of the Gulf of Guinea. A larger supply, equal to any market
demand, could easily be obtained. A third valuable product
is the timber supplied by the forest regions, principally in
West Africa. It includes African teak or oak (Oldfieldia
africana), excellent for shipbuilding; the durable odum
of the Gold Coast (Chlorophora excelsa); African mahogany
(Khaya senegalensis); ebony (Diospyros ebenum); camwood
(Baphia nitida); and many other ornamental and dye woods.
The timber industry on the west coast was long neglected, but
since 1898 there have been large exports to Europe. In parts
of East Africa the Podocarpus milanjianus, a conifer, is
economically important. Valuable timber grows too in South
Africa, including the yellow wood (Podocarpus), stinkwood
(Ocotea), sneezewood or Cape ebony (Euclea) and ironwood.
Other vegetable products of importance are: Gum arabic, obtained
from various species of acacia (especially A. senegal),
the chief supplies of which are obtained from Senegambia
and the steppe regions of North Africa (Kordofan, &c.); gum
copal, a valuable resin produced by trees of the leguminous
order, the best, known as Zanzibar or Mozambique copal, coming
from the East African Trachylobium hornemannianum, and also
found in a fossil state under the soil; kola nuts, produced
chiefly in the coast-lands of Upper Guinea by a tree of the
order Sterculiaceae (Kola acuminata); archil or orchilla,
a dye-yielding lichen (Rocella tinctoria and triciformis)
growing on trees and rocks in East Africa, the Congo basin,
&c.; cork, the bark of the cork oak, which flourishes
in Algeria; and alfa, a grass used in paper manufacture
(Machrochloa tenacissima), growing in great abundance on
the dry steppes of Algeria, Tripoli, &c. A product to which
attention has been paid in Angola is the Almeidina gum or
resin, derived from the juice of Euphorbia tirucalli.
The cultivated products include those of the tropical and warm
temperate zones. Of the former, coffee is perhaps the most
valuable indigenous plant. It grows wild in many parts, the
home of one species being in Kaffa and other Galla countries
south of Abyssinia, and of another in Liberia. The Abyssinian
coffee is equal to the best produced in any other part of the
world. Cultivation is, however, necessary to ensure the best
results, and attention has been given to this in various European
colonies. Plantations have been established in Angola,
Nyasaland, German East Africa, Cameroon, the Congo Free State, &c.
Copra, the produce of the cocoa-nut palm, is supplied
chiefly by Zanzibar and neighbouring parts of the east
coast. Groundnuts, produced by the leguminous plant, Arachis
hypogaea, are grown chiefly in West Africa, and the largest
export is from Senegal and the Gambia; while Bambarra
ground-nuts (Voandzeia subterranea) are very generally
cultivated from Guinea to Natal. Cloves are extensively
grown on Zanzibar and Pemba islands, Pemba being the chief
source of the world's supply of cloves. The chief drawbacks
to the industry are the fluctuations of the yield of the
trees, and the risk of over-production in good seasons.
Cotton grows wild in many parts of tropical Africa, and is
exported in small quantities in the raw state; but the main
export is from Egypt, which comes third among the world's
sources of supply of the article. It is also cultivated in
West Africa--the industry in the Guinea coast colonies having
been developed since the beginning of the 20th century--and
in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, whence came the plants from
which Egyptian cotton is grown. Sugar, which is the staple
crop of Mauritius, and in a lesser degree of Reunion, is
also produced in Natal, Egypt, and, to a certain extent, in
Mozambique. Dates are grown in Tunisia and the Saharan
oases, especially Tafilet; maize in Egypt, South Africa and
parts of the tropical zone; wheat in Egypt, Algeria and the
higher regions of Abyssinia; rice in Madagascar. Wine is
largely exported from Algeria, and in a much smaller quantity
from Cape Colony; fruit and vegetables from Algeria. Tobacco
is widely grown on a small scale, but, except perhaps from
Algeria, has not become an important article of export,
though plantations have been established in various tropical
colonies. The cultivation of cocoa has proved successful in
the Gold Coast, Cameroon and other colonies, and in various
districts the tea plant is cultivated. Indigo, though not
originally an African product, has become naturalized and grows
wild in many parts, while it is also cultivated on a small
scale. The main difficulty in the way of tropical cultivation
is the labour question, which has already been referred to.
Of animal products one of the most important is ivory, the
largest export of which is from the Congo Free State. The
diminution in the number of elephants with the opening up
of the remoter districts must in time cause a falling-off
in this export. Beeswax is obtained from various parts
of the interior of West Africa, and from Madagascar. Raw
hides are exported in large quantities from South Africa,
as are also the wool and hair of the merino sheep and Angora
goat. Both hides and wool are also exported from Algeria and
Morocco, and hides from Abyssinia and Somaliland. Ostrich
feathers are produced chiefly by the ostrich farms of Cape
Colony, but some are also obtained from the steppes to
the north of the Central Sudan. Live stock, principally
sheep, is exported from Algeria and cattle from Morocco.
The exploited minerals of Africa are confined to a few districts,
the resources of the continent in this respect being largely
Mineral Wealth.
undeveloped. Since the discovery of gold in the Transvaal,
particularly in the district known as the Rand (1885), the
output has grown enormously, so that in 1898 the output of gold
from South Africa was greater than from any other gold-field
in the world. The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 lost the Rand
the leading position, but by 1905 the output--in that year
over L. 20,800,000--was greater than it had ever been. The
supply of gold from South Africa is roughly 25% of the world's
output. The gold-yielding formations extend northwards through
Rhodesia. The Gold Coast is so named from the quantity
of gold obtained there, and since the close of the 19th
century the industry has developed largely in the hands of
Europeans. In the Galla countries gold has long been an
article of native commerce. It is also found in various parts
of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and along the western shore of the
Red Sea. Diamonds are found in large quantities in a series
of beds known as the Kimberley shales, the principal mines
being at Kimberley, Cape Colony. Diamonds are also found in
Orange River Colony, while one of the richest diamond mines
in the world--the Premier--is situated in the Transvaal near
Pretoria. Some 80% of the world's production of diamonds
comes from South Africa. Copper is found in the west of Cape
Colony, in German South-West Africa, and in the Katanga country
in the southern Congo basin, where vast beds of copper ore
exist. There are also extensive deposits of copper in the
Broken Hill district of Northern Rhodesia. It also occurs in
Morocco, Algeria, the Bahr-el-Ghazal, &c. Rich tin deposits
have been found in the southern Congo basin and in Northern
Rhodesia. Iron is found in Morocco, Algeria (whence there
is an export trade), and is widely diffused, and worked by
the natives, in the tropical zone. But the deposits are
generally not rich. Coal is worked, principally for home
consumption, in Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, Orange
River Colony, and in Rhodesia in the neighbourhood of the
Zambezi. Coal deposits also exist in the German territory
north of Lake Nyasa. Phosphates are exported from Algeria and
Tunisia. Of other minerals which occur, but are little
worked, zinc, lead and antimony are found in Algeria, lead
and manganese in Cape Colony, plumbago in Sierra Leone.
The imports from foreign countries into Africa consist chiefly
of manufactured goods, varying in character according to the
development of the different countries in civilization. In
Egypt, Algeria and South Africa they include most of the
necessaries and luxuries of civilized life, manufactured
cotton and woollen goods, especially the former, taking the
first place, but various food stuffs, metal goods, coal and
miscellaneous articles being also included. In tropical
Africa, and generally where few Europeans have settled,
the great bulk of the imports consists as a rule of cotton
goods, articles for which there is a constant native demand.
No continent has in the past been so lacking in means of
communication as Africa, and it was only in the last decade
Development of means of communication.
of the 19th century that decided steps were taken to remedy these
defects. The African rivers, with the exception of the middle
Congo and its affluents, and the middle course of the three
other chief rivers, are generally unfavourable to navigation,
and throughout the tropical region almost the sole routes have
been native footpaths, admitting the passage of a single file
of porters, on whose heads all goods have been carried from
place to place. Certain of these native trade routes are,
however, much frequented, and lead for hundreds of miles from
the coast to the interior. In the desert regions of the north
transport is by caravans of camels, and in the south ox-wagons,
before the advent of railways, supplied the general means of
locomotion. The native trade routes led generally from the
centres of greatest population or production to the seaports
by the nearest route, but to this rule there was a striking
exception. The dense forests of Upper Guinea and the upper
Congo proved a barrier which kept the peoples of the Sudan
from direct access to the sea, and from Timbuktu to Darfur
the great trade routes were either west to east or south
to north across the Sahara. The principal caravan routes
across the desert lead from different points in Morocco and
Algeria to Timbuktu; from Tripoli to Timbuktu, Kano and other
great marts of the western and central Sudan; from Bengazi
to Wadai; and from Assiut on the Nile through the Great Oasis
and the Libyan desert to Darfur. South of the equator the
principal long-established routes are those from Loanda to the
Lunda and Baluba countries; from Benguella via Bihe to Urua
and the upper Zambezi; from Mossamedes across the Kunene to
the upper Zambezi; and from Bagamoyo, opposite Zanzibar, to
Tanganyika. Many of the native routes have been superseded
by the improved communications introduced by Europeans in the
utilization of waterways and the construction of roads and
railways. Steamers have been conveyed overland in sections and
launched on the interior waterways above the obstructions to
navigation. On the upper Nile and Albert Nyanza their
introduction was due to Sir S. Baker and General C. G. Gordon
(1871-1876); on the middle Congo and its affluents to Sir H.
M. Stanley and the officials of the Congo Free State, as well
as to the Baptist missionaries on the river; and on Lake Nyasa
to the supporters of the Scottish mission. A small vessel
was launched on Victoria Nyanza 1896 by a British mercantile
firm, and a British government steamer made its first trip
in November 1900. On the other great lakes and on most of
the navigable rivers steamers were plying regularly before
the close of the 19th century. However, the shallowness of
the water in the Niger and Zambezi renders their navigation
