ABSTRACT
In the past, Africa has been a continent short of people rather than land. The presence of domestic slavery long before the colonial powers arrived, and continuing in some places until independence, testifies to the importance of owning labour. However, in a study of Africa’s population, there is as much variation across the continent today as there was in the past. The homelands of the Ibo and Yoruba peoples in southern Nigeria, the highlands of Ethiopia and the two tiny states of Rwanda and Burundi, west of Lake Victoria, have long been densely populated regions. On the contrary, countries such as Niger and Chad, bordering the Sahara Desert, together with the Central African Republic and the Zaire (Congo) Basin have always been sparsely settled. But tropical Africa’s population is increasing rapidly and pressure on land and other resources is growing in some cases to dangerous levels.
