Ecological Change and the Politics of African Land Use

Abstract

This essay explores ground common to ecology and politics. It addresses the question to what extent and in what ways are ecological ideas political ideas. The discussion, divided into five man sections, endeavors to steer a course between the pitfalls of environmental determinism on the one hand and economic reductionism on the other.The first section deals with the link between population processes and land use. Explanations stressing population increase as the driving force behind agricultural change are contrasted with arguments in which demographic fluctuations are treated as responses to economic imperatives. An example of the second kind of approach is Meillassoux's attempt to reconstruct the demographic dynamic of a precapitalist, lineage, mode of production. This is but one of a number of attempts to construct models of “natural economy” as starting points for discussions of the penetration of African agriculture by capitalism. Against the assumptions on which such models are based it is argued here, and in later sections of the paper, that the demographic and ecological processes subsumed under the category “natural economy” (or alternatively, “precapitalist subsistence production”) are more plausibly viewed as products of capitalism and colonialism. An example from southern Nigeria in the early colonial period is used to suggest that the kind of evidence on which Meillassoux's reconstruction is based is a complex ideological by-product of factional politics in an economy dominated by merchant capital.The second section of the paper focuses on the topic of the ecology of disease in Africa. Special attention is paid to John Ford's (1971) work on the ecology of trypanosomiasis. Critical of colonial scientific orthodoxy, and of colonialism itself (properly treated as a factor in the spread of sleeping sickness in Africa in the twentieth century), Ford's book has received some attention from Africanists in the social sciences and humanities. It is probably fair to say, however, that the originality of the book's ecological argument has yet to have its full impact on such readers. This is the justification for substantial summary of one of Ford's case studies. The significance of this case study is that is illustrates the ecological complexity characteristic of trypanosomiasis, and of a number of other African epidemic diseases, and the importance of local knowledge and initiative in adapting to such diseases.

Breakdown of plant residues with contrasting chemical compositions under humid tropical conditions: Effects of earthworms and millipedes

“…Leach (1949) elaborated the theory that intensive and extensive farming methods can be part of the same farming system (in the sense of knowledge available to farmers) depending on relative population pressure. Several case studies in the literature describe a population's shift from intensive to extensive cultivation (Bartlett 1956, Richards 1983, Berry 1984. Thus, a lransformation from extensive to intensive agriculture is by no mcans automatic or uniform, and its causes are multifaceted.…”

Improving recommendations resulting from on-farm research: agroforestry, risk, profitability and vulnerability in southern Malawi

“…Finally, there has been growing recognition that development projects have failed, and agricultural technology adoption has been limited, due to failures of simplistic top-down development projects that have frequently overlooked local knowledge, as well as farmers' distinct needs and concerns (Richards, 1983; Barrios and Trejo, 2003). In response, agronomic research has increasingly incorporated socioeconomic analysis of cropping systems using methodologies such as rapid rural appraisals, farmer preference rankings (e.g.…”

Global Perspectives on Recognising Non-formal and Informal Learning

“…In taking issue with Castells' The Rise of the Network Society (1996), and calling for Science to open up to the knowledge of the people, Visvanathan (2001, p. 4) criticises Castells' network society as lacking an explicit theory of knowledge or the varieties of knowledge. Citing Richards (1983) on African models of farming, Visvanathan makes a point about varieties.…”