Geographical Introduction to the Sahel

Abstract

The Sahel is the zone between the Sahara desert and the savanna lands to the south. It is characterized by the strong seasonality of the climate with a short rainy season and a long intensely dry season. Its limits are not readily definable. Conditions in the zone vary markedly from north to south with rainfall, and also over short and long periods of time as the rainfall varies. The long term variations in climate have left a strong impress on the landscape and soils of the region. It is a harsh environment but has some advantages for human occupation. The cores of several ancient states lay in the Sahel. It was brought into the Islamic cultural area and, as a result, it is more homogeneous than most parts of Africa further south. Disturbed conditions in the nineteenth century were followed by consolidation of colonial and then independent state systems which damaged earlier authority and social structures. Particularly after the Second World War, development of trade brought the Sahel more closely into touch with the world economic system, and its population increased rapidly. In the early 1960s, rains were good, boreholes were put down, cattle diseases were controlled. It is possible that the Sahel zone had never been so productive. Will it ever be as productive again ? The most prosperous areas are in Senegal, in the extreme west, and in the central Sudan in the east. But on the whole it is poor, one of the poorest regions in the world, and conditions over the last decade have deteriorated as a result of the dry years. For the future, reliance must be placed on making good use of the resource which limits production most seriously, water. The best hope of a decent livelihood for the people of the Sahel would seem to lie in the controlled development of the rivers and underground sources of water, and conceivably in making use of solar energy, which is available in abundance.