The Environmental History of Africa
Course Coverage
This course will focus on the evolution of African environmental and ecological systems over the past 200 years. Subjects will include aspects of the physical environment such as climatic change and hydrology, as well as key issues of human/environmental interaction, such as agriculture, deforestation, conservation, famine, and the role of colonialism and economic development in environmental change. The course will also examine the ways in which outsiders have created and sustained myths about the African environment and how Africans have managed their natural resources. The final section of the course will examine the causes and social effects of famine. The course will cover most geographical regions of Africa with special attention to East Africa.
Suggested Prerequisites
This course is intended for undergraduate and graduate students and includes supplemental readings for graduate students who wish to pursue to topic in more depth. It has no formal course prerequisites in terms of student exposure to African history or environmental studies, though students with backgrounds in either of these fields will benefit from new perspectives offered. The course assumes that students have a basic knowledge of African geography and/or at least have completed some advanced work in history. Taking at least one previous course with African content will be helpful in that regard but is not required.
For students (or instructors) who wish to obtain a background on the general issues involved in African history I recommend a general text provided with the course materials, John Illife, Africa: History of a Continent (Cambridge, 1995).
Teaching Method
This course uses a combination of outlined lectures, reading, focused discussion, and data bank images to present and analyze course content. It also includes recommendations for film/video materials that are available internationally and/or from Boston University's African Outreach Library. Beyond the historical content of the course, students will be given experience in expository writing, library research, and group discussion skills. There is also a set of suggested group projects that range from designing a museum exhibition to developing a course unit on a particular country's environmental issues.
In addition to lectures, class meetings will consist of occasional group discussions. In the first half of the course groups will discuss readings and questions posed by the instructor and suggested in this website. During the second half of the course each group will undertake a group project that involves research in local libraries and environmental institutions.
Images
Attached to this website (and included in the CD Rom version) is a set of images that illustrate some of the themes developed in the course. These images appear in a JPEG format and may be viewed on the screen, downloaded, or printed as transparencies, depending on local resources and instructor preferences. The set of images is illustrative, but by no means exhaustive in their range and quality.
Evaluation
The course includes several suggested means of evaluation that include short (3-4 page) opinion papers that integrate reading assignments with lecture material. The course evaluation may also include a final exam in a take-home format. Examples of essay questions and final exams are included in the supplementary materials section.
How to Use the Topic Outline Format
This website includes a series of lecture/topic outlines for each of the weekly topics listed below. The intent of these outlines is to serve only as a guideline for the instructor to develop his/her own course structure. They are necessarily idiosyncratic, though as a whole they attempt to suggest a way of organizing key themes in African environmental history. In addition to the outlines themselves, they include suggested reading, film, and discussion exercises that will stimulate students to think through issues of policy, perception, and the role of future research. Instructors should consider developing supporting topics and themes, as well as collection of locally relevant materials on issues of environmental management.
Reading
Books:
Helge Kjekshus, Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History (Athens, OH).
Gregory Maddox, James Giblin, and Isaria Kimambo, Custodians of the Land (Athens, OH).
James C McCann. Green Land, Brown Land, Black Land: An Environmental History of Africa (Portsmouth and Oxford, 1999).
William Beinart William and Peter Coates. Environment and History (London).
Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns, The Lie of the Land (Portsmouth, 1996).
Jonathan Adams and Thomas McShane, The Myth of Wild Africa (Berkeley, 1992).
David Anderson and Richard Grove, eds. Conservation in Africa: people, policies and practice (Cambridge, 1987).
Articles for Student Reading (included in Reading Packets):
David Anderson, "Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Conservation in East Africa during the 1930s," African Affairs, 83 (1984), 321-43.
Allan Hoben, "The Origins of Famine," New Republic (January 21, 1985), 17-19.
Douglas Johnson, "Political Ecology in the Upper Nile: The Twentieth Century Expansion of the Pastoral Common Ecology," Journal of African History, 30 (1989), 463-86.
Michael Lofchie, "The Roots of Economic Crisis in Tanzania," Current History (April 1985), 159-63, 184-86
James C. McCann, "A Great Agrarian Cycle? Productivity in Highland Ethiopia," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XX (Winter 1990), 389-416.
James C. McCann, "Review Article: Agriculture and African History," Journal of African History, 32 (1991), 507-14.
James C. McCann, "Climate and Causation in African History," International Journal of African Historical Studies, 32 (1999), 261-280.
Mwelma C. Musambachime, "The Fate of the Nile Crocodile in African Waterways," African Affairs, 86 (1987), 197-207.
Edward Steinhart, "Hunters, Poachers and Gamekeepers: Towards A Social History of Hunting in Colonial Kenya," Journal of African History, 30 (1989), 247-64.
J.E.G. Sutton, " Irrigation and Soil Conservation in African Agricultural History," Journal of African History, 25 (1984), 25-41.
John Tierney, "Fanisi's Choice," Science, 86 (January/February 1986), 26-42.
John Tosh, "Lango Agriculture during the Early Colonial Period: Land and Labour in a Cash-Crop Economy," Journal of African History, 19 (1978), 415-39.
Richard Waller, "Tsetse Fly in Western Narok, Kenya," Journal of African History 31 (1990), 81-101.
Articles for Instructor Reference:
Christopher Ehret, "On the Antiquity of Agriculture in Ethiopia," Journal of African History, 20 (1979), 161-77.
John Illife, "Review Article: The Origins of African Population Growth," Journal of African History, 30 (1989), 165-69.
James Giblin, "Trypanosomiasis Control in African History: An Evaded Issue," Journal of African History, 31 (1990), 59-80.
Sharon Nicholson, "The Methodology of Historical Climate Reconstruction and Its Application to Africa," Journal of African History, 20 (1979), 31-49.
Working Papers (Included in Institutional Reading Packets):
Global Warming and Regional Environmental Change: Winners and Losers in Africa, by Michael H. Glantz, WP 162 (1991).
Productivity and Environmental Conservation under Rapid Population Growth: A Case Study of Machakos District, by Mary Tiffen, WP 170 (1993).
Integrating the History of Land Use into Epidemiology: Settler Agriculture as a Cause of Disease in Zimbabwe, by James Giblin, WP 176 (1994).
Early Experiences of Soil Conservation in Southern Africa: Segregated Programs and Rural Resistance, by Kate B. Showers, WP 184 (1994).
Deforestation History and the Ecology of Swidden Fallows in Sierra Leone, by A. Endre Nyerges, WP 185 (1994).
From Exclusion to Participation: A History of Forest Access Control in Eastern Senegal, by Jesse C. Ribot, WP 187 (1994).
French and British Colonial Forest Policies: Past and Present Implications for Côte D'Ivoire and Ghana, by Marc P.E. Parren, WP 188 (1994).
A Hundred Years of Crisis? Environment and Development Narratives in Ukambani, Kenya, by Dianne E. Rocheleau, Philip E. Steinberg, and Patricia A. Benjamin, WP 189 (1994).
Forest Conservation and Central African Cities: Kinshasa, Libreville, and Yaounde, by Theodore Trefon, WP 200 (1995).
Gully Erosion in Lesotho and the Development of Historical Environmental Impact Assessment, by Kate Showers, WP 201 (1995).
Lords of the Flies: British Sleeping Sickness Policies as Environmental Engineering in the Lake Victoria Region, 1900-1950, by Kirk Arden Hoppe, WP203 (1995).
Colonial and Post-Apartheid Water Projects in Southern Africa: Political Agendas and Environmental Consequences, by Kate B. Showers, WP 214 (1998).
The Human Exploitation of Local Environmental Variations on the Mbulu Highlands, Northern Tanzania, 1920s-1950s, by Yusufu Qwaray Lawi, WP 221 (1999).
Maize and Grace: History, Corn, and Africa's New Landscapes, 1500-1999, by James C. McCann, WP 223 (1999).
The Sacred Forests of North Pare, Tanzania: Indigenous Conservation, Local Politics, and Land Tenure, by Michael J. Sheridan, WP 224 (2000).
The Environmental Consequences of Independence and Socialism in North Pare, Tanzania, 1961-1988, by Michael Sheridan, WP 233 (2000).
Suggested Films and Videos:
King Solomon's Mines (Boston University Krasker Film Library)
Maragoli (Boston Unversity Krasker Film Library)
The Desert Doesn't Bloom Here Anymore (PBS, Nova)
Second Nature (Boston University, African Studies Outreach Library)
