Abstract
In Africa, as in other less developed parts of the world, the population explosion of the past few decades profoundly affects all aspects of human existence. This paper analyses and interprets a few outstanding features of these developments in so far as they can be discerned at present. In Part 1 the changes recorded in recent years in Africa’s population, food resources and incomes are analysed. The more important consequences of the observed trends are discussed in Part 2 with regard to education, employment, urbanisation, migration, the refugee problem and related matters. In Part 3 family planning and other measures to obviate further worsening of man-resource ratios are dealt with. The foregoing provide a basis for an evaluation of current and prospective trends in internal politics and their impact on international relations in Part 4.
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Notes
Joy Leonard, ‘The Economics of Food Production’, in African Affairs, vol. 65 no. 261 (London, October 1966) p. 317–28.
See also United Nations, African Agricultural Development, by René Dumont, 66.11.K.6, New York: United Nations, 1966.
William A. Hance, ‘The Race Between Population and Resources. A challenge to the view that Africa need not worry about population pressure’, in Africa Report, vol. 13 no. 1 (Washington, D.C., January 1968) pp. 6–12.
United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Production Yearbook 1968 (Rome, F.A.O., 1968).
See, among others, F.A.O., Production Yearbook 1968; F.A.O., The State of Food and Agriculture 1968 (Rome, 1968);
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, The African and West Asia Agricultural Situation. Review of 1967 and Outlook for 1968 (Washington, D.C., 1968), and Indices of Agricultural Production 1959–68 in Africa and the Near East (Washington, D.C., 1969);
United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa, Survey of Economic Conditions in Africa 1967, E68.II.K.4 (New York, 1969).
Y. Sabolo, ‘Sectoral Employment Growth: The Outlook for 1980’, in International Labour Review vol. 100 no. 5 (Geneva, November 1969) pp. 445–74.
Emil Rado, ‘Employment, Incomes Policy: Kenya’s New Development Plan’, in East Africa Journal, VII 3, (Nairobi, March 1970) pp. 13–20.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Growth of the World’s Urban and Rural Population, 1920–2000, Population Studies No. 44, E.69XIII.3 (New York, 1969) p. 53.
United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Economic Commission for Africa, Problems and Needs of Youth in Africa, E/CN.14/SW.25 (5 September 1969) p. 8.
Sven Hamrell (ed.), Refugee Problems in Africa, (Uppsala, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1967) pp. 9–25. It may be mentioned that at a conference on refugee problems held in the U.S. late in 1969, the total number of refugees in Africa was given as 5.2 million — a figure more than 6 times as high as the U.N. estimate quoted in the text of this paper.
René Dumont, False Start in Africa, (London, 1966) p. 96.
Göran Ohlin, Population Control and Economic Development (Paris, Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1967) pp. 100–1;
Leonard Barnes, African Renaissance (London, 1969) pp. 82–3.
J. G. C. Blacker, ‘Population and Economic Development in Africa’, in The Role of Family Planning in African Development (London, International Planned Parenthood Federation, 1968) p. 7.
John C. Caldwell, Population Growth and Family Change in Africa. The New Urban Elite in Ghana (Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1968) p. 213.
Patrick Ohadkie, ‘The Possibility of Fertility Change in Modern Africa: A West African Case’, in African Social Research, No. 8 (Manchester, December 1969) pp. 613–14.
C. J. Botha, ‘Houdings ten opsigte van die huwelik onder universiteitskollegestudente’. (’n Voorlopige verslag) (Pietersburg: University College of the North, 1968) (mimeographed).
United Nations, Economic and Social Council, Economic Commission for Africa, ‘Structural Development and African Planning’, E/CN.14/POP/7 (23 May 1969).
Stanislav Andreski, The African Predicament. A Study in the Pathology of Modernisation (London, 1968) p. 25 ff.
Margery Perham, ‘Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War’, in International Affairs, vol. 46 no. 2, (London, April 1970) p. 235.
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© 1972 South African Institute of International Affairs
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Leistner, G.M.E. (1972). Africa: Economic and other implications of population growth. In: Barratt, J., Louw, M. (eds) International Aspects of Overpopulation. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01306-7_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01306-7_14
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