I. Identification
I. Identification
Burkea africana, was the preferred tree for charcoal in Bassar, although there is a list of about 22 hardwood trees found satisfactory to produce charcoal for iron smelting. Ethnographers found that progressive dessication occured after 1000 smeltings, 5000 smelts, 15,000 smelts. (Goucher, p. 73)
There were sites identified by Germans containing up to 500 furnaces.
These furnaces could deforest 4.8 km in all directions in the course of
a single year. (Goucher,73)
Iron Use. Iron ore is abundant in Africa. Ferrous art is quite common despite the bias researchers exhibit by only discussing Africans utilization of cooper, brass, and bronze metallury technology. The discovery and use of iron "increased food production through the use of more efficient bush clearing tools, tools which permitted the clearing of forest and increased productivity in areas where stone was not readily available for stone axes; increased population densities as a result of increased food production ; increased specialization and social differentiation, especially the formation of iron working castes or classes; larger and more stable communities due to both increased specialization of the existence of food surpluses; increased trade due to increased specialization; and the “embryonic rise” of modern politics, “the politics of class differentiation.” (de Barros,467)
According to Africa archeologists and historians, the introduction of iron technology into sub-Saharan Africa positively shaped African civilization as well. The Iron Age meant
In the Ancient Ghana and Mali Empires the introduction of iron agricultural implements and weapons meant increased food production and superior military strength respectively. For example, a 12th century geographer, al-Zuhri, reported that Ghanaians raided peoples with no iron. Ghanaians fought with swords and spears, and their opponents were only armed with staves of ebony. (Levtzion,14)
Demand in continental trade. The commodities of the Togo hinterland ( including goods originating in the Sudanic region) traditionally travelled an east-west axis and then followed the Volta into what was British territory, ending the journey in ports such as Keta. (Harmon, p. 75)
Goucher and others are convinced that precolonial iron import and export occured between Europeans and the Bassar Region. The estimated level of iron produced in Bassar was estimated at 400 tons. Only 200 tons were consumed by the region, leaving 200 tons in surplus export. (Goucher,137)
Decline of African Iron Industry. The depletion of forests for charcoal to fuel the smelting and smithing processes, not only reduced the number of trees, but German travellers noted that in the Bassar region the smoke and smog of the smelting process could be seen from long distances. (Goucher, 61) Air pollution consisting of oxides, fumes, ash, dust, and gaseous pollutants led to airborne contaminants that eventually contaminate the soils and vegetation surrounding furnaces sites.( Goucher, 61) Present day smelting sites demonstrate the same impact that these contaminants had in the past. They retard plant growth, kill other plant species, and cause a reduction in soil fertility.( Goucher, pl 61) Soil erosion and dessication as direct consquences of small and large-scale iron smelting, forced populations to migrate. They simply took their unsustainable smelting practices to new sites where forest and arable land were plentiful.
Again, early German studies of the colony’s forest led one forester, O. F. Metzger, to report that only 1.5% of the original forests remained at the turn of the century while the rest was converted to savanna. The progressive transformation of forest to dry grassland radically changed the soil, climate, and rainfall patterns in Bassar and Buem.
Available articles and surveys indicated that no conservation technics were applied by early African iron manufacturers or their political leaders to preserve the forests they relied upon for raw material, and productivity.
The depletion of forests did however stimulate a market solution to the wood-supply shortage. Long-distance trade in firewood and charcoal constituted a major response to the dessication of land around the smelting complexes. Such trade pre-dates as well as overlaps the colonial period. Forest products including timeber were traded by headloads from Ho region in southern Togo to Ashanti in the Gold Coast colonly certainly during the ninteeenth century and probably earlier.
Without a doubt the processes implemented to obtain iron for economic transactions (domestic and interregional) almost single-handedly led to the deforestation of central and upper Togo.
It was precisely the distance required to obtain wood for charcoal that
the Iron Industry in Bassar and other regions of Africa began to deteriorate.
The competition of imported iron from Europe unfolded in lower prices for
iron bars. Many times the price of iron from Europe was five times cheaper
than that produced locally. The cost of not finding more sustainable ways
to produce iron cost pre-colonial iron merchants’ their local and overseas
markets.
1. Malawi. Studies of smelting sites in Malawi yielded a finding that by using two (2) smelting furnaces it took 1,000 kg of charcoal from the Filipua arab, a preferred hardwood tree, to produce two to four agricultural hoes for 50 kg of ore. (Nicolass van der Merwe, “Iron Smelting by Induced Draft in Malawi,” Nyame Akuma 23 (1983). Goucher goes on to say that the experimental reconstruction itself denuded two mountains. (Goucher, 68)
2. Ghana. Researchers of the Bassar case use the iron smelting site of Dapaa in Ghana near Begho (Dapaa 1400-1700) as an indicator of the enormous requirement of trees and the subsequent environmental impact. (Goucher, 69) They estimated that more than 300,000 trees had been cut down to supply charcoal for total iron production. (Goucher, 70) There were 26 slag mounds in an arc-like formation, typical of the Ghanaian placement of smelting furnaces, in a straight line. Centuries old slag mounds (total weight of slag 209,611 at 82 kg) discovered by Len Pole indicated the removal of 307,431 trees.
[photo of slags]
3. Mali. In the Mema area of Mali (A.D. 800-1150), Randi Haaland documents the ecological negatives of iron production. “From an estimated volume of 30,000 cubic meters of slag, Haaland has calculated, from ethnographic informants, a volume of 60,00m3 of ore, 120,000m3 of charcoal and 480,000m3 of wood (yielding an annual cost of 1,600 m3 of wood). (Goucher, 70)
In this Mali case as in the Bassar Region populations abandoned a settlement because of the deforestation iron workers caused in the area. Population Redistribution is a clear consequence of the environmental degradation imposed on the land in an area. The presence of forest in addition to arable land were prerequisites for the settlement of pre-industrial African societies during Iron Age. In summary, “cycles of abandonment and settlement correspond to deforestation and reforestation.” (Goucher, 70)
4. Sudan Case , Somalia Case , Nile Case , Blue Nile Case , Sahara Case
II. Legal ClustersThe colonial authority decided to pass laws that required reforestation and the establishment of forest reserves.
III. Geographic ClustersThe environment and trade linkage of this cased occurred on the African continent in central Togo. The forests of Togo competed with those of the Cameroon for their vastness and beauty. In the 14th century smelting was widespread according to the investigations of archeologists. By the late 16th or early 17th century the Bassar region is documented as becoming a large scale producer for supra-regional export.
The Bassar region was identified by German colonists as having suffered from the slash and burn technique used to clear land for planting crops. The colony’s forstassessor Metzger contended that 98.5 percent of the original forest had been converted to savanna with only 1.5 percent of the original forests remaining at the turn of the century.(Goucher, 53)
GEOGRAPHIC SITE: West African Forests
GEOGRAPHIC IMPACT: Togo
There are three (3) centers in which specialization of the iron production process occurred “with Bandjeli devoted to smelting, Bitchabe to smithing and Dimuri to charcoal-making.(de Barros, 448) Iron technology caused the settlement patterns to become more dense than in the centuries prior.
The prosperity of the region by the 16th also led to increased influx of semi-nomads and small groupings of farm families into the urban centers.(de Barros, 449) This of course concentrated the demand on the land in terms of agricultural production and iron productions.
The new ability to trade iron commodities locally or intra-regionally had the effect of shifting individuals from solely subsistence farming. As a result the need for nearby land to grow crops for a large urban population competed with the need for nearby land to use for timber extraction and smelting/smithing activities.(de Barros, 447)
Villages that concentrated in the production of charcoal began to disappear first. These communities were the first in supply chain to be impacted by the diminished forest reserves. Again, by the arrival of the Germans in 1894 to Togo, forstassessor Metzger observed:
... All wood is devoured as charcoal needed by the high furnaces. As the result of the passage of years, there is such a dearth of work in this region that even their neighboring landscapes are exploited. Principally, the bordering western Konkomba have become the suppliers of charcoal for the Banjeli people. Iron production has in this way exerted a not insignificant influence on the adjacent landscape.
KEY PRODUCTS: Mostly timber cut from virgin forests for burning as charcoal in order to smelt iron which went from Bassar into the Hausaland trade route connected to the TransSaharan Trade network and the Atlantic trade routes.
GEOGRAPHIC SPECIES DOMAIN
Ethnographic literature on African metallurgy indicated the preference for strong wood to produce charcoal. The type of wood selected for the charcoal helped to determine the quality of iron produced.
IV. Trade ClustersThe absolute unbridled exploitation of the forests with little to no conservation. The Germans, who expected to extract wealth in the form of primary products, discovered they were too late. The indigenous societies had beaten the Germans to exploiting the wealth of timber resources in Togo. Upon the German’s failure to understand the existing ecological condition, the large plantation schemes for cotton, cocoa, and other tree plants were highly unsuccessful. The construction of 1,215 km of railroad intended to transport cotton and other primary products to Togo's port, only exacerbated the denudification of terrain in the country. (Goucher, 77)
The poor quality of remaining timber was used as an excuse to import additional lumber from Germany. (Goucher, 76) The pre-colonial deforestation had produced a quite impoverished soil.
The existence of a strong export market stimulated intensive collection of forest products and systematic cultivation for export. As a response, the colonial authorities set up several laws to minimize the land grabbing and crop profiteering of Europeans through “statutory recognition of African rights in 1904 in matters of land ownership. Note that of the registered 718 properties, 635 belonged to Africans during Germany’s colonial period.(Goucher, 81)
The Germans under Governor von Zech developed two-prong forestry policy. Reforestation of severely deforested areas (1906), and the creation of a forest reserve (1912).
Several thousand hectares received environmental attention from the German colonial government: 28,000 hectares along the confluence of the Haho and Baloe Rivers; 38,000 between Mo and Kamaa Rivers in anticipation that iron ore mining would occur; and the 6,000 hectares near the Sansann-Mango. (Goucher, 83) In addition, tree planting of over 500 hectares., actually occurred between 1909-1910. (Goucher, 83)
That is, the transformation of ore into iron required such massive amounts of lumber(charcoal in the smelting process) that the impact must be considered direct. Wood was an explicit input in the production process.
b. Indirectly Related to Product:
c. Not Related to Product:
d. Related to Process: Yes, Air Pollution
Iron produced from an iron smelting process that requires charcoal made from wood.
Employment: Difficult to estimate
Competition from European iron bars was a major contributor to the decline of Bassar's iron industry. As mentioned before, it was much cheaper than that found in Togo. Beyond that, German imperialism did not allow for continued expansion of the Bassar iron industry either and as a result suppressed a significant technological movement in West Africa. The Germans selected to use iron produced in other countries for the Lome-Anecho railroad instead of utilizing to any significant degree the ironworkers in Togo.
Case Exporter: Bassar Region of Togo
Case Importer: Towns along the Trans-Saharan Trade Route and later Europe
Leading Exporter: n/a
V. Environment ClustersPentaclethrea macrophylla Benth.;
Erythorpholeum Guineense Don.;
Cylicodiensesns gabunesnsis Harms.;
Irvingia grandifolia Engl.; and
(Goucher, 60)
Type: (see above)
Diversity: (see above)
IUCN Status: n/a
VI. Other FactorsIn general, iron smelters and blacksmiths, particularly, held prestigous and powerful positions in African societies. Those who controled such a powerful element as fire were believed to be more powerful. Smiths founded chapters of power associations wherever they went. One of the 'primary concerns of power associations was the protection of trade routes." (Brooks, 74) Not only were smiths expected to make weapons and agricultural implements, but they were considered formible enough to make " powerful amulets and effect a variety of cures." (Brooks,74) Smiths belonged to Poro Societies further up the West African Coast in Guine-Conakry and have been known to die for divulging secrets about their "magic".
It makes an outsider wonder whether fear prevented the development of conservation strategies in the Bassar Region. Recall that entire societies would have to deslocate entirely and resettle to forested areas because the smelting cycles denuded entire forests. It seems likely that the ironworkers were too powerful for ordinary citizens to criticize. Then again, unbridled deforestation may have simply continued because people remained unsuccessful in locating substitutes.
George E. Brooks. Landlords and Strangers: Ecology, Society, and Trade in Western Africa, 1000-1630. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993).
Goucher, Candice Lee. The Iron Industry of Bassar, Togo: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of African Technological History. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Dissertation Information Service, 1986).
Hopkins, A.G. An Economic History of West Africa. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1973).
Oliver, Ronald and Brian M. Fagan. Africa in the Iron Age c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1975)
Decalo, Samuel. Historical Dictionary of Togo. (Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1996).
Levtzion, Nehemiah. Ancient Ghana and Mali. (New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1973).
Shaw, Thurston, Paul Sinclair, Bassey Andah, and Alex Okpoko. The Archeology of Africa: Food, Metals, Towns. (New York: Routledge, 1993).
Coghlan, H.H. Notes on Prehistoric and Early Iron in the Old World. (Oxford: University Press,1956).