AFRICA
BY LEAH A. J. COHEN
Research on historic and prehistoric natural disasters in Af-
rica is still a new fi eld and continues to result in major new
fi ndings. One of the oldest Holocene natural disasters to be
uncovered in archaeological and geologic research in Af-
rica is the eruption of Mount Menengai around 8,000 years
ago. Th is eruption occurred in the East Africa Rift Va l le y i n
present-day Kenya and produced a 5- by 7.5-mile caldera, or
volcanic crater. Another eruption took place about the same
time in Madagascar (a very large island off the southeastern
coast of Africa), creating a number of crater lakes and hot
springs. Th ere are little data on how these eruptions aff ected
the local population of humans or animals or the surround-
ing vegetation.
A volcanic eruption at Mount Jebel Marra (in present-
day Sudan) has been dated to around 3,500 years ago. Th e
blast formed a 3-mile-diameter caldera and sent lava fl ows
more than 18 miles. Again, little is known about this natu-
ral disaster’s eff ects on local human and other populations.
A Carthaginian navigator in the fi ft h century b.c.e. reported
witnessing an eruption of what was probably Mount Camer-
oon, a large volcano in West Africa. Th ere has been no mod-
ern research on the impact of this event on the local area, nor
has it been dated using modern dating methods.
About 4,000 years ago people in northern Africa were re-
sponding to an extreme 300-year drought. Th is drought cre-
ated barren, inhospitable sand dunes in areas of the Sahara
that had previously been occupied since the end of the last
ice age. Mass migration resulted in increases in population
in places near water, such as the Nile River valley. Historical
records suggest that this population growth may have been a
factor in mounting confl ict in the Egyptian empire.
“Plagues” of locusts are a particular area of new research
on natural disasters in Africa. Locusts are a species of grass-
hopper. Hatching from eggs in the ground at specifi c periods
(in some cases there are years between outbreaks), they grow
into adults and swarm en masse across the landscape, de-
vouring most of the vegetation, including crops, in their path.
Th ere is evidence of the presence of such locusts in western
Africa from three to fi ve million years ago, but little is known
about these ancient outbreaks.
Th e record on natura l disasters in Af rica is far f rom com-
plete. Numerous events undoubtedly remain to be uncovered
and investigated. Some of what is suspected about past natu-
ral disasters in Africa comes from modern anthropological
accounts of local myths. For example, people who currently
occupy the area around Lake Nyos in Cameroon (on the
western coast of central Africa) have a legend that the lake
causes numerous deaths from time to time. Although little is
known about the historical basis for this myth, a disaster in
the 1980s resulted in the sudden death of over 1,800 people
near the lake. Scientists have since discovered that the wa-
ter was releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the
air, but much remains unknown about this occurrence and
whether earlier events of the same kind might have given rise
to the myth.EGYPT
BY PANAGIOTIS I. M. KOUSOULIS
According to ancient Egyptian conceptions, the creator god
fashioned the cosmos out of chaos, a dark, watery abyss that
surrounded the universe and the created world. He then es-
tablished maat, the divine and political order. Maat (a lso per-
sonifi ed as a goddess of the same name) was the cornerstone
of the Egyptian belief system and Egyptian ethical values.
Harmony in nature, as well as in social and private life, was
the result of the establishment and perpetuation of maat. By
contrast, natural disasters or political and social decline oc-
curred when chaotic forces prevailed over maat.
Despite the oft en dire consequences of earthquakes,
fl oods, storms, and fi res, Egyptians do not seem to have been
interested in keeping historical records of such events. Evi-
dence of natural disasters is limited to religious and magical
texts, which oft en allude to them mainly in terms of various
mythological concepts and traditions. Th e Pyramid Texts,
engraved on the walls of the funerary chambers of a suc-
cession of pharaohs, form the oldest funerary and religious
corpus of the ancient world. Th e fi rst of these texts, in the
pyramid of the last ruler of the Fift h Dynasty, Unas (r. ca.
2356–2323 b.c.e.), describes the return of the pharaoh to life
in the appearance of a new god, violent and powerful: “Th e
sky fl ies cloudy, the stars darken, the [celestial] bows move,
the bones of the Akeru tremble, the Moving-ones, as for
them, become silent aft er they have seen Unas apparent and
provided with ba, as a god who lives of his Fathers and feeds
of his Mothers.” Th e Akeru were a group of subterranean
genies, leonine watchers of the netherworld. Th eir bones
could well have been interpreted as the stronger parts of the
earth’s body, the rocks. Some scholars view this passage as
the fi rst historical reference to the Egyptian explanation of
earthquakes.
Another passage from the Pyramid Texts, this one from
the tomb of the pharaoh Pepi Neferkare, whose reign (ca.
2246–2152 b.c.e.) remains the longest in human history,
clearly describes heavy rain and fl oods, seismic events, and
some sort of confl agration: “Th e water of life which is in the
sky comes! Th e water of life which is in the earth comes! Th e
sky burns for you, the earth quakes for you, before the god’s
birth.”
Evidence of seismic phenomena also appears in a famous
tale from the Middle Kingdom known as “Th e Shipwrecked
Sailor.” A man reaches a mysterious and beautiful island un-
harmed aft er having survived a storm at sea. He discovers
plenty of food there and makes a burnt off ering to the gods to
thank them. Th e description is particularly precise and with-
out doubt refers to a seismic event. As in the Pyramid Texts,
however, such an event is closely interrelated with symbolical776 natural disasters: Africa