COLONISATION IN EAST AFRICA-
Commonwealth and Foreign
By MAX SALVADORI
IN the East African territories, from Eritrea to Nyasaland, the density of population is 18.7 per sq. in. ; in Europe, without Russia, it is 186.7—ten times more. These two figures explain why many countries have taken a great interest in East Africa during the last few years, particularly since the slump greatly increased the number of unemployed. Many people who have only a vague idea of local conditions are convinced that in East Africa an outlet could be found for a part at least of the surplus European population ; they dream of millions of white colonists, instead of the few tens of thousands who with difficulty succeed in gaining a living out there today. Germans, Italians and Belgians are not alone in putting forward schemes to settle emigrants in East Africa. I have met Hungarians, Poles, Swedes, Swiss who, without making any colonial claims, had thought of East Africa as of a suitable field for the activities of a number of people from their countries. They have much to learn.
Most economic activities offer only a very limited opening to white people. In no East African territory is the mining industry likely to absorb a considerable number of Europeans ; various minerals are widely diffused, but usually they are in too small quantities or of too inferior quality to make their exploitation profitable. A few tens of thousands of people only can make a living by trade, transport, banking, the professions, &c. ; in some territories their numbers might be larger if there were no Indians ; on the other hand, natives will soon be able to fulfil functions hitherto reserved to Europeans. An industrial activity is not likely to develop for a long time. Public employment will absorb only a limited number of people ; in 1934 a population of 17 millions, inhabiting four British territories and Ruanda-Urundi, was administered by only 3,600 European officials.
Advocates of white settlement think that settlers should be mainly engaged in agriculture or stock-raising. They would make a living by growing cereals, coffee, sugar, in rearing cattle and sheep for the production of meat, butter, wool, &c. All these products could easily be sold in countries which today buy them in foreign markets. As the lowlands are not healthy enough for Europeans, colonists should be settled in the highlands, which are usually supposed to be very extensive and fertile. Above 5,000 or 6,000 feet the climate becomes temperate, tropical diseases disappear, and in countries with colonial ambitions there is a general opinion that Europeans can live and work at that altitude just as they live and work in Europe.
But the East African highlands, although extensive, are not particularly vast. The total area of the districts above 5,000 feet may be estimated at 260,000 to 300,000 sq. m. Highlands in Ethiopia and Eritrea cover about 16o,o0o to 18o,000 sq. m., in Kenya and Tanganyika, 40,000 sq. m. Smaller plateaux are found in Nyasaland, North Eastern Rhodesia and Eastern Congo. The whole of this area cannot be colonised by Europeans, as part is desert and part is occupied by natives, who average in the highlands a density of 38 inhabitants per square mile, as against 12 in the lowlands.
Only a small fraction of the highlands, moreover, has enough rainfall and is sufficiently fertile to be suitable to agriculture. The total area of agricultural land can be reckoned at 15 or 16 million acres, a little less than the surface of the Irish Free State ; 5 to 6 million acres are on the Abyssinian plateaux, 21 to 3 million in Kenya, while on the highlands of Southern Tanganyika there are perhaps one million acres. The Eastern Congo has large agricultural districts, which do not present much scope for • white colonisation, as they already support a numerous native population. More agri- cultural land could be obtained by cutting down part of the forests, which occupy from 6 to to per cent. of the area 'of the highlands in each territory ; but this policy could not be pushed very far, as it would bring about the complete ruin of the little available agricultural land, by accelerating that drying-up process which is a distressing feature of a great part of East Africa.
Most of the highlands are suitable only for stock-raising, but it is doubtful if this activity could provide a living for any large body of European settlers. Grazing can support only a relatively small number of cattle and sheep ; moreover native cows are very poor in milk and native sheep give scarcely any wool ; the development of dairy or wool- producing farms requires the introduction of animals from temperate countries, which can become acclimatised only in a few small districts.
White colonisation on the East African Highlands is • limited not only by the small economic capacity of the country, but also by some climatic factors which prevent the settlement of certain classes of colonists, such as agri- cultural labourers and workmen. The experience of nearly half a century has shown that acclimatisation is possible only under certain conditions. The health of Europeans on the highlands is affected by a number of factors, of which the most important are : altitude, glare, solar radiations, sharp difference in temperature between night and day, and long dry spells. Most of the settlers should live between 6,000 and 9,000 feet, and it is easy to imagine the strain of living permanently at that altitude. On the Equator solar radiations have a much greater intensity than in temperate countries, and they seem to affect chiefly the nervous system and the brain. According to some medical authorities acclimatisation is rendered more difficult by the paucity of certain mineral constituents of the soil (calcium, phos- phorus, potassium salts, &c.), which is reflected in the vegetable and animal products consumed as food.
It is generally accepted in East Africa that in order to keep in good health, Europeans should do as little physical work as possible and should particularly avoid continual muscular effort. Nutrition must be better than the ordinary diet of most of the European working classes ; the settler should be able to enjoy plenty of rest.. A change of altitude is required for a few weeks every year, and every three or four years a few months in a different country. Children should spend part of their school age in a temperate country. It is clear that only people with incomes equivalent to those of the well-to-do classes in Europe can settle in East Africa and have a standard of life which will allow them to resist the effects of the climate.
It is doubtful whether the second or third generation can become acclimatised sufficiently for Europeans to do all kinds of work on the highlands as they do in Europe. There is a small number of young people in Kenya and Tanganyika born and bred on the highlands which they have never left, as their parents were too poor to afford the expenses of long holidays at the coast. They are usually physically weak and mentally dull. It seems that only people exploiting the resources of the various countries with native labour can settle in the Highlands and remain physically and mentally fit. To colonists with a low standard of life, to poor people who would migrate to East Africa just as they used to migrate to United States or South Ainerica to make a living'as manual workers, two alternatives only are likely to be open : either they will mix with the natives and will give origin, to a half- caste race, or they will keep• apart and as a result of their physical and mental decadence they will disappear in a few generations. In both cases they will mean a loss to European races. -
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