Spring 2005 HISTORY History 410: Environmental History of Africa

African history is grounded in geography. Africa's geographical location and structure have, over the course of history, affected the patterns of population movements as well as patterns of natural phenomena with profound results for the continent's history and ecology. Ecological issues constitute one of the most powerful symbols evoked by imperial propaganda between 1750s and 1950s. In the 18th century natural historians and botanists like Henry Smeathman 1771-76 in Banana island of Sierra Leone and the Swedish botanist Adam Afzelius in Guineas in 1792-96 conceived the notion of tropical exuberance and the lazy Negro. According to this notion the African was portrayed "as only too well adjusted to a habitat whose tropical exuberance readily provided his food supply and posed minimal needs . . . in the way of clothing and shelter. With plurality of wives completing this spectacle of sloth, near-nudity, and underutilized economic resources, the provocation of European intervention was intense. Improvement could take place once too easy equilibrium between man and nature was disturbed. New appetites for overseas products must be introduced to lure Africans into dynamic economic processes of the west. Should this prove ineffective, then external patterns of order and discipline—Christianity, political domination, taxes, forced labor—must take charge." This notion compounded of myth and science faltered giving way to other notions that presented Africa as "the white man's grave" and thus the concept of " Africa for Africans."

Even today a large number of laymen, intellectuals and students still understand the African landscape from this viewpoint that seems to portray Africa as "the hard continent—with inhospitable conditions, a situation made worse by the African inability to take control of his own environment."

What was the basis of this notion of Africa for Africans as a biological truth? What were its implications on the environmental history of Africa? How close did western vision of Africa correspond to reality? What was the African standpoint with regard to human-environment relationship? These are some one the questions we will examine.

Although the course is thematically organized, for purposes of setting the issues under review in historical sequence, the chronological span takes into account the three phases of African history—Pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. It will concentrate on environmental changes that took place in Africa from the beginning of colonial period onwards.

This course will examine the interplay between culture and nature in Africa before and after European colonial conquest and the impact of western "scientific knowledge" on African landscape and culture. It will explore how humans shaped, used and misused the environment during the pre-European times and after colonial era. Some of the topics that will be discussed include African forestry and Public parks, "Royal hunters," national game Parks and Reserves and their clash with indigenous people; soil erosion and conservation policies; public health and disease, and urbanization as the watershed of new form of environmental changes in African history. The sources for this course include film, slideshows, archival sources, diaries and secondary sources. The course is also based on reading materials drawn from literature, anthropology, botany, limnology and cultural ecology.