Pastoralism refers to cattle keeping. Nomadic is a subsistence form of cattle keeping whereby the cattle keepers move with the animals from place to place on search of green pasture and water.

In Africa cattle keeping is restricted by tsetse flies, nomadic pastrolism is therefore confined in areas that are either to higher or too dry for the tsetse fly to persist through in their journeys the nomads will cross infested regions.

The best example of nomadic pastrolists is the Fulani of West Africa. In the Sahel and Guinea savanna zones, the Fulani practice the animal equivalent of shifting cultivation. They use wide areas of poor territory and graze their cattle on natural and man- modified vegetation. The movement is a continental search for fresh vegetative growth and hence they follow the rains in their seasonal movement north and south across West Africa from the forest edge to the desert fringe.

The land is Africa's greatest natural resource. It provides both food for man and also for man's domestic animals. The most important of these are cattle. Millions of Africa's people keep cattle in numbers varying from one to many hundreds; and even larger numbers of people depend on cattle and their products for part of their daily food. These are the town and city dwellers who expect meat in the butchers' shops and dairy products in their grocery shops.

Africa is traditionally a cattle raising continent and yet cattle are not easy to raise there. Two things make life difficult for the cattle owner. One is drought and the other is disease. To a certain extent each is connected with the other.

Drought means that grass becomes scarce, and if grass is scarce cattle are unable to eat well. Well fed cattle have some protection from disease but half starved cattle have none at all. The worst disease of all is brought by the tsetse fly and affects all cattle, not just the half starved one's. The tsetse's bite causes a disease known as Trypanosomyasis in humans as well as cattle. In East Africa it is known as Nagana when it affects cattle. In humans it is sometimes called sleeping sickness. Both cattle and humans become extremely tired, they have no energy and lose a considerable amount of weight. They often die.

The tsetse fly thrives within tropical Africa wherever there are warm or hot, damp conditions. They welcome the shade of forests and thick bushland. There are wide expanses of such areas within the tropics and in them successful cattle raising is almost impossible.

The tsetse fly cannot live in dry areas and so there are none in the desert and semi-desert lands. Not only are they too dry, there is also not enough shade. But, if it is impossible for the tsetse fly in these areas, it is also extremely difficult to keep cattle there. The tsetse fly cannot live in cool conditions which is why there are none to be found outside the tropics. There are also many areas within the tropics which are too cold for them. There are few, if any, above 1500 metres and it is in these areas that we find some of Africa's best cattle lands.

Let us see where cattle can be kept successfully in Africa. Look also at the natural vegetation map in your atlas. Once you have eliminated the tsetse lands and the deserts there is not much left is there? Remember also that plateau Africa is only suitable below about 2750 metres, above that altitude it is often too cold for both man and beast.

Most African countries are adopting modern settled ranching with exotic breeds

There are three basic environments in which cattle may be kept successfully in Africa, but in two of them the problems are much greater than the other. The three environments are:

Firstly, the low grass savanna and semi-deserts where grass comes with the rains and dies in the dry cool season. There are no tsetse flies.

Secondly, the higher cooler wetter lands where there is rain .and grass throughout the year and there are no tsetse flies.

Thirdly, the bush and wooded savanna lands where the tsetse can live and where grazing is available for much of the year.

You may wonder about the third factor so let us have a brief look at those areas first, as it is these areas which offer the greatest hope for development. Plainly, cattle and tsetse flies cannot live together; and so the tsetse flies must be eliminated: an expensive and laborious process, but possible nevertheless. The tsetse likes shade so most of the bush and trees must be cleared. But the bush and wooded savanna lands are the home of vast numbers of Africa's wild animals which, in fact, carry the disease Trypanosomyasis and from which the tsetse carries the disease of cattle and humans. So the animals must also be removed and prevented from coming back.