Écologie et histoire en Afrique noire

In: Histoire, économie & société: HES : époches moderne et contemporaine, Band 16, Heft 3, S. 483-504

Abstract

Abstract The first question is to know whether or not a history of the environment is possible, when one knows how poor may be the possible sources. A history of rainfalls is a key question for African history. It now exists, including the precolonial era. From the sixteenth century onwards, we know, as well in the Western Sudan as in coastal Angola or in Ethiopia how and when droughts and famines occurred. Nevertheless, precisions grow better and better from the nineteenth century. For the twentieth century, oral inquiries may prove quite useful. History is not predetermined, and in spite of a vulnerable climate, African societies knew, according to their abilities, how to adapt to natural challenges. But a series of factors made things more and more difficult since modern times. The coeval occurrence of long dry periods of time - which was not an innovation - with a dramatic recent population boom — which is quite a new trend - may for the first time result into non reversable ecological change.