Population

The population of Africa has exceeded one billion and continues to grow. The reasons are clear. In the olden times, a high birth rate was indispensable for the very survival of the community: the infantile mortality was extraordinary, and the death-rate of adults was also very high. The death-rate in Africa is still considerable, compared to the post-industrial countries, but still, it has decreased, because numerous diseases can be handled with a modest first-aid kit in a rural medical center. However, the striving for large families remains, the more so because respect of a married woman depends on the number of her children. As a result, during the 40 to 50 years of independence, the population of African countries grew 3 or 4 times, sometimes 5 or 6 times. It is true that in the village, every pair of hands is precious, but a moment arrives one day when the land cannot feed the doubled or tripled population. People have to modify their mode of cultivation (which is extremely difficult!), or some of them have to leave the village and go to the capital, to a neighboring country, to Europe…

Only a very naïve person may think that all Africans are the same. In reality, the differences between Africans in language, in culture, in anthropological type may be very considerable. It is not surprising, because every historian of culture knows: where people live for a very long time, their differences are much more considerable than at the land where they are newcome

Maasai in the city. Kenia, Nairobi. A. P. Vydrin. 2002.		Negroids. Cote d'Ivoire. The Yaure. M. Tsuryupa. 2002		The Ethiopian subrace is regarded as intermediate  between the Caucasian and the Negroid races.  Ethiopia. The Amhara. M. Gervers. 2002