Seasonal Hunger in a Part of the West African Savanna: A Survey of Bodyweights in Nangodi, North-East Ghana

BETWEEN THE West African forest and the sub-Saharan steppe lies a broad zone of savanna woodland stretching some 2000 miles from Dakar to Lake Tchad, with an average width of about 500 miles (Fig. I). Seasonally advancing Tm air from the Gulf of Guinea, thrusting wedge-like under the Tc air of Saharan origin, brings rain to the hot continental interior. In the south the rains arrive sooner and last longer, whereas in the north they are delayed and are of shorter duration. Within the savanna, transition is gradual, resulting in an equally gradual thinning out of the cover of woody vegetation, there being no sharp boundaries, although three major 'core' zones can be recognized: (I) Sudan savanna woodland, being relatively dry and fringing on the wooded steppe; (2) northern Guinea savanna woodland; (3) southern Guinea savanna woodland, being relatively moist and fringing on the forestsavanna mosaic (Fig. I). Annual rainfall is about thirty inches on the northern wooded steppe boundary and fifty inches on the southern forest boundary. Life in the savanna revolves around the arrival and duration of the rainy season. Environmental risk and hardship increase northward as the rainy season shortens and the harsh, dry season correspondingly lengthens. On the humid forest margin in the south, crops of yam (Dioscorea spp.), cassava (manioc, Manihot utilissima) and corn (Zea mays) are assured; to the immediate north regular yields of Guinea corn (Sorghum vulgare) and millet (Pennisetum spp.) are more or less assured; farther north still, the shorter and less reliable rainy season decreases the cultivator's chances of adequate sustenance, while in the steppe zone, pastoralism understandably supersedes as the traditional way of life. Among the many peoples relying principally upon cereal cultivation in the savanna of West Africa, the occurrence of seasonal risk, together with its concomitants of crop failure and hunger, does not appear to be questioned although it is apparent that different systems of agriculture and settlement have nevertheless evolved among indigenous societies which have the effect of minimizing environmental hazards.' In recent historical times, the cessation of slavery and of inter-tribal warfare, and, importantly, within the last few decades, the introduction of health measures, have increased population pressure. The advent of imported goods, a monetary economy, and cash crops in some areas, have also increased pressure on the land. Thus modern influences are tending to disturb and even radically to disrupt the ecological balance.