ANIMAL INDUSTRY 4I I 



uplands which appear to be fit only for pastoralists. Hence the 

 future prosperity of a considerable part of Africa lies in the im- 

 provement of native stock through the agencies of nutrition and 

 breeding, together with a fight against disease, overgrazing, and 

 erosion. 



The improvement of stock, even by such simple means as castrat- 

 ing the unfit males and keeping the numbers down to limits com- 

 patible with the available pasturage, is rendered particularly 

 difficult in Eastern and Central Africa by reason of the attitude 

 of the pastoral native to his domestic animals. Not only is the 

 man's status in society gauged by the size of his flocks and herds, 

 but they are the object of deeply cherished religious beliefs, and 

 the basis of the marriage custom, known as the payment of bride 

 price, which is widespread all over pagan Africa. The essence of 

 this custom is that the validity of the marriage contract depends 

 on the transfer from the bridgegroom's family to that of the bride 

 of a certain number of cattle, goats, or sheep, which are returnable 

 in whole or in part on the dissolution of the marriage or the death 

 of the wife. This custom persists in the face of many social changes, 

 and although there are tribes where cash has largely replaced 

 cattle for this purpose, there are also many in which it is still held 

 that only the transfer of cattle can validate a marriage. A striking 

 instance of the attachment of natives to their stock is shown in the 

 Bukoba district of Tanganyika where the people have become 

 comparatively wealthy as a result of the extensive growing of 

 coflfee. As a consequence, they have begun to eat meat in con- 

 siderable quantities, but although they possess large numbers of 

 cattle of the long-horned type associated with Ankole, they will 

 not sell these animals except at an absurdly high price, and indeed 

 they import large quantities of cattle for slaughter every year from 

 Mwanza, at the south of Lake Victoria. 



Reference must be made again to the all-important question 

 of water-supply for domestic purposes and stock. It is only where 

 permanent water exists, in the form of perennial streams, water- 

 holes, or wells, that stock can be kept all the year round. In the 

 semi-arid regions which comprise so much of Africa's pastoral 

 country, temporary supplies become available during the wet sea- 

 sons and allow a diflfusion of stock over wide areas taking advantage 



