Africa

D1

e

Land Use and Ownership

Before Africa was colonized, Africans farmed or herded with little or no regard for land ownership. Land was shared by clans, communities, or ethnic groups, and was often shared between groups as well. One group may have farmed a piece of land for part of the year, while another group grazed livestock on the land while it lay fallow (unfarmed) the rest of the year.

The concept of exclusive land ownership was introduced by colonists, who, in many areas, seized the best farmland in order to grow export crops. Less fertile areas were left for indigenous Africans, who farmed them in small, fragmented plots. This process was fostered by many independent African governments, which seized further communal farmland for private, corporate, or governmental use. Eventually, smallholders’ plots became increasingly subdivided into smaller fragments in order to provide at least some land to each of the growing generation of village families. Fallow periods, essential to maintaining the fertility of the soil, have been steadily reduced because all available land has been brought into cultivation. In addition, many smallholder farmers, unsure about the future of their farms in light of land seizures, began to favor short-term crops. In doing so, they abandoned traditional practices of crop rotation and intercropping—planting soil-depleting cereal crops and soil-restoring legume crops on the same land, either one after another or at the same time. Many farms became infertile, further reducing the amount of land available to smallholders. Coupled with recurrent drought, these conditions have brought serious food shortages to much of sub-Saharan Africa.

Many African governments have consequently faced the need for land reform. In some countries, land reform measures and rural development schemes initiated soon after independence gave smallholder farmers ownership of or leasehold rights to the small parcels of land they were already working as tenant farmers. Many African governments have resorted to nationalization of land assets with the presumed claim of better land distribution among the landless. In some countries, such as Ethiopia, land reform has been manipulated for political purposes, and mismanagement and corruption has harmed agricultural production. In other countries, such as Zimbabwe, the best lands remained in the hands of European settlers and were not redistributed after independence.

D1

f

Agricultural Output

There were encouraging trends for African agriculture in the early 21st century. With the exception of countries that faced political turmoil in the 1990s, much of Africa—including countries with large populations, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe—showed impressive growth in agricultural production. Profits from agriculture rose significantly in the 1990s and outperformed the previous decade. African policymakers remain concerned about population growth outpacing the growth of food production, but current trends point toward a more optimistic scenario for Africa’s food supply.

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D

2

Forestry

Although about one-fifth of the continent is covered by forest, there is relatively little forest industry in Africa. Most felled trees are cut down to clear land for farms or, to a lesser extent, to supply fuelwood. The most desirable timber trees are mahogany, obeche, iroko, and other tropical hardwoods. Tropical forests rarely offer dense stands of a single species, however, inhibiting massive logging operations. Selective cutting is very expensive, especially in the interior where transport costs become prohibitive.

In 2006 African countries exported $4 billion of forest products. The largest exporters were South Africa, Cameroon, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana. Countries with greater levels of industrialization were more likely to process timber into sawnwood for export, which is typically more profitable than exporting uncut timber. For example, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana cut or otherwise processed almost all of their exported forest products, while Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Liberia exported almost all of their forest products unprocessed.

D

3

Fishing

Fish is not a major staple food in the savanna and highland zones of Africa, where there is a relative abundance of livestock as a source of protein. However, in the tropical forest margins of the West African coast, fish is a crucial source of protein and, in dried form, a common condiment. Principal grounds for marine fish such as tuna, sardines, and hake are found off the West African coast from Morocco to Senegal, and from Angola and Namibia. The Nile, Niger, Congo, and Sénégal rivers and Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, Malawi, and Chad are major sources of freshwater fish. The most common freshwater catch is the Nile perch.

In 1999 African fishers caught a total of 6.3 million metric tons of fish, of which 3.8 million metric tons were marine fish. Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria were the top African countries in total fish catch; and Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Senegal, and Libya exported the most fish. Morocco is also the leader in fish-processing industries, producing more canned fish, fish oil, and fish meal than any other African country.

D

4

Mining

Africa plays a very important role in the global mineral economy, producing about three-quarters of the world’s cobalt; half of the global supply of platinum, chromium, and diamonds; approximately one-third of all gold, manganese, and uranium; one-fifth of all bauxite; and one-tenth of the world’s petroleum. Minerals account for at least half of export earnings in 12 African countries, and 90 percent or more of exports in Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, and Zambia. The countries of the Sahel and East Africa, where mineral production is unimportant, are notable exceptions.

North Africa is one of the world’s major centers of oil production, and Libya, Algeria, and Egypt are among Africa’s top producers of crude petroleum. Algeria has vast reserves of natural gas as well. North Africa is also rich in phosphate deposits and production, Morocco being a leader in world output. Of lesser significance in the region are coal, iron ore, uranium, platinum, lead, zinc, and cobalt.

West and Central Africa also contain significant oil reserves. Nigeria is Africa’s top petroleum producer, and Angola, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo are other important oil-producing countries. West and Central Africa also possess some of the world’s most significant sources of cobalt, manganese, potash, bauxite, and copper. Guinea has about one-third of the world’s reserves of bauxite, the commercial source of aluminum. Other minerals of economic significance are iron ore, gold, diamonds, tin, uranium, phosphate, columbite, and titanium.

Southern Africa is one of the world's richest sources of gold, diamonds, and several rare metals. South Africa has the largest and most diverse mineral economy, and is a leading producer of gold and of uncut diamonds. Zimbabwe is also an important producer of gold, and Botswana and Namibia are important producers of diamonds. Other important minerals produced in southern Africa include chromium, cobalt, antimony, uranium, lithium, nickel, manganese, asbestos, platinum, titanium, and vanadium.

The economies of African countries that are heavily dependent on one principal mineral export are seriously affected by price declines in the world market. Recent decades have seen destabilizing shifts in the price of Zambia’s copper, Guinea’s bauxite, and Togo’s phosphate.

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