Colonial Famine

Question 1

Comment on the stability of period between 1920 - 1960

Give two reasons for this

Answer 1

Famine relatively uncommon
- partly due to better rainfall
- partly because colonial state ignored local definitions of famine
I.e. Irreversible household impoverishment

Question 2

When did famine return?

Why could thus be?

Answer 2

1968

Due to the decline food production per capita since the early 1960s

Question 3

In the modern day, how self sufficient is Africa regarding food production?

Answer 3

Largely inefficient
- only produce 85% of its total food production
(However it should be considered that Britain has been self sufficient in food production since the 16th century)

Question 4

In what region is soil erosion particularly damaging?

Why is this?

Answer 4

Northern highlands of Ethiopia

Repeated cultivation with the on driven plow

Question 5

In which northern region of Ethiopia had food production been declining for 60 years?

Answer 5

Tigray

Question 6

During colonial rule restrictions were placed on urbanisation causing high population densities. Which area of Southern Africa suffered from this?

Answer 6

Lesotho

Question 7

What is the percentage of cultivable land in Egypt and Algeria?

Answer 7

3 - 4%

Question 8

How did E.P Stebbing fuel the narrative of African environmental self destruction

Answer 8

He wrote ‘the Sahara moving forward, the silent invasion of the great desert’ in 1934 which articulated how west Africa was undergoing progressive desertification and argued that only western science could identify and solve this epidemic as Africans were more oriented towards locality rather than globalism and environmentalism

Question 9

Which two texts fed accusations of African self destruction and soil erosion ?

Answer 9

The Rape of the Earth, Jacks and Whyte
1938

The Spreading Desert, E.P Stebbing
1934

Emphasised that unlike Europeans, Africans failed to control livestock, causing overgrazing - particularly in Nigeria

Question 10

Comment on the 1970s spreading desert

What were the flaw in this study?

Answer 10

Lamphrey used satellite images to demonstrate the desert boundary had moved 100km in the 17 intervening years since E.P Stebbing’s reports

This was exaggerated and extrapolated across the whole continent

Question 11

How did colonialism impact pollution?

Answer 11

Infrastructure - transport links connected people

Employment - wages
Young men contributing to wage economy plus more men getting marriage increasing birth rates

Urbanisation - work factories would group men together - leads to a rise in prostitution