Post: #201

Africa's soils are dead after thousands of years of farming. The Nile, the eastern highlands, and the Natal are the only fertile parts. The rainforest is shrinking, the rest of the continent is becoming desertified. The resources it does have to offer the world are mineral. Unfortunately for "civilization," it doesn't have any rare earth deposits that I know of. The last time it did was when the "PlayStation wars" occurred in the Congo due to the deposits of minerals being used by Sony. Different factions fought for control of the mines.

Leave Africa to the Africans. See if they can kick out the Chinese.

Post: #202

Quote:Africa's soils are dead after thousands of years of farming.

So first Africa was a continent of undeveloped nomadic pastoralists, but now also its soil is dead from milennia of intensive farming?

Not to mention that according to this logic the entire world should be dead from starvation already...

Post: #203

(07-25-2018 09:00 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

Quote:Africa's soils are dead after thousands of years of farming.

So first Africa was a continent of undeveloped nomadic pastoralists, but now also its soil is dead from milennia of intensive farming?

Not to mention that according to this logic the entire world should be dead from starvation already...

Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the continent for a long time. The pastoralism in recent times is an adaptation to this. Not sure where I said it was a continent of nomadic pastoralists.

http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/...7734-e-134

Of course, this is all based on material evidence, as there is no written language aside from the East and North Africans to refer to.

Also not sure I follow your train of thought on the whole world dying of starvation. Current grain production is mostly American.

Post: #204

(07-25-2018 09:04 AM)YoungBlade Wrote:  Africa's soils are dead after thousands of years of farming.
[...]
Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the continent for a long time.

Yes, that's exactly my point. Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the world for a long time. You would be hard pressed to find pristine untouched land anywhere, America included.

Post: #205

(07-25-2018 10:43 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(07-25-2018 09:04 AM)YoungBlade Wrote:  Africa's soils are dead after thousands of years of farming.
[...]
Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the continent for a long time.

Yes, that's exactly my point. Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the world for a long time. You would be hard pressed to find pristine untouched land anywhere, America included.

I'm saying Africa has been farming for far longer than most of the world. i.e. Europe being mostly hunter-gatherer until the bronze age, the Americas being agricultural until plagues forced them to return hunter-gatherer societies, etc. These soils have been used less than Africa's, and Africa has almost entirely used its soil nutrients save for the above-mentioned locations. The only thing propping up their populations is international trade and aid.

Post: #206

Great video going into the history of the Bantu people; Africa is not a monolith.

Post: #207

(07-25-2018 10:58 AM)YoungBlade Wrote:  

(07-25-2018 10:43 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(07-25-2018 09:04 AM)YoungBlade Wrote:  Africa's soils are dead after thousands of years of farming.
[...]
Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the continent for a long time.

Yes, that's exactly my point. Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the world for a long time. You would be hard pressed to find pristine untouched land anywhere, America included.

I'm saying Africa has been farming for far longer than most of the world. i.e. Europe being mostly hunter-gatherer until the bronze age, the Americas being agricultural until plagues forced them to return hunter-gatherer societies, etc. These soils have been used less than Africa's, and Africa has almost entirely used its soil nutrients save for the above-mentioned locations. The only thing propping up their populations is international trade and aid.

No, it hasn't. Here is a list of agricultural beginnings by area:

Africa: 5000 BC
Middle East: 9500 BC
China: 6000 BC
India: 5000 BC
South America: 6500 BC

You're making the mistake of assuming that just because humans spread out from Africa, Africa must have been the first place to begin practicing agriculture and practicing it most intensively, yet this is not true at all. Furthermore, by your logic most of the world should be a barren wasteland, having started agricultural practices earlier than Europe and North America (2000 BC), yet again this is obviously not the case.

The current population levels of Africa are excessive because excessive humanitarian aid has allowed the continent to grow faster than its level of development/corruption would have otherwise allowed, not because the soil is poor. Properly managed, Africa could easily feed many times its population.

Post: #208

(07-25-2018 03:58 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  You're making the mistake of assuming that just because humans spread out from Africa,

Actually that has largely been disproven:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien...64306.html

Post: #209

(07-25-2018 03:58 PM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(07-25-2018 10:58 AM)YoungBlade Wrote:  

(07-25-2018 10:43 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

(07-25-2018 09:04 AM)YoungBlade Wrote:  Africa's soils are dead after thousands of years of farming.
[...]
Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the continent for a long time.

Yes, that's exactly my point. Archaeological evidence shows plenty of farming in most of the world for a long time. You would be hard pressed to find pristine untouched land anywhere, America included.

I'm saying Africa has been farming for far longer than most of the world. i.e. Europe being mostly hunter-gatherer until the bronze age, the Americas being agricultural until plagues forced them to return hunter-gatherer societies, etc. These soils have been used less than Africa's, and Africa has almost entirely used its soil nutrients save for the above-mentioned locations. The only thing propping up their populations is international trade and aid.

No, it hasn't. Here is a list of agricultural beginnings by area:

Africa: 5000 BC
Middle East: 9500 BC
China: 6000 BC
India: 5000 BC
South America: 6500 BC

You're making the mistake of assuming that just because humans spread out from Africa, Africa must have been the first place to begin practicing agriculture and practicing it most intensively, yet this is not true at all. Furthermore, by your logic most of the world should be a barren wasteland, having started agricultural practices earlier than Europe and North America (2000 BC), yet again this is obviously not the case.

The current population levels of Africa are excessive because excessive humanitarian aid has allowed the continent to grow faster than its level of development/corruption would have otherwise allowed, not because the soil is poor. Properly managed, Africa could easily feed many times its population.

And you're making the mistake of assuming the earlier the agriculture, the more farming has been done. Middle East and Africa are the most desertified because of the more consistent and extensive agriculture. Other continents had less consistent agriculture, and thus less depleted soils. The only continent that falls outside this paradigm that I can think of is Australia, as its mountain ranges prevent rainfall in the center of the continent.

I'm not sure why you find this so hard to believe. No matter how sustainable the agricultural practices, it will deplete the soil. In the case of Africa and the Middle East we even have records of how they changed from lush plains and forests to deserts due to farming and urbanization. These records, combined with the archaeological evidence of civilization in Africa, plus the geological studies on soil nutrition, combine to demonstrate the desolation of Africa due to agriculture.

Post: #210

(07-25-2018 12:05 PM)Aurini Wrote:  Great video going into the history of the Bantu people; Africa is not a monolith.

Its such a shame that leftist ideologies played such a big role in invoking genocidal sentiments towards Europeans among African Americans and African peoples in countries that are communist.