THEAFRICANS
where human activity was an indigenous process, except as the arrival of
people by land from further north modified it.
"Pula!" (May it rain!) is a popular greeting in Lesotho, and it is the name
of the currency in Botswana. Rainfall has had a profound influence on the
history of the region. In the west, the average annual rainfall is fewer than
five inches, resulting in desert conditions along the coastline of Namibia
and the northern Cape Province. In the east, the average rainfall reaches
forty inches a year, producing subtropical vegetation along the Transkei
and Natal coastlines. In between, a transitional zone receives about twenty
inches of rain a year. To the east of that zone, the rainfall is sufficient for
arable agriculture; to the west, it is not. One exception to this division is the
Cape peninsula and its vicinity, where heavy winter rains are sufficient for
intensive agriculture.
These rainfall figures are annual averages. In fact, rain varies greatly
from season to season. Throughout
most of the region, droughts are fre-
quent. They vary in range and intensity. A drought might affect a very smal]
area or last no more than a single year; but sometimes-perhaps
at least
once in a human generation-devastating
droughts hit entire subregions