ABSTRACT
Although settlement schemes in tropical Africa have shown great diversity and have arisen out of many different sets of circumstances, there are some elements and trends in their backgrounds and origins which are particularly common and significant. What may be general, and what particular, about them can be understood in terms of the conditions which have given rise to them. As elsewhere in the world, the most obvious and important of these conditions have been physical environment, people, and government, and the processes of change in which these have together been involved. This chapter outlines some of the more salient aspects of the relevant physical, human and governmental background of tropical anglophone Africa, and then describes the changing origins and purposes of settlement schemes in the colonial period and in independence. In doing this, mention will be made of most of the schemes which will be discussed later in Chapters 7 to 12.
