Population: General Characteristics

Man has long been a feature of the African continent. In their turn important characteristics of the continent, such as the boundaries of the regions exhibiting different types of natural vegetation, and even the natural vegetation itself, have been profoundly affected by his presence. Excavations during the past decade in East Africa suggest that parts of Africa were probably the original home of mankind, and more recent diggings near Lake Chad indicate that West Africa too may have housed human beings or their closely-related ancestors for tens of thousands of generations. Such a long period of occupancy, however, has not solved all the problems of human settlement, and some more recently occupied parts of the earth have been more generous in the returns they have offered for man’s labour.