Wartime forest energy policy and practice in British West Africa: social and economic impact on the labouring classes 1939–45

The recent resurgence of interest in the impact of World War II on African populations has, to date, neglected the theme of forest energy (firewood and charcoal) production, consumption and exchange. This needs to be rectified, for several reasons: (1) wood fuel accounted for the lion's share of wartime forestry output by volume and value, prompting (2) an unprecedented degree of intensity in, and variety of, state emergency intervention in wood fuel ‘markets’ which had (3) important equity implications, which have gone largely unreported, with the risk that (4) current and future attempts at (emergency) wood fuel resource management may be deprived of the lessons of this experience. This article is thus an essay in the dynamics and consequences of crisis management in colonial forestry. It evaluates wartime forest energy policy and practice in British West Africa, with special reference to their ‘invisible’ social consequences. The regional political, economic and military context of forest energy activity is first summarised. This is followed by detailed case studies, which assess policy impacts on the labouring classes in the Sierra Leone colony peninsula and the Jos Plateau tin mines in northern Nigeria. The main aim of these studies is to show how war-induced demands on subsistence products like firewood and charcoal weighed inordinately heavily on the poor. Even those who belonged to sectors of society which benefited from preferential treatment in the allocation of scarce supplies of consumer products were not spared. Recently, concern has increased over the equity implications of current and proposed (peacetime) domestic energy policy and practice in Africa. This suggests that the issues of distributive justice raised by this study are of wider relevance than the specific historical context within which they have been discussed.