Sub-Saharan Africa I. Defining the Region II. Physical Geography and Environmental Concerns III. The Colonial Legacy: Agriculture and Race.

Sub-Saharan Africa

I. Defining the Region

II. Physical Geography and Environmental Concerns

III. The Colonial Legacy: Agriculture and Race

Defining the Region: Sub-Saharan Africa

• Africa occupies 20% of world’s landmass

• 900 million people, 13% of world’s pop

• 70% is rural• 70% less than

$2/day• 43% under age 15• NIR 2.6%

• Similar livelihoods• Colonial

experience• Slavery• Culturally complex• From the Sahel

south

Africa’s Physiography:

• No major mountain range

• Mt Kilimanjaro, 19000’

• Mt Kenya, 17000’

• A plateau continent• Ethiopian Highlands• South Africa, Great

Escarpment• Most of region above

1000’

• A set of Great Lakes• Rift Valleys (red

lines)

• Several major river basins

• Nile• Niger• Congo• Zambezi

• Poor soils• Adisols• Relatively old

Victoria Falls along the Zambezi River. Where plateaus end, steep escarpments areformed.

African Climate Zones

Largest continent to straddle the equator.

BW/BS*no ocean

influences*high

pressure belts

Af/Aw*latitude*migration of

high pressure

Cf/Cs*latitude*marine ‘west

coast’

Environmental Concerns

*Desertification

*Wildlife Management

Desertification—the Sahel.*Zone of ecological transition

*Overpopulation?*Droughts 1968-74, 1980s

*Overgrazing?*Transhumance

*Colonial influence?

2003Niger

1975Niger

Niger: solutions to desertification—reforestation. Grassroots effort led to change in government policy.

Drought of 1985 and farmers action led to policy change by the 1990s

Wildlife Conservation*European hunt for

sport

*Game Reserves

*Tourism/Tribes

*Poaching

The white rhino, South Africa.

*50% loss of ‘big animals’ in last 40 years

*100 years ago, all rhino types numbered in the 100,000s; today about 10-15,000 remain, with some almost entirely gone

*Lions: 400,000 50 years ago to 20,000 today

*Elephants: 50% loss since 1980s

• Images of agriculture failure

• BUT, African countries supply massive quantities of coffee,

cotton, sugar, tea, cocoa & vegetables to European & American markets

Images of African Agriculture

The paradox of African agriculture:

Despite the majority of the population being farmers, and very high levels of exported goods, Africa is now a net importer of food.And experiences high levels of Food Insecurity!

Growing Africa’s Food Markets--The World Bank, 11 Mar

2013.

The region has gone from a net exporter, to a net importer of agricultural goods. When did this shift occur?

Neo-Malthusianism: Thomas Malthus, an 18th century political economist: overpopulation is the cause of food insecurity and famine.

Amartya Sen: 1998 Nobel Prize winning economist argued that food insecurity is not a problem of production but of access.

What causes food insecurity?

Percent of the population undernourished.

1/3 of Africans are consideredundernourished.

As other regions have improved (Asia), Sub Saharan has plateaued.

Asia Sub Saharan AfricaLatin AmericaSouthwest Asia All LDCs

The Colonial Legacy:1880s – 1950s…

Africans forced to become “Peasant Producers.”

*Hut Taxes

*Cash Cropping of luxury, non-staple products such as coffee, cocoa, tea, peanuts, cashews, tobacco, sugar and cotton

Independence—1950s & beyond

*Post independence projects targetedrural development: dams, irrigation systems

*Emphasized food security through modernization of peasant agriculture and through government support of farmers (food subsidies).

*Introduced green revolution technology, which had huge success in raising yields in South Asia. These very expensive packages also required much government subsidization.

*Much aid came into Africa post-independence, money for rural development projects.

*Big Success! Exports exceed imports until 1980s!

The Lost Decade: The 1980s

*Economies slow—oil crisis…rising transportation costs…looming debt

*Increasingly difficult for governments to maintain subsidies—rural producers were guaranteed prices, no matter their distance from the market

*Turn to Imports because they are cheaper to feed the urban areas

*Rural producers left to fend for themselves.

Neoliberal Solutions*IMF Intervention in 1980s.

--end subsidies of fertilizer/seed packages to rural producers & yields drop for rural producers

--no longer competitive, market collapses for them--end of money for rural health, education, infrastructure (social

services)--emphasis on cash cropping once again (most of which are

inedible) and often use the best lands.

Yields of African cereal grains compared to yields in other regions.

What makes US agriculture sostrong?

And a steady rise in the reliance on imports of staple grains.

Grain imports to Africa, 1970–2006 Wheat imports, 1970–2006

Source: FAO trade statistics, 2009, http://faostat.fao.org.(Food and Agriculture Organization

Impacts:*rural agriculture falls farther behind*younger generation abandoning rural areas for cities*diminishing yields in subsistence agric—no fallback as import prices fluctuate*changes in diet—preference for imported grains

Solutions? Let small-scale agriculture die

Technology is the answer—biotechnology

Agribusiness

110 million acres were sold in 2009 (size of CA & WV)

Madagascar sold 50% of its arable land to a South Korean corporation in 2009

China is a leading investor in the region

Revive small-scale farmers

The Spatial Expression of

Race and Racism

in South Africa *Dutch & British South Africa

*Apartheid, 1948

*The Landscape of Racism

*Resistance

*Dutch arrive in South Africa as early as the 1600s—Cape Town.*British arrive in 1806 and take the Cape.*Afrikaners move inland—northeast: Orange Free State, South African Rep.*British defeat Zulus in 1878, protect Dutch.*Boer War: Afrikaners vs British, leads to independent, unified South Africa, 1910.

Apartheid laws become official in 1948 after win of the Afrikaner National Party, Running on a platform of BASKAAP.

Apartheid is enforced at three scales: grand (national), petty (individual) and township (neighborhood).

Marginalization reinforced through Bantu Education

Resistance to ApartheidSoweto Uprising June, 1976Stephen BikoNelson Mandela

First democratic elections in South Africa are held in 1994, three years after the repeal of Apartheid laws. Nelson Mandela was elected president.

Beginning on April 7, more than 1 million men, women, and children lost their lives in a period of 100 days; primary weapon was machete.

Approximately 10% of the country’s population was killed and millions were displaced.

Prompted by a plane crash that killed the Hutu leaders of Rwanda & Burundi.

1994 Rwandan Genocide: colonial roots in the construction of identity

Pre-Colonial Rwanda

Ethnic or socio-economic divisions?

Tutsi means ‘rich in cattle’

Hutu means ‘servant’

Shared language, religion, intermarriage, cohabitated.

Banyarwanda ethnic group.

How did colonialism re-shape these identities?

King of Rwanda with Belgian General

Colonial Rwanda: Fixing Identity and Ethnic Difference

Germans (1894) then Belgians (after WWI)—using internal divisions to strengthen control.

Germans ruled through Tutsi King

Belgians openly racist: The governmentshould endeavor to maintain and consolidatetraditional cadres composed of the Tutsiruling class, because of its important qualities,its undeniable intellectual superiority and itsruling potential

ID Cards, 1930: Hutu, Tutsi, Twa. Eachlevel has privileges denied to those belowthem.

Physical typology used to classify and fixsocial status and identity. No longer fluididentities.

Ethnic Hierarchy to Divide and Conquer

Racism a tool for control— “…the colonial experience in Rwanda helped to solidify and radicalize ethnic differences….became a powerful way of organizing social relations, politics, and individual sentiment.”—Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities.

Groups internalize this racial hierarchy, resentment builds.

During decolonization (1961), rise of Hutu elites, strike back against the Tutsi leadership.

Rise of Hutu Nationalism Anti-colonial rhetoric utilizes idea of racial differentiation.

The ‘rise’ of the Hutus—the ‘original’ inhabitants of Rwanda!

The ‘foreign’ Tutsis were the brutal subjugators, colluding with European colonial power.

Must re-take what is rightfully theirs

Couched in the discourse of democracy—West supports it

Hutu government institutes

Quota system to limit Tutsi access to jobs, education

Ethnic ID Cards

Reserves army and diplomatic positions for Hutus only

How does this lead to Genocide?

Rwanda remains poor

Created distrust, dissatisfaction

Military threats

International pressure to share power

Racism as a political tool of deflection

Mobs organized to attack Tutsis

Tutsis described in media, political rallies as ‘enemy within’

Create an environment of ‘ethnic fear,’ organizing, legitimizing violence—desensitize people to violence

Three Phases of Mass ViolenceKelman & Hamilton: Crimes of Obedience: Toward a Social Psychologyof Authority and Responsibility

Authorization

Absolves individuals of responsibility to make moral choices

Routinization

Action becomes so normalized that there is no opportunity to raise moral questions

Dehumanization

Actors’ attitude toward the targets and toward themselves become so structured that it is neither necessary nor possible for them to view the relationship in moral terms