The present ability or otherwise of Africa to cope with climate change and improve its agricultural production depends on the environment and natural resources base of the continent, on the impacts of its past and on the nature of its present interactions with the outside world. Africa is a large continent exceeded in land area only by the whole of Asia. In spite of its size, Africa is the least populated of the continents. The human population, which was estimated at nearly 800 million in 2000 (UNEP, 2006), is much smaller than that of India. Africa is usually referred to as dry because the biggest dry land in the world, The Sahara, is in it. The deserts of Africa add up to 1 274 million hectares out of a total land area of more than 3 025 million hectares (UNEP, 2006). But the tropical rainforest area of Africa alone, which receives rain virtually the whole year round, is bigger than India. Therefore, it is not aridity per se that prevents Africa from increasing its agricultural productivity and being able to feed all of its people and more. Africa is the continent that has been the most devastated by slavery, e.g. as recounted by Gray (1961) for Southern Sudan, and colonialism, as recounted by Robinson and Galagher (1965) for the whole continent. And the extraction of able people, both skilled and unskilled, still continues under various forms such as brain drains and economic refugees. No society debilitated thus can be expected to retain its capacity to develop its essential infrastructure, especially for research and development, and build self-sufficiency in agricultural production.