Question

Write a note to explain the effect of the following:
The coming of rinderpest to Africa.

Answer 1

Hint: Rinderpest, also referred to as cattle plague, is a highly infectious viral disease of cattle. It first entered Africa in the east, but the virus soon shifted west ‘like forest fire’, reaching the Atlantic coast of Africa in 1892.

Complete answer:
In the late 1880s, Rinderpest was introduced in Africa. The virus was carried by infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian troops invading Eritrea in Eastern Africa. It first entered Africa in the east, but the virus soon shifted west ‘like forest fire’, reaching the Atlantic coast of Africa in 1892. Five years later, it reached the Cape of Good Hope (Africa’s southernmost tip). A massive destruction followed its path as it swept across the African continent, and killed 90 per cent of the domestic cattle . It resulted in “the great African rinderpest pandemic of the 20th century”.

The loss of cattle destroyed African livelihoods, as cattle was the main wealth of the people. The remaining scarce cattle resources were successfully monopolised by the planters, mine owners and colonial governments, to consolidate their power, and to compel the Africans into the labour market. The European colonisers were able to conquer and subdue Africa because they had control over scarce resource of cattle.

Note: The world was declared free from rinderpest in 2011, which was one of the most feared and catastrophic infectious diseases amongst the animals. After smallpox, rinderpest Is the second infectious disease to have been eradicated from the world.