The Berti, numbering about 25,000, inhabit the part of the Northern Darfur district round their traditional centre, Melit, which lies about thirty-five miles north-east of El Fasher, the capital of the Sudanese province of Darfur. Their original language belonged to the Middle Sahara group and was closest to the Zaghawa language, but for several generations now they have been arabized. They form the sedentary population of the dry steppe of Northern Darfur and depend on agriculture with pennisetum as the staple, on animal husbandry and on collecting gum from the Acacia verek, which they sell at the local markets. Another, probably larger, part of the Berti now live in Eastern Darfur, where they migrated during the last century under pressure from the expansion of the neighbouring Meidob into their original territory in Northern Darfur.

Today, Ghana's rate of natural increase must be approaching the very high level of 3 per cent, per annum. Such a rapid rate of growth results from the maintenance of a high birth-rate in a period when the crude death-rate has been declining radically. Everyone wishes to see further improvements in life-expectation, but the continuation of such high rates of population growth will almost certainly prejudice or inhibit the implementation of satisfactory levels of economic growth. One immediate result could be an increase in unemployment, particularly among school-leavers, while the long-term consequences might include widespread declines in the standards of living and nutrition.