2. Some characteristic features of Africa

Using a network of 18 geo-stationary satellites, NASA issues monthly very detailed maps of the Earth under the Blue Marble programme, thus monitoring the seasonal developments of Terra’s areas, as well as their long-term climatic changes. In March 2005 an overview of the African continent seen as ‘through an open window’ was possible by recomposing the photographs of the temporarily cloudless area (Fig. 1). The yellowish sand zones of the Sahara desert can be clearly distinguished towards northern Africa, with the local grey insertions of volcanic lava and copper-coloured sands of Kalahari desert in the south, and in-between all these the compact dark green area of equatorial forests, in the region of Congo River.

The African continent with an area of about 30 mill. km2 is the second largest after Asia (representing approx. 20% of the world’s land surface) and the only one stretching in the equatorial zone into both tropical areas of the northern and southern hemispheres. Sahara wasteland, with its southern part named Sahel is the greatest world desert with an area of 7.77 mill. km2 and, together with the Libyan desert of 1.68 mill. km2- actually an extension of Sahara, totals about 9.5 mill. km2, covering almost 30% of Africa’s surface. Such unproductive lands unsuitable for agriculture represent between 40% to 90% of the area of circum-Saharan countries, thus impacting their economy to a great extent.

Africa is a land belonging to the Earth’s most ancient geological era (Precambrian) that at more recent dates was pierced in certain areas by volcanic lava insertions, reaching here and there to 180 thick. After the subsequent tectonic moves, the highly cracked African crust provides the greatest land sinking of Terra, beginning with the Dead Sea, going along Nile’s upper course and in the area of the great lakes Albert, Tanganyika and Nyassa. The regions of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique are going to get separated from Africa and become islands in time, such as Madagascar today (Fig. 2).

The mountains of Central Africa
In general the current landforms of northern Africa consist to a great extent of plateaus between 580-760 m high, with two concentric mountain rings (lake the water waves after throwing a stone). The first string of heights consists of Mounts Atlas in the northwest with summits of over 4,000 m, whose continuation can be found- with some interruptions because of sinking in the bed of the Mediterranean Sea- through Sicily, Peloponnesus and Mt. Taurus in Asia Minor, and further on into the heights of over 3,000 m bordering the Red Sea shores. To the south are the Ethiopian mountains and those of Uganda and Kenya, with summits of more than 5,000 m, being continued with over 2,500 m high peaks in Cameroon and Nigeria, delimiting the hydrological basin of Congo River to the south, and ending with Mt. Fouta Djallon of over 2,000 m high that accompanies the northern coast of Guinea Gulf along almost 1,000 km between Senegal and Liberia.

Inside such first mountain ring is the second one, consisting of Mt. Aïr of Niger with over 2,000 m high summits and of massif Ahaggar of Algeria, whose peaks exceed 3,000 m (peak Tahat- 3,003 m) and Mt. Tibesti of Chad reaching to 3,415 m with summit Emi Koussi; further on with Mt. Marra between Chad and Sudan, with peaks exceeding 3,000 m (Fig. 3). This second mountainous round outline bordered by high plateaus to its outside comprises within an almost closed basin, with no possible outflow of water from rare precipitation.

In time, precipitation water flows have silted through alluvia the bottom of this basin, generating either temporarily swampy areas during rainy intervals or deserts during the dry season, allowing winds to carry away the sand and to build up travelling dunes. It is again the flowing of precipitation water that reduced the water drain slope, leaving behind vast plane lands with scattered boulder stones which could not be carried away by water, consequently these areas have been called ergs. Such a region, named Great Erg Ténéré is found northeast of Mt. Aïr in Niger, while in Algeria there are the Great Western Erg and the Great Eastern one. The regions with ergs and sand dunes cover however only a tenth of Sahara’s area, the remaining part consisting of rocky mountains and high barren plateaus, with relief modelled by the great temperature differences between night and day, by winds and water, ergs providing very few oases.

The waters of Central Africa
The great rivers of Africa- the Nile, Congo and Zambezi getting their water from wet equatorial regions- although providing high flow rates do not facilitate the navigation of big boats because of the rock thresholds (waterfalls) and cascades along their course. The closest river of northern sub-Sahara is Niger, springing from the feet of Mt. Loma and having got its water from the Atlantic-blown clouds. Such precipitation having fallen on the southern side of Mt. Fouta Djallon has met wide slopes, thus generating tempestuous torrents of short course; but the precipitation falling on the northern slope of such mountains gathers and thus issues the great Niger River whose course turns northeast, towards Sahara. Niger River floods a plane area, changing it into a large swamp (also called ‘inner delta’) between the towns of Timbuktu and Kabara, and its water changes course to southeast only when it has passed through Tosaye strait.

On its right bank Niger receives important tributaries like Milo, Baoulé, Bagoé and Banifing, together shaping the great river Bani and the it takes rivers Sirba, Atakora and Oli. Rivers Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna and Benoué gather from Niger’s left bank, eventually discharging its annual average flow of about 14,000 m3/s (doubled during the rainy season) into the Atlantic Ocean by means of a huge delta (Fig. 4).

A well-defined complex system of valleys called oueds, usually devoid of water, is distinguished in the central part of Sahara. Such valleys direct the precipitation water from massif Ahaggar, plateau Tassili-n-Ajjer (‘plateau of waters’ in local language) and Mt. Aïr either to Lake Chad through oueds Amadra, Admer and Tafassasset or to Niger’s bed through oueds Tamanrasset, Tilemsi, Timersat and Tessalamane.

The climate and vegetation of Central Africa
The climate of northern and central African regions is nowadays extremely dry, average annual precipitation recording less than 25 mm water column, which however evaporates almost 90% before getting into the earth (Fig. 5). Natural vegetation is little developed, here being found large areas with scarce trees and thorn bushes, while in other zones there is absolutely no vegetation at all (Fig. 6).

The water needed for inhabitants is often brought from non-potable sources with high risk of illnesses, and the absence of rich water sources forbids a satisfactory agriculture to develop, thus mass emigrations of inhabitants towards wetter regions taking place during very dry years or consecutive dry ones. Agricultural activities are performed upon small land areas with rudimentary means- cattle-drawn plough, manure as fertiliser. Pastures being absent, cattle feed on weeds and straw and therefore their milk yield is minimum. A Mauritanian woman (Fig. 7) uses a teapot to water a few small vegetables she planted near the tent, which she surrounded by thick cloth as protection against wind-blown sands that are a great threat to agricultural crops (Fig. 8).

Saharan desertification is currently in full process. If in 1930 Lake Chad in the middle of Sahara provided during the dry / wet seasons an area between 10,000 and 25,000 km2 and its waters were 7 m deep, at present its surface has been reduced almost 12 times (Fig. 9).

Africa’s demography and economy
The absence of water will turn severe in Africa in the following years because of its rapid demographic growth. The annual growth of African birth rate is almost 5%, one of the highest in the world, an African woman bearing 5 children in the average during her lifetime. In colonial years (1850) Africa’s population was estimated to 100 mill. inhabitants, while in 1950 it had grown to 220 million and it reached 900 million in 2000, with estimations providing over two billion Africans in 2050- one of the most populated continents.

Given the difficult living conditions, inefficient agriculture and absence of jobs, at present a true exodus of populations takes place from rural areas to towns, generating the insalubrious ‘shantytowns’ as Africa’s urbanisation process is among the highest in the world (3.5% each year). Real mega cities developed with inhabitants exceeding 15 million (the population of Lagos city increased by 64% in the last years, reaching to 18.6 mill. inhabitants, while Cairo in Egypt has exceeded 17 mill.). Under such circumstances, huge burdens are involved for the good administration of cities in terms of living areas, road network and means of transport, utilities and hygiene for inhabitants, environmental pollution etc.

The fast demographic growth rate makes Africa the continent with the youngest population (young people under 21 make about 71% of the whole population), however mention should be made that the first death cause in Africa is AIDS. The absence of jobs makes 66% of African population dependent on survival agriculture, which in view of the ‘demographic boost’ will require vast land areas good for intensive cultures, and therefore large amounts of water.

As far as sub-Saharan countries are concerned, current statistics show an even worrisome situation:
- Infant death rate (until 12 months) is of 102 / 1,000 babies
- Average living expectations are of 46 years
- The population in rural areas have got treated water covering only 45% of their needs

The average income of 50% of the Africans is of 1 USD/capita/day. It is only 10 from the current African states that record a GDP of about 3,500 USD/capita. (Chad has got a GDP of only 1,600 USD/capita). The networks of modern roads and railroads are the smallest in size in Africa. The electricity consumption of all African countries is only 3% of such consumption in the world. Ten of present-day African states have got no outlet to the sea, which is a great handicap to their trade.

The African sub-soil has got oil, gas, coal, uranium, gold, diamond etc. deposits that bring important revenues from trade, but unfortunately the money does not go wherever it is most needed by Africans. At present 38% of the 35 million oil barrels daily extracted in Africa go to Canada and the USA, 35% to Asia and Pacific countries, 20% to Europe, 5% to Latin America and only 2% are used by Africa.

The absence of schools (2,000 languages are spoken there) is a vivid absence in Africa, which prevents the inhabitants to provide qualified work, but in exchange the stock of fire arms in sub-Saharan states is of about 30 million pieces. Under such circumstances, Africa urgently needs a major financial aid if no explosive economic situation is desired at world level, which will no longer be held under control.

3. Sahara was inhabited

Africa is considered the cradle of humankind, because the remnant bones of a 1.5 million years old Australopithecus have been found in its centre on the shores of Lake Chad, as well as many carved stones. Rocks shaped to be used as grinding mills have been identified among erg boulders, which were utilised in order to grind edible plant seeds from picking (Fig. 10).

The expeditions of explorer H. Lhote in 1956-1957 identified and reproduced many rupestral drawings and paintings in Sahara, below the shelters under the sandstone rocks on plateau Tassili-n-Ajjer. These drawings have outlines that were incised into the rock and range from a few cm to 8 m, sometimes being painted with brown shades, red or white; they represent people usually with their arms away from their bodies, their legs exaggeratedly long compared to their arms, with feathers on their heads and leaves around their hips, next to water-loving animals such as buffaloes, hippopotamuses, elephants and other herbivores such as antelopes, giraffes, horses and dromedaries.

The discovery of carved stones and rock drawings means undoubted proof that Sahara had been inhabited by human communities. A diversified flora and fauna, as well as the dry river beds (oueds) make us understand that Sahara did not miss water. Researchers however have established that no sea was ever in Sahara in the proper sense of the word, but only small lakes and swamps in the depressions, with no leaking possibility.

African paintings when studied showed an original characteristic, with no influence or connection whatsoever to the rupestral ones in Europe. The first African drawings are more symbolical, but they certainly belong to a Negroid population; however more recent paintings are more realistic and show some Egyptian influence. European rupestral drawings are less expressive and feature state of facts that say too little about their authors, while the African ones show the habits and concerns of those inhabitants, the construction of their houses, cattle domesticating and breeding. Also the diversity of hunted or domesticated animals suggests the climatic conditions of those times as well as the stages of African desertification.

The study of Saharan rupestral drawings and paintings allowed their classification in terms of style, as well as their dating into the following characteristic intervals (Fig. 11):

• Period of ‘boubal’ - Realistic colourless drawings strongly carved into the rock. ‘Boubal’ was a buffalo with large horns, a species extinct around 7,000 BC (Fig. 12);
• Period of ‘round heads’ - This shows types of local people that were not all black, even white ones painted in red and wearing some sort of masks on their heads, adorned with feathers or with animal horns. These have been dated around 6,000 BC (Fig. 13);
• Bovid or grazing’ period - Women and children stand before the huts represented by round outlines. Men drove the cattle into enclosures towards which other horned animals were heading as well. Dated around 3,000 BC (Fig. 14);
• Period of the ‘horse’ - Such drawings show carts with two spoke wheels drawn by a pair of horses driven by a coachman. They betray the Egyptian influence; dated towards 1,200 BC (Fig. 15). The horse was introduced in Africa when Hyksos invaded Egypt (1650-1550 BC) and was used in the Egyptian army. The horse proves pastures could be found then in the Saharan region;
• Period of the ‘camel’ (actually the dromedary, camel with only one hump) - Such drawings were dated after 100 BC (Fig. 16). Saharan desertification having reached this stage, respectively no more pastures or water sources, the horse had to be replaced by camels that were better adapted to the difficult desert life;

Another proof of Saharan desertification comes with the lowering of water beds in the last centuries. Thus in Egypt, 3,300 km south-west of Alexandria, there is an oasis Bahariya in the middle of the desert where, after current research studies, a great necropolis was found from the time of Lagyde pharaohs (around 300 BC), which allows believing in an oasis of over 10,000 inhabitants in those times. The necropolis has got mummies of local people placed in rock excavations, but never deeper than 2.5 m, which allows us thinking that around 3 m deep the water-bearing layers could have been found at that time, therefore these had to be avoided for a good preservation of mummies. Recent studies however have ascertained there aquifer layers about 14 m deep at present. Many other elements prove the worrisome desertification of Sahara and the need of measures to put an end to this process.

4. Water for Sahara

With such convincing proofs that Sahara had had water in the past, the researchers’ desire to know the reasons of climatic changes in this region is only natural. The attempt to find similarities between the Saharan climate and that of India is however fully unconvincing. In India there is a cyclic process determined by winds (monsoon) that carry the clouds from the northern Indian Ocean to the slopes of Himalaya Mt. where they discharge their precipitation, and then the waters flow down into India’s great rivers and after that- back into the ocean. The particular landforms in Africa and the distance between Sahara and the ocean exclude any resemblance between the climates of these two regions. The cause of climatic changes in Sahara must be searched elsewhere!

Getting water by pumping for agriculture from aquifer layers is not a proper solution, because their level goes deeper and deeper or even worse, as it has recently happened in Algeria. Extracting water from the first aquifer level, then from the second one and after that from the third, such water used at ground level has turned into waste water to a great extent (mixed with chemical fertilisers or with industrial pollutants, domestic waters etc.) but it was not treated and was disposed of into the desert at about 14,000 m3/day. Such water seeped into the first aquifer layer, but could not pass through to the deeper ones because of some intermediate impervious clay beds, so it raised the level of the first water-bearing layer and resulted into large-scale damage to the palm tree cultures practiced into unfriendly very wet soils.

The situation of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, namely Algeria, Tunis and Libya is not better, as they also depend on water obtained from deep aquifer layers. In this respect the underground water reserves that are common to these countries acquire a strategic significance for their economic development, a little like the situation of oil deposits, since to extract and use such water they had to conclude strict trilateral agreements. There were 8,800 wells in the 1980s in the fore-mentioned countries, extracting huge water amounts for agriculture, while precipitation water represented only 0.0017% of the consumed quantity. Consequently, the current level of water-bearing beds is about 30 m deep, but it continues to drop. When such level reaches to approx. 400 m deep, the pumping system will no longer be economical and agricultural crops will have to be watered from other sources. At present various international organisations are striving to impose a balanced utilisation of underground water reserves, but in case of an acute water shortage if successive droughty years occur conflicts might arise that are difficult to control. From the above it clearly follows that in circum-Saharan states of northern Africa water drawn from underground aquifer layers is not a long term solution and another water source has to be found, but which one?

Studying the physical map of northern Africa, one can notice that Niger River, gathering its waters from the northern slopes of Mt. Fouta Djallon directs its course towards central Sahara; however a little downstream of Timbuktu it turns 90o southwards and the good running water of Niger River provided free of charge by nature is lost without a rational utilisation, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. One can also see that the inner ring of mountains in Central Sahara enclosing Lake Chad within has got a single breaking point towards the west. The coincidence of such physical details at present cannot be overlooked, as it allows explaining the change of Niger River’s course by major geological events in the area in past millennia.

When it has detached itself from the great pre-Cambrian land, with the future African block at its centre and many territories as well whose movement in time has led to the current layout of continents, Africa underwent multiple changes, namely outflows of volcanic rocks and many deep cracks in its earth crust (Fig. 17). One of these faults oriented N-S is perpendicular to the initial course of Niger River and its waters, captured along such fault, change their flowing direction southwards; similar situations are found along other water courses as well, such as Zambezi River, at Niagara Falls, Nile River etc. (Fig. 18). The map of Africa (see Fig. 3) also shows a river bed that is currently dry (oued), outlining the initial course of Niger River that connects to central Sahara. Joining such indications to the dating of rupestral drawings, one can reconstitute that Niger River has had a continuous W-E course about 10,000-8,000 years ago, taking its waters to Lake Chad- a relict of this river which maintains a high level of aquifer layers in the region and thus allows pastures, fauna and local human communities to be found there.

Researchers arrived at the conclusion that around 8,000 years ago Sahara’s vegetation was satisfactory for regional fauna, providing rich game to the locals (period of ‘boubal’, around 7,000 BC) and harvesting of savage grains (period of ‘round heads’, around 6,000 BC). Strong movements of the African crust occurred at that time, generating the fault that deviated the course of Niger River. Saharan vegetation began missing water, and the initial savannah, once household herbivores (cattle, sheep, goat) were domesticated, changed into vast grassy lands good for grazing (‘bovid or grazing’ period, about 5,000 BC).

During this era around 3,500 BC a great migration of local population took place because of the difficult survival conditions in Sahara. Moving south and being blocked by exuberant equatorial forests, the only migrating options remained to settle north on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and along the course of Nile River. This is the only possible explanation for the great mix of people in Egypt of various nationalities, habits and religions who finally learned to live together peacefully only because of their interest to jointly manage Nile’s waters for agriculture and navigation. It is still in this era that the first dynasties of Egyptian pharaohs came into being that, in view of unifying religious creeds, also introduced the god with ram head (symbol of Amon), which was finally accepted by the people however keeping their local deities as well. The horse introduced by Hyksos in Egypt and later on in Sahara (period of the ‘horse’, after 1250 BC) could be used for some time towards the beginning of our era when, water running scarce and pastures shrinking, it was replaced with the dromedary (period of the ‘camel’, towards 100 BC), much more adapted to the new circumstances within the region.

This is actually the cause of Saharan desertification - the transversal fault across the course of Niger River, and the measures proposed in this study lead just to ‘correcting’ nature and restoring the initial configuration.