Introduction: Who, Where, What, When, Why

 

Africa is huge, 30 370 000 Km² of diverse landscape with 1.216 billion inhabitants . Water and food are integral to all human beings, and are at the heart of everything we do. This topic has a complex web of relationships with some of the most important and topical matters of our time, namely climate change, international relations, politics, human rights, ecological degradation… to name only a few. To start exploring a topic of this magnitude we can ask the 5 most basic questions of exploration: Who, What, Where, When, Why. Before later digging into juicy case studies and debates (so watch this space).

Who are we talking about? It’s a continent I haven’t been too, a culture and world I have only read about in novels or seen in disasters on the news. Growing up in a western world I have heard a particular narrative; a romanticised view of African safaris to hunt wild animals as depicted in many Hemingway novels or a disaster land stricken by famine and draught as portrayed on the news. B. Wainaina, a Kenyan author, published a satirical piece in Granta magazine on How to write about Africa, or rather how not to write about Africa. There is a stress on language, what diction is inappropriate such as referring to Africa as a ‘safari’ of ‘darkness’ and referring to African’s as ‘tribal’. These words and descriptions conjure up this narrow minded scenario of the whole of Africa that has been used for centuries. Images can speak a thousand words, so in the same way should be chosen with care.

Where are we talking about? Africa is a continent, it has a wide range of countries and cannot be considered as one entity. Economies range, by GDP per capita, from Seychelles of US$10 764.42 to Burundi with US$249.58 (World Bank 2020). Renewable freshwater resources range from 39001m³ per capita in Central African Republic to 34 m³ per capita in Egypt (World Resources Institute 2000). Politics, conservation, effects of climate change, farming practices….etc all differ from country to country, even region to region. River basins, groundwater supplies and natural habitats can all be transboundary, as is the case with the Nile covering 11 different countries, scale is therefore crucial when considering a topic. Africa’s diversity offer a wide range of different topics that are all scale specific.

What are we talking about? Water and Food, the building blocks of life. Green water, groundwater, sustainable water, seasonal precipitation…. There are many types of water and they have many connections with food: virtual water, irrigation, dams… Different powers are at play over these properties: government policies, foreign politics, climate change, among many others.

Why are we talking about Africa, water and food? Well this has to do with When we are talking. That is NOW! This title covers the biggest issues of the day that need our immediate attention. The worlds climate is shifting, water stress has a high likelihood of increasing according to the IPCC report, mean annual temperature is likely to exceed a 2^oC by the last 2 decades of the century and precipitation is likely to become more intense and less frequent across Africa (IPCC 2014).