Suchergebnisse

A descriptive overview of a continent whose environment is considered under: (1) barriers to early penetration, (2) physical environment as a limiting factor, (3) geology & topography, (4) climate & natural vegetation, (5) diversities in modes of life, (6) international trade, (7) & (8) prospects for change. 'Throughout much of Africa...the course of man's life is still dictated in large measure by the physical environment.' Essential features of landscape are conditioned by climate and vegetation. While there is much uniformity of conditions over wide land areas altitude makes for variation: & is rainfall. The modes of life may be categorized into: cultivators, pastoralists, or 'mixed farmers.' Except for some cultivation of the vineyards of French N. Africa & horticulture around Cape Town, methods of cultivation are primitive. Keeping of livestock is limited by the incidence of diseases. Scientific methods have begun to control these but these operations have been impeded by the presence of wild game, & social habits which measure wealth in terms of the number of livestock. Pop figures are uncertain; an estimate of 1.75 million + 25% is commonly used. Under this estimate the mean pop density is 15 per square mile which suggests under pop. There is wide variation in this with Kenya having more than 300 per square mile & N. Rhodesia 6. The variations in pop density & topography creates the problem of overpop in some areas. This has been met in the past by migration following the needs of mining & estate labor. Recently the development of land reclamation projects & other integrated econ developments have opened by the possibility of utilizing surplus pop locally rather than creating a migratory labor stream. Vested employer interests have voiced opposition to such internal planning. Urbanization is new & rapidly increasing, which has had a growth parallel with commercial & admin've developments. Existing Ur centers have continued to grow & numerous small centers have developed; thus in the Gold Coast there are some 60 towns with 4,000+ inhabitants. Prospects for change will be affected by pol reorganization, new concepts of econ development such as the British Colonial Development Corporation & the French Fonds d'Investissement pour le Developpe ent Economique et Social des Territoires d'Outre-Mer, & by comprehensive econ planning such as the Volta River scheme in W. Africa.