State capacity matters for growth. I test Bates' explanation of pre-colonial African states. He argues that trade across ecological boundaries promoted states. I find that African societies in ecologically diverse environments had more centralized states. This is robust to reverse causation, omitted heterogeneity, and alternative interpretations of the link between diversity and states. The result survives including non-African societies. I test mechanisms connecting trade to states, and find that trade supported class stratification between rulers and ruled. I underscore the importance of ethnic institutions and inform our knowledge of the effects of trade on institutions.

/pdf/ecology-trade-and-states-in-pre-colonial-africa-35ta2xsksh.pdf

Ecology, Trade, and States in Pre-Colonial Africa

Comparative regional analysis of Africa provides insights into the effects of climatic variation on land use. This information can be used to predict effects of future climatic change. This article discusses the following two areas in depth: precipitation patterns and land use including temporal precipitation patterns, seasonality, interannual variability, and long term trends; Seasonality, interannual variability and land use including agriculture and range vegetation and pastoralism. Numerous examples are presented. The authors conclude by integrating the regional information with global predictions and the problems of interactions among climate, ecosystems, land use and human culture. 80 refs., 6 figs.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1312384.pdf

Climate Patterns and Land-Use Practices in the Dry Zones of Africa

Competition between wildlife and livestock is reviewed using published material on competition between wildlife and livestock and between different ungulate species in Africa and elsewhere. Different types of competition are discerned, and the effect of predators on livestock is reviewed too. Information on competition is scarce. Even though diet overlap between livestock and some African ungulates is considerable, there is too little evidence on food limitation of livestock populations; this makes the conclusion that livestock numbers are (potentially) reduced by the presence of wildlife untenable. Wildlife numbers, however, are negatively affected by livestock numbers. This is mainly due to human activities, including habitat modification, direct and indirect extermination, and denial of access to resources. Diffuse competition, that is, competition between livestock and guilds of wild herbivores within which specific species that are negatively affected cannot be indicated, appears important too.

Competition Between Wildlife and Livestock in Africa

A significant change in the geography of livestock raising over the past 30 years is the southerly movement of FulBe herds into the humid Sudanian and Guinean savannas of West Africa. The literature suggests that the severe droughts of the early 1970s and mid-1980s were the driving force behind this southern expansion of mobile livestock raising. The conventional view is that drought forced herders to seek greener pastures to the south, an area that zebu cattle have previously avoided because of the presence of tsetse flies, the vector of animal sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). This “sudden push” hypothesis places Sahelian herds in savanna pastures in a matter of a 1–3 years. This stimulus-response model runs counter to our observations and understanding of the social and ecological processes influencing FulBe herd movements. We challenge the “sudden shift” thesis at the regional scale by arguing that the southerly expansion of FulBe herds has proceeded according to a more complex temporal frame that includes generational, biological, and social historical timeframes and periodicities. We distinguish between short-term shifts (“test movements”) and more permanent shifts (“migration movements”). These mobility patterns are linked to contingent factors such as cattle diseases, drought, and political instability, as well as to more structural and adaptive features such as the establishment of social networks, herding contracts, and cattle cross-breeding. Shifts in livestock ownership and the social differentiation among herders are important variables for understanding changes in herd movements. We conclude that the permanent shift of herds to the humid savannas of West Africa has been preceded by a series of social and agroecological adjustments that operate on decadal and generational time scales.

Sudden Shift or Migratory Drift? FulBe Herd Movements to the Sudano-Guinean Region of West Africa

Dryland Climatology: Life and change in the dryland regions

The Desert-Side Economy of the Central Sudan

Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960. Volume Four: The Economics of Colonialism

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The Desert-Side Economy of the Central Sudan

Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960. Volume Four: The Economics of Colonialism