Drought in Mozambique, 1823-1831

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Drought in Mozambique, 1823-1831
Author:	Newitt, M.D.D.
Year:	1988
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:	15
Issue:	1
Period:	October
Pages:	15-35
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Mozambique
Subjects:	droughts history 1820-1829 1830-1839 Drought and Desertification History and Exploration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment colonialism
Link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636446
Abstract:	The purpose of this paper is to shift the emphasis in the interpretation of the 19th-century history of Mozambique. During the 1820s much of the region was devastated by drought and famine and the social and economic dislocation that followed brought with it important long-term political changes, as well as the demise of the traditional commercial life of the region. The paper looks at some of the ways in which the local population responded to the drought and how they coped or failed to cope with the problems that it brought. Re-examining this period through the eyes of contemporary observers reveals the extent to which African problems, often seen as the result of external economic and political pressures, can also have causes emanating from within Africa itself. All contemporaries agreed on one thing, namely that the whole region was suffering from an ecological catastrophe and that this was the underlying cause of the changes that were taking place: famine; the collapse of agriculture; the decline of trading and mining; the expansion of the slave trade. Notes, ref.