Our dying world: Africa
The Origin of our problems
“The human population in Africa is increasing rapidly,” admits Zambian Richard Bell in the book Conservation in Africa, “but the overall population density is still relatively low except in certain localized concentrations.”
Diseases, wars, devastating droughts, international poaching operations, civil wars, and neglect of rural peasants all contribute to the devastating state of Africa. Flooding, erosion and the rapid growth of the continent’s human population are other factors hastening Africa’s decline.
“True, some parts of Africa, especially around the cities, are overpopulated. Also, rural regions are overgrazed by the livestock of many peasant farmers. For example, consider the populous regions of Venda, Gazankulu, and Kangwane, which border Kruger National Park.
These black homelands were formed as part of South Africa’s former apartheid policy and have population densities of from 180 to over 250 persons per square mile [70 to 100 per sq km]. Traveling through these regions on the way to enjoy a vacation in Kruger National Park can be disturbing”*.
“Communities who live on the borders . . . are poor, mostly unemployed and starving,” explains the South African newspaper Sowetan. “The animals,” notes another local newspaper, The Natal Witness, “live in lush splendor on their side of the fence.”
Copyright – Ubani Alexander Chijioke
