Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Multi-Century History of Drought and Wetter Conditions in Africa

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History

Abstract

This chapter reviews historical evidence of drought and wet conditions for regions of Africa. Africa contains the world’s largest expanse of arid and semi-arid land. Its people have contended with its harsh conditions over millennia, developing a close relationship with the environment and climate. Droughts cause famine, economic hardship, mass migration, and death. Extraordinary rains cause dwellings to collapse, flood low-lying areas, and prevent travel and commerce. Historical references allow for the reconstruction of African climates over several centuries. In most cases, absolute certainty cannot be established. However, “convergence of evidence” from numerous sources is used to create a chronology of the most likely conditions that prevailed. From 1800 enough information was available to allow for the development of semi-quantitative annual records for the whole continent.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Nicholson et al., 2012a.

  2. 2.

    Nicholson et al., 2012b.

  3. 3.

    Miller, 1982.

  4. 4.

    Norrgård, 2013; Nicholson, 1996.

  5. 5.

    Shanahan et al., 2009; Ngomanda et al., 2007.

  6. 6.

    Popper, 1951.

  7. 7.

    Spinage, 2012.

  8. 8.

    Ricketts and Johnson, 1996; Verschuren et al., 2000, 2009; Verschuren, 2004; Russell et al., 2007; Nicholson, 1998, 1999; Kiage and Liu, 2009; Wolff et al., 2011; Öberg et al., 2013; Russell and Johnson, 2005.

  9. 9.

    Hartwig, 1979.

  10. 10.

    Ajayi and Crowder, 1972.

  11. 11.

    Spinage, 2012.

  12. 12.

    Bessems et al., 2008; Nicholson, 2001.

  13. 13.

    Nicholson and Yin, 2001.

  14. 14.

    Nicholson, 1978.

  15. 15.

    Becker, 1985; Nicholson, 2001.

  16. 16.

    Almeida, 1997; Brooks, 2006; Patterson, 1988.

  17. 17.

    Vogel, 1989; Nash and Endfield, 2008; Nash and Grab, 2010; Kelso and Vogel, 2007; Neukom et al., 2014.

  18. 18.

    Nicholson et al., 2012a, 2012b.

  19. 19.

    Neukom et al., 2014.

  20. 20.

    Bois, 1944.

  21. 21.

    On Algeria: Marchika, 1927; on Morocco: Abdelhadi, 1987.

  22. 22.

    Nicholson, 1981.

  23. 23.

    Nicholson, 1996.

  24. 24.

    Nicholson et al., 2012a, 2012b.

  25. 25.

    Hartwig, 1979; Nicholson, 2001; Verschuren et al., 2000; Bessems et al., 2008.

  26. 26.

    Hartwig, 1979.

  27. 27.

    Hartwig, 1979.

  28. 28.

    Nicholson, 1980; Norrgård, 2013, 2015.

References

  • Abdelhadi, M.L. Analyse de la sécheresse qui a sévi au Maroc de 1980 à 1985, cas du bou regreg. Rabat, Morocco: Departmente d’Aménagements Hydrauliques, 1987.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ajayi, J.F. Ade, and Michael Crowder, eds. History of West Africa, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Almeida, Raymond A. “Cabo Verde Chronological References.” 1997. http://www.microbookstudio.org/cbverde.htm.

  • Becker, C. “Note sur les conditions écologiques en de la Sénégambie au 17e et 18e siècle.” African Economic History 14 (1985): 167–216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bessems, I. et al. “Palaeolimnological Evidence for Widespread Late 18th Century Drought Across Equatorial East Africa.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 259 (2008): 107–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bois, C. “Années de disette, Années d’abondance: Sécheresses et pluies en Tunisie de 648 à 1881.” Revue pour l’étude des calamités 7 (1944): 3–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, George E. “Cabo Verde: Gulag of the South Atlantic: Racism, Fishing Prohibitions, and Famines.” History in Africa 33 (2006): 101–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartwig, Gerald. “Demographic Considerations in East Africa During the Nineteenth Century.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 12 (1979): 653–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelso, Clare, and Coleen Vogel. “The Climate of Namaqualand in the Nineteenth Century.” Climatic Change 83 (2007): 357–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiage, Lawrence M., and Kam-biu Liu. “Palynological Evidence of Climate Change and Land Degradation in the Lake Baringo Area, Kenya, East Africa, Since AD 1650.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 279 (2009): 60–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marchika, Jean. La peste en Afrique septentrionale: histoire de la peste en Algérie de 1363 à 1830. Algiers: University of Algiers, 1927.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Joseph C. “The Significance of Drought, Disease and Famine in the Agriculturally Marginal Zones of West-Central Africa.” Journal of African History 23 (1982): 17–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nash, David J., and Georgina H. Endfield. “‘Splendid Rains Have Fallen’: Links Between El Niño and Rainfall Variability in the Kalahari, 1840–1900.” Climatic Change 86 (2008): 257–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nash, David J., and Stefan W. Grab. “‘A Sky of Brass and Burning Winds’: Documentary Evidence of Rainfall Variability in the Kingdom of Lesotho, Southern Africa, 1824–1900.” Climatic Change 101 (2010): 617–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neukom, Raphael et al. “Multi-Proxy Summer and Winter Precipitation Reconstruction for Southern Africa Over the Last 200 Years.” Climate Dynamics 42 (2014): 2713–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ngomanda, Alfred et al. “Lowland Rainforest Response to Hydrological Changes During the Last 1500 Years in Gabon, Western Equatorial Africa.” Quaternary Research 67 (2007): 411–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. “Climatic Variations in the Sahel and Other African Regions During the Past Five Centuries.” Journal of Arid Environments 1 (1978): 3–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. “Saharan Climates in Historic Times.” In The Sahara and the Nile: Quaternary Environments and Prehistoric Occupation in Northern Africa, edited by M.A.J. Williams and H. Faure, 173–200. Rotterdam: Balkema, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. “The Historical Climatology of Africa.” In Climate and History: Studies in Past Climates and Their Impact on Man, edited by T.M.L. Wigley, M.J. Ingram, and G. Farmer, 249–70. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. “Environmental Change within the Historical Period.” In The Physical Geography of Africa, edited by W. Adams, A. Goudie, and A.R. Orme, 60–87. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. “Fluctuations of Rift Valley Lakes Malawi and Chilwa During Historical Times: A Synthesis of Geological, Archaeological and Historical Information.” In Environmental Change and Response in East African Lakes, edited by John T. Lehman, 207–32. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. “Historical and Modern Fluctuations of Lakes Tanganyika and Rukwa and Their Relationship to Rainfall Variability.” Climatic Change 41 (1999): 53–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. “Climatic and Environmental Change in Africa During the Last Two Centuries.” Climate Research 17 (2001): 123–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E., and X. Yin. “Rainfall Conditions in Equatorial East Africa During the Nineteenth Century as Inferred from the Record of Lake Victoria.” Climatic Change 48 (2001): 387–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. et al. “A Two-Century Precipitation Dataset for the Continent of Africa.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 93 (2012a): 1219–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson, Sharon E. et al. “Spatial Reconstruction of Semi-Quantitative Precipitation Fields Over Africa During the Nineteenth Century from Documentary Evidence and Gauge Data.” Quaternary Research 78 (2012b): 13–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norrgård, Stefan. A New Climatic Periodisation of the Gold and Guinea Coasts in West Africa, 1750–1798: A Reconstruction of the Climate During the Slave Trade Era, Including an Analysis of the Climatically Facilitated Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Åbo: Åbo Akademi University Press, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norrgård, Stefan. “Practising Historical Climatology in West Africa: A Climatic Periodisation 1750–1800.” Climatic Change 129 (2015): 131–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Öberg, Helena et al. “Environmental Variability in Northern Tanzania from AD 1000 to 1800, as Inferred from Diatoms and Pollen in Lake Duluti.” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 374 (2013): 230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, K.D. “Epidemics, Famines, and Population in the Cape Verde Islands, 1580–1900.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 21 (1988): 291–313.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, William. The Cairo Nilometer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricketts, R.D., and T.C. Johnson. “Climate Change in the Turkana Basin as Deduced from a 4000 Year Long Delta O-18 Record.” Earth & Planetary Science Letters 142 (1996): 7–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russell, James, and Thomas Johnson. “A High-Resolution Geochemical Record from Lake Edward, Uganda Congo and the Timing and Causes of Tropical African Drought During the Late Holocene.” Quaternary Science Reviews 24 (2005): 1375–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, James et al. “Spatial Complexity of ‘Little Ice Age’ Climate in East Africa: Sedimentary Records from Two Crater Lake Basins in Western Uganda.” The Holocene 17 (2007): 183–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shanahan, T.M. et al. “Atlantic Forcing of Persistent Drought in West Africa.” Science 324 (2009): 377–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spinage, Clive. African Ecology: Benchmarks and Historical Perspectives. Heidelberg: Springer, 2012.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Verschuren, D. “Decadal to Century-Scale Climate Variability in Tropical Africa During the Past 2000 Years.” In Past Climate Variability Through Europe and Africa, edited by R.W. Battarbee, F. Gasse, and C. Stickley. Dordrecht: Springer, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verschuren, D. et al. “Rainfall and Drought in Equatorial East Africa During the Past 1,100 Years.” Nature 403 (2000): 410–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verschuren, D. et al. “Half-Precessional Dynamics of Monsoon Rainfall Near the East African Equator.” Nature 462 (2009): 637–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogel, Coleen H. “A Documentary-Derived Climatic Chronology for South Africa, 1820–1900.” Climatic Change 14 (1989): 291–307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolff, Christian et al. “Reduced Interannual Rainfall Variability in East Africa During the Last Ice Age.” Science 333 (2011): 743–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Sharon E. Nicholson

Authors
  1. Sharon E. Nicholson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Sam White

  2. Institute of History, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change, Bern, Switzerland

    Christian Pfister

  3. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Franz Mauelshagen

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Nicholson, S.E. (2018). A Multi-Century History of Drought and Wetter Conditions in Africa. In: White, S., Pfister, C., Mauelshagen, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43020-5_20

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-43020-5_20

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-43019-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-43020-5

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation