13: 978-1606239926.
Other Readings
Church, R.J.H., Clarke, J.I., Clarke, P.J.H., and Henderson, H.J.R. (1979); Africa and the Islands,
Longman, London.

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Prichard, J. M. (1978). Africa, A Study of Advanced Students. Longman Group Limited
World Bank (2004): African Development Indicators 2004: From the World Bank Data Base
Washington D.C

World Bank (2001) African Development indicators 2001: From the World bank Date base, Washington
D.C

1.0. GENERAL AFFAIRS, STATUS OF AFRICA

1.1 Introduction
This course aims to introduce learners to the physical and human components of the whole
continent of Africa using the development approaches. Its aim is study the Geography of African
continent with a wider perspectives on the spatial outlook. Thus considering all regions of Africa
and their variations in physical towards the developmental adoptions.
The course starts with the introduction, where we need to familiarize with:-
(a) Course concept or objective, scope.
(b) Political map.
(c) Position of Africa on our earth or globe.
The main objectives of this topic is to:
(a) Explain how the African continent developed historically.
(b) Discuss the previous and present status among the African Nations.
(c) Describe the origin of the African continent.

1.2. Political Map of Africa/The history of Political Map of Africa

Political map of Africa is an old concept based on the colonial interpretations, that divided the
African continent into political regions/sectors or countries during the Berlin conference of 1884.
In this context we want to understand the way different regimes of previous colonizers developed
various regions according to their economic trends.
These regions or countries were as follows:-
(a) The only Countries that were free from colonialism are:
 Ethiopia
 Siera-Leone
(b) Others Countries were colonialized and

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(c) Countries that were never ruled by colonists
1.2.1; Colonial status
(a) According to colonialists each of the above category maintained a special
Separate flag and colour.
(b) Each empire or colony had its own flag colour of the country under its regime/rule.
1.2.1. The empires or colonialists that dominated Africa before 1960, are as follows:-
(a) British (d) Italian
(b) French (e) Spain
(c) Portuguese (f) Germany
This means that different countries in Africa had its own basing on colonial interests; e.g.
 Flag
 Regime (or government)
 Policies (or political trend)
 Constitution
1.2.2. To-day at least by all countries in Africa are free from colonialism; i.e. East country has its own;
 Flag and colour
 Regime or government
 Policies or political trend
 Constitution or law

1.3. Position and Size of Africa

Africa seems one of the huge continents on the surface of the Earth, among other Global
Continents. The area is about 30.3 million km 2, or 20% of the Earth’s land surface taken
together. The continent of Africa extends through 72 degrees of latitude from Cape Aquila’s in
the South (340 51'S) to Cape Blane in north (37o51N) in Tunisia for nearly 8,000K long.
The larger part of Africa lies between Ras Hu fun, northern Somali (known as the Horn of Africa
– 51o5’E) and Cape Verde, in Senegal (17o32’W) with a distance of about 7200km
Nearly over three quarters (¾) of the African area (nearly 77%) lies in the tropics, - i.e. 23½ and
23½ latitudes north and south of the Equator. One third (⅓) of the African areas is affected by
cold wind belts that provide arid and semi-arid conditions of northern and Southern

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Hemispheres. Also over 25% of the Africa area is covered by Great Wastes of the Sahara Desert
north of the Equator.
Table 1: Below compares Africa with other continents of our Earth. .
Continent Area in Square Units %
Africa 30.3 million km2 20%
Asia 17.0 million square miles
Europe 4.0 million square miles
North America 8.4 million square miles
Central America 6.9 million square miles
Australia (with N.Z.) 3.0 million square miles
Oceanic 5.5 million square miles
Antarctica
The African Continent seems like an island that connected to the Asian Peninsula by a narrow
Isthmus, separated by the human created Suez Canal. From Spain is also cut off by the 9 mile
wide straits of Gibraltar, that between morocco (in Africa) and Spain (in Europe) countries. To
the North-East, Africa is separated from Arabia by the straits of Rabel Mandeb, a 20 miles of
water a part within or across the Red Sea.

1.3. AFRICA’S SHAPE AND LANDFORMS:

The story of Africa’s physical geography begins 300 million years ago with the landmass known as
Pangaea, the last supercontinent. Around 175 million years ago, Pangaea began to break apart, drifting
and colliding and forming the continents as we know them today. Africa was situated at the heart of
this supercontinent and is the second largest continent (after Asia), covering about a fifth of the
total land surface of the Earth.

Africa's shape is a result of its location in the southern part of the ancient supercontinent of
Pangaea. About 200 million years ago, Pangaea began to break up into North and South
America, Antarctica, Australia, and India which drifted to their current positions. Present-day
Africa, however, moved slightly is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean
Sea on the north, Red Sea and the Indian Ocean on the east by the, and on the south by the
mingling waters of the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

The whole of Africa is considered as a vast plateau rising steeply from narrow coastal strips and
consisting of ancient crystalline rocks. The plateau’s surface is higher in the southeast and tilts
downward toward the northeast. In addition, the plateau includes the Sahara (desert) and that part
of North Africa known as the Maghrib, with two mountainous regions—the Atlas Mountains in

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northwestern Africa, believed to be part of a system extending into southern Europe, and the
Ahaggar (Hoggar) Mountains in the Sahara. The southeastern part of the plateau includes the
Ethiopian Plateau, the East African Plateau, and—in eastern South Africa, where the plateau
edge falls downward in a scarp—the Drakensberg range. One of the most remarkable features in
the geologic structure of Africa is the East African Rift Valley System, which lies between 30°
and 40° E. The rift itself begins northeast of the continent’s limits and extends southward from
the Ethiopian Red Sea coast to the Zambezi River basin.
Off the coasts of Africa, a number of islands are associated with the continent. Of these
Madagascar, one of the largest islands in the world, is the most significant. Other, smaller islands
include the Seychelles, Socotra, and other islands to the east; the Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion,
and other islands to the southeast; Ascension, St. Helena, and Tristan da Cunha to the southwest;
Cape Verde, the Bijagós Islands, Bioko, and São Tomé and Príncipe to the west; and the Azores
and the Madeira and Canary Islands to the northwest.
Located just south of the Sahara is the Sahel, a transitional region connecting the dry Sahara to the
tropical regions of the south. It is mostly grassland and has traditionally supported semi-nomadic
livestock herders. The Sahel is at the front line of one of the most pressing environmental concerns in
Africa which is desertification. This is as a result of a variety of reasons including climate change and
human activities. For example, overgrazing, can rid land of vegetation causing erosion of fertile
topsoil. Warming temperatures due to global climate changes leads to changes in precipitation patterns
and increase the speed of evaporation. Desertification in the Sahel has caused the Sahara to expand
southwards leading to conflict as northern farmers migrate to the south in search of fertile soil, pasture
and water for their animals.

The African continent is the only one that is almost astride the Equator and crossed by both the
Tropic of Cancer 230 degrees in the north and Tropic of Capricorn 230 degrees south of the Equator.
The continent also has deserts like the Sahara which lies along the Tropic of Cancer in the north and
the Namib Desert in the south situated on the Tropic of Capricorn in the south. The Sahara stretching
much of northern Africa create a formidable barrier and divides Africa between a Muslim Arab North
and traditional African cultural groups in the south.

2. THE PHYSIOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF AFRICA

2.1 Introduction
These provides the physiographic setting of the African Continent and the general nature of the
surface. The lecture characterises various surfaces which are associated with geological
structures or formations that produce different plateaux and uplands on the continent of Africa.
The Coastal lining and its nature has also been highlighted plus various Coastal types around the
continent.

2.2. The Physiographic Setting and Environment

The physiographic setting and the surface nature of the

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 (a) Describe the general physiographic features of Africa.
(b) Discuss various surfaces associated with the geological structures on the African
Continent.
(c) Characterise the nature and types of the Coastline of the African Continent.
(d) Describe the drainage system and associated relief surfaces on the African Continent.
(e) Explain the contribution of the physiographic characteristics to the development of
the continent.
Depending on the underneath of the geological formation – thus the characteristics of the
geological set-up of the entire continent. Large geological features were caused by the tectonical
movement or internal processes and were modified by external or erosional processes grouped
into two categories or scales. The large prominent examples are as follows:-
(a) Large depressions.
(b) Folded mountains.
(c) Faulted high peaks and mountains.
(d) Extensive plains and plateaux
2. The minor examples are as follows:-
(a) Big river basins.
(b) Major hills.
(c) Expand swamps.
(d) Large lake basins.
And because of such natural set-up, according to A.T. Grove (1970), the African Continent is
divided into two surface heights namely:
(a) High Africa.
(b) Low Africa.
High and low sections of Africa are divided by a line trace contour of 1000m from Luanda in
Angola to Asmara depression in Eritrea – north of Ethiopia. Mainly, High Africa is dominated
by large and high plateau/Uplands and plains standing (or found) between 1000m and 2000m
high, while low Africa the plains mostly are found between 160m and 660m high.
Some zones within High Africa do rise above 2000m high. Some examples include:-
(a) Lesotho Highlands (Over 3800m).
(b) The Aberdare Range (Over 4400m)

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 (c) The Mutumba Mountains (Over 4930m)
(d) The Ethiopian Highlands (Over 5050m).
(e) The extensive Nyika zone plateaux (Over 2700m).
(f) The Cherangani Hills (Over 3500m).
(g) Ruwenzori Mountain (Over 5585m).
(h) Kilimanjaro Mountain (5895m).
(i) Mount Kenya (5199m).
(j) Mount Elgon (Over 4200m).
Some of them rise as uplands and mountains like Islands from the surrounding plains.
Low Africa a part form the Atlas Mountains (4165m), lies below 1000m, but large depressions
such as Libya, Chad, Mauritania are found below 300m high.

Large basins and boring plains do surround Low Africa.

Those which rise like Islands, Mountains from the main surrounding plains of low (or Sahara)
Africa include:-
(a) Hoggar (Over 3000m)
(b) Jebel Marra (3300m)
(c) Tibesti (3800m)
They form a discontinuous upland arc of about 2700km long, bisecting the Sahara zone
latitudinally. The Atlas Mountains is nearly extensive as the Ethiopian Highlands contain chains
between 1800m and 2500m high. The High Atlas in Morocco stretches for about 400km at an
altitudes ranging from 2000m to 4000m high.
Other mountain zones within low Africa included:-
(a) Cameroon - Mandara Peak (4100m).
(b) Guinea Highlands - Nimba Peak (Over 1750m)
Other physiographic setting of Africa include:-
(a) Horizontal distribution of land surface – mostly plains and plateaux.
(b) Vertical distribution of Mountains, Ranges, Chain Systems.
(c) Rivers and associated catchment zones or basins.

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The extensive low plains, including the plateaux zones and steep slopes do drop to the Indian
Ocean basin, extending inland up to Zambezi, Limpopo river valleys and Luangwa depression in
South Africa. The interior depressions (Or basins) such as Okavanga and Kalahari Desert are
found below 1000m.

2.3 River Drainage of Africa

The drainage patterns of the African Continent have been greatly affected by ‘basin and swell’
nature of Africa’s surface with the accompaniment of Africa’s main rivers that reflect such an
effect. A number of these rivers such as River Nile are very old which were formed on the
African surface about 65 million years ago during the Eocene times.

Africa has a number and famous rivers and it ranks among the world’s largest rivers. But mainly
it is drained by five major rivers, which have sources within the high zones or highlands of
Africa. They are:- 1) River Congo, (2) River Nile, (3) River Niger, (4) River Zambezi and (5)
River Orange. Both in size and basins, these rivers are complex and they are longer than 1000km
in distance.
About 75% of African rivers drain in humid zones, where about ½ of Africa is usually drained
by the said five rivers. Some rivers like the Nile and Niger drainage systems derive from the
amalgamation of several systems during the Cainozoic Era.

In contrast river Congo has a well-define basin and compact. River Zambezi and some of its
tributaries for example pass through interior swampy basins on the plains of High Africa before
they descend to their large lowland along the Coastal zone of the Western Sections of the Indian
Ocean.
However, J.M. Pritchard (1979), indicated that the drainage systems of the African Continent
falls into three groups or categories in a ranking river categories namely (Fig….).
I. Main drainage systems with rivers:
1. River Nile
2. River Congo
3. River Niger
4. River Zambezi
5. River Orange

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II. Regional drainage systems:-
1. Maghreb region
2. Western region
3. West Equatorial region
4. Southwestern region
5. Southern region
6. Southeastern region
7. Eastern region
III. Basins of internal drainage systems:-
1. Lake Turkana
2. Okavanga Basin
3. Lake Chad
IV. With no specific drainage systems:-
1. Sahara zone
2. Northeastern zone
The African Continent drainage system also comprises numerous large and small lakes, where
some wide and deep like Tanganyika, Malawi, etc. some are shallow like Chad, Victoria, etc.
Fairly, a number of African lakes in form and nature are associated with the Great East African
Rift System. Some lakes are human-made like; Nasser, Kariba, Volta, Niger, etc.

2.4. African Coastlines

The nature of the African Continental shelf is considerably shallow and slopes gently towards
east, west, south mainly. Compared to other Continents like North America, Europe, Asia
Africa’s Coastline has a smooth outline in nature and fairly a short Coast in length. But in few
places it is broken by some rivers estuaries with limited deep inlets. Such a Coastal nature affects
the formation of adequate and proper natural harbours which are not many in the Africa’s
Coastline. However, there are few Africa’s Coastlines that are not completely smooth ones such
as the West African Coast which has a number of gaps and marks with the sea stretching further
inland where rivers here seems to be greatly deep.
The African continental shelf is a little wider in the Gulf of Gabes (East of Tunisia, ≃10 L.E.).

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The depths here are less than 200m, extending up to about 400km from the shores and up to
about 249km out from the South African coast on the Aghulas Banks (at times C. Agulhas – the
Southmost point of Africa, at 20 L.E.) The African Coasts are usually low and sandy, with few
good natural harbours, as indicated earlier. But where downwarping or local faulting and sinking
has taken place, then there are productions of deep inlets like that of Freetown in Sierra Leone
and Mombasa in Kenya. Deep river estuaries are usually few, but only rivers Gambia and Congo
can be cited as outstanding examples of Africa.
Some of the factors that affect the nature of the African coastline include:
(a) Work of waves.
(b) Tidal currents
(c) Land’s height along the Coast
(d) Geological formation or nature of the rocks along the Coast
(e) Relative sea level movement effect – if any.
(f) Regional Climatic Conditions/Regimes
(g) Effect of human activities along Coasts
Effects of Coasts on Human Activities
(a) Extensive plains occur along many coasts and these are often cultivated and densely
populated. They receive high rainfall and have good agricultural potential
(b) Ports of trade are situated where the ocean is quite deep and sheltered from the winds and
waves, e.g. Freetown, Banjul and Mombasa
(c) Mud flats and mangrove swamps in the Tropics, for example, along the coast of West
Africa are being drained and used for irrigated rice production.
(d) The sea coasts are a major attraction to tourists who enjoy the scenery and fresh air
(e) Coral reefs are also a great attraction for tourists, are a source of limestone, for example,
cement plants in Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam.

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AFRICAN SOILS
In general, soil types on the African continent may be divided into five or six broad categories.
There are desert soils; chestnut-brown soils, which border the deserts; and chernozem-like soils
(dark black soils rich in humus and carbonates), which are found immediately south of the
chestnut soils from Sudan westward to just beyond the Niger Bend (the bend in the middle
course of the Niger River) and pockets of which are also found in East Africa, Zambia,
Zimbabwe, and South Africa. In addition, there are black soils (often grouped with chernozems),
and found on the Accra Plains of Ghana; red tropical soils and laterites (leached red iron-bearing
soils), which occur in the tropical wet-and-dry and equatorial climatic zones; and Mediterranean
soils, found in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa and the Cape region of South Africa.
African soil groups
The most important factors that affect soil formation are climate, parent material, relief,
drainage, vegetation cover, and the passage of time. In Africa, where land has been generally
stable and fairly flat for prolonged periods, climate plays a major role in determining soil types.
Different rocks are deeply weathered and are broken down into their common component
elements to produce broadly similar soils under the same climatic conditions. Given sufficient
time under a tropical climate, the differences in humus content of the great soil groups, which are
introduced by vegetation types, are minimized. But within these groups there will naturally be
differences in soil types as a function of local differences in physical factors.
Desert soils
These soils are characterized by the general lack of organic content; by the types of rock
reflected in them, the chemical weathering of which has been inhibited by the lack of water; and
by the crusts or concretions of soluble salts on or just below their surface. While these crusts are
in general thought to have been formed as a result of evaporation, it is nevertheless possible that
they may have been formed under a wetter climate during the Pleistocene Epoch.
Chestnut-brown soils
In the semiarid areas bordering the desert, increased rainfall makes grass vegetation more
plentiful, results in rocks becoming more weathered than in the desert, and produces better
developed soils with a higher humus content. It is the humus content that, according to the
amount present, gives the chestnut soils their characteristic light or dark brown colour. Chestnut
soils also differ from desert soils because they receive enough water to wash out some of the salt
accumulations either on the surface or immediately below it.
Chernozem-like and black soils

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An unfailing characteristic of the chernozem is the presence of a subsurface zone of calcium
carbonate, sometimes accompanied by calcium sulfate, which is left behind after all the soluble
salts have been washed out. Grouped with them are the black soils, which should, perhaps, be
differently classified, for their black colour is not necessarily due to high humus content but
rather to the presence of certain minerals, as in the black soils of the Accra Plains, in Ghana.
Red tropical soils and laterites
The majority of tropical soils have shades of colour varying from yellow and brown to red. The
reddish colour reflects the presence of iron oxides that form as a result of chemical weathering.
At one time all tropical red earths or soils were indiscriminately referred to as laterites, but it is
now clear that the term laterite should be confined to those tropical soils with large
concentrations of iron and aluminum sesquioxides (insoluble compounds) that have formed a
hard pan at or just below the surface. At the most advanced state of laterization, bauxite, from
which aluminum is extracted, is formed. Most tropical soils are in varying stages of laterization,
which is to say they are at various stages of accumulating insoluble compounds as the soluble
elements are leached out. The compounds accumulate more readily in areas with a pronounced
dry season and where the water table is not too far below the surface. If the top horizons (layers)
of the soils should erode, the subsurface concentrations of sesquioxide are then exposed to the
atmosphere, whereupon they crystallize irreversibly to form true laterite concretions.
Mediterranean soils
Mediterranean soils are generally deficient in humus, not so much because of sparse vegetation
cover as because of the slowness of the chemical processes that convert the vegetable matter to
humus. There is a series of low rainfall, occurring when temperatures are lowest, retards
chemical weathering. The uneven surface relief of the regions where these soils occur also makes
it difficult for mature soils to develop, since the land, except in the valley bottoms, is not
sufficiently flat over wide enough areas to allow the soil-forming (parent) materials to remain in
place and thus to be thoroughly weathered.
Soil problems
Soil is the foundation of Africa’s economic life, and as such its detailed study is most important.
Failure to appreciate the physical and chemical properties of the soils has led to disastrous results
for several projects for agricultural improvement.
In studying the soils of Africa, it is essential not to lose sight of the importance of such social
factors as the ability or inability of mostly uneducated farmers to judge the quality of the soil.
Thus, schemes for transforming traditional systems of farming that are based on soil
classification but that do not take into account local perception may have little chance of success.
For desert soils to be productive they must be irrigated, as they are on the desert margins of
North Africa; their excessive salinity or alkalinity must also be reduced. Compared to desert
soils, the chestnut-brown soils are easier to work and are more productive under irrigation. Black
soils tend to have a markedly crumbly structure and are sometimes difficult to plough in the wet
season, the black soils of the Accra Plains swell and become slippery, while in the dry season

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they shrink once more and crack to such an extent that they are said to plough themselves. Red
tropical soils need careful handling. Despite their luxuriant vegetation cover, high temperatures
coupled with humidity promote the rapid decay of organic matter and keep the humus content
low. Erosion is a constant threat if the soils are exposed to the elements for any length of time;
the soils remain cultivable only if the sesquioxides remain below the surface.
In the Atlas and Cape regions, there is a clearer relationship between soil characteristics and
parent material than in the humid tropical areas. Over expanses of limestone, for example, the
soils contain large amounts of calcium compounds, some of which must be washed away or
neutralized before the soils can become fully productive.
THE BLESSING OF BAD GEOGRAPHY IN AFRICA

• African nations with ‘bad’ terrain suffered less from the slave trade. More than a century after
the slave trade ended, the protective benefits of ruggedness still outweigh its contemporary economic
disadvantages when it comes to GDP per capita.

• Mountainous terrain is tough to farm, costly to traverse, and often inhospitable to live in; yet
in Africa, countries with a rugged landscape tend to perform better than their flatter rivals. To explain
this paradox, CEPR Research Fellow Diego Puga and his co-author Nathan Nunn reach back more
than two centuries – to the slave trade.

• Geographical characteristics affect economic outcomes directly – making life harder for
landlocked countries, for example – and indirectly, by altering the path of history.

• In Africa, between 1400 and 1900, four simultaneous slave trades, across the Atlantic, the
Sahara Desert, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, led to the forced migration of as many as 18m
people. The economies they left behind were devastated: political institutions collapsed, and societies
fragmented.

• For African people fleeing this slave trade over the centuries, rugged terrain was a positive
advantage. Enslavement often took place through raids by one group on another, and hills and
mountains provided plenty of lookout posts and hiding places (caves, for example) for those trying to
escape. In general, countries with flatter, more passable terrain lost more of their population to the
traders.

• Today, the same geographical ruggedness is an economic handicap, making it expensive to

transport goods to port; raising the cost of irrigating and farming the land; and simply making it more
expensive to do business. This contemporary effect of geography applies across the world: in general,
mountains are not good for growth.

• Because the long-term, positive effect of ruggedness, through fending off the slave-traders, is
concentrated in African countries, where the trade took place; while the immediate, negative effect is
universal, Nunn and Puga are able to test which effect is stronger.

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• Using data from the US Geological Survey, they define ‘rugged’ terrain, by calculating the
average uphill slope for each country. They then study the relationship between ruggedness and
income per person; and rule out other ways ruggedness could have an effect – for example, by being
correlated with natural resource deposits, or proneness to tropical diseases

• Even today, more than a century after the slave trade ended, Nunn and Puga find the benefits
of ruggedness in protecting the population in Africa still outweigh its contemporary economic
disadvantages. In fact, the benefits of sloping terrain during the half-century of the slave trade
continue to skew the distribution of the African population today, because waves of mass migration
into the hills in the path of the slave traders have never been reversed. By comparing ruggedness,
population density and the vulnerability of different areas to slave exports, it is possible to show that
hundreds of years of flight from the slave trade has left the African population disproportionately
concentrated in hilly areas.

• Unfortunately, the direct, contemporary effect of living in rugged terrain is negative: the high
costs of agriculture, transport and industry tend to depress income per head. So the slave trades left a
doubly toxic economic legacy in Africa: not only did they devastate the population in many areas,
with long-lasting impacts which still persist centuries later; they also left the African population
concentrated in areas which make contemporary economic development harder.

• The impacts of geography on economic development are therefore complex and long-lasting.
Some economists, such as Harvard’s Jeffrey Sachs, have suggested increased aid flows and
investment could help to overcome the contemporary handicaps created by geography; but the
existence of the longer-term, indirect effects revealed above suggest that it may not be enough to level
the economic playing field.

CLIMATE OF AFRICA
Climate is a factor that has exerted considerable influence on the patterns and development of
human settlement in Africa. While some areas appear to have been inhabited more or less
continuously since the dawn of humanity, enormous regions—notably the desert areas of
northern and southwestern Africa—have been largely unoccupied for prolonged periods of time.
Factors influencing the African climate
A number of factors influence the climate of the African continent.
 Position in the tropics: Most of the continent extends from 35° S to about 37° N latitude
i.e., within the tropics.
 Second, the near bisection of the continent by the Equator results in a largely symmetrical
arrangement of climatic zones on either side. This symmetry is, however, imperfect
because of a third factor
 The great east–west extent of the continent north of the Equator, in contrast to its narrow
width to the south. In consequence, the influence of the sea extends farther inland in
Southern Africa. Moreover, a quasi-permanent subtropical high-pressure cell (the
Saharan anticyclone) develops in the heart of northern Africa, while in Southern Africa

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 the belt of high pressure on land weakens during the time of high sun (the season when
the Sun is overhead—in December and January in the south).
 A fourth factor consists of the cool ocean currents, which chill the winds that blow over
them and thereby influence the climate of the neighboring shores.
 Fifth, the extensive plateau surfaces of the continent and the absence of high and long
mountain ranges comparable to, for example, the Andes in South America or the
Himalayas in Asia, climatic zones in Africa tend to shade into one another, rather than
change abruptly from place to place. Never the less, the presence of highlands influence
climate in Africa. i.e the high mountains have climatic zones of their own that vary with
altitude.
 Air Masses; The most important differentiating climatic element is rainfall; this, together
with several other climatic elements, depends upon the characteristics of the dominating
air mass. Air masses relevant to African climate are broadly classified as maritime
tropical, maritime equatorial, continental tropical, maritime polar, and continental polar.
Of these, the least important are the continental polar air masses, which occasionally
bring intense cold to northern Egypt in December and January, and the maritime polar air
masses, which are associated with rain-bearing depressions over the northern and
southern extremities of the continent during winter. With the exception of these, the
continent is affected both by a continental tropical air mass to the north and by maritime
tropical and maritime equatorial air masses to the south.
These northern and southern air masses meet at the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The
hot, dry continental tropical air mass, which is present in the upper levels of the atmosphere,
descends to the ground only at the convergence zone. Less hot than the continental tropical are
the maritime tropical and maritime equatorial air masses, which originate from the Indian and
South Atlantic oceans, respectively; they differ only in that the maritime equatorial air mass is
unstable and brings rain while the maritime tropical air mass, when fully developed, is stable and
does not normally bring rain unless it is forced to rise by a high mountain.
Climatic regions
When considered in detail, the movement of air masses and their effects provide the basis for a
division of the continent into eight climatic regions. These are
 The hot desert,
 Semiarid,
 Tropical wet-and-dry,
 Equatorial (tropical wet),
 Mediterranean,
 Humid sub-tropical marine,
 Warm temperate upland and
 Mountain regions.
The hot desert region consists of the Sahara and Kalahari deserts, which are always under the
influence of dry continental tropical air masses, and the northern Kenya–Somali desert, the

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aridity of which is principally caused by the stable nature of the maritime air masses that pass
over it throughout the year. The stability of these maritime air masses is induced by their passing
over the cool body of water offshore. In addition to aridity, the desert climate is characterized by
high mean monthly temperatures; the diurnal (daily) temperature range is, however, greater than
the annual range of the mean monthly temperature.
Semiarid climatic regions fringe the desert areas and include the greater part of the land south
of the Zambezi River. They differ from true desert regions in being just within reach of the ITCZ
in the course of its seasonal movement and therefore receiving more rainfall. Temperatures are
about the same as those in the desert regions.
The tropical wet-and-dry region is often called the savanna climatic region; this implies,
incorrectly, that all areas with savanna vegetation have this type of climate. This region covers a
little less than half of the total surface area of the continent, extending toward the Equator from
the semiarid areas. The great distinguishing feature of this climatic region is the seasonal
character of its rainfall. During the period of high sun, the maritime air masses produce up to six
months of rainfall, the length of the rainy season depending on nearness to the Equator. The rest
of the year is dry. In a few places—for example, on the coast of Mauritania and Senegal—there
is also a little rainfall in the period of low sun. As in the desert and semiarid climatic zones,
mean monthly temperatures show less variation than daily temperatures. In western Africa the
period of low sun corresponds to the harmattan season. The harmattan is a warm, dry,
northeasterly or easterly wind that blows out of the southern Sahara and is frequently laden with
large quantities of sand and dust.
Regions with the equatorial, or tropical wet, type of climate, or variants thereof, are the
wettest in Africa. There are two peak periods of rainfall corresponding to the double passage of
the ITCZ. Because areas with an equatorial climate are constantly covered by warm maritime air
masses, variations in their monthly and daily temperatures are less pronounced than in the
tropical wet-and-dry regions.
Marked variations in the rhythm of equatorial climate sometimes occur. For example, the rainfall
may be monsoonal and the second rainy season may be all but nonexistent. But the most notable
anomaly can be observed on the western African coast from around Cape Three Points, Ghana,
eastward to Benin, where, although the bimodal rainfall regime prevails, the total annual
precipitation is less than 40 inches (1,000 millimeters). Among the many explanations that have
been suggested are that the presence of a cold body of water offshore chills the lower layers of
the maritime air mass and makes it stable, that the body of cold air that forms offshore diverts the
incoming airstreams to the west and east of the anomalously dry area, that there is a strong
tendency for the winds to blow parallel to the shore during the rainy seasons, that the absence of
highlands deprives the region of orographic (mountain) rainfall, that fluctuations in the offshore
moisture-bearing winds occur during the rainy season and reduce rainfall, and that local
meteorological peculiarities of thunderstorms contribute to the reduction in rainfall.
Mediterranean, type of climate; found in the northern and southern extremities of the
continent, experience a dry summer subtropical, or Mediterranean, type of climate. Rain falls

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only in winter (December–January in North Africa, June–July in Southern Africa), although in
some localities it may fall in autumn (September in North Africa, April in Southern Africa).
Mean monthly temperatures are lower than in tropical climates, dropping to about 50 °F (10 °C)
in winter, while summer (June–July in North Africa, and December–January in Southern Africa)
temperatures may sometimes exceed those of tropical climates. Clear blue skies are
characteristic.
The humid subtropical marine climate is restricted to the southeast coast of Africa. This
region is characterized by rainfall throughout the year, but it is heaviest in summer. In South
Africa, south of KwaZulu-Natal, the winter rainfall is more pronounced, and the temperatures are
a little lower than in the north. Thus, at Port Elizabeth there are six months when temperatures
are below 62 °F (17 °C), while at Durban mean monthly temperatures do not fall below 64 °F
(18 °C).
The warm temperate upland climatic region is found on the Highveld of Southern Africa. Its
rainfall regime is similar to that of the tropical wet-and-dry climate, but temperatures are greatly
modified by the altitude; frost, for example, occasionally occurs in Lesotho. Toward the coast the
climate shows maritime characteristics, and there is a tendency toward winter rainfall.
The mountain climatic region includes the high mountain areas of Ethiopia and the lake region
of East Africa. In some respects, the climate is similar to the warm temperate upland climate,
except those temperatures are even lower and snow occurs on the tops of the highest peaks, such
as Kilimanjaro. The rainfall regime is similar to that of the adjacent lowland areas.
Tasks/ Review Questions
(a) With sketch diagram explain the NE and SE trade winds and their effect on the
climate of Africa.
(b) Describe at least four major climatic regions of Africa.
(c) List five factors that control the climatic conditions of Africa.
(d) Describe the winds that operate on the African Continent during the Southern
Hemisphere’s summer.
(e) Draw a sketch map showing climatic regions of Africa.
(f) Explain the importance of Africa’s climatic patterns to the development of the
continent.
VEGETATION AND PLANT LIFE
African vegetation develops in direct response to the interacting effects of rainfall, temperature,
topography, and type of soil; it is further modified by the incidence of fire, human agriculture,
and grazing and browsing by livestock. Of the total land area of the continent, forests cover
about one-fifth; woodlands, bushlands, grasslands, and thickets about two-fifths; and deserts and
their extended margins the remaining two-fifths. The continent varieties include, the North

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containing sizable oak and pine forests in the upper reaches of the Atlas Mountains. The
mangrove tree of West Africa sprouts up along river banks in swamps and river deltas.
Mangrove tree roots are breeding grounds for fish. They also help to build up dry land by
holding silt.
Tropical rainforests extend to the north and south of the equator. They are home to thousands of
plants and animal species. The rainforests consist of various layers of vegetation,
from shrubs and ferns on the ground to trees that grow up to a height of 50 metres.
In the savannahs and grasslands longer, grass is replaced by shorter grass as you move away
from the equator, with trees scattered in-between. In some areas, like the Sahel zone, there are
large differences due to rainfall in each year.
The vegetation map of Africa and general vegetation groupings mainly follow the Frank White
(1983) map and its extensive annotations, although some 100 specific types of vegetation
identified have been compressed into 14 broader classifications.

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Ecological relationships
Until about two million years ago Africa’s vegetation had always been controlled by the
interactions of climate; geology, soil, and groundwater conditions (edaphic factors); and the
activities of animals (biological factors). The addition of humans to the latter group, however,
has increasingly rendered unreal the concept of a fully developed “natural” vegetation—i.e., one
approximating the ideal of a vegetation climax. Nevertheless, in broad terms, climate remains the
dominant control over vegetation. Zonal belts of precipitation, reflecting latitude and contrasting
exposure to the Atlantic and Indian oceans and their currents, give some reality to related belts of
vegetation. Early attempts at mapping and classifying Africa’s vegetation stressed this

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relationship: sometimes the names of plant zones were derived directly from climates. In this
discussion the idea of zones is retained only in a broad descriptive sense.
The span of human occupation in Africa is believed to exceed that of any other continent. All the
resultant activities have tended, on balance or reduce tree cover and increase grassland, but there
has been considerable dispute among scholars concerning the natural versus human-caused
development of most African grasslands at the regional level.
VEGETATIONAL ZONES
Lowland rainforest
African lowland rainforests occur along the Guinea Coast of western Africa and in the Congo
basin. The full development of this tropical formation requires continuously warm conditions
and an annual rainfall exceeding 50 to 60 inches (1,270 to 1,520 millimeters) distributed fairly
evenly over the year. The vertical limit is about 3,500 to 4,000 feet. This multistoried, highly
diverse, extensive, and potentially self-perpetuating assemblage has been described by some as
the source of virtually all tropical floristic diversity. No other part of the world sustains a greater
biomass (total weight of organic matter in a given surface area) than lowland tropical rainforests.
Even though the speciation (proliferation of distinct types of plant) within the African rainforests
is notably poorer, these forests sustain a huge multiplicity of life-forms, occupying different
strata (generalized levels of plant height) and niches (separate, small-scale habitats).
African tropical forests
Characteristically, tropical rainforest is composed of a ground story, from 6 to 10 feet tall, of
shrubs, ferns, and mosses; a middle story of trees and palms 20 to 60 feet in height; and a
dominant top canopy consisting of trees up to 150 feet high with straight unbranched trunks,
buttressed roots, and spreading crowns of perennial leafage. The large branches of these crowns
provide niches for epiphytes, including orchids, ferns, and mosses. Lianas tie trees to one
another, parasitic species cling to trunks and branches, and strangler figs (Focus Pretoria) put
down aerial taproots. Nevertheless, these are not “impenetrable” jungles.
Eastern African Coastal forest and bush
Lowland forests and evergreen bush land form a long belt of land some 125 miles broad along
the Indian Ocean. From various causes—notably the monsoonal climate, freely draining soils,
and long historical impact of humans—these forests are much more limited in their structure
(physical form), speciation, and robustness. On more favored terrain—such as estuarine fringes,
the seaward flanks of the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and hill masses athwart the rain-
bearing southeast monsoon—forest and a close broad-leaved woodland are still dominant. Where
land is in a rain shadow, in areas of unfavorable geology (e.g., raised coral reefs), and near cities
and small ports, thorny bush, succulent shrubs, and scrawny grassland prevail. Nevertheless, the
region now sustains a number of economically important domesticated trees—both indigenous
and exotic—such as the coconut palm, cashew, mango, and (especially on Zanzibar and Pemba)
clove.

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Mangrove swamp
Mangroves include a variety of species of broad-leaved, shrubby trees (10–40 feet high) that
fringe muddy creeks and tidal estuaries. They require warm saline water—hence their
distribution along tropical coastlines. Often, they form nearly impenetrable stands, for which the
easiest access is by sea. The trunks and roots are termite-resistant, and they have long been
favoured as a building material and for making charcoal.
Broad-leaved woodland and grassland
This classification constitutes one of the most extensive composite categories now recognized
and includes much of the land formerly labeled as savanna. Two broad bands extend across the
continent, one from about 7° to 12° N latitude and the other from about 8° to 22° S latitude.
Structure and floristic composition vary greatly with the increase of latitude, both in the north
and the south. Annual rainfall averages 35 to 45 inches, with marked seasonality of occurrence
and considerable fluctuations from year to year, both in total rainfall and in the onset of rainy
periods. The woodlands of western Africa strikingly resemble those found south of the Equator.
In both areas, undulating wooded interfluves on light soils successively alternate with swampy,
clay-based valley grasslands (called fadamas in Nigeria and dambos in Zambia and Malawi) in a
topographically linked sequence of soils called a catena.
Over much of the interior of Tanzania, in areas of reduced rainfall and poorer soils, a light-
canopied, sustained woodland called Miombo forest rises above a rather scrawny ground layer.
This is an excellent habitat for bees, and honey has long been gathered there.
Because of periodic burning, tall grasses have become dominant over large expanses of plateau
land, which sometimes contains few, if any, of its original trees. The tall, coarse red grass
Hyparrhenia can form prominent stands, but it makes poor grazing land and often harbours
insects that spread disease. Much better for the pastoralists are induced swards of Themeda.
For centuries humans have selectively retained certain economically important tree species in
areas cleared for farming; the effect has been to create what is called “farmed parkland,” in
which a few favored trees rise above the fields. Examples include the shea butter nut tree
(Butyrospermum), common in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire; Acacia albida, found in Senegal and
Zambia; and the truly domesticated baobab (Adansonia digitata), which is perhaps the most
widely distributed.
Thorn woodland, grassland, and semidesert vegetation
Toward the margins of the tropics, the vegetation cover becomes lower and thinner as the
fluctuating transition to desert vegetation ensues. In the same progression the concept of an
annual rainfall (nominally 5 to 20 inches) yields to the reality of extreme unreliability in both
incidence and expectation. Under such restraints a definitive “boundary” with the desert becomes
meaningless. Moreover, there appears to have been a trend toward declining precipitation in the
last half of the 20th century, and human impact certainly has enhanced the natural deprivation of
plant life in the marginal regions. The southern margin of the Sahara—roughly between the
latitudes of 15° and 20°—is called the Sahel (Arabic: Sāḥil; meaning “shore” or “edge”), the

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word being extended by implication to comprehend the fluctuating margins of the great sand seas
of the Sahara to the north. The southern equivalent covers much of the Kalahari, which is often
called a desert but is more properly a thirst land.
Afromontane vegetation
All high mountains exhibit azonality; i.e., their vegetation differs from that found in the climatic
zones from which they rise. The differences manifest themselves as progressive modifications,
which are usually well stratified and reflect altitude-dependent climatic changes. Generally, as
elevation increases, temperature decreases (to the point where frost and even glaciation can
occur) and precipitation increases (although above a certain level precipitation decreases
markedly). Mountainous terrain can retain ancient climatic conditions—making possible, for
example, the survival of relict species—and the relative inaccessibility of the higher elevations to
humans has helped preserve more of the vegetal patterns of the past.
Vegetation strata are typically skewed with regard to slope orientation (aspect). This is mainly
due to a contrast between exposure to rain-bearing winds and shadowing from them but may also
reflect long-term history. If lower slopes rise abruptly from the base, as they often do in Africa,
then a distinct boundary between vegetation formations may be clearly distinguished; if the rise
is gentle, vegetation merge (as in the western Kenyan highlands). (All the circumstances
mentioned above are represented in the African mountain systems, but for purposes of
illustration the vegetation map identifies only areas of altitudinal modification. Thus, some areas
are included and others are not tropical, such as parts of the Red Sea Hills and the mountains of
South Africa and Lesotho.)
Altitudinal modifications of vegetation are clearly discernible on the high East African peaks
near the Equator (e.g., Kilimanjaro and Mounts Kenya and Elgon), and a rich forest belt—much
reduced upslope by human activities, except where the land has been reserved—clothes the zone
that receives the maximum rainfall and is free of frosts (up to about 5,000 to 6,000 feet). Such
mountains have great human importance as watersheds and as repositories of native plants.
Desert vegetation
The Sahara has one of the lowest species densities in the world, and a sustained vegetation cover
(which can include trees and bushes) occurs only in the massifs and oases. Elsewhere the
vegetation is discontinuous and consists of two main types: perennials with huge root systems
and sparse aerial parts, often protected by waxy cuticles, thorns, and hairs; and ephemerals with
slight root systems and little foliage but with the ability to flower profusely immediately after
occasional storms and then to seed quickly and abundantly. The stony and rocky expanses give
more hold for plants than do the vast areas of shifting sands. In some areas with slightly more
rainfall, grass tufts may grow 50 yards apart. Aristida is the dominant grass, and for brief periods
it can yield a nutritious forage called ashab.
The Namib is one of the world’s driest deserts. The area along the coast, however, is almost
always foggy, and succulent shrubs (such as aloes) manage to survive on this moisture. The

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Namib also contains the strange tumboa, or welwitschia (Welwitschia mirabilis), which may live
100 years or more.
Karoo-Namib shrubland
In this drought-prone land, soils are often shallow, even saline. The low shrubs that grow there
can be divided into two groups: woody plants, such as species of Acacia and Pentzia and the
saltbush (Atriplex); and succulents, including aloes, euphorbias, and Mesembry antheum.
Aristida and Themeda are characteristic grasses. Every year the blossoms of bulbous plants lay
short-lived carpets of colour. Being both drought-resistant and high in minerals, many of the
shrubs can provide useful grazing for goats and sheep.
Highveld grassland
The grassland classification is restricted to regions with 10 percent or less woody plant cover.
The Highveld meets this definition and probably owes much to unaided nature for its creation
and perpetuation, since fires caused by lightning strikes are relatively frequent. Its extent has
always been fairly precisely defined: areas with more than 15 inches of rainfall during the
summer. Highveld vegetation, though modified considerably by human activity, traditionally has
been differentiated into sweet veld (dominated by Themeda) or sour veld (Andropogon and
Eragrostis), the latter making poorer pasturage.
Mediterranean vegetation
This zone is determined chiefly by its climate, which is characterized by very dry summers and
mild, rainy winters, but it has long been much differentiated by its inhabitants. Large tracts have
been degraded into maquis (macchie), garigue, or dry semidesert (steppe) vegetation. Maquis
consists of dense scrub growths of xerophytic (drought-resistant) and sclerophyllous (leathery)
shrubs and small trees, which are often fire-resistant. Garigue characteristically is found on
limestone soils and has more woody growth, including evergreen and cork oaks (Quercus suber).
The higher slopes of the Atlas Mountains once carried large stands of pine and cedar, but they
have been much depleted. Typical grasses, progressing from the coast to the desert, are
Ampelodesmos, Phalaris, and Stipa.
Cape shrub, bush, and thicket
This region constitutes the southern counterpart of the Mediterranean zone, although (with the
exception of the Atlas Mountains) it is richer in its vegetation potential. There were once
considerable enclaves of true evergreen bushland, which have reverted to shrubland (fynbos).
Sclerophyllous foliage and proteas abound. Although grassy tracts occur on the mountains, they
are characteristically unusual lower down. Beyond the Cape Ranges, fynbos grades into karoo.
Madagascar
Physically and biologically, Madagascar has long formed a separate entity. White has identified
eastern and western regions of endemic (unique) vegetation. In the eastern centre, about one-
sixth of the plant genera and more than three-fourths of the thousands of species are regarded as
endemic. The Madagascar rainforest has shorter trees and a somewhat drier climate than its

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equatorial counterpart and contains its own dwarf palms (Dypsis) and bamboos (Ochlandra). The
western deciduous forest stands in the rain shadow; some of its trees resemble Mediterranean
oaks. The southern thickets have prominent euphorbias and species of the Didiereaceae family.
The island has much degraded secondary forest (locally called savoka) along the eastern and
northern coasts.
Sudd
In addition to the major types of vegetation described above, a special vegetation called sudd
(literally meaning “barrier”) occurs in the great Nile, Niger, and Zambezi drainage systems of the
African interior plateau. Sedges (especially papyrus), reeds, and other water plants—including
the floating Nile cabbage (Pistia stratiotes)—form masses of waterlogged plant material that are
largely unproductive and are a nuisance to fishing and navigation. Pistia has become an
unwelcome invader of Lake Kariba, the body of water formed by the impounding (1959) of the
Zambezi River in the Kariba Gorge.
Long-term changes in vegetation
Africa’s basic vegetational zones are believed to have existed in approximately the same
climatically controlled series and with the same characteristically developed species for a long
period of time; indeed, some ancient African plant families—such as the cycads, which evolved
some 200 million years ago—still have living representatives. Nonetheless, the continent’s
vegetation has been altered continuously by geologic and climatic changes and by the movement
of the caloric (heat) Equator. The past million years have been a time of unusually rapid changes,
with major consequences for Africa’s vegetation.
The vegetational history of Africa is of great scientific relevance. Studying the lichens growing
in the high East African mountains, for example, may yield a better understanding of the
continent’s climatic trends, and a knowledge of past conditions in the Sahel might help explain
what influence natural phenomena have had on the disastrous droughts of the region since the
late 1960s.
Geologic influences
The two most important geologic modifications of vegetation have been the very ancient
separation of Madagascar from the mainland, which gave rise to the distinct speciation of the
island’s flora, and the long-continuing faulting and volcanism along East Africa’s huge rift
system that has thrown up high ranges (e.g., the Ruwenzori between Uganda and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo) and great volcanoes (Kilimanjaro) and has thus created and reshaped
Afromontane flora.
Climatic influences
The repercussions of the great Pleistocene Ice Ages of Europe have constituted the most notable
climatic influence on African flora in relatively recent geologic history. These consist of a
succession of colder periods marked by glacial advances, interrupted by warmer, drier inter-
glacial; the last series of these ended between about 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. Tropical Africa

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experienced contemporaneous fluctuations in its climate, although it is misleading to infer any
simple equivalences between these fluctuations and the European periods of glacial advances and
retreats.
During the wetter times (pluvials) in Africa, equatorial forests spread, separating northern
woodlands from their southern counterparts (with consequent species differentiation); mountain
vegetation descended onto the plateaus; and there is evidence that the Saharan climate was
greatly ameliorated, much to the advantage of humans. During the warmer, drier interpluvials the
existing vegetation was degraded in many zones. Dunes spread from the Sahara and over the
Kalahari, for example, and their fossilized alignments—now vegetated—can be traced across the
thorny woodlands and grasslands of Niger, Nigeria, Namibia, and Botswana.
Human influences
The greater part of the reduction of Africa’s natural vegetation has happened in the last 2,000
years—probably since the late 19th century for the tropical portions—the time during which
humans have been most numerous and active. Pastoralism, agriculture, the rapid growth of
human and livestock populations, the expansion of cities and towns, and the external demands
for primary resources have made ever-greater demands upon the land for sustenance and
perceived economic betterment. Much is known of the detailed processes of vegetation
modification along the Mediterranean, since they have been observed and studied since Classical
times, and a good deal is also known from the more than three centuries of study of the Cape
area of South Africa, but until the late 19th century very little was understood about these
processes in tropical Africa. Indeed, the timescale of actual human impact on African vegetation
may be causally linked to the awareness of it by Europeans.
Within the tropical forests and woodlands, fire undoubtedly has been the great human agent of
clearance and degradation, of far greater efficacy than felling, bark-ringing, or uprooting—at
least until the introduction of modern plantation agriculture and logging. Hunters, pastoralists,
and cultivators have all fired the land for centuries and have gathered wild foodstuffs, thatch
timber for construction, and fuel wood from the volunteer (i.e., uncultivated or self-generating)
vegetation. The long-term effects of such activity bear directly upon the debated question of the
origin of the savannas.
In earlier times, African cultivators found the fabric of the tropical rainforest comparatively
difficult to modify substantially. In the 20th century, however, it was greatly reduced in extent
(such as in Sierra Leone), patched and frayed (Nigeria), and exploited for timber exports
(Gabon). Moreover, many of tropical Africa’s largest cities and busy seaports are in this zone.
The most diverse and seemingly inexhaustible floral realm in Africa has therefore become a
cause for widespread concern.
Conserving the vegetation
Perceptions of the need for environmental conservation in Africa held by those outside the
continent are sometimes expressed in terms that seem opposed to the legitimate priorities and
aspirations of African peoples (in meeting which agriculture and livestock management must

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remain crucial). It is not surprising that projections based upon the assumptions from these
external sources frequently end in pessimism. A more constructive approach is to identify ways
in which to more fully integrate wild plant life, crops, and animals, which can be expressed in the
concept of productive countryside. The capacity and precision of resource surveys have been
greatly enhanced by remote sensing, and this has been coupled with the worldwide
transmissibility of information. Research and interest in agroforestry have expanded and become
institutionalized. Above all, however, confidence must be put in the capacities of many millions
of African farmers to expand agriculture while working toward reintegration with wild plant life.
IMPORTANCE OF VEGETATION ZONES TO AFRICA AND HUMANITY

1. As vegetation encompasses all manner of plant species are the main source of food for
humans. They produce foods from vegetable, carbohydrates, minerals, oils and protein.

2. Vegetation zones provide trees of various kinds and species utilized by humans as electric
poles, for the construction of houses, bridges and paper products which are very essential to
human and living things generally.

3. Vegetation helps to regulate the flow of numerous Poisonous biogeochemical cycles

composed of various chemical elements mixed together in the atmosphere due to pollution.
This can only be controlled and regulated by Vegetation which produces enough oxygen
capable of reducing the side effect, with the contribution of other elements under Vegetation
such as carbon, nitrogen, and water.

4. The vegetation (plants) in our ecosystem are paramount as they are primary producers and
independently manufacture their own food by photosynthesis process using sunlight. They
also feed other living organisms solely relying on them as the food chain executor.

5. Natural vegetation is a priceless gift from nature to every human through the following
attributes; All plant parts such as the saps, roots, stems and the flowers of the plants are very
useful and perform various purposes. Leaves and flowers from trees serves as beautification
and aesthetics, plant roots are useful in oil and fragrance extraction used in the cosmetics
industry and production of useful oils and perfumes

6. Vegetation plays an effective role as are used as camouflage by the carnivores and at the same
time plants serve as a source of food to the herbivores.

7. The contribution of Vegetation to the world economy has been realistic and essential
especially in the energy source sector by use of fossil fuels and the production of materials like
fuelwood charcoal and the like.

8. The Vegetation attributes also have the tendency of increasing plant growth and productivity.
Soil formation, chemistry, structure, texture, volume, and type are basically affected in a
positive manner by Vegetation.

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 9. Vegetation is an important natural resource that has helped man with the provision of materials
from some special trees by special means. Such materials are; plastic, gum, wood, and paper
that stands as raw materials for producing seats, wiring, tire, ropes, books among others.

10. Some vegetative plants are very medicinal in nature such that they are usually utilized by
pharmaceutical industries in producing drugs for curing sickness and life-threatening
conditions. They are used traditionally as herbal treatment as well.

The plant is too purposeful are used to produce fabric like backcloth and textile material from Jutes
and cotton plants thereby providing clothes for the entire humanity The climate and its associated
vegetation affects the patterns of life which man may determine to lead and has a direct bearing
on the economic development of a region. Climatic and vegetation zones are considered as
natural areas and their economic values are usually discussed together in the modern land use
patterns.

Review Questions
1. Explain the factors influencing the vegetation distribution in Africa.
2. Identify the major vegetation types and distribution over the African continent. Discuss the
main problems facing vegetation detoriation in Africa.
3. How has vegetation contributed to the development of African continent?

AFRICA'S WEALTH OF RESOURCES

Natural resources in Africa include:
a) Soil resources.
b) Vegetation resources.
c) Water resources: I rivers ii lakes, iii oceans, (iv) dams (v) swamps.
d) Mineral resources.
e) Energy resources.
The story of Africa's natural resources is at once a story of plenty and one of scarcity. It
possesses an incredible diversity of resources, from rain forests to roaring rivers and has a huge
amount of the world's minerals. The continent has great deposits of the world's most valuable
minerals and raw materials, including diamonds, coal, copper, platinum, chromium, cobalt,
phosphates, gold and many other minerals. For example, South Africa is the world's largest
producer of chromium. Chromium is an element used in manufacturing stainless steel. African
nations produce about 42 percent of the world's cobalt, mostly from the Democratic Republic of
the Congo and Zambia. Ores and minerals account for more than half of the total value of
Africa's exports.
However, Africa's great mineral wealth, has not meant economic prosperity for most of its
population. Many African countries lack the industrial base and money to develop and thus is the

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least developed of all continents. In the 19th and 20th centuries, European colonial rulers
developed Africa's natural resources for export to Europe to manufacture goods there. As a
result, many African nations have been slow to develop the infrastructure and industries that
could turn these resources into valuable products.

OIL RESOURCES
Libya, Nigeria, and Algeria are among the world's leading petroleum producers. Other countries,
such as Angola and Gabon, have huge untapped oil reserves. Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, and
Angola combine to produce over seven percent of the world's oil.
Angola recently discovered offshore oil deposits will likely enable Angola to surpass Nigeria as
Africa's most oil-rich country. American oil companies pay Angola a fee for drilling rights and
the oil. However, the Angolan government spends the money on an ongoing civil war. This has
caused conflict between ethnic divisions resulting from years of colonialism. Angola invests
little money in schools, hospitals, or other public infrastructure.

Other commodities after oil, is coffee the most profitable commodity in Africa. Even though few
Africans drink coffee, the continent grows 20 percent of the world's supply.
Lumber is another important commodity. Nigeria leads African nations in lumber exports and
ranks eighth worldwide in that area. However, logging is depleting Africa's forests.
Every year loggers clear an area of land in Africa about twice the size of New Jersey. Other
major commodities include sugar, palm oil, and cocoa. Cote d'Ivoire is the world's largest
exporter of cocoa beans, the main ingredient in chocolate.
Africa’s Economy
Although Africa is a continent that is rich in resources and raw materials, a large part of
its population lives in poverty. In the last few decades, the standard of
living has improved but income is still very low. In addition, Africa relies heavily on farming
products and minerals as a source of income.
 Farming
Farming is the single most important economic activity and way of earning money for the people
of Africa. Almost 70% of its population work and earn their living from farming/agriculture. In
addition, farm products account for nearly one-third of the continent's exports. Most of the
continent’s population depends on staple crops, food that people need themselves
and base their diet on. These include corn, sorghum, rice and wheat as well as potatoes fruits and
vegetables. Cash crops are grown on large plantations and exported to other countries. They
include cocoa, bananas and coffee.
In many African countries, food production cannot keep up with the increasing population
leading to chronic food shortages. Some African countries turned from food exporters in the
last century to food importers today. However, most of them do not have the money and capital
to import food from abroad. Food is often scarce and Diseases spread throughout Africa, life
expectancy is low and poverty is widespread. In addition, climate change and widespread
droughts have hit many regions on a regular basis leading to hunger and starvation in many parts
of Africa.

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Livestock is raised in all parts of Africa. Sheep, goats, camels, pigs and other animals are kept
for food, skin and working as transportation animals.
 Mining
Africa is rich with minerals and raw materials. The continent has large deposits of copper, gold,
phosphates, platinum and minerals. The mining industry focuses on the countries south of
the equator. Diamonds, gold and coal are produced in South Africa, which has the
most advanced mining industry. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil-producing country.  Bauxite and
phosphates are mined in Morocco.
While Africa does have many resources, they do not control the world markets. Most countries
do not process raw materials but export them to developed countries.  The fight over raw
materials have also led to conflicts and wars in Africa. Selling diamonds illegally, for example,
helped to finance a civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
 Manufacturing
Manufacturing Industry is a young sector of the African economy. Most industries were set
up after the countries got their independence from Europe. During the colonial period they got
their finished products from Europe, often at a high price.  Many nations still
have developing industrial sectors. While foreigners own many companies, the number of young
African businessmen opening up firms has increased steadily.
 Tourism
Tourism is a leading source of income in at least some African countries. Millions of people
from around the globe visit the historic sites of ancient Egypt. Others travel to the mountains of
eastern Africa or go on a safari in one of the game reserves in Kenya or Tanzania. Conflicts,
wars and uprisings during the Arab Spring kept tourists away from Egypt and northern Africa.
Transportation is poorly developed in many African countries. Only the middle and upper
classes own cars. Many Africans go on foot or use buses and bikes as a method of transportation.
Air transport is well developed in places that attract tourists, like Egypt and Kenya
Trade
In the past decades, international trade has left out most of Africa. While many countries export
their farming products and minerals, they must import the majority of industrial products, high-
tech goods, as well as energy. The terms of trade - the balance between the value of exports and
imports has tipped in favor of developed countries and against the developing countries in
Africa. They have been declining for 40 years because Africa exports only raw materials and
food and imports expensive products.
 Foreign Aid
Of all continents, Africa gets the lion’s share of foreign aid. Usually, it is money that the World
Bank lends to African countries, but the West helps Africa with technical assistance in the form
of advisors, doctors and teachers. Foreign aid has helped Africa in the continent’s social and
economic development. However, loans have left many countries with debts that they cannot pay
back.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA.

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WHAT IS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
Neo-classical economists have adopted several indices for measuring development and
inequalities. These indices are widely used in World Bank and UN publications that monitor
growth and development in the international arena.

INDICES OF DEVELOPMENT

1. Gross National Product (GNP) per head

The most widely used indicator of economic development. If GNP per head grows over time in a
particular country, then development is said to have taken place. The higher the GNP per capita,
the richer the country and vice versa. For example, according to the table below which is based
on 1990 figures, Mozambique with a GNP of US$80 and Switzerland with US$32,680 are
classified by the World Bank as the poorest and richest countries, respectively. Using GNP, the
world is divided into income groups.

Income groups Average GNP (US$) 1990

Low income 350
Lower middle 1,530
Middle income 2,220
Upper middle income 3,410
Higher income 19,590
OECD members 20,170
Sub-Saharan Africa 340
Source: World Bank (1992) World Development Report, Table 1

Among the 43 countries classified by the World Bank as low-income countries, 27 Are in Africa
while 16 of the first world's 20 poorest countries are also in Africa. Only 11 of the 41 lower
middle-income countries are in Africa. Ony 2 countries -Gabon (GNP $ 3330 and South Africa
(GNP 2530)- are classified as upper middle income. While the average growth rate of GNP in all
the low-income countries from 1965-1990 was 2.5%, Sub-Saharan Africa grew at only 0.2%.

2. Energy consumption per capita

In 1992, Low-income countries consumed average energy equivalent to 339 kilograms of oil per
capita, Sub-Saharan Africa consumed an average of 103 kg (up from 74 in 1965. Energy import
increased from 7% of merchandise import in 1965 to 28% in 1990. Compare from 8% to 10% in
all low- and middle-income countries combined. Energy consumption range from 17 kgs in
Chad, 21 in Burundi, 68 in Ghana to 598 in Egypt. (Compared with 10,000 in Canada, and 7,822
in USA).

3. Level of Urbanization
-higher in developed countries: e.g. higher income countries had average of 71 and 77% of
population in urban areas in 1965 and 1990 respectively. Figures were 72 and 77 for OECD

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countries in the same year. Compare with 17 and 36 % for developing countries in 1965 and
1989 respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa: 32 %in 1990; Growth rate 5-9 % from 1980-1990

4. Social indicators and Physical Quality of Life indices

Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) shows where individual countries or other groups stand
among the worst and best in the world regarding indices such as adult literacy rates, life
expectancy at birth etc. Despite the crude nature of the PQLI, it is able to measure results rather
than input by making use of widely available data. Generally, the higher the GNP of a country,
the better the PQLI. Although the PQLI correlates with GNP, there may be divergences here and
there.

DEVELOPED vs. UNDERDEVELOPED AREAS

In short, developing countries are said to be characterized a litany of ills which include poverty,
very high rates of population growth, low growth rates of gross domestic product, low rates of
industrialization, extremely high dependence on agriculture, high unemployment and
underemployment, uneven income distribution, etc. From all the criteria examined, we can
conclude that the whole of Africa is classified as underdeveloped. However, can we depend upon
mere statistics, especially the GNP, to determine development?
Some basic questions about development:
Is economic development synonymous with growth in per capita income? According to Dudley
Seers, the questions one needs to ask about development are:
a) what is happening to poverty?
b) what is happening to unemployment?
c) what is happening to inequality?
If the GNP doubles, triples or even quadruples and yet the number of people living in poverty
increases, unemployment rises and inequalities become entrenched, then according to Seers
(1969), then it is doubtful to say that development has taken place

OTHER INDICATORS: PATTERNS OF REGIONAL INEQUALITIES

Patterns of disparities and inequalities can be seen at 4 levels, namely
- international patterns
- intra-national patterns
- intra-regional patterns
- intra-urban patterns

International Patterns
The differences between poor and rich countries can be measured by examining a wide range of
statistical indices. If we analyze international inequalities by comparing the GNP of various
countries, the result is shocking. In 1990, the average Swiss citizen had an income of $32,680
against $80 for the average Mozambican. While African had incomes of $340, citizens of the
OECD enjoyed over $20,000 (ratio: 1: 58). Although simple averages can conceal the true
picture and should therefore be interpreted with caution, these figures still illustrate the extent of
international inequalities

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The trend indicates that the rich countries are getting richer while the poor ones are getting
poorer. On the average citizens of high income countries had incomes 55.5 times that of low
income while middle income countries were 6 times richer than their counterparts in the rich
countries. 107 out of every 1000 babies born in Africa are likely to die before they turn one
(figure was 157 in 1965); 149 for Malawi; 134 in Burkina Faso; Zaire 94; Ghana 103. These
figures for 1990 show considerable improvement over the past 30 years, but it is still
unacceptable (compared with 7 (.07%) in Switzerland and Canada

On the average 107 children out of every 1000 born in sub-Saharan Africa are buried before
their first birthday (Compare with 35 in East Asia, 95 in South Asia, 50 in Latin America and 8
in OECD countries). Apart from the pre-1 year olds, countless number of children between 1 and
4 also die from preventable or treatable diseases every year. In fact 33 out of every 1000 kids
between 1-4 years die annually in developing compared with an insignificant 0.8 in the
industrialized countries. Poor access to medical facilities, malnutrition, lack of treated water,
ignorance and the like contribute to the prevalence of diseases like whooping cough, dysentery,
polio, diarrhea (diarrhea), malaria and other infant killers which claim millions of life every year
in the third world.

In the case of Africa, for instance, there has been a tremendous improvement from 1965 when
the infant mortality rate was 157, but this is not enough. OECD figure dropped from 25 to 8 over
the same period and low-income countries as a whole from 124 to 70. We can analyze all the
other indicators ranging from number of physicians per 1000 people to educational levels and the
result will demonstrate ludicrous disparities between the developed and developing countries.
Many developing countries, especially those in Africa, are caught in a vicious circle of poverty
and unless they are able to break out (but how?) their situation will continue to get worse.

Intra-national disparities
Not only are disparities seen at the international level, but within the boundaries of individual
countries too. In many African countries, urban dwellers receive incomes several times higher
than their rural counterparts (refer to table below)
Incomes comparison in rural and urban areas in selected countries
Country Urban vs Rural
Gabon 1: 5
Liberia 9: 5
Ivory Coast 8: 5
Source: Harrison, P (1984) Inside the Third World pg. 146

Rural-urban disparities are greater in Africa than any other continent. Whereas 68% or so of
African urban dwellers have access to clean drinking water, only 21% in the rural areas do. In
Ghana the 3 largest cities which account for only 13.2% of the population contain 58% of all
households with access to electricity, 41% of all people served with pipe-borne water and 42% of
all hospital beds. 60% of the population live in the rural areas but have access to only 21% of

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health facilities. 50% of all industrial and commercial establishments located in or near Accra,
the capital city. 70% of all senior level public service jobs also in Accra. This picture is typical of
other developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In Zambia, the top 20% controlled
61% of the national income in 1976 while the top 5% received 23%. In Botswana the top 10%
share 42% of the national income (compared with 23% in Canada, 22% in Germany, 25% in the
USA, 21% in Sweden and 23% in the UK)

INTRA-URBAN PATTERNS
This includes the following measures:
a. social differentiation
b. High class vs low class residential areas (slums, squatter settlements, ghettos)
c. Unequal access to jobs in various parts of the city
d. Unequal access public transport
e. Unequal access to quality education for children

How can we explain the persistence and intensification of disparities, in capitalist and
peripheral capitalist countries? Two main views have been advanced on this issue:

1. Spatial inequalities should be seen as the unfortunate but inevitable by-products of the
capitalist mode of production (Browett 1984:156)

2. Uneven regional development is a necessary pre-condition for continuous capital

accumulation (Browett 1984: 155)

EXPLAINING UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: THEORIES OF

DEVELOPMENT AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Several theories have been propounded to explain how development and underdevelopment
occur. These include:
1. Neoclassical/Modernization theories,
2. Neo-Marxist (Dependency and World system)
3. Marxist theories.

a. Neoclassical/modernization theories (also called 'growth' theories)

Key features:
1. Development was seen as a linear movement of society from traditional to modern. As Epstein
(1973:1-2) puts it, this unilinear approach, while making some allowances for individual
countries and regions describes contemporary world history as the progression of each country
from underdeveloped or traditional to developed and modern and postulates a series of two or
more stages through which all countries are alleged sooner or later to pass. Thus, the more
'traditional ' of the dual segments is seen as historically more archaic or less advanced, and it can
see in the less traditional of the two segments the image of its own future.

ROWSTOW'S EVOLUTIONARY LADDER OF DEVELOPMENT

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Perhaps, most of all, Rostow’s evolutionary theory of the stages of development represents the
most popular version of this unilinear view.
According to Rostow (1960) all societies must pass through five developmental stages which
comprise:
1. the traditional society
2. pre takeoff
3. take-off stage
4. the stage of maturity
5. high mass consumption.

2. The transition from traditional societies to modernity in the 'backward' societies supposedly
hindered by 2 types of obstacles:
a. lack of certain inputs - e.g competent entrepreneurs, skilled workforce, motivation or work
orientation
b. too much of certain other characteristics lumped together as tradition, e.g traditional religion,
extended family system etc.
The essence of this theory was that the problems of Africa were internally generated. The
problems were caused by inadequacies within the national fabric, inadequacies which prosperous
western nations had been able to overcome.

3. Development and westernization are synonymous. 'Modernization' theorists saw development

as a continuum following the pattern followed in earlier decades by North America and Western
Europe.

Problems with modernization theory:

a) Too much emphasis on internal processes and constraints as the determinants of development
b) Its insistence on the universal applicability of western paths of development.
c) By neglecting history and the seeds sown by the expansion of global capitalism, the
modernization school failed to account for underdevelopment in the developing countries,
particularly in Africa since, as argued by neo-Marxist scholars, the present-day
underdevelopment in these countries has been determined by the past five centuries of capitalist
world development (King, 1989; Mabogunje, 1979; Amin, 1974a). To paraphrase Potter
(1985:48),

The processes that led to mercantile trade, and distant colonialism, imperialism and post-war
independence were also agents responsible for promoting contemporary underdevelopment in
developing countries. Thus, no account of contemporary Third World underdevelopment can
ignore the historical interdependence of the countries now comprising the so-called First, Second
and Third Worlds.
d) Over dependence on the GNP as the barometer of development
e) Yet another shortcoming in the modernization development theory is its failure to consider the
importance of spatial structure in the process of development.

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Structural Adjustment
Despite all the weaknesses in the modernization theory that make it quite unacceptable, it is still
in vogue. In the 1980's, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund resurrected
'modernization' and re-christened it 'Structural Adjustment'. In simple terms, structural
adjustment, like modernization theory attributes underdevelopment to internal constraints while
ignoring history and exogenous factors, and calls upon developing countries to put their
economic houses in order so as to facilitate export led growth (Higgott,1983; World Bank, 1981)
and consequently generate foreign exchange to cover import costs and for internal development.

b. The Neo-Marxist/Dependency paradigm

There are 2 main streams: Dependency theory and World System theory.
Despite the varying streams of thoughts within this school their key argument could be summed
up as:
The chasm between the levels of prosperity in different countries was created by an economic
process in which the development of one sector of the globe (the WEST) resulted in the
stagnation or gradual retrogression of poor developing countries. Capitalist development
simultaneously generated development in Western nations and underdevelopment in poor
developing countries many of which were colonized by the West. Development and
underdevelopment are therefore not separate processes, but related facets of one single process
(Buchanan, 1968:81-3; also cited in Brewer, 1977 and Forbes, 1984). In other words,
underdevelopment and development are two sides of the same coin, to paraphrase Frank (1966;
1969; 1972). Thus, underdevelopment in the Third World has been 'conditioned' by the growth
and expansion of Europe.

According to this school of thought, external forces are to blame for underdevelopment in Africa
and elsewhere. National economies cannot be separated from the world economic system. The
world is divided into Core and Periphery. The world economy should be seen as a chain of
metropolis-satellite linkages at all levels from international down to local, by means of which
surplus is continuously 'expropriated' or 'appropriated'

c. World System Theory

One of the theories cast in the neo-Marxist perspective. Key theorist is Immanuel Wallerstein.
The key argument is that underdevelopment and development cannot be studied properly on the
basis of individual nation states. The theory asserts that a capitalist world economy has been in
existence since the 16th century. From that time on this system engulfed a growing number of
previously more or less isolated and self-sufficient societies into a complex system of functional
relations. The process of expansion had 2 major dimensions, viz. 1) geographical broadening and
2) socioeconomic deepening. The result of this expansion was that a small number of 'core' states
transformed a huge area into a 'periphery'. In between these core and periphery, world system
theorists identify 'semi-peripheries' which play a key role in the functioning of the system.

Division of labor under the world system is characterized by the core countries assuming the
role of industrial producers whereas the periphery is consigned the role of agricultural producers.

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The most important feature of the semi-periphery compared with the periphery is an increase in
industrial activities. Furthermore, the rising semi-peripheries are strong and ambitious states,
more or less aggressively competing for core status (Hatten, 1990 p. 123). Semi-peripheries
partially deflect the political pressures which groups located in peripheral areas might otherwise
direct against core states and the groups which operate within and through their state
machineries.

According to the world system theory, the process of underdevelopment started with the
incorporation of a particular external area into the world system, i.e prophetization. As the world
system expanded, first Eastern Europe, then Latin America, Asia and Africa, in that order, were
peripheries

Summary of neo-Marxist approaches to Development

1. Underdevelopment is not an original state, but rather a created condition
2. Development does not necessarily travel from the center to the periphery. Underdevelopment
of the periphery is the result of the development of the center. The expansion of the
industrialized and capitalist nations creates and perpetuates underdevelopment
3. Capitalist development creates dualism both at the international and national levels
4. International dualism within the Third World itself creates small centers of wealth and power
while the periphery remains impoverished.

Critique of neo-Marxist views:

a. They provide a stagnant theory of development that is a little more than a mirror image of the
modernization theories they claim to surpass.
b. Underdevelopment may not necessarily follow the expansion of capitalism. Dependency
theories failed to distinguish the spheres of commodity exchange and production.
c. Neglect of internal processes and class formation but class conflict, as Petras (1981:68) points
out, shapes the relationship between countries as much as it is shaped by intersystem relations.

Classical Marxist views of underdevelopment

According Classical Marxists, underdevelopment can only be understood in terms of Mode of
Production and Class Analyses (Foster-Carter, 1978).

a) Marxists fundamental thesis is that the material economic base of society determines the
superstructure of social, legal and political institutions rather than vice versa, and that each
historical society is characterized by struggles between the opposing social classes arising from
the particular processes of production within it (Sarin, 1982:7).

b) Although society is made up of several modes of production, each of which also consists of a
combination of several systems only one mode of production dominates at any one time. Thus
different societies in the world had once been dominated by pre-capitalist modes of production
such as the communal, slave, feudal and Asiatic modes and currently it is the capitalist mode that
reigns supreme.

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c) The capitalist mode of production which broke up and superseded the Asiatic mode began in
Europe in the 13th century, and has since dominated the world for several centuries, included the
accumulation of merchant capital, which involved the exploitation of other societies through
slavery, colonial plunder and unequal exchange (Amin, 1974; Onimode, 1985).

d) It was this spirit of capitalism that sent the European merchant class and the colonialists to
Africa and Asia where they imposed the capitalist economic system on the indigenous societies
and set in motion complex forces which created present day underdevelopment

From the Classical Marxist perspectives therefore, modern society in the developing world is
viewed as the process by which pre-existing structures are encroached upon by capitalism in
such a way that surplus generated in the former are expropriated so as to perpetuate ('reproduce')
the latter. Capitalism has emerged in the modern world as a mode of production characterized by
separation between producers and their means of production. The economy has come to
determine all other aspects of social life to such an extent that society reproduces itself solely
through the economy.

According to the Classical Marxists, any theory of underdevelopment that does not include the
mode of production cannot explain the situation satisfactorily, since this is the foundation of all
genuine social theories. The imposition of the capitalist mode of production divided the
indigenous societies into the owners of the means of production and the owners of labor and
made it inevitable for the latter to move to the urban centers to sell their labor to the former for a
living wage in order to survive. The bourgeois and elite classes that emerged from this
relationship have since co-operated with transnational and other foreign exploiters in the
exploitation of Third World resources to develop Europe.

Summary of Classical Marxist views

1. The contemporary world dominated by 2 modes of production: Capitalist and Socialist
2. Capitalist mode of production has 2 main features: viz.
a. uneven distribution of the mode of production
b. Commodity production
3. A means of production is unevenly distributed to the extent that society is divided into 2
groups:
a. a small group of people who monopolize the means of production
b. the rest of the population who have no means of production

4. The relationship between the owners of means of production and the majority who possess
only labor is known as class relations. Society is thus made up of the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat. The difference between the exchange value of the proletariat labor power and the
value of its product called 'surplus value'. The surplus value goes into the pocket of the
bourgeoisie who thus live off the sweat of the proletariat.

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5. Characterized by commodity production which give capitalist society some of its
characteristics
Which paradigm: neo-Marxist or Classical Marxist?
It may be argued that neither the neo-Marxist views as espoused by neither the dependency
school nor the classical Marxist views are sufficient in themselves to render a fuller
understanding of underdevelopment. Taken together, however, they could complement each
other and lead to a better understanding since several competing devices are likely to prove
reciprocally reinforcing in a somewhat analogous way.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: INDICES AND EXPLANATIONS

Africa’s role in the World economy has been the SUPPLIER of raw materials and a
CONSUMER of imported industrial goods. This began with colonization for much of colonial
policy was preoccupied with bringing about an increase in raw material production and exports.
The development of industry was discouraged in the African colonies. Despite efforts by
independent African states to overcome this economic difficulty, there has been very little
change. The EXPORTER of raw materials and CONSUMER of imported goods status has
created several economic problems for African countries:
1. Unfavorable terms of trade and low purchasing power (see page 329 for table).
2. Led to Huge Debts (mainly from imports)
3. Turned African countries into recipients of financial aids.

Africa: A contradiction?
Africa comprises 19% of world's total land area and is home to 13% its population. The
continent is endowed with 97% of worlds chromium; 90% of cobalt; 85% of platinum; 64% of
manganese; 50% of gold and phosphates; 40% of HEP potential; 30% of uranium; 20% of all
traded petroleum outside USA and USSR; 12% of natural gas; 7.7% of coal; 13% of copper;
15% of iron ore; the bulk of the world's diamonds; 70% of world cocoa; 60% of coffee; 50%
palm oil; millions of acres of arable land. In spite of all these resources,

a. Africa remains the poorest continent with more than half of the world’s 44 poorest countries
b. large populations in Africa suffer from acute forms of poverty
c. Per capita income account for only 3% of world income. This small share is even on decline
d. Controls only 2% of international trade
e. Maintains a Life expectancy much lower than in the industrial countries.
f. Under 5 mortality account for 30% of all deaths in Africa (2-3 % in most industrialized
communities).

Possible Explanations of Africa's poverty in the midst of plenty

1. Underutilization or non-use of resources
2. Ineffective or inefficient use
3. Resources not being utilized for Africa's benefit

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Manifestations of economic decline in Africa:
-declining food availability
-worsening balance of payment deficits
-dwindling foreign exchange revenue
-sluggish or negative growth of national income
-high rates of inflation
-declining productivity especially in the public sector
-rising budget deficits
-degradation of the physical environment i.e deforestation, soil erosion, desertification
-bankruptcy and the collapse of corporations
-rising unemployment
-increasing indebtedness

Underlying causes of Africa's deteriorating economy

a. Domestic mismanagement and problems: Corruption; administrative bottlenecks;
ineffective population control; political instability; Pricing, trade and exchange rate policies; civil
wars
b. Hostile international economic environment: Lack of demand for primary products which
represent Africa's principal trade items; trade protectionism in developed economies; rising
interest rates and increasing debt burden; energy costs
c. Acts of nature: Climatic and geographical factors such as drought, land-locked countries etc.

Africa contains an enormous wealth of mineral resources, including some of the world’s largest
reserves of fossil fuels, metallic ores, and gems and precious metals. This richness is matched by
a great diversity of biological resources that includes the intensely lush equatorial rainforests of
Central Africa and the world-famous populations of wildlife of the eastern and southern portions
of the continent. Although agriculture (primarily subsistence) still dominates the economies of
many African countries, the exploitation of these resources became the most significant
economic activity in Africa in the 20th century.

TODAY’S AFRICAN ECONOMIC STATUS

 Today, most African countries are worse off economically than they were in the 1960s,
just after many of them gained independence from colonizers. In the last 50 years,
average incomes in Africa have decreased, while they have increased in most of the rest
of the world. Africa accounts for only 1 percent of total world GNP and 1.5 percent of
total dollar value of world exports—both small numbers compared to Africa's population
and natural resources.
 When the colonial nations pulled out of Africa, they often left the newly independent
nations without money for transportation, education, and businesses. To build their
economies, African countries borrowed heavily. By 1997, total public debt of sub-
Saharan African governments—about 227 billion dollars—was strangling them. As a

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 result, many Western leaders have urged their countries to forgive Africa's debts so that it
has more money to build its economies.
 Furthermore, several of Africa's countries rely on just one or two principal commodities
for much of their earnings. These are called “one-commodity” countries. The value of a
commodity varies from day to day based on worldwide supply and demand. That makes
the economies of the producing nations unstable. Economists believe African nations
must diversify, or create variety in, their economies and promote manufacturing to
achieve economic growth and stability
 Worse still African nations have little manufacturing of their own. Their economies are
based on providing raw materials—oil, minerals, or agricultural products—to the world's
industrialized countries.
 Despite this legacy of exploitation, African nations are struggling to build economies
based on natural resources.
 Furthermore, the economic infrastructure needed for substantial growth is not in place.
Roads, airports, railroads, and ports are not adequate to help African nations further their
economic growth.
 In addition, most Africans don't have access to modern aspects of high technology. High
technology has fueled economic growth in other parts of the world such as North
America, Europe, and Asia.
 Another way that Africa seeks to improve its economy is through regional cooperation.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) are both striving to promote trade. For example,
ECOWAS is working toward removing duties and creating a common currency. Efforts
of SADC include working to improve the transportation and communication
infrastructures.
 Another large barrier to economic development in Africa is an unschooled population.
For example, the average length of school attendance for African women has increased
only by 1.2 years in the last 40 years. In some countries, such as Angola and Somalia,
civil wars have all but destroyed the school systems.
 Educating Workers is key to developing Africa's economies. Improving its education
system to provide people with a high level of skills is key to her development. Some
African countries are making progress. For example, in Algeria, 94 percent of the
country's school-age population receive a formal education. Mauritius has also made
huge gains. Currently, 83 percent of Mauritians over the age of 15 are literate. Efforts to
improve education, invest in industry, and create stable governments provide hope for the
future.
 Also, African nations must also find ways to prevent their educated citizens from leaving
the continent, i.e., reversing the brain drain and encouraging their professionals to return
home from Western Countries.

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POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA:

ORIGIN, SIZE AND DISTRIBUTION IN AFRICA

Introduction
This lesson introduces the learners to the population origin and distribution of the ethnicity
groups in Africa. Population size and main factors that contribute to the changes from region to
region has been examined. Environmental problems facing vast population numbers, especially
in high potential and congested urban areas have been highlighted.

[Link] origin, size and distribution

3.1 Origin of the African ethnicity

In Robert July’s book ‘precolonial Africa, An economic and social History (1975) we
find the following statement concerning the origin of the African ethnicity.
 There is general agreement that the beginning of human evolution were centered in
Africa.
 According to Charles Darwin “it is probable that our early progenitors lived on the
African continent than elsewhere” and subsequent research seems to support this
proposition.
 Other findings have established the fact that Eastern Africa was a center of pongid
activity as far back as twenty million years, although early apes were also found in
Europe and Southeast Asia
 It was in Africa that life began for man, but for man in Africa life has often stinted its
gifts.

These are fundamental questions about the origin of the African peoples.
You are advised to research and obtain more solutions that will lead to really answers.

3.2 Population size and distribution in Africa

In 1990 Richard White indicated that the biggest problems facing the human kind towards the
20th century is the population increase in terms of numbers living on our Earth to-day.

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After the 17th century, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, the world population stood at
about 800 million people. Between 1750 and 1900 the same population size had doubled to about
1600 million (i.e. after only 150 years). After another 64 years the number again doubled to 3200
million (Richard W. 1990).

By the end of 20th century the world population, as had been projected was likely to double to 6.5
billion that was described as the world ‘population explosion’

Africa is generally agreed to be the cradle of the human race; genetic testing in recent years has
confirmed archaeological finds. Some 5 million years ago of hominid, a close evolutionary
ancestor of present-day humans, inhabited southern and eastern Africa. More than 1.5 million
years ago this tool making hominid developed into the more Homo sapiens, dates from more that
200,00 years ago. A hunter-gatherer capable of making crude stone tools, Homo sapiens banded
together with others to form nomadic groups; eventually these nomadic Khoisan-speaking
peoples spread throughout the African continent. Gradually a growing Bantu-speaking
population, which had mastered animal domestication and agriculture, forced the Khoisan-
speaking groups into the less hospitable areas. Today they are found primarily in the Kalahari. In
the 1st century AD the Bantu began a migration that lasted some 2,000 years, settling most of
central and southern Africa. Negroid societies typically depended on subsistence agriculture or,
in the savannahs, pastoral pursuits. Political organization was normally local, although large
kingdoms would later develop in most parts of the continent, and especially western, central, and
southern Africa.

The first great civilization in Africa began in the Nile Valley about 5000 BC. Dependent on
agriculture, these settlements benefited from the Nile’s flooding as a source of irrigation and new
soils. The need to control the Nile floodwaters eventually resulted in a well-ordered, complex
state with elaborate political and religious systems. The kingdom of Egypt flourished,
influencing Mediterranean and, to a lesser extent, African societies for thousands of years. Iron-
making, according to some theories was brought from Egypt around 800 BC, and spread into
tropical Africa; other theories suggest independent development of Iron Age culture. Ideas of
royal kingship and state organization were also exported, particularly to adjacent areas such as

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Cush and punt. The east Cushite state, meroe was supplanted in the 4 th century AD By Aksum
which later evolved into Ethiopia.

During the period from the late 3rd century BC to the early 1st century AD, Rome had conquered
Egypt, carthage, and other North African areas; these became the granaries of the Roman
Empire. The empire was divided into two parts in the 4th century. All lands west of modern Libya
remained territories of the western Empire, ruled by Rome, and lands to the east, including
Egypt, became part of the eastern of Byzantine Empire, ruled from Constantinople. By this time
the majority of the population had been converted to Christianity. In the 5th century the vandals, a
Germanic tribe, conquered much of North Africa. Vandal ruled there until the 6th century, when
were defeated by Byzntine forces, and the area was absorbed by the Byzantine Empire.

Table 2: World Population Increase between 1970 and 2000 (Population in million)
1970 20000
Continent Total % of World total Total % of World total
North America 234 6.4 333 3.1
Europe 462 12.7 568 8.7
Soviet Union 243 6.7 330 5.1
Oceania 18 0.5 35 0.5

Sub-total 957 26.3 1266 19.4

Latin America 283 7.8 6.52 10.0
Asia 2056 56.4 3777 58.0
Africa 344 9.5 818 12.6

Sub-total 2683 73.7 5247 80.6

World population 3640 100.0 6513 100.0

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According to Grove, A.T. (1970), Africa possesses more population, ethnic groups, cultures, etc
than any other continent of the world that affects certain places having human beings highly
congested as mentioned earlier.

Africa covers about 1/5 of the total world land surface, it has only about 12 per cent of its
population. In 2004 the total population of the continent was estimated to be about 875,027,307.
Average density, some 29 people per km2 which is over a ½ the world average. This figure
includes large areas, such as the Sahara and Kalahari deserts, which are virtually uninhabited,
and smaller areas, such as the Nile valley, of very high population density. When the population
living on productive land is calculated, the average density increases to some 139 people per
km2. The most densely settled areas of the continent are those along the northern and western
coasts; in the Nile, Niger, Congo, and Senegal River basins and in the eastern African plateau
nation in Africa.

The age distribution is weighted heavily towards the young. In most African countries, about half
the population is 15 years of age or younger.

Africa’s population remains predominantly rural, with only about 1/5 of the population living in
towns of more than 20,000 inhabitants. Northern Africa is the most urbanized region, but there
are individual countries with high levels of urbanization, such as Zambia (50 per cent urbanized),
and major cities are located in every part of the continent. African cities that have populations of
more than 1 million include Cairo, Alexandria, and Giza in Egypt; Algiers, Algeria; Casablanca,
morocco, Lagos, Nigeria, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Abidjan, Coted’ Ivoire, Kinshasa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Soweto in South Africa. The urban
centers act as magnates, attracting large numbers of rural migrants who come either as
permanent settlers or as short-term workers. Urban growth has been particularly rapid since the
1950s. A substantial international labour migration has also developed, particularly of Africans
from central Africa to the mines and factories of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and south Africa, and of
North and West Africans to France and Italy, and, more recently, to the European Union as a
whole. Civil wars in a number of countries in recent years notably Angola, Mozambique,
Ethiopia Sudan, Liberia, and Rwanda have led to a massive displacement of population, as have

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droughts and famines. Africa has the world’s largest concentration of refugees, including people
displaced within their own countries, as well as people who have fled across borders in search of
safety.

3.3 People ethnicity and religion/believes within the African continent.

The Sahara serves as a dividing line between the peoples of northern Africa and those of sub-
Saharan Africa although historically it has not acted as a barrier to trade or dissemination of
ideas between the north and west of the continent. Numerous dubious nature, being based on
essentially racist assumptions. The geographical division appears the most useful today.

In the northern portion of the continent, including the Sahara, Caucasoid peoples – mainly
Berbers and Arabs – predominate. People of Arab descent are also found along the east African
coast. Caucasoid peoples constitute about one-quarter of the continents population. South of the
Sahara, Bantu speaking peoples, constituting some 70 per cent of Africa’s population,
predominate. Pockets of Khoisan peoples, the San (formerly called Bushmen) and Khoikhoi
(formerly called Hottentots), are located in southern Africa. The pygmies are concentrated in the
Congo basin. Scattered through Africa, but primarily concentrated in southern Africa, are some 5
million people of European descent. An Indian population, numbering some 1 million, is
concentrated along the eastern African coast and in southern Africa.

More than 3,000 distinct ethnic groups have been classified in Africa. The extended family is the
basic social unit of most of these peoples. In much of Africa the family is linked to a larger
society through kin groups such as lineages and clans. Kin groups generally tend to exclude
marriage among their members. The village is frequently constituted of a single kin group united
by either male of female descent.

Linguistic families or groups: Niger – Congo and Afro-Asiatic (formerly known as Hamito-
Semitic), the largest groups, consisting of over 1,400 and 400 languages respectively; Nilo-
Saharan, spoken in north central and east Africa, and Khoisan, spoken among the San and
Khoikhoi of southern Africa. Many Africans, particularly those of sub-Saharan Africa, are
multilingual, speaking their own languages as well as those of previous European colonizers. See
African languages.

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Christianity is today probably the most widespread religion in Africa. It was introduced into
northern Africa in the 1st century and spread to the Sudan and Ethiopia religions in the 4th
century. Christianity survived in Ethiopia and Egypt through the Coptic Church, but in the other
areas, was swept away by Islam after the 7th century. It was reintroduced by missionaries and
spread through tropical Africa with the 18th century rise European overseas expansion. Today
protestant and catholic groups are about equally represented throughout the continent.

Islam, the fastest growing religion in Africa, was introduced throughout northern Africa in the 7th
century and in following centuries was spread down the River Nile, along the east African coast,
and through the grasslands of West Africa. In the 20 th century, Islam penetrated into the rest of
the continent. The earliest of the Muslim schools of law, the Maliki, prevails over most of
Muslim Africa except in Egypt, the Horn, and east African coast.

About 15 per cent of Africa’s people practise only indigenous or local religious. Many more,
however, retain elements of traditional beliefs in their lives, and Christianity and Islam in Africa
have also incorporated indigenous practices. Although indigenous religions are of great diversity,
they tend to have a single god or creator figure and a number of subordinate spirits-nature spirits
who inhabit trees water, animals, and other natural phenomena – and ancestral spirits, such as
founders of the family, lineage, or clan who affect everyday life.

Certain modern indigenous religious movements have developed, fusing mainly orthodox
Christian rites and beliefs with indigenous religious elements. Led by individual prophets, these
separatist groups have spread throughout Africa, although they appear most widespread and
powerful in southern and central Africa.

Small numbers of Jews are located in northern and southern Africa; until the 1980s there was
also a sizeable Jewish community in Ethiopia, the Falashas; Hindu, Buddhist, and Daoist peoples
are scattered throughout eastern and southern Africa
.

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Most traditional cultural activity centers on the family and the ethnic group. Traditional arts,
music and oral literature for example do serve to reinforce the existing religious and social
dynamic patterns of the African people.

The heavily westernized elite that is influenced by the west-north European culture and
Christianity at the beginning rejected. African traditional culture, but, with the rise of African
nationalism around independence in the 1960s, a cultural revival occurred. The governments of
most African nations foster national dance and music groups, museums, and, to a lesser degree,
artists and writers. Even so, Western ideas, habits, music, and fashions have – through film,
radio, television, and travel – permeated all but the most remote areas – influencing local music,
styles of dress, eating habits, and so on, especially among the young. In the 20 th century;
however, African arts and music also had a considerable reverse influence in the West. Artists
like Pablo Picasso were influenced by African artworks like the Benin Bronzes. More recently,
African music and its practitioners have influenced many kinds of Western music from jazz to
rock and roll. Western interests in the many different types of modern African music led to the
development of so-called “World” music. See African Art and Architecture; African Literature;
African Music; World Music.

3.4 Factors influencing population distribution in Africa

The factors determining population distribution on the African continent are in one way or the
other similar to those found in some other continents, especially those lying on the same tropical
positions like Africa. Except in some sections of these continents whereby we experience
extreme environmental conditions nearing both poles of southern and northern hemisphere.

It is noted that the factors disjoining the distribution plus density of population over the African
continent are numerous. Such factors are found to be related with the surrounding immediate
environmental conditions of the earth surface.

The Earth’s life-providing environmental riches or resources create the difference between
whether or not a region or spot is inhabited/settled are controlled by natural conditions simply
referred to as the surroundings. This is made up of the earth where people live with the various
physical factors that influence the surroundings, determining the number in each region.

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For example, in high mountain peaks, ranges, that are surrounded by extensive plains, large and
small rivers plus desert expansions, the natural conditions differ greatly from place to place.
And such conditions, therefore make the population distribution vary too.
At times the natural conditions create an easy life for human-beings, whereby they tend to move
to such zones populating them instead. And in other cases natural conditions make human-life
difficult by providing harshly circumstances that will encourage few people to inhabit in such
zones.

The major natural or physical conditions (factors) or at times referred to as natural environment,
that determine population distribution and density over the African Continent include:-
(A) Natural Factors
(i) Climate (rainfall amount, heat, coldness etc.)
(ii) Soils (fertility, nutrients etc.
(iii) Topography/relief (smoothness, gentle, etc.)
(iv) Mineral locations
(v) Pests
(vi) Diseases
(B) Human-related Factors
There are also human-related factors which account for example to various population
distribution and areal density:-
(i) Socio-economic
(ii) Urbanization
(iii) Tribe conflicts

(i) Climate
The key climatic parameters influencing the distribution of population in the continent of Africa
are rainfall and temperature. Areas characterized by high (>1000mm), reliable and predictable
rainfall; and moderate temperatures (15-200c) are densely populated. Such places have a high
agricultural potential and therefore support large populations. Areas with moderate to high
rainfall (750-1000mm), which are also characterized by warm to cool temperatures (20-250c), are

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moderately populated; while those receiving less than 700mm with high temperatures (>25 0c)
are sparsely populated. The latter, which is commonly referred to as arid to semi arid areas or
marginal lands have a low potential and are mainly occupied by pastoralists. However, due to
high population pressure and subsequent land shortage in the high potential zones, the marginal
areas are today recipients of large numbers of migrants from the overcrowded areas.
Unfortunately the rising number of immigrants is contributing immensely to land degradation
problems in these fragile areas.

(ii) Relief/Topography
Mountainous areas, especially at altitudes above 2100 metres have low and sparse population. At
such altitudes, low temperature and inadequate oxygen make life generally impossible.
Moreover, apart from limiting agricultural land, the steep slopes of the mountains constitute a
constraint on the movement of people and the development of a modern transport network. The
mountainous regions of Africa are therefore sparsely populated. Hilly places with gentle slopes,
especially those lying between 1300m and 2100m, and some lowlands are some of the densely
populated regions in East Africa. These places have moderate and comfortable temperatures,
receive effective rainfall, have mature and fertile sols and are easily accessible. As such they
have a high agricultural population.

Unlike the temperature world, aspect (the compass direction in which sloping land faces) does
not exert any significant influence in the distribution of population in Africa. This is because in
East Africa the sun is almost vertically overhead throughout the year. However leeward sides of
mountains, which normally receive low and unreliable rainfall (<350mm) and have poor soils
and generally a week agricultural base, typically have low and sparse populations. There is more
of livestock farming in these areas than crop farming.

(iii) Soils
African populations are to a large extent agriculture-based and tend to concentrate in
places with fertile soils. Areas of volcanic, alluvial or loamy soils are more fertile than regions
with sandy or clay soils. The former are not only deep, well and easy to work but also contain

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high organic content and as such attract huge populations. They are considered favourable and
conducive environments for diverse agricultural activities. The reverse is true of areas with sandy
soils such as the Arid and Semi-arid areas (ASALs) of North Eastern, north western and central
Africa which are to a largely characterized by low and sparse population. Sandy soils although
well aerated are coarse is true and as such have a low water retention capacity. They are
therefore not conducive for crop production (with the exception of a few crops such as dates and
palm trees). Clay soils (e.g. Sudan Plains) are also not very attractive to human settlements
because they are poorly drained and are usually water logged most of the time, heavy and hence
too expensive to cultivate.

(iii) Minerals
Africa lack important deposits. However the few that are available play a crucial part in the
distribution of population in the region. Places with mineral deposits have dense and nucleated
populations. For instance, the availability of diamond and copper mining in some parts of Africa,
explains the presence of large and dense population in areas that would otherwise have low
populations.

(v) Pests and Diseases

Africa has favourable environment for human settlement and agriculture. Unfortunately this
environment is also conducive to a variety of pests (mainly tsetse fly and the mosquito) and
associated diseases (trypanosomiasis and malaria), which affect a substantial of Africa. The
tsetse fly thrives in places below 1600m and those receiving over 400mm of rainfall such as the
Miombo woodland in east, central Africa mosquitoes survive in places below 1500m with
stagnant water, poor drainage and rainfall of over 400mm. At the moment malaria, which is
transmitted by mosquitoes, is a killer disease in after HI-AIDS. Populations are thus sparse in
areas conducive to pests and diseases. However, man is deterministic in nature and is working
hard to eradicate pests and diseases from the earth’s surface. Through improvements in science
and technology, pesticides, insecticides and medicine to combat pests and diseases have been
found. For instance, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and KETRI, among others
are working tirelessly in the search for Malaria and HIV-AIDS cure, In Uganda ARVs are
manufactured to prevent prevalence of HIV Aids and any other parts of Africa.

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In the past malaria was restricted to lowland areas but to-day there were increasing cases of
malaria in highland areas. For instance, there has been a raid increase in the number of people
affected by highland malaria in Kericho and Kisii in Kenya, also many parts of Africa. In recent
times, certain sites on the earth’s surface have gained socio-economic advantages over others
because of the functions they perform as administrative headquarters, ports and industrial towns
or cities. These areas form some of the most highly and densely populated areas of the world
today. They are less extensive than the densely populated agricultural or rural areas and are
centres of in-migration.
(i) Population Change
Population changes can be as a result of natural change and or migration. The balance between
births and deaths determines natural population change. When the number of births in a given
region exceeds the number of deaths, a natural increase in population occurs. When the number
of deaths exceeds the number of births, a natural decrease in population results. Thus, the
difference between the number of births and deaths referred to as a natural population change.
Natural population change is the key factor contributing to Africa’s population growth. Before
the 1960s population in Africa grew rather slowly largely because both birth rates and death rates
were high. High death rates resulted from frequent wars, famines and epidemics of such diseases
as cholera etc. However after the 1970s, there was a notable decline in mortality rates resulting
from:
 Extensive vaccination campaigns against epidemic diseases like measles, small pox and
polio.
 Expansion of medical facilities and services especially in the rural areas.
 Improved standards of living with regard to food, housing and sanitation.
 Improved primary health care and community based rural health projects, which receive
strong support from the Governments. These aim at reducing infant and child mortality
caused by diarrhoeal diseases, malaria, preventable and communicable diseases and
malnutrition. Community based traditional birth attendants are being trained to provide
maternal and child health services and nutritional education within their respective
communities.

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 The improvements in medical facilities, hygiene and nutrition have resulted in a
significant drop in death rates from 40 persons per every 1,000 in the early 1960s to less
than 20 persons per every 1,000 in 2002. There has also been a major decline in birth
over 50 persons per every 1,000 in the early 1960s to 34, 48 and 40 persons in every
1,000 in Kenya., Uganda and Tanzania respectively in 2002. Reasons advanced for
declining birth rates include: increased use of contraceptives, general acceptance of
family planning, reduction in illiteracy levels and increased cost of living.

Before the 1960, for example in East Africa, high birth rates were prevalent; a fact
attributed to soaring fertility rates, which resulted from:-
1. Early start and late continuation of reproductive life (18-45 years).
2. Decline in the incidence of childlessness of women between 15 and 49 years due to
improved nutrition and health conditions.
3. Low level of use of contraceptives.
4. Rising level of adolescent fertility.
5. Preference for a boy child to a girl child.

(ii) Population Migration

What do you understand by the term population migration? It is the physical movement of
people from one place to another. This can also occur when people migrate to look for life-
giving as illustrated in Fig. VII). It takes many forms and can be classified in at least three
different ways including the following:-
 Voluntary and involuntary movements
 Temporary and permanent movements.
 External and internal movements.
Let us now examine the difference between these different types of migration.
Internal Migration: These are movements confined within a single country and do not affect
national population sine of the countries in which they occur. They however can have a
significant impact on spatial distribution of populations especially in the cases where too many
people migrate form one area to another. Throughout Africa, ASALs, which have been known to
support low populations, are today recipients of large numbers of immigrants from the

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overcrowded high potential areas. Internal migration, which could be of a long-term or short-
term nature, includes the following:-
 Rural-urban migration
 Rural-rural migration
 Urban-rural migration
 Urban-urban migration
Population and Development in Africa

I. The Basic Issues: Population Growth and the Quality of Life

In recent years an increasing number of African people are being added every year. However, the
problem of population is not simply a problem of numbers but that of human welfare and of
development. Rapid population growth can have serious consequences for the well-being of
humanity worldwide. If development entails the improvement in people's level of living - their
incomes, health, education and general well-being - and if it also encompasses their self-esteem,
respect dignity and freedom of choice then the real important question about population growth is
how does the contemporary population situation in many African countries contribute to or detract
from their chances of realizing the goals of development, not only for the current generation but also
for the future generations? Conversely, how does development affect population growth?

The major issues relating to this basic question are the following:
(1) The improvement in the level of living: Will African countries be capable of improving the levels
of living for their people with the current and anticipated levels of population growth? To what
extent does rapid population increase make it more difficult to provide essential social services
including housing, transport, sanitation, and security?

(2) Increase in labour force and the problem of unemployment: How will African countries be able to
cope with the vast increases in their labor forces over the coming decades? Will employment
opportunities be plentiful or will it be a major achievement just to keep unemployment levels from
rising?

(3) The problem of poverty alleviation: What are the implications of higher population growth rates
among the world's poor for their chances of overcoming the human misery of absolute poverty? Will
world food supply and its distribution be sufficient not only to meet the anticipated population
increase in the coming decades but also to improve nutritional levels to the point where all humans
can have an adequate diet?

(4) Improvement- in health and education: Given the anticipated-population growth will African
countries be able to extend the coverage and improve the quality of their health and educational
systems so that everyone can at least have the chance to secure adequate health care and basic
education?

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(5) Poverty and the freedom of choice: To what extent are the low levels of living an important factor
in limiting the freedom of parents to choose a desired family size? Is there a relationship between
poverty and family size? In view of the above questions, it is important to frame the population issue
not simply in terms of numbers, or densities, or rates, or movements but with full consideration of the
qualities of human life: prosperity in place of poverty education in place of illiteracy full
opportunities for the next generations of children in place of current limitations. Population trends if
favorable, open man's options and enlarge his choices. Thus population policy is not an end but only
a means to better life. This concern about population is about, or ought to be.

II. Africa's Demographic Features

Over the last one century Africa's population has grown at a rapid rate with an estimated annual
average growth rate of 3.2 per cent the highest among Third World regions. The population data
show that recent demographic trends in Africa are characterized not only by unprecedented rapid
growth rates but also are associated with youthful age. The associated numbers of urban dwellers will
be 472 million; children (0-14), 479 million; active population (15-64), 546 million; and school age
178 million (primary) 152 million (secondary) and 124 million (tertiary). Thus, the prospects of a
new and better demographic setting will not bring about unsustainable pressures and tensions but will
rather not ensure the progress and prosperity of all African countries.

III. Consequences of rapid population growth in Africa.

 The costs of rapid population growth are cumulative: more births today make the task of
slowing population growth later difficult, as today's children become tomorrow's parents. In
general, food supplies and agricultural production must be greatly increased to meet the
needs of a rapidly growing population; this limits the allocation of resources to other
economic and social sectors.
 Secondly, the rapid increase in population means that there will be an increase in the
dependency ratio. This implies that the country concerned will have to allocate increasing
resources to feed, clothe, house and educate the useful component of the population which
consumes but does not produce goods and services.
 Thirdly, a rapidly growing population has serious implications on the provision of productive
employment. Since rapid population growth is normally accompanied with a proportionate
increase in labour force supply, it means the rate of job creation should match the rate of
increase in labour force. In Africa the rate of labour force supply has outstripped that of job
creation, implying increase in unemployment rate. When-ever growing number of workers
cannot be absorbed in the modern economic sectors workers are forced either into
unproductive service occupations or back into the traditional section with its low productivity
and low subsistence wage levels.
 Increasing population without proper sustainability leads into massive poverty. This holds
back technological change and slows down industrialization resulting, and reduces the
demand for manufactured goods. The end results are low saving rates and low labor skills,
both of which inhibit the full development and utilization of natural resources in some
African countries.
 Rapid population growth can outrun the levels at which renewable resources could be
sustained, and thus deteriorate resource bases. As a result, widespread poverty, low labour
productivity, the growing demand for food and slow industrialization distort and degrade the
international trade of African countries.

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  Rapid population growth has ramifications for political and social conflicts among different
ethnic, religious, linguistic and social groups. As population grows, there is increasing
demand for governmental services in health, education, welfare and other functions. This
may cause or even be the major contributing factor to violence aggression. The large
proportions of young people, particularly those unemployed or have little hope for a
satisfactory future, might form disruptive and potentially explosive political force.
 The cost adequacy and nature of health and welfare services might be affected by rapid
population growth in same way as are those of educational services. In the individual family
death and illness might be increased by high fertility rates and frequent pregnancies, and the
necessity for caring for excessive numbers of children. It should also be noted that the
physical and mental development of children are often retraced in large families because of in
adequate nutrition and the prevalence of diseases associated with poverty, and also because
the children are provided of sufficient adult contact.
 Another major consequence of rapid Africa's population growth is the phenomenal growth
rate of urban population. Due to an increase in the total population, the Africa's urban
population will reach 377 million and 1,271 million levels for the years 2000 and 2025,
respectively. Without adequate provision of housing facilities, rapid population growth has
resulted into poor and crowded housing in the urban slums of the rapidly growing cities, and
this lead to further social problems.
 Rapid urbanization has also caused stresses in many African economies. Africa is still very
largely rural and agricultural, as some 75% of all Africans live outside cities and towns.
Nevertheless, during the past generation, urbanization has increased at an alarming pace.
More than 42% of all population, compared with only 8% in 1960. In fact, there were only
two cities in the continent with populations exceeding 500,000 in 1960. If recent trends
should continue, Africa will have 60 cities with population of more than 1,000,000 by the
year 2000 as against 19 cities in 1993. It should be noted that in 1950, only Cairo had a
population of more than 1,000,000 in the entire African continent.
 Rapid urban population growth caused by factors such as prospects for more jobs, access to
medical treatment, and general prospects of urban lives attract Many migrants to the cities.
However, on discovery that their prospects are not significantly improved by relocation, and
unemployment and underemployment are rampant in every major city in Africa.
 Increase in population cause a number of serious problems. With an average annual growth
rate in agriculture of about 2.5 self-sufficiency in food production becomes a more elusive
goal. Additionally, high population growth puts pressures on the soil by decreasing the time it
is allowed to lay fallow; pastures land declines and the result is over grazing, which in turn
causes increased friction between farmers and herders.

IV. Inter-relationship between population growth and socio-economic development

The socio-economic consequences of demographic evolution and vise-versa are extremely difficult
to measure with accuracy. However, some studies have attempted to show the, relationship between
population growth and socio-economic development. The correlation matrix of population and socio-
economic development for 50 African countries during the last three decades has proved that
population and development are inseparable and their relationship is reciprocal. The most important
findings from these studies are:

a) Population, agriculture and environment

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The relationship between the three variables shows that the situation in Africa is critical. From the
660 million hectares of forest, about 3.2 million hectares per year are lost. The demand for fire wood
is increasing about the same rate of population growth (3.5). This degradation of environment has a
negative repercussion on the agriculture production and among other things on the availability of
water resources. The food deficit aggravates the malnutrition situation in African countries. The
agriculture and economic stagnation impede the process of transition towards the lowering of
fertility. The rapid population growth affected also the satisfaction of immediate needs of the people
and sustainable development.

b) Population and education

It is noted that population growth is closely correlated with the number of children per woman and in
the countries where the primary school enrollment for girls is high, it is found that infant mortality is
lower. The fertility rate is also negatively correlated with the number of girls registered in primary
school showing that education of women is a crucial variable in the explanation of the fertility
tendency observed in African countries and accordingly constitutes an important factor of the relation
between demographic growth and development

c) Population migration and urbanization

Population growth affects the increase of urban areas through the process of migration. Fertility is
higher among population working on agriculture than it is in urban population. As a result, rural-
urban migration takes place. This could cause serious shortage of labour force in the area of origin
and as a consequence lack of food supply while it could cause an excess of labor, increased demand
for health and education services and could create rapid urbanization and development of towns in
the areas of destination. This situation and realities exist in our countries and have become causes for
the failure of our efforts in development.

d) Population and family planning

The correlation matrix of fertility trends and contraception shows also that proportion of women
using contraception are the most negatively correlated with fertility and was less degree to the
proportion of children enrolled in secondary schools, the degree of urbanization, growth of GDP per
capita and other factors. The African countries with low fertility are the countries where the
contraceptive prevalence rate the primary school enrollment of girls, the expenditure in social sector
are very high. Therefore, increase of general education of the population especially for girls and
favorable socio-economic situation constitute the important elements in the use of contraception and
family planning and consequently control the fertility and better quality of life.

e) Population and Structural Adjustment Programs

African countries who have adopted the structural adjustment are have experienced lower GNP per
capita, Rapid demographic growth due to high fertility, high proportion of illiterate woman, slow
decrease of infant mortality, high poverty, low rate of prevalence of contraception, rapid degradation
of environment etc. It also appears that the adoption of the structural adjustment programme by those
African countries seem to have no amelioration in their critical situation they were experiencing
before the adoption of structural adjustment programs.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that the population problem in Africa is real and challenging. The
impact of the effect of high birth and death rates, increasing population size and density, rapid

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population growth, and increasing dependency burden all translate into greater demands on the
African governments in productive activities which in turn accentuate the problems of
unemployment, underemployment, persistent poverty, urban slums, crime and political unrest.

Task: To What extent does population variables influence development and are also influenced
by them?

AFRICA’S CHALLENGES TO DEVELOPMENT

GLOBALIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

Globalization as the process of intensification of economic, political, social and cultural relations
across international boundaries aimed at transcendental homogenization of political and socio-
economic theory across the globe. It has impacted significantly on African states through
systematic restructuring of interactive phases among its nations, by breaking down barriers in the
areas of culture, commerce, communication and several other fields of endeavor. These
processes have impelled a series of cumulative and conjectural crisis in the international division
of labour and global distribution of economic and political power; thereby qualifying basic
African feature to be poverty, diseases, squalor, and unemployment among other crisis of under
development. We are to examine both the negative and the positive impacts of globalization on
African states, and suggest some recommendations among which are to improve democratization
process, make the task of poverty eradication more indigenous, etc.
The concept of Globalization:
Globalization means different things to different people. Some say it is the movement of people,
language, ideas, and products around the world. Others see it as the dominance of multinational
corporations and the destruction of cultural identities. Globalization broadly refers to the
expansion of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a
global consciousness, hence to the consolidation of world society. Globalization is historically
complex; its definitions vary in the particular driving force they identify. The meaning of the
term itself may refer to “real” processes, ideas that justify them, or to a way of thinking about
them.
Consequent to this, the global economy continued to experience some fundamental changes in
nearly all ramifications including “even the language of global discourse”. This trend is currently
being pursued with vigour by the now acclaimed instruments of globalization. Given the
historical relationship between Africa and the West it is ironic that the latter is today preaching
the virtues of freedom to Africans. Former colonizers and ex-slave- owners have made a virtue
of championing political and economic liberalization. Yesterday’s oppressors appear to be
today’s liberators, fighting for democracy, human rights and free market economies throughout
the world (Obadina, 1998).
Globalization has largely been driven by the interests and needs of the developed world.
Globalization has turned the world into the big village. This in turn has led to intense electronic
corporate commercial war to get the attention and nod of the customer globally. This war for
survival can only get more intense in the new millennium. Are we prepared to face the realities

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of this global phenomenon, which has the potential of wiping out industrial enterprise in Africa
(Ohuabunwa, 1999)?
NB. Read more on the theories of Globalization

The Impact of Globalization on Africa

The position of Africa in the international system has been considerably weakened by the fact
that it has been losing the race for economic development in general, and human development in
particular, to other regions. These poor performances by African countries accounts partly for the
political and social instability and rise of authoritarian regimes that have characterized much of
postcolonial Africa, further weakening the ability of African countries to deal effectively with
globalization. This does not in any way mean that globalization will be discussed on the two
sides: positive and negative impacts.
The negative impacts of globalization on Africa
1. Tendon (1998) states that the cold war which was born out of the process for globalization has
had significant consequences for Africa. During its height in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the cold war
witnessed the emergence of authoritarian regimes in the form of one-party or military regimes.
This was largely a result of the support of the two blocks to keep African countries in their
respective camps. This has in turn, substantially reduced Africa’s international negotiating power
and its ability to maneuver in the international system. In sum then, the cold war and its demise
has worked against democracy and economic development in Africa.
2. Specific impact of globalization on Africa were identified according to Oyejide (1998) in the
political sphere, the most important consequence is the erosion of sovereignty, especially on
economic and financial matters, as a result of the imposition of models, strategies and policies of
development on African countries by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the
World Trade Organization.
3. More important is the fact that globalization for most part does not facilitate the establishment
of the economic conditions necessary for genuine democracy and good governance to take solid
roots and thrives.
4. Economically, globalization has, on the whole, reinforced the economic marginalization of
African economies and their dependence on a few primary goods for which demand and prices
are externally determined. This has, in turn accentuated poverty and economic inequality as well
as the ability of the vast number of Africans to participate meaningfully in the social and political
life of their countries.
5. As a result of the cultural domination from outside that goes with globalization, African
countries are rapidly losing their cultural identity and therefore their ability to interact with other
cultures on an equal and autonomous basis, borrowing from other cultures only those aspects that
meet its requirements and needs.
6. The scientific and technological forces unleashed by globalization have facilitated the
extinction of the indigenous development of technology and distorting patterns of production in
Africa.

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7. Globalization on the whole impacts negatively on the development and consolidation of
democratic governance. One form of this is the reduction of the capacity of governments to
determine and control events in their countries, and thus their accountability and responsiveness
to their people, given the fact that the context, institutions and processes by which these
decisions are taken are far from democratic.
8. Globalization introduces anti-development by declaring the state irrelevant or marginal to the
developmental effort. Development strategies and policies that focus on stabilization and
privatization, rather than growth, development and poverty eradication, are pushed by external
donors, leading to greater poverty and inequality and undermining the ability of the people to
participate effectively in the political and social processes in their countries. Welfare and other
programs intended to meet the basic needs of the majority of the population are transferred from
governments to non-governmental organizations that begin to replace governments making them
to lose the little authority and legitimacy they have.
9. By imposing economic specialization based on the needs and interests of external forces and
transforming the economies of African countries into series of enslaved economies linked to the
outside but with very little linkages among them, Democracy, with its emphasis on tolerance and
compromise, can hardly thrive in such an environment (Rodrik 1994).
10. Further, Mule (2000) views that the economic specialization imposed on African countries
makes rapid and sustainable growth and development impossible, conflicts over the distribution
of the limited gains realized from globalization becomes more acute and politicized. Vulnerable
groups, such as women, the youth, and rural inhabitants, fare very badly in this contest and are
discriminated against. This further erodes the national ethos of solidarity and reciprocity that are
essential to successful democracies.
11. Globalization, by insisting on African countries opening their economies to foreign goods
and entrepreneurs, limits the ability of African governments to take proactive and conscious
measures to facilitate the emergence of an indigenous entrepreneurial class. (Mowlena 1998).
12. Globalization has encouraged illicit trade in drugs, prostitution, pornography, human
smuggling, dumping of dangerous waste and depletion of the environment by unscrupulous
entrepreneurs.
13. Globalization has freed labour across boundaries and facilitated brain drain. It facilitated
“brain drain” in developing countries, thus reducing further their human capacity.
Positive impact of globalization on Africa
1. Globalization has eased international trade and commerce, facilitated foreign investment and
the flow of capital while calling for greater accountability and responsiveness of leaders to their
people, globalization has often pressed African leaders to adopt policies and measures that are
diametrically opposed to the feelings and sentiments of vast majority of their people.
2. By defining basic and generally accepted principles of democratic governance, such as good
governance, transparency and accountability, in narrow terms, conditioned by particular
historical, political, social, and cultural factors, while leaving little or no room for adapting them
to different societies and cultures.

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3. There are international lobby and pressure groups in various fields. There are universities and
institutions of higher learning with all their power to impact knowledge, skills and attitudes that
shift behaviours of societies and state leadership as well as followership. All these combine to
reinforce the phenomenon of globalization and force the state to shift its behaviour and the way it
relates with both its “subjects” and its internal and external partners.
4. Globalization opens people’s lives to other cultures and all their creativity and to the flow of
ideas and values.
5. Information and communication technologies have eased interaction among countries and
peoples.
6. It is creating a global village out of a wide and diverse world.
7. One major positive impact of globalization on Africa is that it has made available information
on how other countries are governed and the freedoms and rights their people enjoy.
8. It has also opened African countries to intense external scrutiny and exercised pressure for
greater transparency, openness and accountability in Africa.
Possible strategies of controlling the negative effects of globalization on Africa
Having studied the merits and demerits of globalization it becomes obvious that strong African
countries are in a better position to fend off these negative consequences and may even see their
democracies, economy and military strengthened. Below are the strategies possibly when
adapted will bring the expected merits.
I. The overstretched capacity to regulate and protect the environment:
The capacity of most African States to handle issues such as production of harmful chemicals,
global warming, depletion of natural resources destruction of organic agriculture, dumping of
nuclear waste is still limited. However, as global actors invest and expand their activities,
especially related to industrial, agricultural, mining, forest exploitation and fishing, the
regulatory capacity of public administration in African countries, which is already limited in
many respects is becoming overstretched. The state is getting caught in the middle of this need to
speed development through industrialization, agricultural modernization, exploitation of natural
resources, etc. and the pressure of local and global environmentalist groups. Global forces in this
respect, rather than putting too much pressure on governments to do what is beyond their
capacity, should first and foremost concentrate on strengthening the capacity of these
governments in relevant aspects.
II. Improve and not undermine the power of the African State:
Most African governments are finding themselves in a situation of “fait accompli” when it comes
to making certain policies and decisions. International agencies such as the World Bank, IMF,
United Nations, World Trade Organizations, etc. take decisions which are binding on African
countries. This could be looked at as eroding the sovereignty and power of the State. We must
add that this is not only the case in Africa. The poorer the country is, the more chance of power
erosion in the state. This would be minimized if the voice of Africa’s states was increased and
strengthened in the world bodies. Stronger African regional bodies would also help in this
respect, provided these bodies were represented in the world bodies at the same time.

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III. Improve the democratization process:
There is an ongoing democratization struggle in Africa. Some African countries began the
process of democratizing their governments, political systems and societies sometime back.
However, the international partners working with in this globalized world are hardly democratic.
While the democratization process would require that the people of the country in question get
involved in the taking of decisions and policies that concern them, some of the big decisions
affecting Africa today are more or less imposed by the globalization players such as the World
Bank, IMF, the World Trade Organization, etc. this has been the case for example with the
liberalization and privatization policies in Africa. This makes the people to distrust the
democratization rhetoric they hear from their leaders when they are confronted with this “fait
accompli”. There is a discrepancy on the way the same bodies arrive at decisions of great
consequences. It is not possible to be seen to as democratic by the people you govern when they
do not see or get involved in the process of making the decision and policies used to govern
them. This is a big dilemma for African leaders.
IV. Improve the overstretched capacity to handle international and computer-based crime:
The African State and its forces of law and order were used to handle “traditional crimes”.
However, with globalization there has been an increase in crimes (drugs, pornography,
international corruption etc.) that had been at lower magnitude. In addition, progress in
information technology has facilitated the emergence and growth of computer-based crimes,
especially fraud. For this the law enforcement agencies have not been well prepared. The
increase in these crimes across borders makes the force of law and order look helpless, unhelpful
and incapable.
This tends to erode the confidence of the public in the state, thus weakening further its
legitimacy. The strong challenge posed by the powerful criminals on the state creates an
atmosphere of uncertainty and insecurity in the public, thus reducing the required confidence that
would attract both local and foreign investment. There is need to strengthen the capacity of the
forces of law and order, especially in the areas of detecting and handling sophisticated crime. If
this does not happen, the sophisticated criminals will find ready-made comfortable hiding places
in Africa. This will be a big security problem for the rest of the world.
V. Making the task of poverty eradication more indigenous:
As global actors pressurize African governments to open up more and more to maximize foreign
investments and capital inflows, and as big multinationals and local enterprises utilize this
environment to cater for their interests, the government is having less and less room to pay
attention to the abject poverty amongst the poor and rich both in and between countries. The
African State will have to be encouraged to pay more attention to the fate of its poor populace
than to the fate of big global actors. The big global actors can talk for themselves with little
problem. The issue is: who will talk for the poor?
VI. Avoid Debt accumulation and the debt burden:
The phenomenal debt burden of African countries is well known. Most of the accumulation of
this debt over time was as much a result of the incapacity of the borrowers to pay back as it was
of the ease with which the lenders gave money to the countries. This was, and still is, facilitated
by the context of globalization. The paradox about this is that the governments borrow in the

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name of poverty reduction, while their social spending that would go towards alleviating poverty
remains low. In the same way, the rich countries that lend money rarely allocate their financing
towards social goals. There is a strong need for both national governments and external partners
to shift their spending towards sustainable human development.

VII. Control Drain on the human capacity of the State:

Globalization has opened borders and relatively freed labour movements. But for African
countries this has aggravated the problem of brain drain, which has existed for a long time.
Although most African countries with appropriate financial policies receive remittances from
their nationals working abroad, it is not clear whether the contribution of some of the most
qualified to the process of developing their countries would not be more than the remittances
they send back home from “exile”. It is noted, however, that this problem should not be over
simplified. Some of the most qualified Africans ran away from their countries because of the
negative behavior of the regimes themselves. In other words, this human capacity in some
instances is frightened away by brutal regimes rather than being attracted by globalization forces
as such. This problem can be appropriately tackled if the African leadership put their house in
order.
VIII. Indigenization of public expectations and social demands:
The interaction between local socio- politico-economic forces and global actors has generated
new and or different demands from African societies and this has increased pressure on the
public administration system to re-adjust to these demands constantly. Examples of such
demands include: the demand for transparency and accountability, democracy, a clean
environment, gender equality, human rights and freedoms, poverty eradication, competent
leadership, effective service delivery and applying New Public Management approaches in
public administration. These demands require that public administration systems and practices
accordingly re-adjust consistently. In most cases, these demands are expressed by the private
sector and civil society both national and international, without considering the cost of what it
would take to meet them. This is often beyond the capacities of African states. Moreover, some
of the demands from international circles are not in line with the contextual realities in Africa.
The conclusion here is that globalization has posed enormous challenges for the African public
administration systems.
It put excessive demands on their capacities (institutions, structures, skills, knowledge; network,
technology, facilities, equipment, etc.), which, as everyone knows, has always been very weak,
the systems themselves being still nascent. Managing globalization effectively to benefit the
African people, especially the poor, calls for new attitudes and leadership.
It requires vision, appropriate knowledge, skills and wisdom from Africa’s leaders. But it also
requires sensitivity, willingness, a change of attitude and the right technical assistance from
global actors such as the United Nations, especially in supporting the strengthening of Africa’s
public administration capacity to deal with issues of globalization.
IX. Economic Development Paradigms, Models, Strategies and Policies

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As has already been made clear, development strategies and policies followed by African
countries are increasingly those formulated by outsiders, which are then uncritically imposed on
African countries as a condition for aid, investments, trade access, and political and military
support. Not surprisingly, these strategies and policies serve more the interests of external forces
rather than those of the African people they claim to be assisting. In articulating a new approach
to the economic development of Africa, emphasis should be placed on the question of the nature,
ownership, management, allocation, utilization and distribution of resources.
X. Action at the level of citizens and civil society
It is evident that the most important resource of any country is its citizens. African leaders should
therefore concentrate their efforts on educating their people, sensitizing and educating them on
their civic, social, economic and cultural rights and responsibilities, and empowering them so
that they could defend their rights and interests while contributing fully to the overall
development of their countries. To achieve this objective, African countries must invest heavily
in building, developing and maintaining their capital, especially health and educational facilities
that cater for the broad masses of the people rather than a few elites. For only by developing its
human resources would African countries be in the position to deal effectively with the outside
world. Stated below is how Africa should respond to globalization:
1. Be open to uncertainty, ambiguity, and change; develop and strengthen public administration
systems that are change-oriented.
2. Adhere to openness and accountability, especially to the African people, so as to be seen to be
democratic and sensitive to the problems of the local people.
3. Adopt a proactive approach to globalization so that the challenges it poses and the benefits it
offers can be foreseen and planned for. The reality of globalization force changes it.
4. Address human capacity needs from a comprehensive angle (skills, knowledge, attitude,
networks, and information technology).
5. Address institutional capacity needs (i.e., create and/or strengthen institutions that are change-
oriented, outward-looking and able to interact meaningfully with global actors). These
institutions must be in all spheres of politics and public administration and they must be tailored
to have the ability to network with the private sector, civil society and the international
community.
6. Adopt flexible approaches and methods of administration as opposed to inflexible rule
application and inward-looking bureaucracies.
7. Strive to increase and strengthen the voice of African governments in international bodies
(such as the United Nations) to offset the weakness created by the pressure of global actors at the
local level). The decision-power of world bodies is eroding the decision of states.
8. Adopt and practice participatory governance involving all actors (governments, the private
sector, civil society, both national and international, as well as world bodies).
9. Embrace the application of information technology in public administration practice (e-
government).

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10. Develop social capital, especially by investing in the education and health sectors. Such an
attitude would then create a mindset for self-assessment and appraisal to see how the weakness
can be conquered.
In conclusion, African countries themselves and those that hope to assist them must first and
foremost recognize this fact and commit resources and energies to harnessing the capacity of the
African poor for their development. It is hoped that the global actors will realize that it is not
beneficial to them or to anyone else to play globalization-game without the poor. For
globalization to ultimately be beneficial to everyone-the rich and the poor-all must have certain
levels of capacity that permit them to effectively participate in the game.

HIV/AIDS in Africa

HIV/AIDS is a major public health concern and cause of death in many parts of Africa. Although
the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population, more than two-thirds of the
total, some 35 million infected were Africans of whom 15 million have already died. Sub-
Saharan Africa alone accounted for an estimated 69 percent of all people living with HIV and 70
percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011. In the countries of sub-Saharan Africa most affected, AIDS
has raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49
by about twenty years. Furthermore, the life expectancy in many parts of Africa is declining
largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as
low as thirty-four years.

Countries in North Africa and the Horn of Africa have significantly lower prevalence rates, as
their populations typically engage in fewer high-risk cultural patterns that have been implicated
in the virus's spread in Sub-Saharan Africa. Southern Africa is the worst affected region on the
continent. As of 2011, HIV has infected at least 10 percent of the population in Botswana,
Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

In response, a number of initiatives have been launched in various parts of the continent to
educate the public on HIV/AIDS. Among these are combination prevention programmes,
considered to be the most effective initiative, the abstinence, be faithful, use a condom campaign,
and the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation's outreach programs.

According to a 2013 special report issued by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), the number of HIV positive people in Africa receiving anti-retroviral treatment in
2012 was over seven times the number receiving treatment in 2005, "with nearly 1 million added
in the last year alone”. The number of AIDS-related deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011 was
33 percent less than the number in [Link] number of new HIV infections in Sub-Saharan
Africa in 2011 was 25 percent less than the number in 2001.

HIV has caused immense human suffering in the continent. The most obvious effect has been
illness and death, but the impact has not been confined to the health sector; households, schools,
workplaces and economies have also been badly affected.

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In sub-Saharan Africa, people with HIV-related diseases occupy more than half of all hospital
beds. Large numbers of healthcare professionals are being directly affected. Botswana, for
example, lost 17% of its healthcare workforce due to AIDS between 1999 and 2005.

The toll of HIV and AIDS on households can be very severe. It is often the poorest sectors of
society that are most vulnerable. In many cases, AIDS causes the household to dissolve, as
parents die and children are sent to relatives for care and upbringing. Much happens before this
dissolution takes place: AIDS strips families of their assets and income earners, further
impoverishing the poor.

The epidemic adds to food insecurity in many areas, as agricultural work is neglected or
abandoned due to household illness. Almost invariably, the burden of coping rests with women.
Upon a family member becoming ill, the role of women as careers, income-earners and
housekeepers is stepped up. They are often forced to step into roles outside their homes as well.

Older people are also heavily affected by the epidemic; many have to care for their sick children
and are often left to look after orphaned grandchildren.

It is hard to overemphasize the trauma and hardship that children are forced to bear. As parents
and family members become ill, children take on more responsibility to earn an income produce
food, and care for family members. More children have been orphaned by AIDS in Africa than
anywhere else. Many children are now raised by their extended families and some are even left
on their own in child-headed households.

HIV and AIDS are having a devastating effect on the already inadequate supply of teachers in
African countries. The illness or death of teachers is especially devastating in rural areas where
schools depend heavily on one or two teachers. In Tanzania, for example, in 2006 it was
estimated that around 45,000 additional teachers were needed to make up for those who had died
or left work because of HIV.

AIDS damages businesses by squeezing productivity, adding costs, diverting productive

resources, and depleting skills. Also, as the impact of the epidemic on households grows more
severe, market demand for products and services can fall.

In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is erasing decades of progress in extending life
expectancy. The biggest increase in deaths has been among adults aged between 20 and 49 years.
This group now accounts for 60% of all deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. AIDS is hitting adults in
their most economically productive years and removing the very people who could be
responding to the crisis.

As access to treatment is slowly expanded throughout the continent, millions of lives are being
extended and hope is being given to people who previously had none. Unfortunately, though, the
majority of people in need of treatment are still not receiving it, and campaigns to prevent new
infections are lacking in many areas.

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Current hypotheses also include that, once the virus jumped from chimpanzees or other apes to
humans, the colonial medical practices of the 20th century helped HIV become established in
human populations by 1930. The virus likely moved from primates to humans when hunters
came into contact with the blood of infected primates. The hunters then became infected with
HIV and passed on the disease to other humans through bodily fluid contamination. This theory
is known as the "Bush-meat theory."

HIV made the leap from rural isolation to rapid urban transmission as a result of urbanization
that occurred during the 20th century. There are many reasons for which there is such prevalence
of AIDS in Africa. One of the most formative explanations is the poverty that dramatically
impacts the daily lives of Africans. The book, Ethics and AIDS in Africa: A Challenge to Our
Thinking describes how “Poverty has accompanying side-effects, such as prostitution (i.e. the
need to sell sex for survival), poor living conditions, education, health and health care that are
major contributing factors to the current spread of HIV/AIDS.”

Researchers believe HIV was gradually spread by river travel. All the rivers in Cameroon run
into the Sangha River, which joins the Congo River running past Kinshasa in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Trade along the rivers could have spread the virus, which built up slowly
in the human population. By the 1960s, about 2,000 people in Africa may have had HIV,
including people in Kinshasa whose tissue samples from 1959 and 1960 have been preserved and
studied retrospectively. The first epidemic of HIV/AIDS is believed to have occurred in
Kinshasa in the 1970s, signaled by a surge in opportunistic infections such as cryptococcal
meningitis, Kaposi's sarcoma, tuberculosis, and pneumonia.

FOOD CRISIS IN AFRICA

FOOD INSECURITY IN AFRICA IN TERMS OF CAUSES, EFFECTS AND
SOLUTIONS
1.0 Introduction
Food is one of the most important items in the world as it is critical to human survival
together with clothing and shelter. These three items are usually classified as the man’s basic
needs. Food security in Africa has come under extremely threats due to some factors some of
which are natural while some are artificial depending on the circumstances and the countries
involved. A food-secure world is one where all people have access to safe, nutritious and
affordable food that provides the foundation for active and healthy lives.
1.1 Food Security
The FAO defines food security as: “When all people, at all times, have physical, social and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food
preferences for an active and healthy life.” Nearly one billion people are undernourished,
hungry and living without adequate daily calories (PAI, 2015). Food security affects more
than human health and welfare – it also contributes to economic and political stability as it is
often noticed that most countries of the world where there is political instability are always
associated with food insecure territories, the food insecurity in such countries might have
been as a result of political instability or the political instability was as a result of food

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 insecurity. One often led to the other but they go hand in hand in the affected areas. Food
security has three aspects; food availability, food access and food adequacy.

1.2 Food Insecurity

Food insecurity exists when people lack sustainable physical or economic access to enough
safe, nutritious, and socially acceptable food for a healthy and productive life. Food
insecurity may be chronic, seasonal, or temporary. Food insecurity and malnutrition result in
catastrophic amounts of human suffering. The World Health Organization estimates that
approximately 60 percent of all childhood deaths in the developing world are associated with
chronic hunger and malnutrition. In developing countries, persistent malnutrition leaves
children weak, vulnerable, and less able to fight such common childhood illnesses as
diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, malaria, and measles.

The United Nations estimates that about 805 million people – approximately one in eight –
are undernourished as of 2014. The majority of these people live in developing countries,
where more than 14 percent of the people are unable to meet their dietary energy
requirements. Progress has been made in southern Asia, northern Africa and most countries
of eastern and southeastern Asia, as well as in Latin America. Feeding this growing global
population in the years to come will require producing more food and distributing it in a
manner that reaches more people (Cargill, 2014).

The root cause of food insecurity in developing countries is the inability of people to gain
access to food due to poverty. While the rest of the world has made significant progress
towards poverty alleviation, Africa, in particular Sub-Saharan Africa continues to lag behind.
Projections show that there will be an increase in this tendency unless preventive measures
are taken. Food security on the continent has worsened since 1970 and the proportion of the
malnourished population has remained within the 33 to 35 percent range in Sub-Saharan
Africa. The prevalence of malnutrition within the continent varies by region. It is lowest in
Northern Africa with 4 percent and highest in Central Africa with 40 percent. (Angela,
2006).

1.3 Categories of Food Insecurity

There are three main categories of food insecurity as classified by the Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
a. Acute: Sever hunger and malnutrition to the point that lives are threatened immediately
(e.g. famine),
b. Occasional: When food insecurity occurs due to a specific temporary circumstance,
c. Chronic: Ability to meet food needs is consistently or permanently under threat.

1.4 CAUSES OF FOOD INSECURITY

There are many causes of food insecurity in Africa. This presentation will limit the scope to
that of Nigeria as presented in the above where it has been discovered that the food insecurity

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 in on the rise since 2009 in the country which will give a template to the other African
countries due to the fact that countries in Africa face similar challenges but only differ in
magnitude. Some of the popular and common causes are itemized below:

1.4. War and Political Instability

Of recent, the greatest threat to food security in some African countries comes from the
insurgency. As it is generally known that like other countries of the world, some countries
like Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia are passing through one of her greatest challenges since
independence from Britain in 1960. Of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, the North East
which is one of the critical zones that do not only provide the staple foods like grains, wheat
and others but that is equally responsible for the provision of greater percentage of dairy
products and animal protein in form of meat is currently under siege by insurgents. This has
disrupted the agricultural activities in the areas while businesses worth millions of US
Dollars have equally been halted. With this, the food security of the area is not only affected
but almost every part of the country thus resulting to upward rising in the prices of food
commodities in Nigeria. More than one million people have been displaced both internally
and externally with more than ten thousand deaths. The remaining people in the affected
areas are unable to continue their farming activities in the areas which had resulted in the
alteration in the agricultural value chain in the country thereby resulting in reduction of food
production. The problems started in 2009 and got escalated in the year 2014.

1.5. Urbanization
Like other countries of the world, increasing rural-urban migration due to urbanization play
key roles in the emerging food insecurity in African countries. According to Food and
Agricultural Organization (FAO), by year 2050, 70 percent of the world population is
expected to be living in cities. By this, the agricultural production will be disrupted thereby
increasing the food insecurity.

1.6. Population Growth

This is another factor responsible for food insecurity in Nigeria. Currently, Nigeria is the 6th
populous country in the world with the estimated population of about 178 million people
with annual growth rate of 3 percent. This has increased the demand for food products just
like other countries of the world. With this glaring increase in the population, there is no
commensurable increase in the agricultural production. According to the United Nations,
Nigeria is expected to become third most populous country in the world by 2050 overtaking
America (The Guardian, June 13, 2013).

1.7. Poor Agricultural Sector

Development This is another problem that poses great threat to food security in Africa. Most
African countries do not have sustainable Agricultural policy that will enhance food security
in the long run. This is so because majority of African countries as a whole until recently do
not have stable leadership thereby resulting to policy somersault. For example, many

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 countries including Uganda had not been on stable political leadership until 1990s when the
country returned to full stability devoid of intervention. This has led to inconsistencies in
policies that could have placed the country on a stable track that could have ensured that
there is uninterrupted food supply. However, the opposite is the case as successive
governments have engaged in different agricultural policies that have led to cancellation of
the existing ones even when the extant ones proved prosperous and sustainable. Some
government policies interfere with markets, create standards that inhibit trade and remove
price signals to farmers. Export restrictions and trading bans isolate local markets and give
farmers little incentive to expand production for the next season, limiting the potential supply
response to soaring prices.

1.8. Climate Change

Climate Change is another reason why there is food shortage in Africa. It has changed the
productivity pattern. The rain and water is less predictable now than before. The rain comes
either too late or too early or for a shorter period. Farmers are confused and do not know
when to cultivate their grains and other vegetables. Some years, the rain comes too early and
when they plant the grains, the rain stops and the grains rot under the ground.

2.1. Effects of Food Insecurity

In developing countries, persistent malnutrition leaves children weak, vulnerable, and less
able to fight such common childhood illnesses as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections,
malaria, and measles.
Adolescents and adults also suffer adverse consequences of food insecurity and malnutrition.
Malnutrition can lead to decreased energy levels, delayed maturation, growth failure,
impaired cognitive ability, diminished capacity to learn, decreased ability to resist infections
and illnesses, shortened life expectancy, increased maternal mortality, and low birth weight.

Food insecurity may also result to political instability just as food-insecure individuals may
manifest feelings of alienation, powerlessness, stress, and anxiety, and they may experience
reduced productivity, reduced work and school performance, and reduced income earnings.
Household dynamics may become disrupted because of a preoccupation with obtaining food,
which may lead to anger, pessimism, and irritation among other vices.

2.2. Suggested Solutions to the Problems of Food Insecurity

Researchers and other stakeholders have consistently worked on the way forward for the
lingering food crisis in African continent. In order to mitigate the effects of food insecurity
on the people there should be proactive actions on the side of the leaders with a view to
protecting their people from starving to death as we are currently witnessing in some African
countries. To achieve this among other things, the following suggestions or these few things
are among other numerous ways of reducing the incidence food insecurity in African
countries;

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 2.2.1. Consistent Policy Framework
First and foremost, the leaders must adhere strictly to unique agricultural policy that will be
subjected to periodic review by experts concerned instead of the current policy somersault as
we are currently witnessing. Once this is achieved, the successive governments will be able
to pursue the food security with the desired vigour.

2.2.2 Provision of Infrastructures

Provision of social amenities such as roads, portable water, electricity, etc. should be
provided to the rural dwellers to prevent or reduce rural-urban migration as this will ensure
there is adequate labour for agricultural activities in the rural areas thereby increasing food
productivities that will not only guarantee food security but will equally provide employment
opportunities to the growing population in a way that it will reduce the pressure in the urban
centers. Under this, the government should also encourage mechanized farming as a way of
reducing the incidence of food insecurity as all over the world now agriculture is a serious
business enterprise and the world has moved beyond the era of subsistence farming whereby
agriculture is seen as feeding the immediate family with little or nothing for income drive.
Modern agriculture is not only feeding the family but the world and is generating millions of
employments and veritable source of income to both the farmers and source of foreign
exchange to many countries of the world.
2.2.3 Population Control
In many African countries where poverty is rampant, population is majorly uncontrolled as
the methods of achieving this menace such as contraceptives is still unpopular especially in
the rural areas thereby resulting to population surge among the people thus encouraging
undue competition for insufficient food. Government and other development partners such as
world bank, UNICEF, FAO, WFP and others should rise up to assist the government in
educating people on birth control so that there can be food security guaranty.

2.2.4 Provision of Storage Facilities:

To avoid waste that usually accompany harvest seasons, governments should do everything
possible to ensure there is adequate provision of processing and storage facilities for
Agricultural products so that there will be all year-round food security and in turn boost the
income level of farmers thereby reducing poverty which is the ultimate goal of the Nigerian
government just like any other African government. The current situation in some countries
has become so worrisome to the extent that vast majority of the harvested crops waste away
during the farm season while huge amount of money is being used by the government to
offset the import bills of the same commodities during the off season.
2.2.5 Abolition of Trade Barriers
There should be free trade across the African borders to guarantee free flow of food
commodities across borders. Though, there are various extant trade agreements with other
African countries especially the western Africa but the enforcement across nations has been
very weak. If these trade agreements are fully operational the food insecurity will not only be
minimized in Nigeria but in other African countries.

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 Conclusion
The problem of food insecurity must be seen as a security threats to not only to the country
but also to the continent as a whole thereby prompting each country to device means aimed at
reducing the menace headlong so as to prevent possible negative consequences that usually
accompany food insecurity in countries that have suffered unrest before. If the problem is
attacked with all seriousness by implementing the recommendations of various policy
makers, then the continent will be self-sufficient in terms of food security.

WATER CRISIS IN AFRICA

DESERTIFICATION IN AFRICA

CLIMATE CHANGE IN AFRICA

NATURAL DISASTERS IN AFRICA

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