Land Use Change in the 'Harsh Lands' of West Africa

The Sahel and Sudan zones are the "harsh lands" of West Africa.' These arid and semi-arid lands include parts of present day Senegal, Mali, Northern Ghana, Mauritania, Niger, Northern Benin, Upper Volta, Chad, and Northern Nigeria (Map 1). "Harsh lands" denotes a region of extreme environmental uncertainty, but one in which man has learned to survive by exploiting their inherent qualities and the productive capability of their micro-environments, by forming cooperative relations with people of contrasting, but complementary life styles, and by constructing biologically enriched habitats in which select plants can grow. These survival techniques are commonly employed by farmers and nomads throughout West Africa, and while they may not be highly productive by western standards, they are highly dependable. The people of these harsh lands never depend entirely on the resource endowment of their region for survival. Inter-ethnic exchange, both within and between territories, is a fundamental strategy for aquiring supplementary food in poor harvest years. Self-sufficiency is a concept foreign to the economic history of West Africans.