ABSTRACT
Africa has long been known as the “Dark Continent,” due to such factors as the di¬culties posed by travel across its unforgiving terrain. Even today, in the twenty-rst century, because this situation persists in places, it has been said that more is known about the soils on the Moon or Mars than many parts of Africa. ¤e colonization factor in Africa is well-known, but one of its consequences was that when a need for increased characterization and cataloguing of the natural resources of the various countries on the continent arose in the mid-twentieth century, these tasks were carried out largely by colonial powers or their representatives.
