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Greater flamingos on Lake Nakuru, Kenya

Lake Nakuru has a surface area of 24 square miles (62 km2), which takes up one-third of the national park of the same name that was created in 1968. It shelters nearly 370 bird species, including the lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) and the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber), of which 1.4 million have been counted on the site. Like the other alkaline lakes scattered along the Rift Valley, its location on a rocky volcanic substrate, weak flow, intense evaporation, and average depth of 40 inches (1 m) give it a high soda content. These briny waters are favorable to the formation of blue-green algae, microorganisms, and small crustaceans, which provided the basic diet of flamingos. However, chemical products used in river farming and the water runoff from the nearby city of Nakuru have gradually polluted the lake waters. Since 1990 Lake Nakuru has been considered a wetland of international importance.

Drying dates in a palm grove south of Cairo, Nile Valley, Egypt

Date palm trees are grown only in hot, arid areas with water resources, such as oases. Five million tons of dates are produced each year worldwide. Most of the production from the Near East and North Africa is intended for each country’s domestic market and only about 5 percent is exported. Egypt, the world’s second-leading producer, after Iran, harvests more than 800,000 tons of dates each year, which are consumed locally at a rate of 22 pounds (10 kg) per person per year. These dates are habitually preserved in traditional ways. Fresh-picked, yellow or red depending on the variety, the dates slowly turn brown as they dry in the sun, protected from the wind and water by a small wall of earth and branches. They are then kept in baskets woven from palms. Although most of the dates produced go on the table, several derivatives (including syrup, flour, dough, vinegar, sugar, alcohol, and pastries) are made from the fruit manually or industrially.

Worker resting on bales of cotton, Thonakaha, Korhogo, Côte d’Ivoire

In the nineteenth century West Africa received its first cotton seeds of the Gossypium hirsutum variety, which originated in the British Antilles and remains the most widely cultivated kind of cotton in the world. At the beginning of the twentieth century this raw material represented 80 percent of the world textile market (47 percent today), and the European colonial powers encouraged cotton production in order to break the export monopoly of the United States and Egypt. Harvested manually at a rate of 33 to 80 pounds (15 to 40 kg) per worker per day in tropical Africa, the cotton crop is then put through gins in order to separate fiber, seeds, and waste. One ton of cotton yields 880 pounds (400 kg) of fibers and 1,200 pounds (560 kg) of seeds, which are processed for human consumption (as oil) or for animals (cattle cakes). In northern Côte d’Ivoire, especially in the Korhogo region, cotton plantations, the main cash crop, take up 590,000 acres (240,000 hectares). The country’s cotton output, nearly 300,000 tons, produced by more than 150,000 planters, is only a small fraction of world production; but nationally it counterbalances the agricultural domination in the south of the country, where the great plantations (cacao, palm oil, rubber, pineapple) are concentrated.

Patchwork of carpets in Marrakech, Morocco

In addition to the countries of central Asia and certain countries in South America, major centers of carpet production are found in northern Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco). Morocco has succeeded in maintaining a tradition of manufacture within family units and cooperative craft workshops, although most productions is now automated. Carpets are traditionally woven of linen, a symbol of protection and happiness, with silk, cotton, and sometimes camel or goat hair. The colors and designs are characteristic of the production regions, and the High Atlas mountains, where Marrakech is located, offers the warmest hues, mainly red, orange, and yellow. Ninety percent of the High Atlas carpets are created in the cities of Tazenakht and Amerzgane, primarily by women workers. The Moroccan carpet, once reserved entirely for domestic local use, has gained a worldwide reputation and today enjoys a flourishing export trade.