The Environmental History of Africa
Themes and Topics
Theme 1: Environment as History
Introduction: Environmental
history
Africa's environmental macrosystems
Reading:
McCann, Green Land, pp. 1-51 (see also Introductory Essay in this website).
Maddox, Giblin, and Kimambo, Custodians of the Land, 175-99.
Theme 2: What We Know (or Think We Know) about Africa's
Environmental Past
Myth making and Narratives
of the African Environment
Sources for environmental
history
Reading:
Adams and McShane, The Myth of Wild Africa, 1-36 (if available).
Maddox, Giblin, and Kimambo, Custodians of the Land, 1-14.
Gully Erosion in Lesotho and the Development of Historical Environmental Impact Assessment, by Kate Showers, WP 201 (1995).
Theme 3: Population
Population in African History
Reading:
Kjekshus, Ecology Control, 1-50.
Maddox, et. al, Custodians, 15-65.
Productivity and Environmental Conservation under Rapid Population Growth: A Case Study of Machakos District, by Mary Tiffen, WP 170 (1993).
Theme 4: Disease
Disease in African history
World Disease: Influenza
1918-19
Livestock Disease: Trypanosomiasis
in Tanganyika
Reading:
Maddox, et. al., Custodians, 127-151.
Waller, "Tsetse Fly in Western Narok, Kenya," [library packet]
Kjekshus, Ecology Control, pp. 51-79.
Integrating the History of Land Use into Epidemiology: Settler Agriculture as a Cause of Disease in Zimbabwe, by James Giblin, WP 176 (1994).
Theme 5: Degradation of Africa's Resources?
Images of Degradation: Creeping
Desert?
Images of Degradation:
The Serengeti
Deforestation in Ethiopia:
A Tale of Two Forests
Reading:
McCann, Green Land, 55-108.
Maddox, et. al., Custodians of the Land, 96-122.
Leach and Mearns, Lie of the Land, Chapters 1, 4, and 6.
Adams and McShane, The Myth Wild Africa, 37-84.
Deforestation History and the Ecology of Swidden Fallows in Sierra Leone, by A. Endre Nyerges, WP 185 (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).
The Human Exploitation of Local Environmental Variations on the Mbulu Highlands, Northern Tanzania, 1920s-1950s, by Yusufu Qwaray Lawi, WP 221 (1999).
Theme 6: Agriculture
Pre-colonial agriculture
Big Bang in the Upper
Guinea Forest, 1500-1900
Bananas in Buganda
Reading:
McCann, Green Land, 109-140.
Kjekshus, Ecology Control, 70-185.
Maize and Grace: History, Corn, and Africa's New Landscapes, 1500-1999, by James C. McCann, WP 223 (1999).
Theme 7: Famine
Roots of African famine,
1984-87
Ethiopia's Agricultural
Paradox
Reading:
McCann, "A Great Agrarian Cycle?" [reading packet]
Lofchie, "Roots of Economic Crisis in Tanzania." [reading packet]
Hoben, "Ethiopia's Famine" [reading packet]
Theme 8: Conservation and the Colonial Experience
Conservation and Colonialism
in Africa
Reading:
Leach and Mearns, Lie of the Land, Chapter 11.
Lords of the Flies: British Sleeping Sickness Policies as Environmental Engineering in the Lake Victoria Region, 1900-1950, by Kirk Arden Hoppe, WP203 (1995).
Early Experiences of Soil Conservation in Southern Africa: Segregated Programs and Rural Resistance, by Kate B. Showers, WP 184 (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).
The Sacred Forests of North Pare, Tanzania: Indigenous Conservation, Local Politics, and Land Tenure, by Michael J. Sheridan, WP 224 (2000).
Theme 9: The Future
Africa's environmental
future
Reading:
Beinart and Coates, Environment and History, 17-114.
Maddox, et. al., Custodians of the Land, 200-212.
Adams and McShane, The Myth Wild Africa, 85-159.
Global Warming and Regional Environmental Change: Winners and Losers in Africa, by Michael H. Glantz, WP 162 (1991).
Forest Conservation and Central African Cities: Kinshasa, Libreville, and Yaounde, by Theodore Trefon, WP 200 (1995).
Paradigms and Politics: The Cultural Construction of Environmental Policy in Ethiopia, by Allan Hoben, WP 193 (1995).
Colonial and Post-Apartheid Water Projects in Southern Africa: Political Agendas and Environmental Consequences, by Kate B. Showers, WP 214 (1998).
The Sacred Forests of North Pare, Tanzania: Indigenous Conservation, Local Politics, and Land Tenure, by Michael J. Sheridan, WP 224 (2000).
