African Environmental History

African Geographical Review: Published by the Africa Specialty Group within the Association of American Geographers. Formerly the East African Geographical Review founded in 1963 at Makerere University. Has the table of contents. Includes a tribute to co-founder the late Prof. Bryan W. Langlands (12 p. in PDF). http://www.macalester.edu/geography/agr/

American Museum of Natural History. Congo Expedition, May 1909-November 1915

"In 1909,...Herbert Lang and James Chapin set sail for the Belgian Congo....By the time they sailed home five and one-half years later, they had collected tons of precious zoological and anthropological specimens..." http://diglib1.amnh.org/

Description of Contents:
an introductory, multimedia slide show.

diaries of James Chapin ("At age 19, in 1909, James Chapin left New York for northeastern Congo where he served as Herbert Lang's assistant for the next five years. Chapin was interested in many aspects of Africa's natural history. Birds, however, were his passion, a fact borne out by these diaries.")

biographies of James Paul Chapin and Herbert Lang, photographs (villages, primates), the watercolors of James Chapin including Congo mural paintings, birds, fish, reptiles, mammels,

excerpts from "African Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire," by Enid Schildkrout and Curtis A. Keim (AMNH and University of Washington Press, 1990) including their photographs of Congo musical instruments

excerpts from "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998)

"160 publications including 120 American Museum of Natural History publications based on the material collected by the 1909-1915 Congo Expedition, 12 British Museum publications by Barry Bolton on Congo ants, 11 publications on African ants by the South African Museum and affiliated organizations, and 17 Congo-related World Conservation Union (IUCN) publications."

a central African map with layers. Select which features will appear on the map: lakes, cities, roads, railroads, forest, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, etc., a map of Chapin and Lang's travels

historic maps reflecting the "development of European knowledge of African geography from 1562 through 1940." Reproduced with permission of the New York Public Library and the British Library.

audio (requires sound card, headset or speakers) and video clips of the Belgian Congo Records made by the "adventurer and filmmaker Armand Denis during his 1934-35 cross-Africa expedition. They were among the first recordings made of the sounds of the central Congo. The Babiara people, whose songs may be heard..... are one of the four main tribal groups who occupy the Ituri Forest." The video clip shows a traditional Mangbetu dance.

a database on specimens collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition

a bibliographic essay on sources by Paula Willey, specially prepared bibliographies on Congo Conservation (314 citations), Description & Travel (1218 citations), Maps & Atlases (220 citations).

Newspaper Headlines, 1880-1916 about the Congo from the New York Times and the New York Herald [KF]

Angola Historical Weather 1879-1925: The actual data is not provided only a summary of the kinds of information found in Angolan publications held in the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Central Library in Washington, D.C. This web site is maintained by the Netherlands Earth Observation Network (NEONET). [KF]. http://neonet.nlr.nl/ceos-idn/datasets/NCL00282_286_290.html

The Ants of West Africa: Includes brief histories of research on ants with citations to work from the 18th-19th centuries and chapters on Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria. Discusses the ant's role in cocoa plant disease. Has bibliographies. By Brian Taylor, Visiting Academic, Department of Life Science, University of Nottingham (UK). In association with Dr. Francis S. Gilbert. [KF] http://research.amnh.org/entomology/social_insects/ants/westafrica/antcover.htm

Batterbury, Simon: Dr. Batterbury is Senior Lecturer, School of Anthropology, Geography & Environmental Studies (SAGES), University of Melbourne, Australia. Has his paper on current trends in the West African Sahel (25 years after the great drought) and a 25 p. report on the conference, "The Sahel region; assessing progress twenty-five years after the great drought.".http://www.simonbatterbury.net

Broch-Due, Vigdis and Richard A. Schroeder - Producing Nature and Poverty in Africa: Review of the book which discusses historical approaches to environmental management with contemporary case studies. (Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2000). 350 p. http://www.afrol.com/Categories/Environment/env046_colonial_management.htm

Environmental History - Special on Africa: The table of contents for Vol. 4, No. 2, April 1999, a special issue on Africa. The journal is copublished by the Forest History Society and the American Society for Environmental History in association with Duke University Press. http://www.lib.duke.edu/forest/ehapr99.html

Giles-Vernick, Tamara: "Giles-Vernick is a pioneer in the new and burgeoning field of African environmental history." She is Assistant Professor of History at the City University of New York, Baruch College and the author of "Cutting the Vines of the Past." See her essay, "The Equatorial Rainforest: A Dynamic, Changing Home." http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/slas/departments/history/faculty/giles_vernick.html

Environmental History Syllabi: Course syllabi for African environmental history courses are on the American Society for Environmental History web site http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~aseh/syllabi/

Forest History Society: Has a searchable Environmental History Bibliography with over 40,000 entries compiled by the Forest History Society. Mainly contemporary cases but includes historical cases such as - Schabel, Hans G., "Tanganyika Forestry Under German Colonial Administration, 1891-1919" in Forest & Conservation History 34 (July 1990): 130-41. "The Society was "established in 1946 and incorporated as a nonprofit educational institution;" it is affiliated with Duke University. http://www.lib.duke.edu/forest/index.html

Giblin, James, "Issues in African History": Essay, by Professor Giblin, Department of History, University of Iowa, in "The Art and Life in Africa Project," web site Univ. of Iowa. 8 pages. http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/history/giblinhistory.html

H-Environment: Discussion list and web site, sponsored by the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) and the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH). Has articles such as "Causation and Climate in African History" by James C. McCann, "The Greening of Our Past? An Assessment of South African Environmental Historiography," by Phia Steyn, "African History and Environmental History," by William Beinart. Has syllabi on African environmental history. http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~environ/

Matowanyika, Joseph Z. Z. - History of Land Use in Zimbabwe from 1900: Paper prepared for the Leadership for Environment and Development 1997 conference. http://www.lead.org/
Paper: http://www.lead.org/lead/training/international/zimbabwe/1997/papers/d1matowan.html

McCann, James - Environmental History of Africa: Internet / cd course by James McCann, Professor of History and Director of the African Studies Center, Boston University. Introductory essay, syllabus, extensive readings lists, topic outlines, images. http://www.bu.edu/africa/envr/

Oosthoek, Jan - Environmental History Resources: Environmental history with an emphasis on Europe. Bibliographies, Essays ("What is environmental history?"), links to sites. Maintained by Dr Jan Oosthoek, an environmental historian based at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle, U.K. [KF] http://www.eh-resources.org/

Planum: European Journal of Planning: Information on German architecht, Ernst May (1886-1970), who was Town Planner in Kampala, Uganda, during the 1940s. Maps of Kampala, architectural drawings of housing schemes. Planum is the e-journal of the Planum Association which concerns urban development and environment preservation. http://www.planum.net/archive/masters.htm

Review and Atlas of Palaeovegetation - Jonathan Adams: This is a reconstruction of changing global vegetation patterns during the last 25,000 years. See also Global Land Environments Since the Last Interglacial which includes updated maps. Dr. Adams is a plant biologist with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~tjms/adams1.html

Troup, Robert Scott and Charles Francis Massy Swynnerton - Colonial forest administration: [London, New York, etc.] Oxford University Press, 1940. 476 pages. Online edition: 524 page images. Full text of the book. Can search within the book. Includes illustrations. Appendices include I. Forests & Water-Supply, II. How forestry may assist towards the control of the tsetse flies, by C.F.M. Swynnerton, " III. Legislative & Administrative Action taken by Different Countries, IV. Colonial Mining Laws and Timber Rights, V. Colonial Laws Dealing with Forestry. From the Core Historical Literature of Agriculture at Cornell University, a project to preserve brittle books. "Working with scholars in the field,...staff identified the core historical literature of agriculture-those books and journals that represent the most important publications in the agricultural sciences between 1850 and 1950." [KF] http://chla.library.cornell.edu/
Troup book: http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2910980

Uganda Forestry Resources and Institutions Center, Africa Indigenous Knowledge and Forestry Preservation Web Page: Describes research projects between the Uganda Forestry Resources and Institutions Center (UFRIC) at Makerere University in Uganda, and Indiana University's Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis." "The page focuses more narrowly on indigenous knowledge and the role of indigenous knowledge in environmental conservation in Africa..." Has full text reports in Adobe PDF format - "Protecting Africa's Trees" "Reconsidering the extent of deforestation in 20th century West Africa" "Considering the impacts of structural adjustment policies in forests in Cameroon, Bolivia and Indonesia" "Forest peoples in the Central African rainforests: focus on the pygmies" "Perceptions and classification of woodland by Malinke villagers near Bamako, Mali" "Testing forestry extension materials in Burkina Faso" "The use of trees, birds, and animal behaviour as measures of environmental change by the Shona people of Zimbabwe" "Akamba land management systems: The role of grassroots indicators in drought-prone cultures." "Strengths and weaknesses of the indigenous farming system of the Matengo people of Tanzania, etc." Describes nature reserves and forests. http://www.indiana.edu/~ifri/crc/uganda/kamp_crc.html

Volcanoes in Africa: Mainly photos of volcanoes in the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Chad, the Comores, Ethiopia, Kenya, Reunion, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire. Some entries, (Cape Verde, Zaire for ex.), include some information on historical eruptions. Each entry has references to articles. One can search issues of the Bulletin of Volcanology by keyword. Located on the Volcano World site which is designed to distribute remote sensing data to non-technical users.
African volcanoes: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/africa/africa.html
Volcano World: http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/

Washington Post - Historical Weather: Past weather for various years and African cities (mainly the capital). Dates range from the 1920s to 1980s. Also has a Fahrenheit to Celsius converter and a Heat Index calculator. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/weather/historical/historical.htm

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Please send corrections to Karen Fung.