Western Africa

For all the changes brought to Africa in the past 100 years, the old ways can still be found in the lives of the traditional peoples.

Nomadic cattle herders primarily in the northern part of the Western Africa still moved North and South with the changes of the season.

Agricultural peoples still engage in shifting cultivation. They cleared the land, plant crops for several seasons, and then let the land lie follow for a seasons.

During this time they clear more land so that they usually have some new fields every year until population density makes this system impossible to practice. Corn is grown in forest clearings as are the root crops, cassava, and the elms staples in the diet of people in Western Africa.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services