GREEN LAND, BROWN LAND, BLACK LAND: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF AFRICA 1800-1900. James C. McCann. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1999. Pp. 224.

The field of environmental history is inspiring some of the most exciting and creative recent research on Africa. James McCann's book offers a solid overview of this rich intersection of disciplines for the entire continent by stitching together various monographs set in southern, western and eastern Africa. In many ways, this text is a testament to the embryonic state of environmental history in Africa. Although full of promising leads for research, a wide number of topics and regions are left untouched. Despite this caveat, this work serves well as an introduction particularly for undergraduates to ecological issues in African history.

In his very succinct introduction, the author declares he wishes to examine the interaction between the physical world of plants and animals with people. Recognizing the importance of local settings for his subject, the book is designed to "illustrate rather than chronicle Africa's environmental history (p. 5)." He also seeks to challenge overarching narratives of decline and overuse of resources, which are popular in development work on ecological issues. Chapter 2 is an ambitious overview of major themes in pre-colonial African history with an eye towards the mutual interaction between natural settings and human action. Using John Iliffe's survey history The Africans as a starting point, McCann denotes the role of rainfall patterns and food crops in shaping historical events.

Chapter 3 explores environmental factors in the development of states in the Sahel, in the Ethiopian highlands and at Great Zimbabwe. Drawing from the work of George Brooks and James Webb, this section explores changing wet and dry phases in rainfall and their role in inhibiting or aiding military expansion and shaping migration paths. The author's knowledge of Ethiopia is particularly useful in exploring environmental and agricultural history in Aksum.

Moving to 20th century developments in chapter 4, the work reprises James Fairhead and Melissa Leach's deconstruction of various European models of desertification in East and West Africa. Popular images of environmental decline in the European and American press are based on erroneous and simplistic notions of ecological changes that blame Africans for overusing scarce resources. The shifting boundaries between savanna and forest areas depend on careful local management and changing climatic conditions rather than continual destruction of woodlands. Similar colonial misreadings of environmental processes took place in eastern Kenya. Clichés of overgrazing and carelessness give way to the central point that local conditions often create developments, such as increased plant cover from more intensive use of livestock and farming, that are counter-intuitive to popular discussion of environmental issues.

The historical context of European misconceptions of African environments is a central topic of the final three chapters. McCann's expertise comes to the fore in chapter five's discussion of deforestation narratives in 19th and 20th century Ethiopia. He begins by giving a genealogy of Albert Gore's recent claim that Ethiopia has declined dramatically since 1950. Like so many other statements on African ecology, Gore's view is based on suspect and poorly supported general claims on forest cover in the past. Through repetition, such statements become the basis for numerous Western attitudes towards African ecological issues. By showing how Ethiopians in the central and eastern highlands carefully controlled forest size, McCann suggests deforestation narratives often came from exaggerated notions of past flora. As in other parts of the continent, local forest growth and decline do not "offer a smooth, linear tale (p. 103)."

Moving to Ghana in chapter 6, McCann discusses food production in the southern part of the country. Drawing from biological research as well as social history, McCann notes how fallow agriculture radically altered the forest landscape and increased biodiversity without leading to rapid deforestation. The development of cocoa production also transformed human landscapes, as did European attempts to create forest reserves. The widespread expansion of maize agriculture, fostered by Green Revolution techniques after cocoa's decline in the mid-twentieth century threatens to destroy forests in much greater amounts than previous fallow farming systems.

Chapter 7 begins with another seemingly clear-cut argument on environmental degradation in Lesotho. Colonial officials saw large gullies that appeared suddenly and quickly grew in size as the cause of poor African land management. In a summary of soil scientist Kate Showers' research, McCann contends the real cause lay with badly conceived colonial anti-erosion policies, new attitudes towards agriculture introduced by European missionaries and the rise and fall of late nineteenth century grain farming. Much as officials envisioned solving public health problems with technical "magic bullets," British administrations considered the problem of erosion without taking into account the larger social and economic context of the region.

All in all, this is a fine introduction to recent work on environmental history in Africa. The author's brevity in discussions makes the general arguments very easy to follow. Despite its utility, several minor problems exist particularly in regard to its scope. African understandings of environmental change and historical narratives, examined by Tamara Giles-Vernick among others, are not well represented in this work. The rich amount of work done on environmental history of Tanzania is neglected as is any reference to Central Africa. Rather than harp on these points, this reviewer looks forward to a second edition that can incorporate new scholarship several years in the future.

Jeremy Rich
Colby College