by Fred Sai

About the author: Fred Sai is president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

At the very heart of the African continent, there is a dreadful warning of what can happen when population pressures become too intense. Overcrowding and
land shortages are important factors (among such others as poverty and poor governance) in the tragic inter-ethnic conflicts in Rwanda [resulting in 500,000
deaths and 2 million refugees].

Overcrowding

Overcrowding reaches terrible proportions: in the country as a whole there are 405 people for every square kilometre—and this rises to as many as 560 in
Ruhengeri Prefecture. These are densities more usually seen in urban areas, imposed on a rural country.

Crowding on the country’s limited agricultural land is already almost unthinkably high—and before the 1994 civil war the population was set to double
in...