ABSTRACT
The Sahel zone of West Africa became the focus of public attention, if only temporarily, when famine threatened in 1973. The countries of the Sahel can be expected to maintain their dependence upon imports of industrial machinery and technology, as well as capital and, possibly, food, into the foreseeable future. A drought is a prolonged period of rain deprivation. However, many years of subnormal rainfall need not engender disaster. A drought, like any other “natural” disaster, arises out of a combination of environmental, economic, social, and political factors. An analysis of the interaction between drought and underdevelopment should center around the operation of the international economic system; and the impact of the international economic system on the stability of Third World ecosystems. The economic systems of West Africa have become progressively enmeshed with those of the dominant Western countries. Taxation was one of the most important tools used by the French to direct the economic activities of West Africans.
