GEOG 300 NOTES

TOPIC 1.0: INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CONTINENT

1.1 Political map of Africa

Africa is a continent comprising 62 political territories, representing the largest of the great southward
projections from the main mass of Earth's surface with 1.1 billion people as of 2013. Within its regular
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outline, it comprises an area of 30,368,609 km (11,725,385 sq mi), including adjacent islands. Its
highest mountain is Mount Kilimanjaro, its largest lake is Lake Victoria and its longest river is the Nile.

Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea and from much of Asia by the Red Sea, Africa is joined
to Asia at its northeast extremity by the Isthmus of Suez (which is transected by the Suez Canal), 130 km
(81 mi) wide. For geopolitical purposes, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt – east of the Suez Canal – is often
considered part of Africa. From the most northerly point, Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia, in 37°21′ N, to the
most southerly point, Cape Agulhas in South Africa, 34°51′15″ S, is a distance approximately of 8,000
km (5,000 mi); from Cap-Vert, 17°31′13″W, the westernmost point, to Ras Hafun in Somalia, 51°27′52″
E, the most easterly projection, is a distance (also approximately) of 7,400 km (4,600 mi). The length of
coastline is 26,000 km (16,000 mi) and the absence of deep indentations of the shore is shown by the fact
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that Europe, which covers only 10,400,000 km (4,000,000 sq mi), has a coastline of 32,000 km (20,000

mi).

The main structural lines of the continent show both the east-to-west direction characteristic, at least in
the eastern hemisphere, of the more northern parts of the world, and the north-to-south direction seen in
the southern peninsulas. Africa is thus mainly composed of two segments at right angles, the northern
running from east to west, and the southern from north to south.
 POLITICAL MAP OF AFRICA

Political maps are designed to show governmental boundaries of countries

1.2 Position and origin of the African continent

Africa is the world's second largest continent. From the perspective of geologists and paleontologists
(scientists studying ancient life forms), Africa also takes center stage in the physical history and
development of life on Earth. Africa possesses the world's richest and most concentrated deposits of
minerals such as gold, diamonds, uranium, chromium, cobalt, and platinum. It is also the cradle of human
evolution and the birthplace of many other animal and plant species, and has the earliest evidence of
reptiles, dinosaurs, and mammals.

Present-day Africa, occupying one-fifth of Earth's land surface, is the central remnant of the ancient
southern supercontinent called Gondwanaland, a landmass once made up of South America, Australia,
Antarctica, India, and Africa. This massive supercontinent broke apart between 195 million and 135
million years ago, cleaved by the same geological forces that continue to transform Earth.

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Africa, like other continents, "floats" on a plastic layer of the earth's upper mantle called the
asthenosphere. The overlying rigid crust or lithosphere, as it is known, can be as thick as 150 mi (240 km)
or under 10 mi (16 km), depending on location. The continent of Africa sits on the African plate, a
section of the earth's crust bounded by mid-oceanic ridges in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The entire
plate is creeping slowly toward the northwest at a rate of about 0.75 in (2 cm) per year.

The African plate is also spreading or moving outward in all directions, and therefore Africa is growing
in size. Geologists say that sometime in the next 50 million years, East Africa will split off from the rest
of the continent along the East African rift which stretches 4,000 miles (6,400 km) from the Red Sea in
the north to Mozambique in the south.

1.3 Physiographic setting of Africa

The major geographic features of Africa include the coastal plains, the Atlas Mountains, the Ethiopian
Highlands, and several deserts. The Sahara Desert, the third largest in the world, covers most of northern
Africa, with an area of 9,400,000 square kilometers - about as large as the entire United States. In the
south, the Kalahari Desert has similar conditions, though it is much smaller in comparison to the Sahara,
at 900,000 square kilometers.

The Atlas Mountains traverse northwestern Africa, through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Other ranges
include the Ahaggar Mountains and the Mitumba Mountains, and Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro standing
5,895 meters above sea level.

The average elevation of the continent approximates closely to 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level, roughly
near to the mean elevation of both North and South America, but considerably less than that of Asia, 950
m (3,120 ft). In contrast with other continents, it is marked by the comparatively small area of either very
high or very low ground, lands under 180 m (590 ft) occupying an unusually small part of the surface;
while not only are the highest elevations inferior to those of Asia or South America, but the area of land
over 3,000 m (9,800 ft) is also quite insignificant, being represented almost entirely by individual peaks
and mountain ranges. Moderately elevated tablelands are thus the characteristic feature of the continent,
though the surface of these is broken by higher peaks and ridges. (So prevalent are these isolated peaks
and ridges that a specialised term has been adopted in Germany to describe this kind of country, thought
to be in great part the result of wind action.)

As a general rule, the higher tablelands lie to the east and south, while a progressive diminution in
altitude towards the west and north is observable. Apart from the lowlands and the Atlas mountain

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range, the continent may be divided into two regions of higher and lower plateaus, the dividing line
(somewhat concave to the north-west) running from the middle of the Red Sea to about 6 deg. S. on the
west coast...

Africa can be divided into a number of geographic zones:

∑ The coastal plains — often fringed seawards by mangrove swamps — never stretching far from
the coast, apart from the lower courses of streams. Recent alluvial flats are found chiefly in the
delta of the more important rivers. Elsewhere, the coastal lowlands merely form the lowest
steps of the system of terraces that constitutes the ascent to the inner plateaus.
The Atlas range — orthographically distinct from the rest of the continent, being unconnected
with and separated from the south by a depressed and desert area (the Sahara).

1.3.1 Plateau region

Much of Africa is covered by plateaus. These are flat or gently rolling areas of land that are relatively
high in elevation. Much of the southern and eastern parts of Africa are high plateaus. The east region has
the highest elevations on the continent.

The high southern and eastern plateaus, rarely falling below 600 m (2,000 ft), have a mean elevation of
about 1,000 m (3,300 ft). The South African Plateau, as far as about 12° S, is bounded east, west and
south by bands of high ground which fall steeply to the coasts. On this account South Africa has a general
resemblance to an inverted saucer. Due south the plateau rim is formed by three parallel steps with level
ground between them. The largest of these level areas, the Great Karoo, is a dry, barren region, and a
large tract of the plateau proper is of a still more arid character and is known as the Kalahari Desert.

The South African Plateau is connected towards East African plateau, with probably a slightly greater
average elevation, and marked by some distinct features. It is formed by a widening out of the eastern
axis of high ground, which becomes subdivided into a number of zones running north and south and
consisting in turn of ranges, tablelands and depressions. The most striking feature is the existence of two
great lines of depression, due largely to the subsidence of whole segments of the Earth's crust, the lowest
parts of which are occupied by vast lakes. Towards the south the two lines converge and give place to one
great valley (occupied by Lake Nyasa), the southern part of which is less distinctly due to rifting and
subsidence than the rest of the system.

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Farther north the western depression, known as the Albertine Rift is occupied for more than half its
length by water, forming the Great Lakes of Tanganyika, Kivu, Lake Edward and Lake Albert, the
first-named over 400 miles (600 km) long and the longest freshwater lake in the world. Associated
with these great valleys are a number of volcanic peaks, the greatest of which occur on a meridional
line east of the eastern trough. The eastern branch of the East African Rift, contains much smaller
lakes, many of them brackish and without outlet, the only one comparable to those of the western
trough being Lake Turkana or Basso Norok.

At no great distance east of this rift-valley is Mount Kilimanjaro - with its two peaks Kibo and
Mawenzi, the latter being 5,889 m (19,321 ft), and the culminating point of the whole continent — and
Mount Kenya, which is 5,184 m (17,008 ft). Hardly less important is the Ruwenzori Range, over 5,060
m (16,600 ft), which lies east of the western trough. Other volcanic peaks rise from the floor of the
valleys, some of the Kirunga (Mfumbiro) group, north of Lake Kivu, being still partially active. This
could cause most of the citys and states to be flooded with lava and ash.

The third division of the higher region of Africa is formed by the Ethiopian Highlands, a rugged mass
of mountains forming the largest continuous area of its altitude in the whole continent, little of its
surface falling below 1,500 m (4,900 ft), while the summits reach heights of 4600 m to 4900 m
(15,000 to 16,000 ft). This block of country lies just west of the line of the great East African Trough,
the northern continuation of which passes along its eastern escarpment as it runs up to join the Red
Sea. There is, however, in the centre a circular basin occupied by Lake Tsana.

Both in the east and west of the continent the bordering highlands are continued as strips of plateau
parallel to the coast, the Ethiopian mountains being continued northwards along the Red Sea coast by a
series of ridges reaching in places a height of 2,000 m (6,600 ft). In the west the zone of high land is
broader but somewhat lower. The most mountainous districts lie inland from the head of the Gulf of
Guinea (Adamawa, etc.), where heights of 1800 m to 2400 m (6000 to 8000 ft) are reached. Exactly at
the head of the gulf the great peak of the Cameroon, on a line of volcanic action continued by the
islands to the south-west, has a height of 4,075 m (13,369 ft), while Clarence Peak, in Fernando Po,
the first of the line of islands, rises to over 2,700 m (8,900 ft). Towards the extreme west the Futa
Jallon highlands form an important diverging point of rivers, but beyond this, as far as the Atlas chain,
the elevated rim of the continent is almost wanting.

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The eastern region is also home to the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro. This mountain is
19,341 feet above sea level. It is very cold at the top with snow and glaciers present all year round. The
land at the bottom of the mountain is a warm and tropical rainforest.

Mount Kilimanjaro is on the edge of the Great Rift Valley, also in the east region. This is one of the most
distinct physical features of Africa. It is a very large valley formed by the earth’s crust pulling apart. The
Great Rift Valley begins in Syria north of Africa and goes all the way down to Mozambique in the south
region. It is over 4,000 miles long. Some of Africa’s largest lakes are found near the Great Rift Valley.

Africa is the home of the longest river in the world, the Nile River. The Nile begins with the merging of
two tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile. It then flows over 4,000 miles to empty into the
Mediterranean Sea in Egypt in the north. Farmers have grown crops along the Nile for thousands of years
because of the rich fertile soil there.

The Congo River flows through rainforests in central Africa. It flows out to the Atlantic Ocean. The
watershed it drains is very large.

Two other important rivers in Africa are the Niger River and the Zambezi River. The Niger River is the
third longest river in Africa. It runs through West Africa and empties into the Atlantic in Nigeria. The
Zambezi is the fourth longest river and is in southern region. There are many waterfalls on this river,
including the beautiful and dramatic Victoria Falls.

The coast of Africa is very even with few natural harbors. Along the coast is a thin strip of coastal plain.
This quickly rises to the plateau.

There are also deserts in Africa. The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest. It covers much of north Africa
and is nearly as big as the United States. The area where the Sahara meets the savanna is called the Sahel.
This area is hot and dry, getting only a few inches of rain a year.

There are also two smaller deserts in the southern region of Africa. The Namib Desert runs along the
Atlantic coast from Angola through Namibia. Also, in the south, the Kalahari Desert includes parts of
Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa

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1.3.2 Plains

The area between the east and west coast highlands, which north of 17° N is mainly desert, is divided into
separate basins by other bands of high ground, one of which runs nearly centrally through North Africa in
a line corresponding roughly with the curved axis of the continent as a whole. The best marked of the
basins so formed (the Congo basin) occupies a circular area bisected by the equator, once probably the
site of an inland sea.

Running along the south of desert is the plains region known as the Sahel. The arid region, the Sahara
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— the largest desert in the world, covering 9,000,000 km (3,500,000 sq mi) — extends from the

Atlantic to the Red Sea. Though generally of slight elevation, it contains mountain ranges with peaks
rising to 2,400 m (7,900 ft) Bordered N.W. by the Atlas range, to the northeast a rocky plateau
separates it from the Mediterranean; this plateau gives place at the extreme east to the delta of the Nile.
That river (see below) pierces the desert without modifying its character. The Atlas range, the north-
westerly part of the continent, between its seaward and landward heights encloses elevated steppes in
places 160 km (99 mi) broad. From the inner slopes of the plateau numerous wadis take a direction
towards the Sahara. The greater part of that now desert region is, indeed, furrowed by old water-
channels.

1.4 Structures/formation of Africa

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the
processes by which they change. Geology can also refer generally to the study of the solid features of any
celestial body (such as the geology of the Moon or Mars).

Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth by providing the primary evidence for plate tectonics,
the evolutionary history of life, and past climates.

General considerations

The African continent essentially consists of five ancient Precambrian cratons—Kaapvaal, Zimbabwe,
Tanzania, Congo, and West African—that were formed between about 3.6 and 2 billion years ago and
that basically have been tectonically stable since that time; these cratons are bounded by younger fold

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belts formed between 2 billion and 300 million years ago. All these rocks have been extensively folded
and metamorphosed (that is, they have been modified in composition and structure by heat and pressure).
Precambrian rock outcrops appear on some 57 percent of the continent’s surface, while the rest of the
surface consists of largely undeformed younger sediments and volcanic rocks.

The oldest rocks are of Archean age (i.e., about 4 to 2.5 billion years old) and are found in the so-called
granite-gneiss-greenstone terrains of the Kaapvaal, Zimbabwe, and Congo cratons. They consist of gray,
banded gneisses, various granitoids, and rather well-preserved volcanic rocks that show evidence of
submarine extrusion (i.e., emission of rock material in molten form) and formation under high
temperatures. The rock type komatiite is particularly diagnostic of these volcanic sequences and is almost
exclusively restricted to the Archean Eon. The cratons were tectonically stabilized by voluminous granite
intrusions toward the end of the Archean and were then covered by clastic sediments, some of which
contain economically important gold and uranium deposits (e.g., the Witwatersrand System in South
Africa).

The Proterozoic Eon (2.5 billion to about 540 million years ago) is characterized by the formation of
several mobile belts, which are long, narrow zones of strongly deformed and metamorphosed rocks that
occur between the cratons and probably resulted from the collision between the cratons due to plate
tectonic processes. The oldest mobile belts are found in Archean rocks, such as the Limpopo belt
separating the Kaapvaal from the Zimbabwe craton. Younger belts were formed during a continentwide
thermotectonic event known as the Eburnian (2.2 to 1.8 billion years ago), which gave rise to the
Birimian assemblage in western Africa, the Ubendian assemblage in east-central Africa, and large
volumes of rocks in Angola. Still younger belts of the Kibaran thermotectonic event (1.2 billion to 950
million years ago) are found in eastern and Southern Africa.

The end of the Precambrian was marked by a major event of mobile-belt formation known as the Pan-
African episode (about 950 to 550 million years ago), which generated long fold belts, such as the
Mozambique belt along the east coast of Africa, the Damara and Katanga belts extending from Namibia
into the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, the West Congo belt between Angola and
Gabon, the Dahomey-Ahaggar belt between Ghana and Algeria, and the Mauritanide belt from Senegal to
Morocco.

A unique late Precambrian evolution is recorded in the so-called Arabian-Nubian Shield of northeastern
Africa and Arabia. There, large volumes of volcanic and granitoid rocks were generated in an island-arc,
marginal-basin setting—an environment similar to that of the present southwestern

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Pacific Ocean. Rocks were accreted onto the ancient African continent, the margin of which was then
near the present Nile River, by subduction processes identical to those observed today. (Subduction
involves the descent of the edge of one lithospheric plate beneath that of another where two such plates
collide.)
The interiors of the ancient cratons were not affected by the above tectonic events, and intracratonic
sedimentary and volcanic sequences accumulated in large basins. The most important of these are the
Transvaal basin on the Kaapvaal craton that contains economically important iron ore deposits; the
Congo basin; and the West African basin, with its thick late Proterozoic sediments including a prominent
tillite horizon that marks a major glaciation event at the end of the Precambrian.

After the Precambrian, Africa’s geologic history is characterized by the following events: the formation
of fold belts in the Paleozoic Era (about 540 to 250 million years ago) in South Africa (the Cape fold
belt), Morocco (the Anti-Atlas belt), and Mauritania (the Mauritanide belt) bordering the older cratons;
voluminous basaltic volcanism some 230 to 200 million years ago in South Africa, Namibia, and East
Africa, known as the Karoo System, that was probably related to the beginning of the breakup of the
Gondwana supercontinent; the formation of a young mountain belt in northwestern Africa some 100 to 40
million years ago as a result of collision between the African and European plates, together with the
closure of the ancestral Mediterranean Sea (the Tethys Sea); and the development of the East African Rift
System during the Cenozoic Era (i.e., roughly the past 65 million years), leading to the opening of the
Red Sea, the northeast drift of the Arabian Plate, and the fracturing of the ancient crust of Africa along
several long rift valleys, accompanied by extensive volcanism.
Relief

The physiography of Africa is essentially a reflection of the geologic history and geology that is
described in the previous section. The continent, composed largely of a vast rigid block of ancient rocks,
has geologically young mountains at its extremities in the highlands of the Atlas Mountains in the
northwest and the Cape ranges in the south. Between these mountainous areas is a series of plateau
surfaces, with huge areas that are level or slightly undulating, above which stand occasional harder and
more resistant rock masses. Surrounding these surfaces is a zone of plateau slopes below which are
narrow coastal belts widening along the Mediterranean coast, the coastlands of Tanzania and
Mozambique, a narrow belt between the Niger and Cunene (Kunene) rivers, and an area northward of the
Gambia and Sénégal rivers.

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Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet [5,895 metres]) is the highest point on the continent; the lowest is Lake Assal
(515 feet [157 metres] below sea level) in Djibouti. In proportion to its size, Africa has fewer high
mountains and fewer lowland plains than any other continent. The limited areas above 8,000 feet are
either volcanic peaks or resistant massifs. All the land below 500 feet occurs within 500 miles of the
coast, except for two small basins in the Sahara.

The higher areas of the south and east are in marked contrast to the considerably lower elevation of the
western and northern parts of the continent. South of a line drawn from near the mouth of the Congo
River to the Gulf of Aden, most of the land lies 1,000 feet or more above sea level, and much of it
exceeds 3,000 and even 4,000 feet. North of the line there is relatively little land above 3,000 feet, most
of the area being between 500 and 1,000 feet above sea level; there are also broad coastal lowlands,
except in the region of the Atlas Mountains and, in the east, beyond the Nile.

The highest extensive areas are to be found in Ethiopia, parts of which exceed 15,000 feet. Southward the
East African Plateau is highest in Kenya, where it is often 8,000 feet or more above sea level; there are
occasional volcanic peaks that are much higher, such as Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya (17,058 feet), Meru
(14,978 feet), and Elgon (14,178 feet). The Ruwenzori (Rwenzori) Range—sometimes called the
Mountains of the Moon—which reaches its highest elevation at Margherita Peak (16,795 feet) on the
borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, is not volcanic in origin. From East Africa
the plateau extends southward, often with a well-defined though not continuous escarpment particularly
noticeable in the Drakensberg of Southern Africa, where Ntlenyana, or Ntshonyana, is 11,424 feet and
Mont-aux-Sources 10,823 feet high. There the plateau edges are especially marked, because the rock
formations are hard and horizontal, whereas in Ethiopia they are conspicuous because of faulting. Where
the rocks are softer and less resistant, the escarpment is not so pronounced and so forms less of a barrier
to climatic influences and to human movement.

To the north and west of the plateau area of the southern parts of the continent there is a general descent
to the lower areas of the basins of the Congo, Niger, and Nile rivers. The only large areas that extend
above 3,000 feet are in the folded ranges of the Atlas Mountains and in the central Sahara, where resistant
granites form the massifs of Ahaggar and Tibesti. The interior uplands of western Africa and of
Cameroon consist of ancient crystalline rocks, reaching considerable heights only in the Fouta Djallon
plateau in Guinea, in the Guinea Highlands, which also extend over the borders of Sierra Leone and
Liberia, in the Jos Plateau in Nigeria, in the Adamawa region of Nigeria and Cameroon, and in the
Cameroon Highlands. There are extensive low-lying areas near the coast and in the basins of the Sénégal,
Gambia, Volta, and Niger–Benue rivers. The high areas of Darfur in Sudan

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(more than 10,000 feet) and of Mount Cameroon (13,435 feet) are volcanic in origin and are evidence of
the same tensions that have resulted in rifting and volcanism in East Africa.

The East African Rift System constitutes the most striking and distinctive relief feature of the continent.
Associated with its formation was the volcanic activity responsible for most of the higher peaks of East
Africa, including Kilimanjaro. Seismic and volcanic disturbances are still recorded in the western
portions of the rift valley system. In the Virunga Mountains, northeast of Lake Kivu, there are periodic
outbursts (about every 10 or 12 years) that have created a series of lava flows. One of these volcanoes
dammed the rift valley and converted a large area, formerly drained by a tributary of the Nile, into Lake
Kivu.

The rift valley extends for about 4,000 miles, its course being clearly marked by many of the lakes of
East Africa as well as by the adjacent volcanic peaks. From the Gulf of Aqaba it can be traced southward
along the Red Sea and into the Ethiopian Plateau to Lakes Rudolf, Naivasha, and Magadi in Kenya.
Farther south, through Tanzania, the line of the rift is not quite so obvious. The walls that constitute the
eastern rim have been more easily eroded, while the lakes of this area are generally smaller and not in
line, and some of them are only waterless salt beds. The largest of these lakes are Natron and Manyara,
with Eyasi in a side branch of the main rift. The edges are obvious enough to the south in Malawi, where
a huge crusted block collapsed along the parallel faults that constitute the steeply rising slopes of Lake
Nyasa (Malawi). The lake is 360 miles long but never more than 50 miles wide; it has a maximum depth
of 2,310 feet. The rift then follows the line of the Shire Valley to reach the Indian Ocean near Beira,
Mozambique.

The western branch, or Western Rift Valley, extends from the northern end of Lake Nyasa in a great arc,
taking in Lakes Rukwa, Tanganyika (after Lake Baikal in Siberia the deepest lake in the world), Kivu,
Edward, and Albert. Subsidiary branches of this valley include the basins in which lie Lakes Mweru and
Upemba.

Most of the lakes that occur along the course of the rift valley lie well below the general level of the
plateau, ranging from about 1,300 to 3,000 feet above sea level. They are generally very deep and bear a
striking resemblance to fjords; some have floors that are below sea level, even though their surfaces are
hundreds of feet above sea level.

In complete contrast is Lake Victoria, the largest of all African lakes, which occupies a shallow
depression on a plateau 3,720 feet above sea level between the major branches of the rift valley. Its

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greatest depth is only 270 feet, but, with an area of 26,828 square miles, it is the third largest of the
world’s lakes, after the Caspian Sea and Lake Superior.

Drainage

The uplifting and warping of the surface of the African continent that occurred during the Pliocene and
Pleistocene epochs produced a number of structural basins; these are now either individually occupied by,
or are linked up with, drainage systems. With the exception of the Chad basin, all the major drainage
basins have outlets to the sea. In addition, minor drainage basins, similar to that of Lake Chad, are
situated in the East African Rift Valley. Some, again like Lake Chad, constitute the focus of centripetal
drainage (drainage directed toward the centre), while others are linked to river systems. Although the East
African lakes are climatically and economically important, relatively little is known of their hydrological
characteristics

Climate, geology, and the history of tectonic activity have imparted certain common characteristics to
African rivers. Spatial variations in the incidence and amount of rainfall are reflected in their hydrological
regimes. In areas that have one rainfall season, for example, and have pronounced drought throughout the
rest of the year, the rivers flood in the rainy season and shrink in the dry season.

Whatever their hydrological regimes, all the important African rivers are interrupted by rapids, cataracts,
and waterfalls. This is explained by several factors, the most important of which is the past tectonic
activity, or regional land movements, that caused ridges to be formed across the courses of the major
rivers. Waterfalls are often found where the rivers are still engaged in cutting downward as they flow
across these ridges; Cahora Bassa (falls) on the Zambezi and the Augrabies Falls on the Orange River are
examples. Another factor that contributes to the creation of rapids or falls is the incidence of rock strata
that have proved resistant to the erosive effect of the rivers’ flow. (Tropical rivers do not generally carry
large quantities of stone or rock; instead, they have a tendency to carry loads of fine silt, produced by
chemical weathering.)

Although the Nile, the Zambezi, and the Niger rivers have large deltas, their size does not compare with,
for example, the enormous delta region of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers. In Africa the generally
poor development of deltas is mainly because of the restricted extent of the coastal plain, together with
the relatively narrow continental shelf, which provides neither sufficient room nor

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shallow enough water for the deposition of delta-forming material. The great speed with which most of
the rivers flow into the sea is another factor inhibiting delta formation.

The major drainage basins of Africa are those of the Nile, the Niger, the Congo, the Zambezi, and the
Orange Rivers and of Lake Chad.

TOPIC 2.0: CLIMATIC CHARACTERISTICS AND ZONATION

Climate is a measure of the average pattern of variation in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure,
wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological variables in a given region over
long periods of time. Climate is different from weather, in that weather only describes the short-term
conditions of these variables in a given region.

Africa's climatic zones are largely controlled by the continent's location astride the equator and its almost
symmetrical extensions into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Thus, except where altitude exerts
a moderating influence on temperature or precipitation (permanently snowcapped peaks are found near
the equator), Africa may be divided into six general climatic regions.
Areas near the equator and on the windward shores of SE Madagascar have a tropical rain forest climate,
with heavy rain and high temperatures throughout the year. North and south of the rain forest are belts of
tropical savanna climate, with high temperatures all year and a seasonal distribution of rain during the
summer season.
The savanna grades poleward in both hemispheres into a region of semiarid steppe (with limited summer
rain) and then into the arid conditions of the extensive Sahara (north) and the Kalahari (south). Belts of
semiarid steppe with limited winter rain occur on the poleward sides of the desert regions. At the northern
and southern extremities of the continent are narrow belts of Mediterranean-type climate with subtropical
temperatures and a concentration of rainfall mostly in the autumn and winter months.
2.1 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 subtropical marine, warm temperate upland, and
mountain regions.

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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 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

16
40 inches (1,000 millimetres). 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.

In the northern and southern extremities of the continent, there is a dry summer subtropical, or
Mediterranean, type of climate. Rain falls 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 that
temperatures are even lower and snow occurs on the tops of the highest peaks, such as Kilimanjaro. The
rainfall regime is similar

2.2 Factors influencing the African climate

A number of factors influence the climate of the African continent.

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Elevation or Altitude effect climate: Normally, climatic conditions become colder as altitude increases.
―Life zonesǁ on a high mountain reflect the changes, plants at the base are the same as those in
surrounding countryside, but no trees at all can grow above the timberline. Snow crowns the highest
elevations.

Prevailing global wind patterns: There are 3 major wind patterns found in the Northern Hemisphere
and also 3 in the Southern Hemisphere. These are average conditions and do not essentially reveal
conditions on a particular day. As seasons change, the wind patterns shift north or south. So does the
intertropical convergence zone, which moves back and forth across the Equator. Sailors called this zone
the doldrums because its winds are normally weak.

Latitude and angles of the suns rays; As the Earth circles the sun, the tilt of its axis causes changes in the
angle of which sun’s rays contact the earth and hence changes the daylight hours at different latitudes.
Polar regions experience the greatest variation, with long periods of limited or no sunlight in winter and
up to 24 hours of daylight in the summer.

Topography: The Topography of an area can greatly influence our climate. Mountain ranges are natural
barriers to air movement. In California, winds off the Pacific ocean carry moisture-laden air toward the
coast. The Coastal Range allows for some condensation and light precipitation. Inland, the taller Sierra
Nevada range rings more significant precipitation in the air. On the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada,
sinking air warms from compression, clouds evaporate, and dry conditions prevail.

Effects of Geography: The position of a town, city or place and its distance from mountains and
substantial areas of water help determine its prevailing wind patterns and what types of air masses affect
it. Coastal areas may enjoy refreshing breezes in summer, when cooler ocean air moves ashore. Places
south and east of the Great Lakes can expect ―lake effectǁ snow in winter, when cold air travels over
relatively warmer waters.

In spring and summer, people in Tornado Alley in the central United States watch for thunderstorms,
these storms are caused where three types of air masses frequently converge: cold and dry from the north,
warm and dry from the southwest, and warm and moist from the Gulf of Mexico - these colliding air
masses often generate tornado storms.

Surface of the Earth: Just look at any globe or a world map showing land cover, and you will see
another important factor which has a influence on climate: the surface of the Earth. The amount of
sunlight that is absorbed or reflected by the surface determines how much atmospheric heating occurs.

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Darker areas, such as heavily vegetated regions, tend to be good absorbers; lighter areas, such as snow
and ice-covered regions, tend to be good reflectors. The ocean absorbs and loses heat more slowly than
land. Its waters gradually release heat into the atmosphere, which then distributes heat around the globe.

Climate change over time: Cold and warm periods punctuate Earth’s long history. Some were fairly
short; others spanned hundreds of thousands of years. In some cold periods, glaciers grew and spread
over large regions. In subsequent warm periods, the ice retreated. Each period profoundly affected plant
and animal life. The most recent cool period, often called the ―Little Ice Age,ǁ ended in western Europe
around 1850.

Since the turn of the 20th century, temperatures have been rising steadily throughout the world. But it is
not yet clear how much of this global warming is due to natural causes and how much derives from
human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and the clearing of forests.

Questions: What factors affect climate the most in Africa?

TOPIC 3.0: SOIL TYPES AND DISTRIBUTION

3.1 Soil types on the African continent

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.

The most important factors that affect soil formation are climate, parent material, relief, drainage,
vegetation cover, and the passage of time. Where the land has been generally stable and fairly flat for
prolonged periods, as in Africa, the climate becomes the major determinant of the soil groups. The
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

19
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

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

20
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
sesquioxides 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. 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.

3.2 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 plow. In the wet season, the black soils of the Accra
Plains swell and become slippery, while in the dry season they shrink once more and crack to such an
extent that they are said to plow themselves. Red tropical soils need careful handling.

21
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.

TOPIC 4.0: VEGETATIVE COVER TYPES AND DISTRIBUTION

Vegetation refers to assemblages of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term,
without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific
botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers to species
composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, and often does, refer
to a wider range of spatial scales than that term does, including scales as large as the global. Primeval
redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches,
wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns; all are encompassed by the term vegetation.

Vegetation type refers to vegetation in an assemblage where there is a characteristic dominant species or
species, or a common aspect of the assemblage, such as an elevation range or environmental
commonality.
Flora

The vegetation of Africa follows very closely the distribution of heat and moisture. The northern and
southern temperate zones have a flora distinct from that of the continent generally, which is tropical. In
the countries bordering the Mediterranean, there are groves of orange and olive trees, evergreen oaks,
cork trees and pines, intermixed with cypresses, myrtles, arbutus and fragrant tree-heaths.
South of the Atlas Range the conditions alter. The zones of minimum rainfall have a very scanty flora,
consisting of plants adapted to resist the great dryness. Characteristic of the Sahara is the date palm,
which flourishes where other vegetation can scarcely maintain existence, while in the semidesert regions
the acacia, from which gum arabic is obtained, is abundant.

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The more humid regions have a richer vegetation; dense forest where the rainfall is greatest and
variations of temperature least, conditions found chiefly on the tropical coasts, and in the west African
equatorial basin with its extension towards the upper Nile; and savanna interspersed with trees on the
greater part of the plateaus, passing as the desert regions are approached into a scrub vegetation
consisting of thorny acacias, etc. Forests also occur on the humid slopes of mountain ranges up to a
certain elevation. In the coast regions the typical tree is the mangrove, which flourishes wherever the soil
is of a swamp character.

The dense forests of West Africa contain, in addition to a great variety of hardwoods, two palms, laeis
guineensis (oil palm) and aphia vinifera (bamboo palm), not found, generally speaking, in the savanna
regions. Bombax or silk-cotton trees attain gigantic proportions in the forests, which are the home of the
India rubber-producing plants and of many valuable kinds of timber trees, such as odum (Chlorophora
excelsa), ebony, mahogany (Khaya senegalensis), Oldfieldia (Oldfieldia africana) and camwood (Baphia
nitida). The climbing plants in the tropical forests are exceedingly luxuriant and the undergrowth or
"bush" is extremely dense.

In the savannas the most characteristic trees are the monkey bread tree or baobab (Adanisonia digitata),
doum palm (Hyphaene) and euphorbias. The coffee plant grows wild in such widely separated places as
Liberia and southern Ethiopia. The higher mountains have a special flora showing close agreement over
wide intervals of space, as well as affinities with the mountain flora of the eastern Mediterranean, the
Himalaya and Indo-China.

In the swamp regions of north-east Africa papyrus and associated plants, including the soft-wooded
ambach, flourish in immense quantities, and little else is found in the way of vegetation. South Africa is
largely destitute of forest save in the lower valleys and coast regions. Tropical flora disappears, and in the
semi-desert plains the fleshy, leafless, contorted species of kapsias, mesembryanthemums, aloes and other
succulent plants make their appearance. There are, too, valuable timber trees, such as the Yellow-wood
(Podocarpus elongatus), stinkwood (Ocotea), sneezewood or Cape ebony (Pteroxylon utile) and
ironwood. Extensive miniature woods of heaths are found in almost endless variety and covered
throughout the greater part of the year with innumerable blossoms in which red is very prevalent. Of the
grasses of Africa alfa is very abundant in the plateaus of the Atlas range.

Fauna

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The fauna again shows the effect of the characteristics of the vegetation. The open savannas are the home
of large ungulates, especially antelopes, the giraffe (peculiar to Africa), zebra, buffalo, wild donkey and
four species of rhinoceros; and of carnivores, such as the lion, leopard, hyena, etc. The okapi (a genus
restricted to Africa) is found only in the dense forests of the Congo basin. Bears are confined to the Atlas
region, wolves and foxes to North Africa. The elephant (though its range has become restricted through
the attacks of hunters) is found both in the savannas and forest regions, the latter being otherwise poor in
large game, though the special habitat of the chimpanzee and gorilla. Baboons and mandrills, with few
exceptions, are peculiar to Africa. The single-humped camel, as a domestic animal, is especially
characteristic of the northern deserts and steppes.

The rivers in the tropical zone abound with hippopotami and crocodiles, the former entirely confined to
Africa. The vast herds of game, formerly so characteristic of many parts of Africa, have much diminished
with the increase of intercourse with the interior. Game reserves have, however, been established in South
Africa, British Central Africa, British East Africa, Somaliland, etc., while measures for the protection of
wild animals were laid down in an international convention signed in May 1900.

The ornithology of northern Africa presents a close resemblance to that of southern Europe, scarcely a
species being found which does not also occur in the other countries bordering the Mediterranean.
Among the birds most characteristic of Africa are the ostrich and the secretary-bird. The ostrich is widely
dispersed, but is found chiefly in the desert and steppe regions. The secretary-bird is common in the
south. The weaver birds and their allies, including the long-tailed whydahs, are abundant, as are, among
game-birds, the francolin and guineafowl. Many of the smaller birds, such as the sunbirds, bee-eaters, the
parrots and kingfishers, as well as the larger plantain-eaters, are noted for the brilliance of their plumage.

Of reptiles the lizard and chameleon are common, and there are a number of venomous snakes, though
these are not so numerous as in other tropical countries.

The scorpion is abundant. Of insects Africa has many thousand different kinds; of these the locust is the
proverbial scourge of the continent, and the ravages of the termites are almost incredible. The spread of
malaria by means of mosquitoes is common. The tsetse fly, whose bite is fatal to all domestic animals, is
common in many districts of South and East Africa. It is found nowhere outside Africa.

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MAP OF NATURAL VEGETATION IN AFRICA - AFRICAN VEGETATION MAP

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-

26
fifth; woodlands, bushlands, grasslands, and thickets about two-fifths; and deserts and their extended
margins the remaining two-fifths.
2.1 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 millimetres) 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 than that of its counterparts in Southeast Asia
and the Amazon basin of South America, these forests sustain a huge multiplicity of life-forms,
occupying different strata (generalized levels of plant height) and niches (separate, small-scale habitats).

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 (Ficus pretoriae) put down aerial taproots. Nevertheless, these are not ―impenetrableǁ
jungles. It has been suggested that some early European travelers and pioneer botanists may have
exaggerated the difficulties of human penetration because they journeyed along atypical waterways and
along tracks where disturbance of the original vegetation had thickened the regenerating ground layer. In
true rainforests, grasses are adventitious (occurring in consequence of fortuitous intrusions). Elephant
grass (Pennisetum purpureum) can grow abundantly in areas where the vegetation has been disturbed,
providing good fodder for grazing animals when young but quickly becoming rank, coarse, and a refuge
for insects. Cogon grass (Imperata cylindrica) is a troublesome grass on depleted and fire-seared ground.

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Eastern African forest and bush

Lowland forests and evergreen bushland 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 favoured 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 unfavourable
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.

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 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.

Trees, 30 to 50 feet high, are typically deciduous and often fire-resistant, since much of this land is
burned annually. Common western African species include types of Isoberlinia (a spreading leguminous
tree of the pea family), Daniellia (a leguminous tree with white bark), and Lophira (a tree with strap-
shaped leaves that is said to yield the most durable timber in the region). Other hardwoods,

28
forming distinct communities, are Combretum and Terminalia, which are better suited to the drier areas.
Prevalent southern equivalents include Brachystegia (a leguminous hardwood, the bark of which formerly
was used to make cloth) and Julbernardia (another plant of the pea family resembling Isoberlinia). 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,ǁ in which a few
favoured 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 ―boundaryǁ 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 ―shoreǁ or ―edgeǁ), the 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 thirstland.

Thorn woodland displays a predominance of xerophytic, sometimes succulent or semisucculent trees,

such as acacia, Commiphora (the myrrh tree), or Boscia (an evergreen hard-leaved tree). The occurrence
of the bunched and thorny desert date (Balanites) seems to accompany land impoverishment. A relatively
luxuriant shrub layer, often forming dense thickets, is found in

29
conjunction with succulents, such as aloes, Sansevieria (a fibrous species), and Adenium, or desert rose (a
succulent shrub with smooth gray bark, a huge water-storing base, and beautiful red or pink flowers), and
smaller euphorbias.

Farther toward the desert, tree growth and perennial grass—surviving in narrow strips along
watercourses—separate much larger areas of sparse annual grasses (Cenchrus in western Africa,
Eragrostis south of the Equator, and Chrysopogon on the margins) and scattered low shrubs, often mainly
acacias. Shrubs may often be salt-tolerant. While shrubs may die from inadequate moisture, they are little
affected by the rare fires that occur.

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 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 Mesembryantheum. 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.

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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.

2.2 Factors influencing vegetation in Africa

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

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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 interglacials; the last series of these
ended between about 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. Tropical Africa 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

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cultivators have all fired the land for centuries and have gathered wild foodstuffs, thatch timber for
construction, and fuelwood 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.

TOPIC 5.0: NATURAL RESOURCES IN AFRICAN THE CONTINENT

5.1 Mineral resources

Africa’s known mineral wealth places it among the world’s richest continents. Its very large share of the
world’s mineral resources includes coal, petroleum, natural gas, uranium, radium, low-cost thorium, iron
ores, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, zinc, tin, bauxite, titanium, antimony, gold, platinum, tantalum,
germanium, lithium, phosphates, and diamonds.
Major deposits of coal are confined to four groups of coal basins—in Southern Africa, North Africa, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria. Proven petroleum reserves in North Africa occur in
Libya, Algeria, Egypt, and Tunisia. Exploration has been concentrated north of the Aïr–Ahaggar massifs;
there may also be major Saharan reserves to the south. The other major oil reserves are in the western
coastal basin—mainly in Nigeria and also in Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of
the Congo—and in Angola and South Sudan. Natural gas reserves are concentrated in basins of North
Africa and coastal central Africa.
Southern Africa is said to be one of the world’s seven major uranium provinces. In South Africa the
unusual degree of knowledge of reserves derives from the joint occurrence of uranium with gold, a
condition that also decreases the cost of production. Other countries with significant uranium deposits are
Niger, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Namibia.

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5.2 Metallic deposits
In North Africa reserves of iron ore are concentrated in the Atlas Mountains and in the western Sahara.
Egypt, however, has medium-grade reserves, of which the most important are at Al-Baḥriyyah Oasis. The
ore deposits in Morocco and Tunisia, which were once of considerable importance, have been severely
depleted. Africa’s most significant iron reserves are to be found in western and Southern Africa. It is the
sedimentary Precambrian rocks, particularly in western Africa, that have proved the basis of Africa’s role
as a major world producer of iron ore. The most significant deposits are in Liberia in the Bomi Hills,
Bong and Nimba ranges, and Mano valley; in the extension into Guinea of the Nimba–Simandou ranges,
where hematites have been located; in Nigeria and Mauritania, which have large deposits of low-grade
ore; and in Gabon, where extensive reserves are present in the northeast. In Southern Africa most iron ore
reserves lie in South Africa itself. The chief deposits are at Postmasburg, in the Bushveld Complex, at
Thabazimbi, and in the vast low-grade deposits of Pretoria. There are also substantial reserves in
Zimbabwe.

Africa’s reserves of minerals used as ferroalloys in the steel industry are even more striking than its
enormous share of world iron ore reserves. This is particularly true of chromium. Almost the entire world
reserve of chromium is found in Southern Africa and, to a much lesser extent, in western and northeastern
Africa. The highest concentrations are found in Zimbabwe, at Great Dyke. South Africa contains the
largest deposits of chromite. As compared with these two sources, reserves elsewhere in Africa are
relatively small.

Manganese reserves are also considerable. In South Africa reserves of contained manganese are found in
the Kalahari Manganese Field and elsewhere. The Mouanda deposit in southeastern Gabon is thought to
be among the largest in the world. Ghana is another important source of manganese, having both low-
grade and high-grade reserves. Elsewhere in western Africa, manganese deposits are situated in Burkina
Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Cameroon. In North
Africa manganese is found in Morocco and Algeria.

Africa’s contribution to world resources of other ferroalloys is, by comparison, insignificant. Nickel is of
some importance, occurring in other metalliferous ores in Southern Africa.

Most of Africa’s copper is contained in the Central African Copperbelt, stretching across Zambia and into
the Katanga (Shaba) area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Accompanying minerals vary

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with the geologic layer, but cobalt dominates. Outside the Copperbelt a number of countries have lesser
but still significant reserves of copper.

Only Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and South Africa contain tin reserves of any
significance. Although it is difficult to consider Africa’s reserves of lead and zinc separately, of the two,
lead ores are considerably more widespread. North Africa is the largest traditional producing region.
African reserves of zinc metal are located along the Moroccan-Algerian frontier, in the Copperbelt in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Nigeria, in Zambia, and in Namibia.

Africa has about one-fourth of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the chief aluminum ore. Virtually all of
this occurs in a major belt of tropical laterite stretching some 1,200 miles from Guinea to Togo. The
largest reserves are in Guinea.

Half of the world reserves of cobalt can be found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A
continuation of the geologic formation into Zambia gives the country sizable reserves of cobalt content.
The only other deposit of any importance is found in Morocco.

The titanium ores, ilmenite and rutile, are widely distributed in Africa but are rarely considered as
minable reserves. A major source is the Sherbro deposit in Sierra Leone. Almost all of Africa’s antimony
resources lie in the Murchison Range of South Africa. The major concentrations of beryllium are in
Madagascar, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, and
South Africa. The principal sources of cadmium are in Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Deposits of mercury are restricted to North Africa, notably to Tunisia and, more particularly,
Algeria.

Gold and allied metals are widely disseminated, reaching their greatest concentrations in South Africa,
where reserves of gold probably constitute about half of the world total. Gold is also found in Zimbabwe,
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Ghana. There are numerous alluvial sources of gold in
Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, and Gabon. South Africa has the most important deposit of platinum of the
world’s market economies. Silver reserves of the continent are not important.

Africa contains a major share of world reserves of tantalum, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
has most of these reserves. African reserves of niobium (columbium; a steel-gray metallic element
resembling tantalum in its chemical properties that is used in alloys) are relatively small. Nigeria,
however, is an important world producer.

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One of Africa’s many sources of zirconium (a metallic element resembling titanium chemically) is the
Jos Plateau in Nigeria. Greater reserves, however, are contained in deposits on the Senegal coast; on the
east coast of South Africa; in Madagascar; at Sherbro, Sierra Leone; and in the Nile delta.

Another rare metal of which Africa contains a majority of world reserves is germanium, concentrated in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Namibia. Africa also has large deposits of lithium, the
largest of which are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

5.3 Nonmetallic deposits

Clays are widespread and are found in North Africa, where brick and pottery clays occur in Algeria and
Morocco; in western and central Africa, where clays are located in Togo (ceramic), the Central African
Republic, and Côte d’Ivoire (ceramic); and in East and Southern Africa.

Kaolin (china clay) occurs in Algeria. Outside North Africa it is widespread. In western Africa it occurs
most notably in Nigeria’s Jos Plateau, as well as in Mali, Ghana, and Guinea. Similar deposits occur in
central and East Africa, as well as in Southern Africa.

Bentonite (a clay formed from decomposed volcanic ash, which is able to absorb large quantities of water
and to expand to several times its usual size) is found in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains and in Tanzania,
Kenya, and South Africa. The continent’s principal reserve of fuller’s earth (an absorbent clay) is in
Morocco.

Economically important mica deposits occur primarily in Southern Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, and
Tanzania) and in Madagascar.

Africa has none of the world’s major reserves of sulfur. It reaches economic concentrations only in South
Africa’s Witwatersrand, in Zambia’s Copperbelt, and in Morocco. Large quantities of sodium deposits
remain to be evaluated. Sodium chloride is the principal salt, the largest deposit being in the Danakil
Plain of Ethiopia. The principal sources of salt in Africa, however, are inland or coastal basins, from
which it is extracted by the evaporation of salt water. Major coastal reserves of this type lie along the
North African Mediterranean coast and along the Red Sea and Indian Ocean coasts of East Africa and
Madagascar. Inland, the chief reserves are in the Oran Sebkha, a salt pan region in Algeria; in Botswana
around Lake Makarikari; and in Uganda.

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Another important sodium mineral is natron, or sodium carbonate. Natron is more limited in occurrence,
but Africa contains several significant deposits. It is found in Lake Magadi, Kenya, and in Lake Natron,
Tanzania, as well as in western Africa, where beds have been deposited from the waters of Lake Chad.

North Africa has been a traditional exporter of phosphates, and western Africa has large reserves.
Morocco and Western Sahara together have vast reserves. The Río de Oro region in Western Sahara
contains huge deposits, and a major development at Bu-Craa has been established. Algeria and Tunisia
also have reserves. To the east, phosphate-bearing sediments outcrop on the Red Sea coast. The Thiès
deposit in Senegal is of particular interest in constituting the world’s only source of aluminum (as
opposed to calcium) phosphate. Other phosphate deposits occur in Togo, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and
Malawi.

The potash deposits in the Republic of the Congo are the largest in Africa. The other large reserve is in
Ethiopia.

Madagascar has the world’s largest known accumulation of flake graphite deposits. Continuations of
these high-quality deposits in Mozambique and southeastern Kenya contain further reserves of graphite.

While deposits of low-grade sand suitable for construction and engineering work are widely distributed,
reserves of sands with sufficiently high silica content for glass manufacture are more localized. There are
deposits in western Africa (Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Nigeria, and Ghana), East Africa (Uganda and
Tanzania), and South Africa. Glass sands are also found in Egypt.

Kyanite (cyanite), a mineral aluminum silicate used as a refractory, occurs most typically in Southern
Africa. Apart from South African reserves, there are deposits in Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Cameroon, and
Liberia.

Of the abrasive substances, industrial diamonds are most closely associated with Africa. The continent
contains some 40 percent of the total world reserves. The stones are found in a number of major belts
south of the Sahara. The principal known reserves of diamonds in their primary form are in the South
African Vaal belt. Elsewhere in Africa, primary deposits are found in Tanzania, Botswana, and Lesotho.

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Another major belt of diamondiferous rocks encircles the Congo River basin and includes the world’s
largest deposit, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which contains the majority of Africa’s
reserves of industrial diamonds. The same belt has secondary deposits that occur elsewhere in that
country as well as in the Central African Republic and Angola. In western Africa known reserves are
located primarily in alluvial gravel fields. They are found in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia,
and Ghana.

A considerable proportion of the world reserves of corundum (a common mineral, aluminum oxide,
notable for its hardness) is located in Southern Africa. The principal deposits are in Zimbabwe, South
Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, and Malawi.

Pumice is found in areas of volcanic activity such as the Atlantic islands, the coastal Atlas Mountains of
northeastern Morocco, and the East African Rift System, notably in Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi. Joint
reserves, however, constitute only a small percentage of the world total.

Reserves of building materials are characterized by their wide distribution, to such an extent that the
commercial status of such deposits depends more on their location relative to areas of development than
on their extent and quality. While almost all African countries have reserves of building materials,
knowledge of such reserves is strictly related to the country’s level of development, and no meaningful
estimate of the size of reserves can be made.

Granite is located in Morocco and Nigeria, and there are vast reserves in Burkina Faso. Quartzite (a
granular rock, consisting essentially of quartz) is important as a building stone in Uganda and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dolerite (a coarse-grained basalt) is produced in South Africa and
basalt, which is crushed for use in road construction, in Senegal. Marble is found in Mali, Togo, Nigeria,
and South Africa.

Limestone is important because of its use in the cement industry, and deposits are fairly widespread.
North Africa is a particularly important source. In western Africa a belt of limestone runs from the
Central African Republic to the Atlantic coasts, with major outcrops in northern Nigeria, Niger, Burkina
Faso, and Mali. Elsewhere there are deposits in Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana. East African deposits
include those in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia; there are also deposits in South Africa.

North Africa has major reserves of gypsum on the Mediterranean coast, as well as in outcrops along the
Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. Somalia has one of the largest known deposits. Eastern Africa and

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Madagascar have further reserves, and in western and Southern Africa superficial deposits are
particularly important—for instance, north of Nouakchott, Mauritania.

There is no other gem mineral in Africa of comparable importance to these diamond reserves. Deposits of
a number of such stones are found, however, especially in Southern and eastern Africa, where diamond
fields contain beryl, garnets, amethyst, rose quartz, topaz, opal, jasper, emeralds, and other stones.
Madagascar contains a large deposit of garnet. Tourmaline is found in Madagascar and Namibia. Agate is
particularly associated with the volcanic areas of eastern and Southern Africa and malachites with the
Katanga Copperbelt, while sapphires are found with diamonds in Ghana.

Africa contains no major world deposits of talc, but the mineral is found in Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan,
Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Reserves of asbestos are much more important, and Southern Africa has a
number of deposits of world significance.

Major deposits of fluorite, or fluorspar (a common mineral, calcium fluoride, used as a flux in
metallurgy), are particularly associated with deposits of lead and zinc. In South Africa the chief deposit is
in the northeastern part of the country. North African reserves lie primarily in Tunisia and Morocco.

Africa produces a very small share of the world supply of diatomite (a fine siliceous earth, used as an
abrasive). The most important deposit is in Kenya.

5.4 Water resources

In general, the seasonal distribution of river flow in Africa reflects the seasonal rainfall pattern; the
amount of groundwater entering the river channels during the dry season is comparatively small.
Important modifications in the flow of some rivers are caused by the presence of large lakes and swamps,
which act as natural storage reservoirs, by the construction of dams on their courses, and by the incidence
and severity of drought.

Surface water

Although the surface area of Africa is about one-fifth of Earth’s land surface, the combined annual flow
of African rivers is only about 7 percent of the world’s river flow reaching the oceans.

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North Africa’s few perennial rivers originate in the mountains of the Maghrib, and their water is used
extensively for irrigation. The large number of wadis, or ephemeral watercourses, to be found throughout
the Sahara and the eastern Mediterranean coastal lands become filled with water as a result of the rare and
erratic storms that occur over mountainous areas; otherwise they remain dry.

From the relatively well-watered areas of western and equatorial Africa, the Sénégal, the Niger, the
Logone–Chari, and the Nile rivers flow through the drier inland zones. Of these, the Niger River,
originating in the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea, is retarded in the lake and swamp area south of
Timbuktu in Mali, and the Logone–Chari feeds Lake Chad.

The Nile, the world’s longest river, receives more than 60 percent of its water from the Ethiopian Plateau,
although its source is much farther south in the mountains of Burundi. Since the completion of the Aswan
High Dam, only a small proportion of the river’s total flow reaching Egypt enters the Mediterranean Sea.

A number of rivers flowing in a more or less southerly direction into the Atlantic Ocean drain the
southern part of western Africa. Many flow rapidly over bedrock before entering the coastal plains,
draining into the system of lagoons and creeks along the coast. During the dry season the upper reaches
of these rivers are without water, but in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, where the dry season is fairly
short, the rivers flow throughout the year.

In the well-watered western part of equatorial Africa the total average annual flow of the Congo River is
enormous: some 44 trillion cubic feet. River flow at the lower end of the basin has two maxima: one that
corresponds with the rainy season north of the equator, the other with the rainy season that occurs when it
is summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The waters in the lower reaches of the river are slightly acid after
traversing the large swamps situated in the centre of the basin.

East Africa’s many lakes stretch along the East African Rift Valley from the Red Sea to the mouth of the
Zambezi River. Evaporation from most of them exceeds their surface rainfall, and in consequence their
outflow is less than the quantities brought in annually by their tributaries. They often govern river flow by
acting as storage reservoirs—decreasing the flood flow and increasing the dry-season flow. A number of
the rift valley lakes are situated in closed basins and contain high percentages of dissolved salts. The
largest of these are Lakes Rudolf (Turkana), Natron, and Eyasi.

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Rainfall over much of Southern Africa is small, and the majority of the rivers originating there have an
intermittent flow. Some large perennial rivers (e.g., the Okavango, the Zambezi, and the Orange) flow
from areas of abundant rainfall into the drier zones.

Groundwater

The conditions under which groundwater is found and the quantity and quality of groundwater reserves
are closely related to geologic structure. Large inland depressions in Africa’s basement rock, having been
filled with sedimentary layers of continental origin, sometimes form important groundwater reservoirs,
notably those in the Taoudeni–Niger region, in the central Sahara between the Atlas and Ahaggar
mountains; in the Libyan Desert; and in Chad, the Congo basin, the Karoo area of South Africa, and the
Kalahari.

The East African plateaus usually contain little or no quantities of groundwater, and aquifers (geologic
formations containing water)—generally of local importance—are found only in humid areas where the
crystalline rock is weathered or fractured.

The chalky shales (rocks of laminated structure formed by the consolidation of clays) and dolomitic
limestones (those containing calcium magnesium carbonate), which sporadically cover the basement
rock, may contain important aquifers; those in Zambia and South Africa are major sources of water.

In the Sahara a rock stratum called the Continental Intercalary series, which dates from the early
Cretaceous Period and which includes the Nubian sandstones of southern Egypt, is the most important
water-bearing layer. It extends over very large areas and reaches a thickness of more than 3,000 feet; in
Egypt and Algeria it is a major source of artesian water. In Sudan it sometimes lies directly on the
Precambrian bedrock and contains underground water layers of local importance. Overlaying the
Continental Intercalary series, but generally separated from it by a thick marine deposit, is a younger
Tertiary layer called the Continental Terminal, which is the second largest aquifer in this area. Both these
layers contain ―fossilǁ water—i.e., water that entered the layers when rainfall in and around the Sahara
was much more abundant than today. Near the surface, aquifers are found in such geologically recent
deposits as alluvial deposits and sand dunes.

In the coastal areas of Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the
Republic of the Congo, Angola, Mozambique, the East African countries, and Madagascar, aquifers are
found in sandstone, limestone, and sand and gravel sediments. Intensive exploitation, however, may
result in saltwater intrusions.

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The Jurassic limestones of the mountainous area of the Maghrib are much more abundant in water
sources than are dolomitic limestones. Around the cape in South Africa, sandstones and limestones
contain very little water.

Yields from aquifers with good porosity, such as coastal sedimentary rocks or alluvial deposits, vary from
a few cubic feet per hour in the fine-grained sands found in many parts of the continent to 35,000 cubic
feet (990 cubic metres) per hour in the coarse gravels of the Nile delta. The capacity of wells in the
Continental Terminal is generally somewhat lower, and those in the Continental Intercalary and the
Karoo formations can also deliver moderate to high yields.

In North Africa limestones containing many cracks and fissures may yield thousands of cubic feet of
water per hour, while in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and South Africa large yields
are drawn from dolomitic limestones.

The harder sandstones, sandy shale, and quartzites of Precambrian and Paleozoic age are not generally
very porous, and water is obtained only from fractured or weathered deposits. Western African, Angolan,
and Tanzanian wells in these formations produce only a few cubic feet per hour. Crystalline and
metamorphic rocks are almost impermeable except where fractured or weathered. Volcanic rock,
especially the basalts, may yield up to 1,060 cubic feet per hour.

Most of the exploited groundwater is generally fit for consumption, because the dissolved minerals in
water from shallow wells, particularly in the sandy aquifers of western Africa, are quite low.
Groundwater from deeper marine layers, however—such as occurs in parts of North Africa,
Mozambique, Ethiopia, and South Africa—may have a high content of dissolved salts. In moist tropical
countries the water from Precambrian rocks generally contains only small amounts of dissolved minerals,
whereas in the volcanic areas of East Africa groundwater may have so high a content of fluorine as to
make it unfit for human consumption. There, and elsewhere in Africa, hot (possibly medicinal) springs
with high mineral contents occur.

Biological resources

Africa’s naturally occurring biological resources—its immensely varied vegetational cover, vast insect
life, and diverse animal life—have been described above. When combined with cultivated crops and
domestic animals, these resources represent the great bulk of the continent’s economic wealth.

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Botanical resources

The two most economically important types of vegetation are forests and grasslands. Among the forested
areas, the tropical forests contain much of the valuable timber. The vast equatorial lowland rainforest has
the greatest variety of tree species, but the species most commercially in demand are found in the zones
of broad-leaved woodlands and tropical highland forests. The true value of the forested areas, however,
cannot be ascertained exactly, as original forests are progressively being converted to farming areas, and
few governments have undertaken comprehensive land-use surveys to determine their present extent.

A large proportion of the land surface of Africa bears vegetation in which grass is an essential feature.
This abundance of grass has made possible the continent’s enormous and varied populations of
herbivorous mammals, both wild and domesticated. The tall and fibrous invasive grasses in forest
environments and in large tracts of wooded grasslands are seldom very palatable to livestock, but, in
those parts of the continent where good forage grows naturally or has been introduced, livestock raising is
of great economic importance.

The Albida acacia tree of the ―farmed parklandǁ areas of western Africa is of special economic
importance. Unlike almost all other dry woodland trees, whose leaf shedding normally occurs at the onset
of the dry season, the Albida appears to have a period of partial dormancy during the rainy season and
springs to life only at the beginning of the dry season. At such periods its foliage is abundant and—being
a palatable leguminous species—is much prized as browse for sheep, goats, and cattle. The smaller leafy
branches are frequently fed to stock. The tree flowers and produces fruits, which are harvested, dried, and
fed as a protein concentrate to stock at the height of the dry season.

5.5 Animal resources

Africa has a large quantity of natural resources including oil, diamonds, gold, iron, cobalt, uranium,
copper, bauxite, silver, petroleum and cocoa beans, but also woods and tropical fruits. Much of its natural
resources are undiscovered or barely harnessed. Having a low human density, for a long period of time
]
Africa has been colonized by more dynamic groups, exploiting African resources. Some economists

have talked about the 'scourge of raw materials', large quantities of rare raw materials putting Africa
under heavy pressures and tensions, leading to wars and slow development. Despite these abundance of
natural resources, claims suggest that many Western nations like the United States, Canada, France and
the United Kingdom as well as emerging economic powerhouses like China often exploit Africa's natural
resources today, causing most of the value and money from the natural resources to go to the West and
East Asia rather than Africa, further causing the poverty in Africa.

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African oil takes growing importance, mainly after the 2003 oil crisis and recent oil reserves discoveries.
Sudan and Nigeria are two of the main oil producers. China owns 40% of Sudan's oil production. Oil is
provided by both continental and offshore productions. Sudan's oil exports in 2010 are estimated by the
United States Department of State at $9 billion with United States dollars.

Five countries dominate Africa's upstream oil production. Together they account for 85% of the
continent's oil production and are, in order of decreasing output, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and
Angola. Other oil producing countries are Gabon, Congo, Cameroon, Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Côte d'Ivoire. Exploration is taking place in a number of other
countries that aim to increase their output or become first time producers. Included in this list are Chad,
Sudan, Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar while Mozambique and Tanzania are potential oil
producers

TOPIC 6.0: POPULATION IN AFRICA

A population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in the same
geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding.
Population distribution is the arrangement of the population on a certain area in accordance with
conditions and requirements of the society.
Population distribution over a territory is described by the population density which is calculated by the
rate between the numbers of people on an area to the total population. The unit of the population density
is persons/km2.
Population distribution means the pattern of where people live. World population distribution is
uneven. Places which are sparsely populated contain few people. Places which are densely populated

contain many people. Sparsely populated places tend to be difficult places to live. These are usually
places with hostile environments e.g. Antarctica. Places which are densely populated are habitable
environments e.g. Europe.

Population density is a measurement of the number of people in an area. It is an average number.

Population density is calculated by dividing the number of people by area. Population density is usually
shown as the number of people per square kilometer.

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Map of showing population distribution

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6.1 Population data
Africa is the second-largest and second most populous continent on earth with an estimated population in
2013 of 1.033 billion people. Africa is home to 54 recognized sovereign states and countries, 9 territories
and 2 de facto independent states with very little recognition.

As far as demographics are concerned, the African nations as a whole are made up from such a diverse
set of components that it is impossible to list them in full. However, in certain parts of the continent there
has been an increase in Asian and even European settlers which has also served to boost the population
statistics as a whole.

The population in Africa has grown rapidly over the last 40 years and it has a relatively young
population, with more than half of the population under 25 in some states.

Most Populous Countries in Africa

∑ Nigeria: 173,611,131
∑ Ethiopia: 95,045,679
∑ Egypt: 82,196,587
∑ Democratic Republic of the Congo: 67,363,365
∑ South Africa: 52,914,243

Least Populous Countries in Africa

∑ Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (UK) (non-sovereign): 4,000

∑ Seychelles: 93,033

∑ São Tomé and Príncipe: 194,161

∑ Mayotte (France): 217,000
∑ Cape Verde: 501,674

6.2 Africa population growth

Any expert would find it hard to argue with the commonly held view that the population of Africa in
2013 and beyond is set for further increases. With little or no measures in place to address the issue, the
1.9 billion predictions for 2050 are entirely plausible.

Africa currently has a very low population density of about 65 people per square mile, which puts it
behind Asia, Europe and South America. The population of Africa is currently projected to quadruple

47
in just 90 years, with a growth rate that will make Africa more important than ever to global economy and
more. Africa's Nigeria is currently one of the most populous countries on earth and, as China's population
shrinks and India plateaus, Nigeria will reach nearly 1 billion people by 2100 and come close to
surpassing China. This is pretty amazing considering the country is about the size of Texas. Nigeria is set
for one of the biggest population booms in world history and it's expected to increase by a factor of eight
in just two or three generations.

6.3 Population Structure / Population Pyramids

The population structure for an area shows the number of males and females within different age groups
in the population. This information is displayed as an age-sex or population pyramid. Population
pyramids of LEDCs (Less Economically Developed Countries) typically have a wide base and a narrow
top. This represents a high birth rate and high death rate. Population pyramids of MEDCs (More
Economically Developed Countries) typically have a roughly equal distribution of population throughout
the age groups. The top obviously gets narrower as a result of deaths. Population pyramids for every
country in the world can be found. Population pyramids are used to show the structure of the population
according to age and sex.

6.4 Africa’s demographic trends and features

Over the last one century Africa's population has grown at a rapid rate. The various estimates of the
population size of Africa indicate that prior to 1900, the annual growth rate of population was less than l
0.1 per cent; during the period 1900-1950, it was 1.2 per cent; in the period 1950-1970, the growtn rate
was estimated at 2.8 per cent; in the period 1980-1990, the rate was at 3.2 per cent. These data shows that
the recent demographic trends in Africa are characterized not only by unprecedented rapid growth rates
but also associated youthful age

Africa faces a major population explosion in the near future. Africa's population which was estimated at
257 million in 1960 had increased to 482 million by 1983. After 1993 the population of the continent was
estimated at 682 million. The average annual growth rate during the decade was 3.2 per-cent - the highest
among Third World regions. In 1983, the ECA, using high variant assumptions, projected that total
African population will be about 1.1 billion by 2008, taking an annual growth rate of 3.2per cent during
the 25-year period (1983-2008).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).

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Even under the medium variant of the population projections by ECA, a2.8 per cent annual growth
would bring the total population to 997 million by the year 2008 instead of 1.1 billion based on high]
variant assumptions. Thus the prospects of a new and better demographic setting that will not bring about
unsustainable pressures and tensions but will rather ensure the progress and prosperity of all African
countries seem rather remote during the next 14 years as drastic structural changes in the demographic
situation take a long time.

Fertility Rates- In projections to 2030, the African population is expected to peak at 1.6 billion from 1.0
billion in 2010 (Graph 1), which would represent 19% of the world’s population. Asia and Latin
America will account for 58% and 8%, of world population, respectively. These projections rely upon
assumptions about vital fertility and mortality rates. The fertility rate is assumed to decline at a varying
pace by country, and follow a trajectory similar to the one in other major global areas.

Mortality Rates are generally poised to improve over the coming decades as communicable diseases in
Africa continue to be addressed, although malaria remains endemic in most African countries and
continues to represent a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Much progress is nonetheless expected
in child and infant mortality rates: child mortality is projected to decline from 116 per 1000 live deaths
in 2010 to 75 per 1000 live deaths in 2030 (
Graph 3) thanks to better incomes, access to improved water supply and sanitation, and better health
facilities.

By 2030, average life expectancy in Africa is projected to reach 64 years, compared to 57 years in 2010
(Graph 4).The improvement varies across regions. North Africa and East Africa are projected to have
the highest life expectation with 76 to 64 years against the lower figure of 56 years in Central Africa.
Projected trends of life expectancy vary in countries grouped by income levels between 1990 and
2030.The rise in life expectancy is expected to be higher for low-income countries where it will rise
from 14 years between 1990 and 2030; in middle-income countries, the expected increase is12 years; in
the upper middle-income countries, the expected increase is 5 years.

Size and structure of Africa’s population- The bulk of African countries have a very young population.
This often implies a large proportion of young adults in the working-age population (over 40 percent), a
rapidly growing school age population, and high rates of workforce growth. These dynamics in turn are
associated with high levels of unemployment and political instability/backlash. If countries

49
manage the demographic transition wisely, a window of opportunity opens up (demographic dividend)
for faster economic growth and human development. While fertility declines yield an immediate drop in
the growth rate of children and the elderly population, there is, however, a substantially delayed decline
in the rate of growth of the working age population. However, the stalling of the fertility decline could
threat to maintain Africa’s population in the ―arc of instabilityǁ demonstrated by a non-ending youth
bulge.

Aging Population- Africa’s demographic trends reveal a growing aging population and unprecedented
growth of the youth population. Population aging is expected to accelerate between 2010 and 2030, as
more people live to age 65. Projections show that the elderly could account for 4.5% of the population by
2030 from 3.2 % in 2010 (Graph 7). This population faces a different set of challenges: aging is highly
linked with long-term physical and mental disability and many long-term chronic conditions that will
likely increase the needs for personal care. Yet, average spending on health is low and health care
systems in most of Africa are weak, and unable to adequately address these emerging health problems.
Moreover, there is a general lack of broad-based pension systems, while other social safety nets are
sparse and stretched. There is greater prevalence of poverty, particularly among elderly-headed
households today than in the past. This is a key emerging policy challenge across most African countries.
6.5 Population distribution
Africa has more than one-eighth of the total population of the world, distributed over a land area
representing slightly more than one-fifth of the land surface. Such desert areas as the Sahara, Kalahari,
and Namib, however, have reduced the amount of habitable land, and such factors as climate, vegetation,
and disease have tended to limit the evolution of densely populated areas where agriculture is practiced.
With the advent of the colonial era, the African continent was divided into small geographically and
politically based units that took little or no account of ethnic distribution. These political boundaries
persisted, and the continent continued to be characterized by a large number of countries with
predominantly small populations.

Wide variations in density occur from country to country in Africa and within countries. In general, the
most densely populated areas are found bordering the lakes, in the river basins (especially those of the
Nile and Niger), along the coastal belts of western and North Africa, and in certain highland areas, while
settlement is the most sparse in the desert and savanna areas. Thus, Rwanda and Burundi,

50
situated in the East African highlands, are the most densely populated countries in Africa, while Western
Sahara, Mauritania, and Libya in the Sahara and Botswana and Namibia in the Kalahari and Namib are
the least densely populated.

6.6 Factors influencing population density and population distribution

Availability of Water:

It is one of the main factor which force people to settle in a particular area as water is used for drinking,
crops growth, cattle breeding etc.

Landforms: People prefer to live in plain areas as these areas are easy to access, and are feasible for
communication, agricultural and industrial activities.

Climate: Another important factor for dense population in an area is climate. People prefer to live in
areas which have moderate climate-thus avoiding extreme climates like that in Antarctica.

Soil: Most of the people who are linked with agriculture prefer to live in areas which are fertile.

Urbanization: Better job opportunities, education and health facilities are also responsible for dense
population in a limited area. Urban cities are densely populated as it has all these facilities. To name a
few, Tokyo, London, New York, Dubai are some of the famous cities in the world.

Minerals: Areas rich in minerals attract people interested in mining activities and thus companies of
international standard which in turn attract people in search of jobs thus increase in population of that
area.

Industrialization: Industries not only require labors but also operators, management staff, engineers,
doctors etc as it has its own residential area.

Need for High Income: Farmers in agricultural areas require larger work force to increase crop yield and
income. They do not think about increased population.

Religious Cultural Factors: Islam and Christianity strongly criticize family planning therefore; people
who are very religious minded do not care for increased population. People try to live at places where
people of same culture are present.

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Lack of Education: Lack of education is also one of the greatest factors of increase in population as
people are unaware of the economic burden, increased population put on country’s economy.

Government Policies: Frequent government changes results in inconsistency of policies against high
population growth rate. The government of France now gives incentives to the parents for giving births to
more children as their population growth rate is now negative.

Age of Marriage: In the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), females get married at very young age and
this also contributes to high population growth in Least Developed Countries.

Decrease in Death Rate: The advanced medical facilities have caused decrease in death rate which has
also contributed to the increase in population density.

Political Unrest or War: Areas which are involved in war or are experiencing political unrest, people
tend to move from that areas which result in less population at one and increase in another area.

6.7 Population dynamics-migration/immigration

Population dynamics is the branch of life sciences that studies short-term and long-term changes in the
size and age composition of populations, and the biological and environmental processes influencing
those changes. Population dynamics deals with the way populations are affected by birth and death
rates, and by immigration and emigration, and studies topics such as ageing populations or population
decline.

Immigration is the movement of people into another country or region to which they are not native in
order to settle there, especially as permanent residents or future citizens. Immigrants are motivated to
leave their countries for a variety of reasons, including a desire for economic prosperity, political issues,
family re-unification, escaping conflict or natural disaster, or simply the wish to change one's
surroundings.

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Traditional African patterns of settlement vary with differences in landscape and ecology,
communications, and warfare. The most widespread pattern has been that of scattered villages and
hamlets—the homesteads of joint and extended families—large enough for defense and domestic
cooperation but rarely permanent because of the requirements of shifting cultivation and the use of
short-lived building materials. Large mud-adobe villages are traditional in much of the western
African savanna, but over most of Africa housing consists of mud and wattle with roofs of thatch or
palm leaves.

Large towns were not widespread in the continent until the 20th century. Towns dating from
precolonial times are found mainly along the Nile valley and the Mediterranean fringe of North
Africa—where many date from Classical times (e.g., Alexandria, Egypt) and the late 18th century
(e.g., Fès, Morocco)—and also in western Africa, in both forest and savanna zones, where they were
the seats of governments of kingdoms. Timbuktu, Ife, Benin City, and Mombasa all date from the 12th
century, while the city of Kano has prehistoric origins. Ibadan and Oyo became important cities only
in the 19th century.

The more-traditional towns differ in form, function, and even population characteristics from the many
towns and cities established under colonial rule as administrative, trading, or industrial centres and
ports. These latter cities are found throughout Africa and include Johannesburg, Lusaka, Harare,
Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Nairobi, Dakar, Freetown, Abidjan, and many others; often, as in the case of
Lagos or Accra, they are built onto traditional towns. Typically the focus of in-migration from an
impoverished hinterland, they are ethnically heterogeneous. Many have grown to become the largest
cities in their respective countries, dominating their national urban hierarchies in size as well as in
function.

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Mostly rural for centuries, Africa has rapidly become more urbanized. Although it is still the least
urbanized of the continents, Africa has one of the fastest rates of urbanization. Thus, the total
population living in towns—which was only about one-seventh in 1950—grew to about one-third by
1990 and about two-fifths in the year 2010. Generally, the level of urbanization is highest in the north
and south, and it is higher in the west than in the east and nearer the coasts than in the interior.

The largest cities include Cairo, Alexandria, and Al-Jīzah, Egypt; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of
the Congo; Lagos, Nigeria; Casablanca, Morocco; Johannesburg, South Africa; Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia; and Algiers, Algeria. Many other large cities are seaports along the coasts or central
marketing towns, linked by rail or river with a coast. Examples of seaports are Accra, Ghana; Lagos;
and Cape Town, South Africa. Examples of large inland cities are Ibadan and Ogbomosho, Nigeria;
Nairobi, Kenya; and Addis Ababa.

Migrations

There have been many movements of population within the African continent, from outside into the
continent and from the continent outward. The major movement within the continent in historic times
has been that of the Bantu-speaking peoples, who, as a result of a population explosion that is not fully
understood, spread over most of the continent

The major movements into the continent in the past few centuries have been of European settlers into
northern Africa and of European and Asian settlers in Southern Africa. The Dutch migrations into
Southern Africa began in the mid-17th century. Originally settling on the coast, the Dutch—or
Boers—later moved inland to the Highveld region, where a series of military conflicts occurred
between them and the Bantu speakers in the 19th century. Other European settlement took place
mainly in the 19th century: the British particularly in what is now KwaZulu-Natal province of South
Africa but also inland in what are now Zambia and Zimbabwe and in the East African highlands, the
Portuguese in Angola and Mozambique, and the Germans in what is now Namibia.

The presence of large settler populations delayed the achievement of self-government by the African
peoples of South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Mozambique and resulted in much
bitterness between the indigenous peoples and settlers. In North Africa, by contrast, where the
extensive settlement of Europeans from France, Italy, and Spain occurred, the growth of Arab
nationalism and the emergence of independent states such as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia led to the

54
return of between one and two million colonists to their homelands in the late 1950s and early 1960s
and to the political dominance of the indigenous peoples.

The greatest outward movement of people was that of Africans—particularly from western Africa and,
to a lesser extent, Angola—to the Americas and the Caribbean during the period of the slave trade
from the 16th to the 19th century. (For further discussion of this phenomenon, see slavery.) Earlier
estimates that between 15 and 20 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic have been
revised to a figure of 10 million, which appears more realistic. While their contribution to the
development of the New World was of crucial importance, the effect of the loss of manpower to the
African continent was considerable and has yet to be satisfactorily analyzed. The slave trade was also
active on the east coast of Africa, where it was centred on the island of Zanzibar.

There were few permanent population movements in Africa during the 20th century, although an
extensive settlement of Hausa from northern Nigeria took place in what is now Sudan. Warfare
produced some significant population displacements, usually of minority groups fleeing the dominant
majority. In 1966 the Igbo people of northern Nigeria, for example, returned en masse to their
homeland in eastern Nigeria, the number of refugees being estimated at more than 500,000. The
conflicts in the Horn of Africa since the 1960s have caused similar displacements. Indeed, Africa has
millions of refugees. These refugees are among the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world,
and their numbers are substantially augmented by those fleeing drought and famine. The countries to
which these people flee often find it extremely difficult to cope with them.

Most movement occurs across uncontrolled borders and between people of the same tribal groups.
Much is seasonal, in any case, and is restricted to migrant labourers and nomadic herdsmen.
Controlled immigration and emigration are generally negligible; contemporary examples, however,
include the employment of mine workers in South Africa, the forced emigration of Asians from East
Africa, and the expulsion of people from neighbouring western African states caused by such actions
as the enforcement of the Alien Compliance Order of 1969 in Ghana.

The major cause of voluntary movement of populations between and within national borders in recent
years is rooted in the initial and growing disparity in development between and among states. The
causes and consequences of such movement have economic, political, social and demographic
dimensions (Heisel, 1982). Migration, by its very nature, involves at least three major actors: the
migrant, the area or country of origin and the area or country of destination. While internal migration,
in principle, implies movement of people within a geographically defined territory unrestricted by

55
legal constraints, an international migrant is invariably confronted with a series of-sometimes complex
-- regulations relating, at first, to exit from the country of origin, and later, entry into, residence within,
and exit from the receiving country.

In Africa, as elsewhere in the developing regions, the historical evolution and stages of political
development are crucial to an understanding of migration in general, the distinction and linkages
between internal and international migration, their causes and policy issues. Of particular relevance in
the African context are the effects of the demarcation of national boundaries, the emergence, since the
early 1960s, of independent nation-states and especially the setting up of regulations governing
immigration. These have introduced a subtle distinction between internal and international migration
both of which once involved free movement across wide areas of Africa and, in the case of
international migration, between legal and illegal immigrants.

Causes of immigration

The growing body of literature on migration both internal and international tends to reach a consensus
that economic considerations are of primary importance in the decision to migrate, in that people
migrate ultimately to improve their economic well-being

Internal migration takes place in large part in response to imbalances between the regions of a country,
the dominant direction of such movement being dictated by the locational bias of employment-
generating projects. Thus, where both private and public investment is concentrated in the major (often
the capital) city as is the case in most African countries, the dominant migration stream will no doubt
be directed towards the capital. However, where plantations, mines and other enterprises are located in
rural areas and offer readier employment and other opportunities, a substantial flow of intra-rural
migration is to be expected, as is the case in the United Republic of Cameroon, Kenya and others.

In like manner, international migration signifies, to a large extent, inequalities in development,

employment opportunities and especially income and living conditions between countries, particularly
between the developed and developing countries. In the absence of strict restrictions on entry, and
where information flow is both rapid and effective in disseminating the range of available
opportunities in different locations, migration is expected to respond (quickly) to such positive, often
exaggerated, signals.

The reasons associated with international migration are not solely economic. In international
migration, political factors are often more important than economic factors'. Demands for adjustment

56
of boundaries arbitrarily drawn by the colonial administration and which cut across economic and
homogeneous ethnic groups, 'to accommodate the socio-cultural realities of the countries concerned and
to regroup the populations of ethnic groups arbitrarily assigned to different countries', have led to war. An
obvious example is the case of Somalia and Ethiopia, or less dramatically between Nigeria and the United
Republic of Cameroon. The result, in all cases, is hundreds of refugees and displaced persons.

6.8 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 dopes not produce goods and
services

Thirdly, a rapidly growing population has serious implications for the provision of productive
employment Since the rapid)id population growth]is normally accompanied by a proportionate increase
in the supply of the labour force, it means that the rate of job creation should match the rate of supply
force In Africa the rate of labour force supply has outstripped that of job creation, implying that the rates
of unemployment have been increasing rapidly In other words, the number of people seeking
employment increases more rapidly than the number of available jobs This kind of situation poses a
menacing problem for society

When an ever-growing number of workers cannot be absorbed in the modern economic sectors of the
African countries the workers are forced either into unproductive service occupations or back into the
traditional section with its low productivity and low subsistence wage levels. This large supply for cheap
labour tends to hold back technological change, and industrialization is slowed by mass poverty which in
turn 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. In other countries, the growing population would outrun the levels at which renewable
resources could be sustained, and the resource bases would deteriorate.

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Thus, widespread poverty, low labour productivity, the growing demand for food and slow
industrialization distort and degrade the international trade of countries.

Rapid population growth rates also have ramifications for political and social conflicts among different
ethnic, religious, linguistic and social groups. As population growth rapidly, there will be increasing
demands for governmental services in health, education, welfare and other functions cause of or even the
major contributing factor in 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 much the same way as are those of educational services. In the individual family death and
illness might be increased by high fertility easy and frequent pregnancies, and the necessity of 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, the rapid population growth rate will result in poor and crowded housing in the urban
slums of the rapidly growing cities, and this could also produce 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.

This rapid urban population growth has been caused by factors such as prospects for more jobs, access to
medical treatment, and general attractions of urban lives. Many migrants to the cities, however, have
discovered that their prospects are not significantly improved by relocation, and unemployment

58
and underemployment are rampant in every major city in Africa. Increases in population cause a number
of serious problems. With an average annual growth rate in agriculture of about 2.5 o 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 in creased friction between farmers and herders.

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 nigh it is found that the 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 and important factor of the relation between
demographic growth and development

Population growth affects the increase of urban areas through the process of n 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
consequency lack of food supply while it could cause an excess of labour , increased demand for health
and education services and could create rapid urbanization and development of towns in the areas of
destination.

Population growth remains rapid in many poor countries. For example, the population of West Africa is
expanding at an annual rate of 2.6 % and is expected to more than quadruple in size by the end of the
century. The projected addition of one billion people to the region’s current population of 320 million is
an obstacle to development and makes it difficult to be optimistic about the future of this and other
regions with similar demographic and socio-economic conditions. There are several reasons for concern:

-Environmental degradation: Global environmental problems (e.g. climate change, decreasing

biodiversity) receive much media and scientific attention in the West, but are not a high priority for
policy makers in poor countries, except where substantial populations live in low lying coastal areas (e.g.
Bangladesh). Instead, most developing countries have critical local environmental problems that require
urgent attention, including shortages of fresh water and arable land, and water, air and soil pollution.
Environmental stresses have been building up over time and are likely to become much more severe as
populations and economies expand further.

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Economic stagnation: In poor societies population sizes often double in two or three decades. As a result,
industries, housing, schools, health clinics, and infrastructure must be built at least at the same rate in
order for standards of living not to deteriorate. Many communities are unable to keep up, as is evident
from high unemployment rates, explosive growth of slum populations, overcrowded schools and health
facilities and dilapidated public infrastructure (i.e. roads, bridges, sewage systems, piped water, electric
power. In addition, rapidly growing populations have young age structures. The resulting low ratio of
workers to dependents depresses standards of living and makes it more difficult to invest in the physical
and human capital needed for expanding economies. The size of the formal labour force is also limited by
the need for women to remain at home to take care of large families.

Maternal mortality: High birth rates imply frequent childbearing throughout the potential reproductive
years. Each pregnancy is associated with a risk of death, and this risk rises with age of the mother and the
order of the pregnancy. In the least developed countries the life-time risk of dying from pregnancy related
causes is near 5% and many more women suffer related health problems or disabilities.

-Political unrest: Half the population of the least developed world is under age 20. Unemployment is
widespread because economies are unable to provide jobs for the rapidly growing number of young
people seeking to enter the labour force. Vigorous competition for limited numbers of jobs leads to low
wages which in turn contributes to poverty. The presence of large numbers of unemployed and frustrated
males likely contributes to socio-economic tensions, high crime rates and political instability.

Of course, population growth is not the only or even the main cause of poverty in the developing world.
Nevertheless population growth has pervasive adverse effects on societies and hinders development
efforts. Poor countries would be better off with lower population growth rates.

Question
Describe the pattern of population distribution in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa in relation to
urbanization and modernization.
Explain how Sub-Saharan Africa’s physical features have had an impact on the distribution of its
population

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TOPIC 7.0: URBANIZATION IN AFRICA

7.1 Meaning of Urbanization

Urbanization is a process of economic and social which has a sign is a rapid increase in number and size
of the urban population, the gathering of population in cities, especially large city also the spreading of
urban lifestyle.
Africa, and especially Sub-Saharan Africa, has experienced an unprecedented rate of urban growth,
outpacing other regions. The foreseeable sizeable migration flows from rural areas present daunting
challenges for development, in terms of land access, and in infrastructure and basic service needs. Central
Africa is projected to remain the least urbanized region and North Africa the most urbanized.

FEATURES
The urbanization process has three main features:
a) The trend of increasing urban population
b) Residents focus on large cities: Number of cities with a population over 1 million are now appear
more and more.
c) The widespread of the urban lifestyle: Along with the development of the urbanization process,
urban lifestyle is widespread and affects the lifestyle of the rural population in many aspects.

7.2 Origins of towns in africa

It is estimated that in 1900 about 95% of Africa's inhabitants south of Sahara lived from the primary
occupations of farming, hunting & gathering, cattle nomadism, and fishing meaning that less than 5%
were urban. In 1950 (the start of the independence period) 14.7% of Africa's inhabitants were urban, in
2000 had it risen to 37.2% and it is expected to rise to 45.3% in 2015, in effect 3.76% ? 3.35% per year.
The Nigerian city of Lagos that in 1963 had 665 000 inhabitants (Rakodi, 1997) and 8.7 million in 2000
is expected to become the worlds 11th biggest city by 2015 with 16 million inhabitants (UN, 2002). The
urbanization of most of Africa is moving fast forward, especially south of the Sahara.

The earliest known cities of Africa emerged around the Nile Valley. The most famous of these is of
course Alexandria in Egypt. The history of the old Egyptian empire has been thoroughly studied and its
technology, history and political system is widely known.

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 There were also many early cities in Africa south of the Sahara. One of the first and notable was
Meroe (present Sudan), capital of the Kush kingdom. It prospered between the 14th and the 4th
century BC. Meroe and other Kushite cities advanced in stone and iron technology and also building
construction and irrigation agriculture.

Axum, capital of the Ethiopian kingdom lasted from the first century AD until about the 10th century
AD. It had an extensive trade network with the Roman Mediterranean, south Arabia and India, trading
ivory, precious metals, clothing and spices. Axumian stone artwork (monoliths has been preserved,
and bear proof of their advances in quarrying, stone carving, terracing, building construction and
irrigation.

West Africa

Between AD 700 to 1600, cities in the West African savanna emerged from the trans-Saharan trade.
Some of the more prominent were Kumbi Saleh, Timbuktu, Djenné and Gao. Arabic scholars like Ibn
Khaldun have been a very important source of historical accounts from this area and period. Gold mining,
iron technology, pottery making and textile production were the important technologies. In the
commercial and capital center of Ghana Empire (not present Ghana) Kumbi Saleh an elaborate economic
system including taxation was developed.

In the West African forest region, cities developed among the Yoruba, Fulani, Hausa people as well as in
the Ashanti and Benin kingdom. As well as being commercial and political centers they worked as
spiritual centers.

Central Africa

In the central African equatorial region cities could be found in what is today Congo, DR Congo, Angola,
Zambia, Rwanda and Burundi.

Important cities:

∑ Musumba capital of the Lunda kingdom

Mbanza-Kongo capital of the Kongo Empire
Ryamurari capital of the Ndorwa kingdom (Rwanda
∑ Kiguba capital of the Ganda kingdom

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 Coastal East Africa

In this region a Swahili Angli Moslemic culture emerged.

Important cities:

∑ Malindi (present Kenya) ∑

Gedi (present Kenya)
∑ Mombasa (present Kenya) ∑
Zanzibar (present Tanzania) ∑
Kilwa (present Tanzania)

Technological developments included coin minting, copper works, building craftsmanship, boat
building, and cotton textile. External trade was very active and important with Asia and Arabia.

Southern Africa

Great Zimbabwe is one of the more famous pre-colonial cities of Africa. Its Great Enclosure is
considered the largest single prehistoric structure in Africa.
With the Berlin conference of 1884/85 as a foundation, Africa was apportioned among the European
powers almost as if it were a cake. In 1914 only Ethiopia and Liberia were left as independent states, the
remainder of the continent was under British, French, Portuguese, German, Belgian, Italian or Spanish
control. It was the interest of these powers that governed the borders. The continent had almost no urban
population and the colonial powers had not started to invest much in its «pieces» (Hernæs, 2003a). A
good example is Northern Nigeria that in 1900 had a budget of £100,000, a military force of 2000 Hausa-
soldiers and 120 British officers. With this they were to govern an enormous area with a population of
about 10 million people.

The economic and administrative politics had the greatest effect on urbanization. The important export
products cash crops (including cotton, maize, tobacco, sugar, coffee, tea, palm oil, and groundnuts) and
minerals had to be transported to the harbour towns for export. For this railway transport was needed, and
to run the colony administration and personnel was needed. The central administration was often placed
in harbour town, but there was not developed any network of small and middle-sized cities (Aase,
2003:3).

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New cities were placed in an existing settlement or at a completely new site. Completely new cities were
especially developed in the copper zone to house the mine workers. Examples include Johannesburg and
Kimberley in South Africa, Ndola and Kitwe in Zambia and Lubumbashi in DR Congo.

A strong centralised political system was also important in the development of early urban centres for
example in the ndebele kingdom under Mzilikazi and later on lobengula

Some cities were used and some were ignored. Close to the main lines of transportation the cities grew,
while towns that were ignored by transportation and administration in effect disappeared, as for example
Kukawa and Dahomey.

It was in the cities of transportation and administration that contact with government and commerce was
possible. As a consequence it was invested in these cities leading to the need of workforce. The
commercial politics of raw inputs exporting to finance the colony and develop Africa governed the way
what cities that should grow.

At the same time the colonial powers became aware of the problems that urbanization brought with it.
The rural-urban migration pulled labour away from the countryside where the important export products
were made. The Africans usually lived in small spaces and under poor sanitary conditions. They were
therefore prone to illnesses like malaria. The colonial governments' response was not to improve the
Africans conditions, but rather to separate Europeans, Asians and Africans from each other and establish
influx control laws. In South Africa this resulted in the official policy of apartheid from 1950. This was
also a policy that was especially common in settler cities like Harare, Lusaka and Nairobi.

With the economic depression in the 1930s, prices of African export products dropped. This in turn led to
an economic downturn and unemployment. The mining workforce before the depression had been mostly
temporary or seasonal, often also forced labour. The workers therefore lived in mining cities away from
home and their families in the countryside.

From the 1920s in Belgian Congo and from the 1940s in South Africa and South and North Rhodesia the
mining companies started to prefer more permanent workers. The authorities changed their policies to
facilitate the change, and after a while also moved the working men's families into the cities. The new
policies tried to strengthen the authorities' control over land and city growth, and make life easier for the
European administration.

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The effect of the apartheid and similar policies can be illustrated by comparing urban growth rate in
Southern Africa, with that of the rest of Africa in the 1950s. This also illustrates that the policy was not
working or not effective in the other colonies: The urban growth rate of Southern Africa was about 3.3%,
compared to about 4.6% for the whole of Africa.

As the economy grew, the cities also grew. The colonial authorities started to strengthen the development
policies that had suffered because of the 1930s depression. Social services, especially primary schools,
but also secondary schools, and in the end of the colonial period also a few universities were built.
Important infrastructure such as harbours, electricity grid and roads was further developed. All this
caused growing administration, growing exports and growing cities, that grew even more in the post
colonial period.

Postcolonial period

Most of today's African countries gained their formal independence in the 1960s. The new countries
seemed to have a great faith in planned economy regardless of how they gained their independence. The
government should actively develop the country, not only by building infrastructure and developing
social services; but also by developing industry and employment. Many parastatal companies are today
left as 'white elephants' and demonstrate the great investments that were made in the cities at the
beginning of the post-colonial period.

New cities were established in the post-colonial period, but not for the same reasons as in the colonial
period. The seaport Tema in Ghana was built awaiting great industrial growth. Later, new capitals were
built, inspired by the planned city of Brasília in Brazil. This happened in Malawi (Lilongwe), Côte
d'Ivoire (Yamoussoukro) and Nigeria (Abuja). The new capitals were meant to give the nation a 'fresh
start', they were supposed to be the beginning of a new golden future promised by the liberation
politicians.

As none of the new capitals have grown to more than about half a million inhabitants, they have probably
not had much influence on the growth of the already established cities. Tema could be said to be a
success as it is the most important port today, and together with Accra represent the biggest metropolitan
area in Ghana

At the same time as influx-control regulations were intensified in South Africa, this kind of regulation
was weakened in the newly liberated countries. This led to more rural-urban migration in the newly
liberated countries, and a stable decline in urbanization growth from 1950 to 1990 in South Africa.

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From figure 1 one can see that after the end of apartheid in 1990, the urbanization rate grow from 2.29%
to 3.41%, while it continues to sink in the rest of Africa. The abandonment of the influx-control
regulations in 1986 is a part of this picture. The city of Bloemfontein grew 51% between 1988 and 1996.

The urbanization rate in Africa is slowing, but so is the population growth rate, much because of
HIV/AIDS. The big cities of Africa will probably continue to grow, but the future is as always uncertain.
In 1994 it was expected that Lagos would become the world's third biggest city with 24.4 million
inhabitants by 2015, but in 2001 this was adjusted to the world's eleventh biggest city with 'only' 16
million inhabitants. This shows how uncertain the numbers are, and how unpredictable the African
population development is.

It is evident that like in the rest of the world, the African urbanization process has mainly been influenced
by economy. The colonial powers placed ports, railways and mines to economically strategic places. The
cities have both in colonial and post-colonial times been economically prioritized. People came to these
places for nationalistic pride, work, administration, education and social services. The exception is South
Africa who, with its strict influx control regime and apartheid policy, to a certain degree managed to
control urban growth. It is nonetheless one of the most urbanized countries of Africa and now has a low
urbanization growth

7.3 Effects of urbanization in Africa

It must be kept in mind that urbanization is a two way process because it involves not only movement
from villages to cities and changes from agricultural occupation to business, trade, service and other
professions, but it also involves changes in migrant attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviour patterns which
then affect traditional values.

Urbanization in Africa has resulted in poor environmental conditions in urban settlements in the country.
It is common knowledge that a high concentration of people at one particular area would generate waste
especially the plastic waste in our case. Major cities such as Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, johns burg among
others can best be termed as dirt cities due to what has been acknowledged as the 'mounting waste
situation".
The urban centres have become the preferred point of call by people desiring to leave their villages in
search of "greener pastures" due to the high concentration of industries and other so called job avenues.
Unfortunately these metropolises have not prepared themselves for the large influx of these

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Menial job seekers.

When the search for "greener pastures" eludes migrants to the city centers, the situation then leads to
another problem of urbanization. Crime is a major problem urban centres in Africa and this goes for
other cities including Accra, Nairobi and others in Africa due to the large influx of people whose
ambitions of finding jobs have been dashed and without any form of education or skills they are
tempted to fall on crime to survive.

Another effect of urbanization is the lack of shelter to cater for the large number of people in the city
centers. It is estimated that only 8% of the population in Ghana can afford to buy properties without
mortgage and only 15% can access mortgages. The situation is not different in other towns in Africa.
The consequence of this is that people who have migrated into the cities resort to sleeping on bare
floors in front of stores at the main business districts. The dangers involved in this are that womenfolk
who sleep at such places become preys to unscrupulous men who steal from them and even rape them

Premarital and unprotected sexual encounters are very rampant among people living in the slums
which lead to unwanted pregnancies. Children born of these relationships do not receive proper care
and grow up lacking education and any skills. The effect of this is that the cycle of poverty and
Illiteracy is the perpetuated.

Services such as education, health care, electricity, water and sewage and traffic are severely over
stretched as a result urbanization. City officials struggle to build enough roads and provide electricity,
water, sewage services and employment for all of these people.

The upcountry areas are known to be the agricultural bases of this country where most of the food
produce are cultivated. Even cash crops such as cocoa and shea butter are cultivated in the villages. If
then the people in these areas move to the urban centers the question that would beg for answer is who
would remain to feed the nation?

Obviously our agricultural base stands to suffer greatly and as a matter of fact this has already started
and it is high time the nation took tangible actions to stop this problem from further spreading.

The irony of the situation is that the agriculture sector has the capacity to employ the energetic youth

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 who abandon their villages where the employment is and rather troop to Accra and other places in
search of non-existent jobs.

Urbanization has caused for human values to take back seat in every situation and it has turned human
beings into hostile elements with its problem of unemployment widening the already existing gap
between the rich and the poor with social inequalities now a bare reality in our nation.
Urbanization, if not derived from industrialization, inappropriate weight to the process of
industrialization, the influx of residents moving from rural to urban to rural areas would lose a large
part of human resources. Meanwhile, job shortages, poverty in growing cities, living conditions
increasingly shortages, environmental pollution which could lead to many negative phenomena in
economic life - society.

Urbanization not only contribute to accelerate economic growth, economic restructuring and labor
structure but also make a change of the distribution of population and labor force, changing the
process of birth, death and marriage in urban.

TOPIC 8.0 AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA

Agriculture is a complex system that includes crops, livestock, soils, watersheds, climate, people, and
other elements. Although it is critical to understand each of these elements individually, it is also
important to understand how they interact and work together
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel,
medicinals and other products used to sustain and enhance human life.

8.1 The significance of agricultural development in the economics of african countries

Agriculture plays a crucial role in the life of an economy. It is the backbone of our economic system.
Agriculture not only provides food and raw material but also employment opportunities to a very large
proportion of population. The following facts clearly highlight the importance of agriculture in this
country.

1. Source of Livelihood: In India the main occupation of our working population is agriculture. About
70 per cent of our population is directly engaged in agriculture. This high proportion in agriculture is

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due to the fact that the non-agricultural activities have not been developed to absorb the rapidly
growing population.

2. Contribution to National Income: Agriculture is the premier source of our national income.

3. Supply of Food and Fodder: Agriculture sector also provides fodder for livestock. Cow and
buffalo provide protective food in the form of milk and they also provide draught power for farm
operations. Moreover, it also meets the food requirements of the people. Import of food grains has been
very small in recent years, rather export avenues are being looked for.

4. Importance in International Trade: It is the agricultural sector that feeds country's trade.
Agricultural products like tea, sugar, rice, tobacco, spices etc. constitute the main items of exports of
India. If the development process of agriculture is smooth, export increases and imports are reduced
considerably.

Thus, it helps to reduce the adverse balance of payments and save our foreign exchange. This amount can
be well utilized to import other necessary inputs, raw-material, machinery and other infra-structure which
is otherwise useful for the promotion of economic development of the country.

5. Marketable Surplus: The development of agricultural sector leads to marketable surplus. As

country develops more and more people are to be engaged in mining, manufacturing and other non-
agricultural sector. All these people depend upon the food production which they can meet from the
marketable surplus.

As agricultural development takes place, output increases and marketable surplus expands. This can be
sold to other countries. Here, it is worth mentioning that the development of Japan and other countries
were made possible by the surplus of agriculture. There is no reason why this could not be done in our
own case.

6. Source of Raw Material: Agriculture has been the source of raw materials to the leading industries
like cotton and jute textiles, sugar, tobacco, edible and non-edible oils etc. All these depend directly on
agriculture. Apart from this, many others like processing of fruits and vegetables, dal milling, rice
husking, gur making also depend on agriculture for their raw material.

7. Importance in Transport: Agriculture is the main support for railways and roadways which
transport bulk of agricultural produce from farm to the mandies and factories. Internal trade is mostly

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in agricultural products. Besides, the finance of the government, also, to the large extent, depends upon
the prosperity of agricultural sector.

8. Contribution to Foreign Exchange Resources: Agricultural sector constitutes an important place

in the country's export trade. Agricultural commodities like jute, tobacco, oilseeds, spices, raw cotton, tea
and coffee accounted for about a bigger per cent of the total value of exports. This shows that agriculture
products still continue to be significant source of earning foreign exchange.

9. Vast Employment Opportunities: The agricultural sector is significant as it provides greater

employment opportunities in the construction of irrigation projects, drainage system and other such
activities. With the fast growing population and high incidence of unemployment and disguised
unemployment in backward countries, it is only agriculture sector which provides more employment
chances to the labour force. In this way, significance of agriculture emerges more and more.

10. Overall Economic Development: In the course of economic development, agriculture employs
majority of people. This means raising the level of the national income and standard of living of the
common man.

The rapid" rate of growth in agriculture sector gives progressive outlook and further motivation for
development. As a result, it helps to create proper atmosphere for general economic development of the
economy. Thus, economic development depends on the rate at which agriculture grows.

11. Source of Saving: Improvement in agriculture can go a long way in increasing savings. It is seen
that rich farmers have started saving especially after green revolution in the country.

This surplus amount can be invested in agriculture sector for further; development of the sector. Saving
potentials are large in agriculture sector which can be properly tapped for the development of the country.

12. Source of Government Income: In India, many state governments get sizeable revenue from the
agriculture sector. Land revenue, agricultural income tax, irrigation tax and some other types of taxes are
being levied on agriculture by the state governments.

Moreover, considerably revenue is earned by way of excise duty and export duty on agricultural products.
Raj committee on Agricultural Taxation has suggested imposition of taxation on agricultural income for
raising revenue.

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 13. Basis of Economic Development: The development of agriculture provides necessary capital for
the development of other sectors like industry, transport and foreign trade. In fact, a balanced
development of agriculture and industry is the need of the day.

8.2 Systems of agricultural production

An agricultural system is an assemblage of components which are united by some form of interaction and
interdependence and which operate within a prescribed boundary to achieve a specified agricultural
objective on behalf of the beneficiaries of the system.

From a practical production, administration and management point of view, all agriculture can be
regarded as consisting of sets of systems.

Systems can be classified into three broad families or divisions as either natural, social or artificial
systems.

Natural systems - those that exist in Nature - consist of all the materials (both physical and biological)
and interrelated processes occurring to these materials which constitute the world and, inter alia, provide
the physical basis for life. They exist independent of mankind. Our role in relation to natural systems is to
try to understand them and, as need be, make use of them. We also (increasingly) attempt to duplicate
them, in part or whole; but at this point they become, by definition, man-made or artificial systems. These
fundamental natural systems remain unaffected by attempts at imitation. Those natural physical and
biological systems which are relevant to agriculture will be self-apparent: rock weathering to form soil;
plants sustained by such soil; animals sustained by such plants... is examples of the outward forms of
agriculturally relevant natural systems in operation.

Social systems are more difficult to define. Essentially they consist of the entities forming animate
populations, the institutions or social mechanisms created by such entities, and the interrelationships
among/between individuals, groups, communities, expressed directly or through the medium of
institutions. Social systems involve relationships between animate populations (individuals, groups,
communities), not between things. Concern here is with human social systems as they relate to or
impinge upon farming, and the term social system is used broadly to include institutions and relationships
of an economic, social, religious or political nature. There is a certain degree of ambiguity in defining
social systems. As an example, the law of property is in its essence a social system. Insofar as it is viewed
as consisting of concepts, principles and rules, it is a pure social system, independent of natural systems.
But its existence also presupposes the existence of property, including

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natural physical things, some of which exist as systems. To this extent, as a social system the law of
property is dependent on or subordinate to natural systems.

Artificial systems do not exist in Nature. They are of human creation to serve human purposes. All
artificial systems, including agricultural systems, are constructed from either or both of two kinds of
elements: (a) elements taken from either or both of the other two higher-level orders of systems at
division level, i.e., from natural and social systems, and (b) from elements which are constructed or
proposed for specific use by each respective artificial system as the need for this arises.

Explicit systems are those in which the constituent elements are more or less closely identified and
defined, and the relationships among these elements are stated formally in quantitative, usually
mathematical, terms. Agricultural scientists and economists who work with farmers are concerned mainly
with explicit systems. But farmers themselves will seldom be concerned with explicit systems - only with
systems of a simpler kind, or only with selected parts of such systems.

Implicit systems are systems in which only the main or critical elements are acknowledged and only the
major or immediately relevant interrelationships are considered. However, these elements and
relationships are not formally recorded, analysed or evaluated. Farmers themselves deal primarily with
implicit systems. In both traditional and more modem societies particular agricultural systems are implied
in what farmers do, or deliberately do not do. In more 'advanced' societies, farmers might formalize and
work with a few explicit systems or parts of systems (farm record books, simple crop budgets, household
expenditure accounts) but here also most agro-management systems will exist by implication.

Descriptive systems are usually intended to facilitate an understanding of the organization, structure or
operation of a productive process. This might be their sole purpose; e.g., a farmer might construct a
simple input-output budget table in order to learn the structural configurations of some potential new
crop. Depending on the results of this, he or she might then proceed to construct a more detailed budget
(an operational system) to find how best to fit this new crop into his or her farm plan. At higher Order
Levels an organogram describing the administrative structure of a ministry of agriculture or of an
extension service might be constructed or the flowchart of a commodity from farm to consumer might be
drawn - these also are descriptive systems.

Operational systems are constructed (by an analyst or manager or research worker) as a basis for taking
or recommending action aimed at improving the performance of the system. Such systems are

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often elaborate. However, increased precision is not infrequently achieved at the cost of decreased
practical usefulness. Thus farm managers themselves work primarily with simple operational systems,
although the actual physical systems which these represent may be very complex.

8.3 Land reforms and agriculture

Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land
reform may consist of government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of
agricultural land.

Land reform can, therefore, refer to transfer of ownership from the more powerful to the less powerful,
such as from a relatively small number of wealthy owners with extensive land holdings to individual
ownership by those who work the land. Such transfers of ownership may be with or without
compensation; compensation may vary from token amounts to the full value of the land.

Ethiopia

Historically, Ethiopia was divided into the northern highlands, which constituted the core of the old
Christian kingdom, and the southern highlands, most of which were brought under imperial rule by
conquest. In the northern regions, the major form of ownership was a type of communal system known as
rist. According to this system, all descendants of an individual founder were entitled to a share, and
individuals had the right to use a plot of family land. Rist was hereditary, inalienable, and inviolable. No
user of any piece of land could sell his or her share outside the family or mortgage or bequeath his or her
share as a gift, as the land belonged not to the individual but to the descent group. Most peasants in the
northern highlands held at least some rist land. Absentee landlordism was rare, and landless tenants were
estimated at only about 20% of holdings.

On the contrary, in the southern provinces, few farmers owned the land on which they worked. After the
conquest, officials divided southern land equally among the state, the church, and the indigenous
population. Tenancy in the southern provinces ranged between 65% and 80% of the holdings, and tenant
payments to landowners averaged as high as 50% of the produce. In the easternlowland periphery and the
Great Rift Valley, most land were used for grazing. The pastoral social structure is based on a kinship
system with strong interclan connections; grazing and water rights are regulated by custom.

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Beginning in the 1950s, the government tried to modernize the agriculture by granting large tracts of
traditional grazing lands to large corporations and converting them into large-scale commercial farms. In
the north and south, peasant farmers lacked the means to improve production because of the
fragmentation of holdings, a lack of credit, and the absence of modern facilities. Particularly in the south,
the insecurity of tenure and high rents killed the peasants' incentive to improve production. Further, those
attempts by the Imperial government to improve the peasant's title to their land were often met with
suspicion. By the mid-1960s, many sectors of Ethiopian society favored land reform. University students
led the land reform movement and campaigned against the government's reluctance to introduce land
reform programs and the lack of commitment to integrated rural development.

In 1974, the socialist Derg government rose to power, and on March 4, 1975, the Derg announced its land
reform program. The government nationalized rural land without compensation, abolished tenancy,
forbade the hiring of wage labor on private farms, ordered all commercial farms to remain under state
control, and granted each peasant family so-called "possessing rights" to a plot of land not to exceed ten
hectares. The Ethiopian Church lost all its land. Although the Derg gained little respect during its rule,
this reform resulted in a rare show of support for the junta.

Tenant farmers in southern Ethiopia welcomed the land reform, but in the northern highlands many
people resisted land reform and perceived it as an attack on their rights to rist land. The lowland
peripheries were only slightly affected by the reforms.

The land reform destroyed the feudal order; changed landowning patterns, particularly in the south, in
favor of peasants and small landowners; and provided the opportunity for peasants to participate in local
matters by permitting them to form associations.

Kenya

In the 1960s, President Jomo Kenyatta launched a peaceful land reform program based on "willing buyer-
willing seller". It was funded by Britain, the former colonial power.

In 2006, President Mwai Kibaki said it will repossess all land owned by "absentee landlords" in the
coastal strip and redistribute it to squatters.

Namibia

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Namibia's colonial past had resulted in a situation where about 20% of the population (mostly white
settlers) owned about 75 percent of all the land.

In 1990, shortly after Namibia got its independence, its first president Sam Nujoma initiated a plan for
land reform, in which land would be redistributed from whites to blacks. legislation passed in September
1994, with a compulsory, compensated approach. The land reform has been slow, mainly because
Namibia's constitution only allows land to be bought from farmers willing to sell. Also, the price of land
is very high in Namibia, which further complicates the matter.

By 2007, some 12% of the total commercial farmland in the country was taken away from white farmers
and given to black citizens.

South Africa

The Natives' Land Act of 1913 "prohibited the establishment of new farming operations, sharecropping
or cash rentals by blacks outside of the reserves" where they were forced to live.

In 1991, after a long anti-apartheid struggle lead by the African National Congress, State President F. W.
de Klerk declared the repeal of several apartheid rules, particularly: the Population Registration Act, the
Group Areas and the Natives' Land Act. A catch-all Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act was
passed. These measures ensured no one could claim, or be deprived of, any land rights on the basis of
race.

In 1994, shortly after the African National Congress came to power in South Africa, it initiated a land
reform process focused on three areas: restitution, land tenure reform and land redistribution. Restitution,
where the government compensates (monetary) individuals who had been forcefully removed, has been
very unsuccessful and the policy has now shifted to redistribution.

Initially, land was bought from its owners (willing seller) by the government (willing buyer) and
redistributed, in order to maintain public confidence in the land market. This system has proved to be
very difficult to implement, because many owners do not actually see the land they are purchasing and
are not involved in the important decisions made at the beginning of the purchase and negotiation.

In 2000 the South African Government decided to review and change the redistribution and tenure
process to a more decentralized and area based planning process. The idea is to have local integrated

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development plans in 47 districts. This will hopefully mean more community participation and more
redistribution taking place, but there are also various concerns and challenges with this system too.

Zimbabwe

By 1979, when Zimbabwe gained independence, 46.5% of the country's arable land was owned by
around 6,000 commercial farmers, and white farmers, who made up less than 1% of the population,
owned 70% of the best farming land.

As part of the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, President Robert Mugabe initiated a "willing buyer,
willing seller" plan, in which white land-owners were encouraged to sell their lands to the government,
with partial funding from Britain. Around 71,000 families (perhaps 500,000 people) settled on 3.5 million
hectares of former white-owned land under this programme, which was described by "The Economist" in
1989 as "perhaps the most successful aid programme in Africa".

The 1992 Land Acquisition Act was enacted to speed up the land reform process by removing the
"willing seller, willing buyer" clause, limiting the size of farms and introducing a land tax (although the
tax was never implemented.) The Act empowered the government to buy land compulsorily for
redistribution, and a fair compensation was to be paid for land acquired. Landowners could challenge in
court the price set by the acquiring authority. Opposition by landowners increased throughout the period
of 1992 to 1997. In the 1990s, less than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) were acquired, and fewer
than 20,000 families were resettled. Much of the land acquired during what has become known as "phase
one" of land reform was of poor quality, according to Human Rights Watch. Only 19 percent of the
almost 3.5 million hectares (8.65 million acres) of resettled land was considered prime, or farmable.

In 1997, the new British government, led by Tony Blair, unilaterally stopped funding the "willing buyer,
willing seller" land reform programme. Britain's ruling Labour Party felt no obligation to continue paying
white farmers compensation.

In 2000, a referendum on constitutional amendments was held. The proposed amendments called for a
"fast track" land reform and allowed the government to confiscate white-owned land for redistribution to
black farmers without compensation. The motion failed with 55% of participants against the referendum.
However, self-styled "war veterans", led by Chenjerai Hunzvi, began invading white-owned farms. Those
who did not leave voluntarily were often tortured and sometimes killed. On 6 April 2000, Parliament
pushed through an amendment, taken word for word from the draft constitution

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that was rejected by voters, allowing the seizure of white-owned farmlands without due reimbursement or
payment. In this first wave of farm invasions, a total of 110,000 square kilometres of land had been
seized.

Parliament, dominated by Zanu-PF, passed a constitutional amendment, signed into law on 12 September
2005, that nationalised farmland acquired through the "Fast Track" process and deprived original
landowners of the right to challenge in court the government's decision to expropriate their land. The
Supreme Court of Zimbabwe ruled against legal challenges to this amendment.

During the "fast track", many parcels of land came under the control of people close to the government,
as is the case throughout Africa. The several forms of forcible change in management caused a severe
drop in production and other economic disruptions.

Egypt

Initially, Egyptian land reform essentially abolished the political influence of major land owners.
However, land reform only resulted in the redistribution of about 15% of Egypt's land under cultivation,
and by the early 1980s, the effects of land reform in Egypt drew to a halt as the population of Egypt
moved away from agriculture. The Egyptian land reform laws were greatly curtailed under Anwar Sadat
and eventually abolished.
8.4 Challenges facing land reforms in africa

∑ Willing seller-willing buyer principle: it takes a long time to negotiate land price with the
current land owners;
∑ Claim disputes: it is a long process to mediate and resolve claim disputes

∑ Capacity: there is lack of institutional capacity for community legal entities (e.g. Trust)

∑ Beneficiary selection: it is a lengthy process and time consuming process to select the rightful
beneficiaries for land redistribution;

∑ Resettlement support: it requires enough resources and time to effectively facilitate post-
resettlement support to new land owners;
∑ Monitoring and evaluation: there is lack of reliable monitoring system and evaluation thereof;

∑ Policy: there are gaps in the current policies which compromise effective implementation of
land reform programme.

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 ∑ Different political views: there is lack of common consensus among political parties on land
reform debate.

8.5 Challenges facing agriculture

Agricultural productivity is dropping in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, per capita agricultural
production fell by about 5% over the last 20 years while increasing by 40% in other developing countries.
As the focus of development assistance shifts towards export-led growth and state support for agriculture
is progressively withdrawn, the productivity of small farmers has declined due to:

1. Climate change - The effects of climate change has been felt mostly by the farmers especially due
to dependence on rain-fed agriculture. The changing and unpredictable raining seasons has greatly
affected their ability to plan their farming activities. Areas which received adequate rainfall now receive
insufficient rainfall reducing the land that can support agriculture.

2. Extension services- The agricultural sector extension service plays a key role in disseminating
knowledge, technologies and agricultural information, and in linking farmers with other actors in the
economy. The extension service is one of the critical change agents required in transforming subsistence
farming to a modern and commercial agriculture to promote household food security, improve income
and reduce poverty. However there is limited access to extension services in most parts of the country.

3. Use of outdated technology -Use of modern science and technology in agricultural production is
still limited. Inadequate research–extension–farmer linkages to facilitate demand-driven research and
increased use of improved technologies continue to constrain efforts to increase agricultural
productivity as farmers continue to use outdated and ineffective technologies. This brings the need of
extension services that can link research and the farmers.

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4. Pest and Diseases- Pests and diseases has continued to cause a lot of losses to farmers. This is
caused by lack of information by the farmers on how to control these diseases. Post-harvest losses is
caused by poor handling and storage facilities.

5. Use of inputs- Most farmers lack information on the right type of farm inputs to use and the
appropriate time of application of the same. The cost of key inputs such as seed, pesticides, fertilizer,
drugs and vaccines is high for resource-poor farmers. Most farmers therefore do not use them. This
greatly reduces the yield that the farmers get.

6. Soil nutrient deterioration- The rising population density has contributed to the subdivision of
land to uneconomically small units. In addition, the reduction of fallow periods and continuous
cultivation have led to rapid depletion of soil nutrients, declining yields and environmental
degradation. These farmers need information on the right farming practices aimed and restoring the
soil nutrient. This can be provided by extension and advisory services.

7. Poor infrastructure- Poor rural roads and other key physical infrastructure have led to high
transportation costs for agricultural inputs and products. It also leads to spoilage of perishable
commodities during transportation. This causes high losses to farmers.

8. Added to these are two further problems. HIV/AIDS is reducing life expectancy and the productive
capacity of farming households – in the past two decades 7 million farmers and agricultural workers
have died of AIDS in the most affected countries.

Other challenges include;

∑ the lack of access to land and resources ∑
the degradation of natural resources
∑ poor access to markets
∑ low investment in agricultural research, training and extension services ∑
The lack of private sector services to fill the vacuum left behind.

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TOPIC 9.0: INDUSTRY IN AFRICA
Industry is the production of a good or service within an economy. Manufacturing industry is a key
sector of production.
Industrialization refers to a marked departure from a subsistence economy that is largely agricultural
towards a more mechanized system of production that entails more efficient and highly technical
exploitation of natural resources in a highly formal and commercialized economic setting.

9.1 Importance of industries

Industrial development has played very important role in the improving the economic condition of the
various countries. Every country also wants to remove the poverty by improving the industrial sector.
Following are the main advantages of industrial development:

1. Increase in Employment:-When the development of industrial sector the employment

opportunities can increase and rate of unemployment can reduce. In South Asia the rate of unemployment
is very high. So industrial development is very useful for achieving the full employment in the country.

2. Increase in GNP:-Due to the industrialization the production of the country increases. The
resources of the country are properly utilized. In other words the national income of the country
increases. Now the share of industrial sector is increasing day by day in the GNP.

3. Raise in Standard of Living:-Industrialization increases the efficiency of the worker. A rise in

income of the worker raises the standard of living of the people.

4. Increase in Government Revenue:-With the expansion of industries the collection of taxes

like excise duty and income tax increases.

5. Increase in Social Welfare:-Industrial development increases the revenue of the government which
is spent on the welfare of the people. New roads, dams, buildings and parks are constructed.

6. Increase in Investment:-Industrialization will increase the income of the people. With the rise in
income, rate of savings and rate of investment will rise which is compulsory for achieving the rapid
growth rate.

7. Development of Other Sectors:-Industrial development is useful in improving the other sectors

like transport, construction, agriculture and communication.

8. Improvement in the Balance of Payment:-Now due to industrialization the share of

manufactured goods is increasing in exports day by day. It is favorable trend for balance of payment.

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 9. Specialization:-Industrialization promotes the specialization which increases the quality and
quantity of product.

10. Importance for Defense:-Industrially developed country can make arms and ammunition for the
defence of the country. Today we can not depend upon other countries.

11. Expansion of Market:-Industries will increase the demand of various goods. So the market
of various gods will expand.

12. Agricultural Development :-Industrialization provides the machinery like tractor and modern
inputs to the agricultural sector. It improves the economic condition of the farmers.

13. Use of Raw Material:-Due to industrialization we can use cotton and sugarcane in the domestic
industries. It has increased the income of the people and there is no need of export raw material.

14. Utilization of Natural Resources:-In some countries are lot of barren land and minerals. There is
a need of industrial development to utilize the resources. Coal, gas, oil resources are available but it sir
in lack of industrialization we cannot use it.

15. Increase in Foreign Exchange Reserve:-Due to industrial development, there will be a rise in
foreign exchange earnings. The exports will rise and imports will fall. Self sufficiency increases with
the industrialization.

16. Economic Stability:-A country which depends upon agriculture sector only can not achieve
economic stability. While industrialization provides economic stability to the country.

9.2 Pre-colonial and colonial industrialization process

Traditionally industrialization in its broad sense includes manufacturing, mining, construction and
utilities such as electricity, water and gas among others. But further, the definition of industrialization
th
during the latter years of the 20 century expanded to refer to a process of development that is balanced
and sustained as far as the economic as well as socio-political realms of any society are concerned.
th
Colonial rule came to Africa as alien rule superimposed from outside mainly in the latter half of the 19
century and established in the midst of on-going (perhaps what were naturally evolving) cultures. It was
exercised either directly or indirectly by predominantly European

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administrators, colonial companies, among other imperial establishments and white settler populations.

In the colonial economy the interest of the colonizing power and its local agents was to extract raw
materials partly for purposes of feeding the industrial machine in Europe as well as raising revenue from
the native populations, exploring markets for the products within the colonial economy and most
importantly exploiting cheap labour for industrial purposes from the native population.

During the colonial era manufacturing in the continent was generally at the handicraft and small scale
levels. In some colonies this was supplemented by some relatively complex industries producing mainly
for export, but also producing for local consumption at the time focusing on food, fibre and wood
processing and metal works in order to meet the needs fast growing urban populations.

During the colonial era, natural resources were selected and exploited
with a view to meeting the needs of the industries in Western Europe.
To this end, infrastructure, particularly all-weather roads and rail roads
were designed and built with the aim of facilitating the shipment of
minerals and agricultural communities from the hinterland to the
seaports for purposes of further shipment overseas. Other components
of the colonial economy such as banking and communication were
mainly established to facilitate this end.

At independence, the African economy inherited an industrial setting characterized by a traditional-

modern dichotomy. The traditional industrial setting is one that had been carried on from the pre-colonial
times, survived the colonial economies and largely covered production and service activities related to
basic household and agricultural needs at a traditional handicraft level by artisans-blacksmiths, porters,
carpenters, carvers and weavers. This traditional industrial setting was practically based on human and
animal power and used mainly local resources in addition to metal scrapes and wastes materials. On the
other side of the dichotomy was the modern industrial setting which involved imported technology,
machinery, equipment materials and production systems.

9.3 Industrialization challenges that faced african countries in the early years of
independence
In the immediate post-independence period, African leaders differed on the strategy most likely to
promote development in their countries. However, they agreed substantially over methods. The
―instrument of both diagnosis and remedy was the development Planǁ. There were three options as far as
development planning was concerned. The first one was the western model of development
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planning (also known as indicative) The western model allowed for the political economy to be shaped by
market forces with limited state interference.
The second was the socialist style of development planning (also known as centralized or imperative
planning). The third was a model that adopted what appeared like a merger of the capitalist and socialist
models. Thus, most countries chose to adopt centrally controlled development planning that was to
operate within a mixed economy-one in which the public and private sectors played a substantial role.

Some countries however chose to follow a purely socialist model in which the state controlled the
economy in terms of who produces what and in what quantities. This was applied in countries like
Tanzania, Mozambique and Guinea-Conakry.

At the same time, a second challenge faced by African leaders was the stark realities confronting their
peoples in the immediate post-independence period: their peoples were faced with poverty, ignorance and
disease. The great challenge posed therefore was one of uplifting the standards of life for their peoples
through the provision of basic needs and the creation of a favorable environment by government-one that
would engender economic growth and the creation of national wealth.
The third challenge was associated with the ideological path that was to guide the development process.
African countries attained political independence at a time when the international political system was
strongly shaped, conditioned and divided by the Cold War. They had to choose whether to adopt the
socialist ideology or adopt the capitalist ideology or even declare their support for the non-aligned
movement. Most African countries chose to be non-aligned and evolved their own ideological styles
under the rubric of African socialism.
Fourthly, at independence African countries inherited an economy that was mostly not indigenous to
them and at the same time this economy (almost in every sector was dominated by foreign companies or
firms which had operated in the colonial economy). This meant that there was a very small domestic
private sector of the indigenous kind. The local populations could not raise enough financial capital to
support the economy.

Map showing industries

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84
9.4 Factors impeding industrialization in africa since the early 1990s

The 1970s and 1980s saw African countries seeking to industrialize using various models. However, as
the 1980s faded away and the 1990s set-in, the African industrialization process experienced fresh
challenges, that acted rather negatively in shaping the industrialization process.

Earlier in the decade of 1970s and 1980s African countries sought to borrow from various bilateral and
multilateral donors in order to finance wealth creation and/or to jump-start the industrialization process. It
so happened that African economies accumulated a lot of debt to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. It
is in mid 1980s that the reality started to dawn on African countries that they were spending much more
on servicing foreign loans than for their domestic growth. It is this state of affairs that in that came to be
known as the Africa debt crisis. In essence therefore the African debt crisis was identified as a major
impeding factor to the industrialization process in Africa.
As such, these countries suffered huge balance of payments deficits. This meant that they lacked
international hard currencies that were vital for the importation of capital goods which were necessary for
the manufacturing and processing industries. As a result of this state of affairs, many African countries
lacked the capacity to exploit the necessary natural resources for manufacturing purposes; in addition to
the relevant technology, as well as liquid capital that is needed to sustain this process.
The end of the Cold War ushered in a new era in which, incumbent forms of poor governance could not
be sustained. As early as 1990 many African governments were faced with armed rebellions which lead
to the deposition of long serving personal dictatorial regimes in countries like Ethiopia, Liberia, Somalia,
Sudan, Rwanda and the former Zaire (DRC Congo). At the same time, former single-party systems were
swiftly replaced by multi party sys tems in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda and
Malawi yet despite these regime changes and the re-adjustments in the African body politic, the African
state continued to suffer a crisis of legitimacy with multi-partism failing to deliver ―the democratization
dreamǁ. At the same time, armed rebellions ignited outright civil war; total destruction, wanton human
suffering, genocide andregime collapse in countries like Burundi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Liberia,
Somalia and more recently, the Western Darfur region of the Sudan. Those political maladies facing the
African state have acted as the major impediments to industrialization on the continent.

Throughout the 1960s through to the 1990s, the international trading system was under the control of the
developed countries of the North under the General Agreement on tariffs and Trade (GATT)
arrangement. This system generally failed to treat African countries as equal players in the international
trading system. In the same token, the World Trade Organization (WTO), which was formed in 1994 to
replace the GATT, also failed to create a favourable environment as far as the place

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 of Africa and the rest of the Third World is concerned. International market shocks, as well as an
international traderegime beyond Africa’s control have continued to act as a major setback to Africa’s
industrialization process.

TOPIC 10.0 TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

Trade is the transfer the ownership of goods or services from one person or entity to another in exchange
for other goods or services or for money. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial
transaction or barter.
Trade can be a key factor in economic development. The prudent use of trade can boost a country's
development and create absolute gains for the trading partners involved. Trade has been touted as an
important tool in the path to development.
Trade is widely accepted as an important engine of economic growth and development. There are many
regions and countries of the world that have been able to lift their peoples from poverty to prosperity
through trade. Although the African economy is characterized by a relatively high degree of openness,
with the ratio of exports and imports to GDP amounting to 55.7% in 2009, trade has not served as a
potent instrument for the achievement of rapid and sustainable economic growth and development for
many of the countries.
As a consequence, Africa remains the most aid-dependent continent of the world, unable to eliminate
poverty through trade.

10.1 African trade (characteristics)

A key feature of Africa’s trade, which has had some adverse implications for its impact on economic
growth and development, is its high external orientation and relatively low level of intra- regional trade.
Intra- African trade stands at around 10 per cent compared to 60 per cent, 40 per cent, 30 per cent intra-
regional trade that has been achieved by Europe, North America and ASEAN respectively.
Even if allowance is made for Africa’s unrecorded informal cross-border trade, the total level of intra -
African trade is not likely to be more than 20 per cent, which is still lower than that of other major
regions of the world.

Africa is characterized by a large number of very small, landlocked markets, which are highly dependent
on neighboring countries, economically.
That African countries do not trade much with each another has meant that they have been unable to fully
harness the synergies and complementarities of their economies and take full advantage of the economies
of scale and other benefits (such as income and employment generation) that greater
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market integration would have provided. There are cases where products and services could have been
sourced competitively from other African countries but were procured from outside the continent

Exports from Africa are heavily concentrated on primary commodities; the continent has been
particularly vulnerable to external macroeconomic shocks and protectionist trade policies

10.2 Limitations to intra-Africa trade

Lack of economic diversification: Many African countries specialize in the same products as their
neighbors, especially commodities like oil and gas. With few complementary goods to exchange with
each other, these countries cannot exploit the gains to be made via comparative advantage

Conflict: Political tension, conflict and violence also diminish the capacity for African states to engage in
intracontinental trade. These factors lead to low levels of economic growth, destroy needed export
infrastructure, and slow and reverse regional integration.

Infrastructure: Infrastructure is and has always been a major issue for Africa, especially for Sub-
Saharan countries. Like conflict, infrastructural deficiencies reduce economic growth and productivity,
and raise transportation costs.
Border Issues: Africa’s notoriously bad customs environment poses yet another impediment to intra-
African trade. The high fees that custom offices charge is part of the problem.

10.3 Programmes to improve African trade

The January 2012 African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government focuses on the theme of
―Boosting Intra-Africa Tradeǁ. The choice of the theme is both appropriate and timely, given the
challenges facing this trade, and the need to come up with strategies to improve the situation. The January
th
2011 AU Summit has also endorsed the recommendation of the 6 Ordinary Session of the AU Ministers
of Trade held in Kigali from 29 October – 2 November 2010 to fast-track the establishment of a
Continental Free Trade Area.
It should be recalled that Africa is pursuing an integration agenda as a collective development and
transformation strategy leading to the eventual creation of a continental market. Regional integration
helps develop larger markets, foster greater competition and improve policy stance in many areas of the
development agenda. And indeed, the pressure of globalization is forcing firms and countries to seek
efficiency through larger markets and enhanced competition. A modern manufacturing plant will have to
produce a larger output than the low level of domestic demand that a single underdeveloped

87
country can absorb. Pooling economies and markets together through regional integration thus provides a
sufficiently wide economic and market space to make economies of scale possible.

To this end, African countries have established the African Union, created various Regional Economic
Communities (RECs), and have held at heart the ideals of the Abuja Treaty establishing the African
Economic Community and the Constitutive Act of the African Union. In this context, the RECs are
pursuing integration through free trade, and developing customs unions and a common market.
Eventually, these efforts are expected to converge to an African Common Market (ACM) and an African
Economic Community (AEC), whereby economic, fiscal, social and sectoral policies will be
continentally uniform. Through such an economic marketplace, Africa can strengthen its economic
independence and empowerment with respect to the rest of the world.

A major aim of these efforts is to expand intra-African trade by breaking down tariffs and non-tariff
barriers and enhancing mutually advantageous commercial relations through trade liberalization schemes,
because trade has made and will continue to make a tremendous contribution to the economies of many
developed and developing countries. Trade enables countries to specialise and export goods that they can
produce cheaply, in exchange for what others can provide at a lower cost. Trade also provides the
material means in terms of capital goods, machinery and raw and semi-finished goods that are critical for
growth. This is a driving force behind economic development. Consequently, if trade is a vehicle to
growth and development, then removing the barriers that inhibit it can only help increase its impact.
Thus, free trade is an important instrument for removing such impediments and promoting greater levels
of trade among African countries.

African leaders are making landmark commitments to boosting intra-African trade. First was the
landmark decision by COMESA, EAC and SADC to establish a single Free Trade Area. The launch of
this tripartite FTA initiative covering 26 African countries, representing more than half of AU
membership, with a combined population of 530 million (57% of Africa’s population) and a total GDP of
$630 billion or 53% of Africa’s total GDP has galvanized interest towards a much broader Continental
FTA. Accordingly, AU Ministers of Trade, at their 6th Ordinary Session in Kigali in November 2010,
after due assessment of the progress made in the implementation of FTAs and Customs Unions in the
various RECs, recommended the fast-tracking of the establishment of an African FTA to unlock the trade
potentials of the continent and position it adequately in the global trading arena.

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African leaders and stakeholders are optimistic that increased trade through initiatives such as the Grand
COMESA-SADC-SADC FTA and other potential inter-RECs’ FTAs will quickly transform into a
continental free trade area, the benefits of which could be enormous. It will enlarge markets for goods
and services, eliminate the problem of multiple and overlapping memberships, enhance customs
cooperation and broader trade facilitation, promote harmonization and coordination of trade instruments
and nomenclature, and broader relaxation of restrictions on movement of goods, persons and services.
The collaboration and cooperation of RECs through the
Continental FTA should further improve regional infrastructure and consolidate regional markets through
improved interconnectivity in all forms of transport and communication as well as promote energy
pooling to enhance the regions’ competitiveness. Finally, the continental FTA will help fast track the
realization of the Abuja Treaty’s vision of an African Common Market, and ultimately, the African
Economic Community (AEC).

10.4 Importance of intra-Africa trade

Foreign exchange earning: trade provides foreign exchange which can be used to remove the poverty
and other productive purposes.

Market expansion:The demand factor plays very important role in increasing the production of any
country. The intra-Africa trade expands the market and encourages the producers.

Increase in investment: intra-Africa trade encourages the investor to increase the investment to produce
more goods. So the rate of investment increases.

Foreign investment: Besides the local investment, intra-Africa trade provides incentives for the foreign
investors to invest in those countries where there is a shortage of investment.

Increase in national income: intra-Africa trade increases the scale of production and national income of
the country. To meet the foreign demand we increase the production on large scale so GNP also
increases.

Decrease in unemployment: With the rise in the demand of goods domestic resources are fully utilized
and it increases the rate of development in the country and reduces the unemployment in Africa.

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Price stability: intra-Africa trade helps to bring stability in price level. All those goods which are
short and prices are increasing can be imported and those goods which are surplus can be exported.
There by stopping fluctuation in prices.

Specialization: There is a difference in the quality and quantity of various factors of production in
different countries. Each country adopts the specialization in the production of those commodities, in
which it has comparative advantage. So all trading countries enjoy profit through international trade.

Remove monopolies: intra-Africa trade also discourages the monopolies. Where every any
monopolist increases the prices, government allows the import of goods to reduce the prices in the
country.

Removal of food shortage: Africa is also facing the food shortage problem. To remove the food
shortage India has imported the wheat many times. So due to foreign trade we are solving this problem
for many years.

Agricultural development: Agricultural development is the back bone in our economy. Intra-Africa
trade will play very important role for the development of our agriculture sector. Every year we export
rice, cotton, fruits and vegetables to other countries. The export of goods makes our farmer more
prosperous. It inspires the spirit of development in them.

To improve quality of local products: intra-Africa trade helps to improve quality of local products
and extends market through changes in demand and supply as foreign trade can create competition
with the rest of the world.

External economics: External economics can also be achieved through intra-Africa trade. The
industries producing foods on large scale in Pakistan and India are enjoying the external economics
due to international trade.

The world peace: Today all the countries are tied in trade relations with each other. So intra-Africa
trade also contributes to peace and prosperity in the world.

Better understanding: intra-Africa trade provides an opportunity to the people of different countries
to meet, discuss, and exchange views and ideas related to their social, economic and political
problems.

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Interdependence: intra-Africa trade is responsible for creating economic depending and establishing
economic interest in the economy of the countries having trade relations.

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