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THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST This book is about the geography of change in Africa and the Middle East. For nearly all of these countries the doubling time for the population is less than thirty years, in the case of Kenya it is only seventeen years. Rates of urbanization are high, and increasing education and the media are changing the political awareness and expectations of these populations. These countries have to struggle simultaneously with the problems of feeding themselves, finding new employment opportunities, and servicing overseas debt, and now also the increasing impact of the AIDS epidemic. Tensions have spawned conflicting political ideologies. In Southern Africa and the Horn of Africa the people have had to contend with bitter and long-lasting wars. Increasingly these nations are facing environmental problems, brought about by over-use of fragile soils, or by increasing frequencies of drought. Some are fortunate enough to have valuable resources, such as oil, that have helped them in the short or medium term at least, others have nothing. In this book experts at, or associated with, the Department of Geography of the School of Oriental and African Studies give students of Geography and allied subjects an up-todate understanding of these changes. The first introductory chapter surveys Africa and the Middle East as these regions were understood in the mid-1960s. This was a time of hope - a new dawn for many of the states which had just become independent. In the following chapters specialists consider what has happened since in the regions of their own expert knowledge. Many of these countries, even those endowed with significant natural resources, have since changed in unanticipated ways, as the tensions have grown within plural societies, each needing to develop new institutions of their own while at the same time agreeing on the strategy which would best meet their development aims and the people’s expectations. The last chapter summarizes and reviews the changes that have taken place, showing how differently these areas are seen now compared with twentyfive years ago. Graham P. Chapman and Kathleen M. Baker are, repectively, Professor and Lecturer in the Department of Geography, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST Edited by Graham P. Chapman and Kathleen M. Baker FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AT SOAS London and New York First published 1992 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc. 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1992 Graham P. Chapman and Kathleen M. Baker All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-203-03450-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-20217-1 (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 0-415-05709-4 (Print Edition) (HB) ISBN 0-415-05710-8 (Print Edition) (PB) Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Changing geography of Africa and the Middle East / edited by Graham P. Chapman and Kathleen M. Baker for the Geography Department at SOAS. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–415–05709–4 (HB). – ISBN 0–415–05710–8 (PB) 1. Africa–Geography. 2. Africa–Politics and government– 1960–. 3. Africa–Economic conditions–1960–. 4. Middle East–Geography. 5. Middle East–Politics and government– 1945–. 6. Middle Ea