Contenu du sommaire

Some Data on the Handicraft Industries in Tropical African Towns. In the towns of tropical Africa, handicrafts still occupy a rather important part of the activities in the secondary sector. In very old communities, such as, for example, Abéché, the traditional trades are practically the only ones represented, but they are declining in importance ; in towns that date back to the colonial period, such as Lomé, we see, on the other hand, industries that are linked to the modern and European type of living. Everywhere, however, there is a superabundance of labor in certain fields, and the great majority of craftsmen eke out a poor living from their trade, except in some cases where mass consumption plays a role (the millet beer industry, for example) or where external demand (tourism) exerts an influence. The handicrafts thus attract workers who see in them a means of temporary susbsistance, a last resort, or a refuge while waiting for better days.

Forest Exploitation in the Popular Republic of the Congo. Until 1972, forest exploitation was the principal economic resource of the Congo. Even if petroleum now appears to be the main pivot round which the future development of the Congo will turn, wood, in any case, remains an almost inexhaustible source of wealth, on the condition that the minimum of precautions are taken to insure its continued exploitation. Sixty percent of the area of the R.P.C. (approximately 200,000 sq. km. out of 342,000) is covered by the equatorial forest divided into three regions (Mayombe, Chaillu, North Congo), not counting the numerous wooded areas that are found in various parts of the savannah regions. Forest exploitation, first of all, concerns the employment of wood for such traditional articles as cases and dug-outs ; secondly, many wood products are extracted for use by the food and pharmaceutical industries ; and, thirdly, more and more small trees are cut and dead wood collected for the towns and villages where firewood is employed for heating and cooking. However, what merits attention is the cutting of large trees destined for export in the form of logs or which are first tranformed locally by saw mills and bark-peeling mills. This type of «industrial» exploitation has existed in the Congo for some seventy-five years now, but it only experienced real growth when the German Federal Republic, the traditional customer and today the principal purchaser of Congolese wood, resumed buying in the country after 1955. Concerned to conserve its national forest resources, the Congolese authorities have decided, with the publication of a new Forest Code in 1974, to give a new impetus to forest exploitation. An altered economic program has, as a consequence, been developed which favors the indigenous operators and governmental investments. Although it is in the main the world-wide crisis in wood demand which, is retarding continued growth of the industry, it is the forest of North Congo which today carries the nation's hopes as respects the future of this highly important economic branch. On the other hand, experiments in establishing plantations in the savannah régions (pine and eucalyptus trees) and the replanting of limba (in Mayombe) should continue and should thus start an era of forest «crops».

Maritime Relations and Tropical Insularity : The Example of Puerto Rico. In the Antilles insular group, Puerto Rico is at present the finest example of an island that is linked to the economy of a parent state. Its industrialization, unique in the Caribbean, requires and in fact nourishes highly polarized business exchanges with the eastern coast of the United States. This economic growth rests in part on the implantation of an efficacious maritime service. A high degree of containerization of diverse merchandises and an intensive employment of carrying companies reinforces the port activities to the benefit of San Juan. This city has been obliged to transfer its center of gravity to the new container port. In spite of this remarkable technology, business dealings remain similar to those that existed under the old colonial system. In the island, american industrial decentralization is becoming problematic. To free itself from a guardianship that it considers costly, the island government is seeking to buy out the main transporters, thus opening a new period in the history of Caribbean maritime activities.

The Markets of Abomey and Bohicon. In spite of the difference in the historic conditions of their founding, the market towns of Abomey and Bohicon today possess a great similarity. Situated in the center of their respective urban areas, and like the Yoruban market towns which they so much resemble as respects structure, they play a regional role in the distribution of goods in the heart of a clearly defined human environment : the core of the population of the former realm of Dan Homé. Distinctly run by women, they offer a clientele of weak purchasing means (a myriad quantity of low-priced goods are offered the prospective buyer) a wide range of merchandise consisting notably of foodstuff and handicraft articles. Of equal size and very close together, the two market towns supply a common demarcation zone which adjoins the dirt plateau of Abomey. It is of the utmost necessity that they be modernized.