Why didn't Africans start irrigation through canals hundreds or thousands of years ago?

Question

There are so many people throughout history just sitting around in Africa unemployed, why couldn't they just get together and start digging canals for their descendants? They would have plenty of crops and shade by now instead of still having nothing. Is it laziness or some actual reason?

Answer 1

Africa is a large continent. In many places (such as equatorial Africa with its rainforests), the problem is not the lack of water, but the excess thereof. You cut down trees and clear away the brush, you plant something on the resulting patch, and three to five years later, the topsoil is all washed away by rain that now hits the ground directly rather than gently trickling down through the foilage. Now you need to clear a new patch and let the jungle to reclaim the old one. Oh, and did I mention malaria?

Where you do have deserts, you have a problem. There is no way to build canals in the sand, unless you have 20th century technology (concrete and plastic) to prevent seepage. Egyptians, for example, were well aware of Sumerians' irrigation practices, but couldn't use them for this very reason and had to live close to the Nile instead...

Answer 2

I am not sure what you have been reading I strongly suggest you look into material more credible than Mein Kempf.

1. You seem to forget that when many Africans were brought to teh America's as slave, the first batch of crops tested out by European farmers failed miserable. It was only when the Europeans noticed the African slaves successfully growing rice did they "cash in" on the cash crop.

2. For many African countries, decades of years of colonial rule and suppression only ended 30-40 years ago. The conflict you see now that results in abject poverty is not because "people are sitting around in Africa unemployed.." but cause by the ensuing power struggle as waring factions ahve fought for control. This is a common occurrence in most emerging democracies. It takes time and bloodshed for people to find a way to collectively define themselves. The American Revolution era started in 1763, independence declared in 1776 and the constitution adopted in 1787. Without any measure of peace and security, how many people do you think were running around concerned with cultivating their lands during this era in American history????

3. There is a tendency in Western societies to make sweeping generalizations of all African countries. For those that have not been plagued with war in the last decade, they have bustling economies, albeit facing some new challenges as all nations are with the new global economy.

4. Ever heard of the "shadouf".....well it is the grandfather of all modern irrigation and guess where it comes from...it is still widely used today.....

5. Abuse of the continent and its people only stoppped (and I use the world loosely because you don't want me to get started on drug dumping) in the 1960's . After hundreds of years of abuse, victimisation, pillage....the last foreign invaders were finally kicked out. So, as you can see, they have been busy "hundreds or thousands of years ago".......

Answer 3

You neglect the problem of tribal warfare and the state of the soil as well.

Many Africans shared the land. During the growing season, the land was farmed. When the growing season was done, other people brought in their cattle to graze that land and fertilize it.

With today's system, cattle farmers are forced to stay in one place and they run too many cattle, encouraged by the ease of tracking them. The land is depleted of valuable nutrients which have to be artificially replaced.

In the meantime the farmers who once depended on animal fertilizers are now having to buy chemical fertilizers which add salt and excessive nitrates to the soil.

Western methods are too harsh for Africa. Modern irrigation techniques have added to the problem.

Answer 4

1. African agriculture was never as much a community activity as was European agriculture and was on more of an household sustenance level than in more commercially-oriented Europe.
2. Africa, unlike Europe, is seriously short on lakes and rivers from which to draw water.

Answer 5

Why didn't Europeans start using moldboard plows until the 17th Century? Their ancestors were farming for thousands of years, you would think it's such a natural idea somebody would have thought of it. Instead, they wasted centuries plowing inefficently until the Chinese came along with a better invention.
Is it because Europeans are stupid or is there some actual reason?

Find something out about African history, then ask questions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songhai_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire

Answer 6

what was called their land, was not truely so, the white man, took that right from them many times, placing men and women as well to work, no one had time work for themselve back then. they work for others. if not slaving for the white man, they slave for their own familys. to keep bread on the tables. it was not an easy task back then. if they got a tool in there hand they had to report it or be whipped, truely if the land was theirs to work, they would have done much to it for their familys, and many to come. there were canal placed about, but many used them to find a new life. the underground rail road. go rent the movie Roots, see it again for the first time.

Answer 7

Well, your sensitivity in phrasing leaves little to be desired...

But, the ancient Egyptians DID have irrigation systems - they're known for their developments in canals and irrigation building.

Answer 8

Its becasue they are Africans and did not have the intelligence to do it. The Arabs were sophisticated cultures with incredible engineering feats but the Africans, on the same continents, stay huddled in tribes advancing hardly at all from the stone age.