The Environmental History of Africa
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.
Topic Outlines
Introduction: Environmental
history
Africa's environmental macrosystems
Myth making and Narratives
of the African Environment
Sources for environmental
history
Population in African History
Disease in African history
World Disease: Influenza 1918-19
Livestock Disease: Trypanosomiasis
in Tanganyika
Images of Degradation: Creeping
Desert?
Images of Degradation: The
Serengeti
Deforestation in Ethiopia:
A Tale of Two Forests
Pre-colonial agriculture
Big Bang in the Upper Guinea
Forest, 1500-1900
Bananas in Buganda
Roots of African famine,
1984-87
Ethiopia's Agricultural
Paradox
Conservation and Colonialism
in Africa
Africa's environmental future
