Environment and Identity Politics in Colonial Africa

Book excerpt: Economic, political, and ethnic favoritism are common themes in the historiography of colonial Africa. Land ownership and control, and the abilities of the respective landscapes to sustain Africa’s growing population, have created recurrent identity crises throughout Africa. The chapters discuss the recurrent environmental issues, the problems of contested ownership of land, autochthonism as well as the blending of different cultures in a restricted area. Also highlighted is a neglected aspect of the history of Fulani migrations in West Africa - the colonial extension of the Fulani into the Southern Cameroons.