Population Politics in the Tropics: Demography, Health and Transimperialism in Colonial Angola

Author:   Samuël Coghe (Freie Universität Berlin)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Edition:   New edition
ISBN:  

9781108837866


Pages:   320
Publication Date:   03 February 2022
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Population Politics in the Tropics: Demography, Health and Transimperialism in Colonial Angola


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Overview

Population Politics in the Tropics explores colonial population policies in Angola between 1890 and 1945 from a transimperial perspective. Using a wide array of previously unused sources and multilingual archival research from Angola, Portugal and beyond, Samuël Coghe sheds new light on the history of colonial Angola, showing how population policies were conceived, implemented and contested. He analyses why and how doctors, administrators, missionaries and other colonial actors tried to grasp and quantify demographic change and 'improve' the health conditions, reproductive regimes and migration patterns of Angola's 'native' population. Coghe argues that these interventions were inextricably linked to pervasive fears of depopulation and underpopulation, but that their implementation was often hampered by weak state structures, internal conflicts and multiple forms of African agency. Coghe's fresh analysis of demography, health and migration in colonial Angola challenges common ideas of Portuguese colonial exceptionalism.

Full Product Details

Author:   Samuël Coghe (Freie Universität Berlin)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.80cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.600kg
ISBN:  

9781108837866


ISBN 10:   1108837867
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   03 February 2022
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Sleeping sickness, depopulation anxieties and the emergence of population politics; 2. Tropical medicine and sleeping sickness control before 1918; 3. Introducing social medicine: Inter-imperial learning and the Assistência Médica aos Indígenas in the interwar period; 4. Re-assessing population decline: Medical demography and the tensions of statistical knowledge; 5. Saving the children: Infant mortality and the politics of motherhood; 6. The problem of migration: Depopulation anxieties, border politics and the tensions of empire; Conclusion; Epilogue: Demography and population politics, 1945-1975; Bibliography; Index.

Reviews

'An entirely fresh history. Coghe richly expands the links between colonial demography and depopulation, in this detailed study of Portuguese Angola. A key addition to new population histories.' Alison Bashford, author of Global Population: History, Geopolitics and Life on Earth 'Population Politics in the Tropics is a sophisticated analysis of the works of empire, colonial medicine, public health and population politics with reference to 20th century colonial Angola. With an impressive use of previously unexplored sources, Samuël Coghe gives us a rich, prismatic approach to an understudied context by examining closely the politics towards sleeping sickness, maternity, African migrations and the making of statistical knowledge, while also expanding the concept of biopower in colonial settings and masterfully weaving the analysis of depopulation anxieties, inter-imperial circulation of medical knowledge and practices, and the related racialized politics. This book should become a reference in multiple fields – global and African history, comparative colonial studies, history of (tropical) medicine, history of science and technology, history of demography, and the intersections between them.' Cristiana Bastos, University of Lisbon 'Impressively researched and cogently argued, Population Politics reframes understanding of African historical demography. Using new sources, Coghe shows how Portuguese fixation with African emigration shaped their competitive engagement in transimperial demographic networks; how Angolan policy was transformed by doctors' purposive data-gathering; and how local interventions were mediated by African agency.' Shane Doyle, University of Leeds 'The book is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of medicine and the history of Angola. It also contributes to the histories of Portugal and of transimperial networks. It will find a ready audience not only among researchers but also as a classroom addition for students in courses on medical, imperial, global, European, and African history.' Deborah Neill, H-Soz-Kult


'An entirely fresh history. Coghe richly expands the links between colonial demography and depopulation, in this detailed study of Portuguese Angola. A key addition to new population histories.' Alison Bashford, author of Global Population: History, Geopolitics and Life on Earth 'Population Politics in the Tropics is a sophisticated analysis of the works of empire, colonial medicine, public health and population politics with reference to 20th century colonial Angola. With an impressive use of previously unexplored sources, Samuel Coghe gives us a rich, prismatic approach to an understudied context by examining closely the politics towards sleeping sickness, maternity, African migrations and the making of statistical knowledge, while also expanding the concept of biopower in colonial settings and masterfully weaving the analysis of depopulation anxieties, inter-imperial circulation of medical knowledge and practices, and the related racialized politics. This book should become a reference in multiple fields - global and African history, comparative colonial studies, history of (tropical) medicine, history of science and technology, history of demography, and the intersections between them.' Cristiana Bastos, University of Lisbon 'Impressively researched and cogently argued, Population Politics reframes understanding of African historical demography. Using new sources, Coghe shows how Portuguese fixation with African emigration shaped their competitive engagement in transimperial demographic networks; how Angolan policy was transformed by doctors' purposive data-gathering; and how local interventions were mediated by African agency.' Shane Doyle, University of Leeds


Author Information

Samuël Coghe is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Global History at the Freie Universität Berlin.

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