1970s–1990s: (Environmental Catastrophe, Agrarian Decline, and Structural Adjustment — Persistent Drought Across the Sahel from the Early 1970s, Famine Compo…

1970s–1990s: (Environmental Catastrophe, Agrarian Decline, and Structural Adjustment — Persistent Drought Across the Sahel from the Early 1970s, Famine Compounding Civil War in Sudan, Mozambique, and Ethiopia, Several States Becoming Net Food Importers Dependent on Foreign Aid, Rapid Urbanization Creating Sprawling Slums Around Former Colonial Centers, and the IMF and World Bank Imposing Structural Adjustment Programs That Rolled Back the State by the Early 1990s): The 1970s and 1980s witnessed environmental and climatic catastrophe compounding economic crisis. Persistent drought across the Sahel from the early 1970s affected states from Mauritania and Mali to Sudan and Ethiopia, with resultant famine compounding civil war and forced-villagization policies. Agrarian decline lay at the heart of the crisis by the 1980s — several states had come to rely on foreign aid and were net importers of food. Population pressure and land scarcity led to heightened conflict, with farming communities expanding into pastureland or unhealthy areas in desperate attempts to produce food. Urban growth was rapid as young Africans saw few reasons to remain in deteriorating rural areas, creating sprawling slums surrounding former colonial centers — Lagos, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, and Dar es Salaam all provide examples. Africa’s economic independence was stillborn: political sovereignty was not attended by economic sovereignty, and dependency characterized much of the continent’s economic history since the 1950s. Millions of Africans perceived gross mismanagement and corruption among governing elites, and many initially welcomed the military coups of the 1960s and 1970s. As military regimes likewise failed, many embraced more violent challenges to the state, and economic grievances fueled insurrection as they had in the colonial era. By the early 1990s, governments under pressure from their populations and from the IMF and World Bank were forced to accept structural adjustment programs — rolling back the state, loosening central controls on trade and currency, and rendering institutions more efficient.