“Food Comes First”: The Development of Colonial Nutritional Policy in Ghana, 1900–1950

Robins, Jonathan E.

doi:10.1080/20549547.2018.1465330

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…In contrast to the West, where industrialized foods are today viewed with suspicion and disdain, in places like Banda industrial and imported foods in general tend to possess a higher cultural value than many local alternatives because in addition to alleviating the concerns mentioned above, they are associated with modern, urban living. This is not a new pattern; as discussed in the last chapter, the association of imported foods with status was commonplace among educated Africans in the colonial period (Goody 1982;Robins 2018). Today, there is also a general belief in Ghana that rural, village life is less desirable because it is less developed and therefore backwards.…”

Section: Maggi: C Ongealed Cubes Of Women's L Ab Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the same time, "there was a romanticization of pre-European African society which included ideas of moral innocence, a respect for African bush-skills, and a generalized notion of the noble savage" (Neumann 1995, 151). With preconceived notions like these, it is no wonder that most early colonial officials concerned themselves little with subsistence; it was generally assumed that Africans could feed themselves (Robins 2018). This negligence may have allowed most Africans freedom to cultivate what made sense to them, particularly in areas like Banda that lay outside of the main cash-cropping zones.…”

Section: Olonialism and Fo Od Securit Ymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana

Logan¹

2020

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The Scarcity Slot is the first book to critically examine food security in Africa’s deep past. Amanda L. Logan argues that African foodways have been viewed through the lens of “the scarcity slot,” a kind of othering based on presumed differences in resources. Weaving together archaeological, historical, and environmental data with food ethnography, she advances a new approach to building long-term histories of food security on the continent in order to combat these stereotypes. Focusing on a case study in Banda, Ghana that spans the past six centuries, The Scarcity Slot reveals that people thrived during a severe, centuries-long drought just as Europeans arrived on the coast, with a major decline in food security emerging only recently. This narrative radically challenges how we think about African foodways in the past, with major implications for the future.

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Section: Maggi: C Ongealed Cubes Of Women's L Ab Ormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Olonialism and Fo Od Securit Ymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana

Logan¹

2020

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“…As labour availability diminished, deficiencies in food supplies became endemic, distribution systems were dismantled, and important livestock production was marginalized (Darkoh, 1989). Following WWI, urban expansion created dependency on food imports, such as rice, flour, baby milk powder, and tinned fish (Robins, 2018).…”

Section: Reduced Food Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Food shortages and poor nutrition continued to increase during the 1920s and the calorific intake dropped to starvation level. In response, maize production was further encouraged, which increased the calorie intake but made malnutrition endemic (Nott, 2019;Robins, 2018).…”

Section: Loss and Replacement Of Traditional Sources Of Nutritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why food insecurity persists in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of existing evidence

Bjornlund

Bjørnlund

Rooyen³

2022

Food Sec.

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This article is the third in a series of historical reviews on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), exploring why agricultural production and irrigation schemes are underperforming, and how this contributes to high levels of food insecurity. The expression ‘food security’ emerged in 1974 following the Sahel and Darfur famines. Despite SSA being a net agricultural exporter, food insecurity has persisted and is increasing. This is largely a legacy of the export-oriented colonial agricultural production systems, which procured scarce fertile land, water and labour to meet the needs of industries and consumers in the Global North. Colonialism also undermined the social contract between traditional leaders and communities, which had been instrumental in managing food scarcity in earlier times. Post-independence, agricultural policies remained focused on exports and neglected critical research and investment: integrating food productions systems into the domestic economy; developing supply chains and associated market, storage and value-adding infrastructure; and introducing appropriate technologies. As a result, Africa is the only region in the world where increased export production caused a decline in per capita food production. African nations should be extracted from the debt accrued due to poor colonial investments, World Bank lending practices, and global currency and interest fluctuations, which have crippled their capacity to support agriculture and improve livelihoods and food security. Farming needs to be profitable, which includes farmers being connected to domestic supply chains and market signals, local value-adding, and post-harvest storage. This will create jobs and increase income earning capacity, which is the key to households’ food security.

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“…4 It was not unique in doing so. For example, Ghana, which had gained independence 5 years earlier, equally adopted policies to reduce imports and lower food prices ( Robins, 2018 ).…”

Section: Measuring and Understanding Child Malnutritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tackling child malnutrition in Jamaica, 1962–2020

Altink

2020

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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On the eve of independence in 1962, malnutrition was the largest single cause of death in Jamaica for children under one. Although child malnutrition rates have rapidly declined since 1962, today Jamaica experiences a double burden of malnutrition: the coexistence of pockets of high child malnutrition with rising levels of childhood obesity. Based on a wide range of sources, including public documents, newspaper reports, scientific studies and reports by international agencies, this article examines a gradual decline in child malnutrition and the rise of the double burden of malnutrition in Jamaica from independence to the present. It will first of all show that changes in the global economy and overseas loans and aid both aided and limited the ability of the Jamaican government to lower child malnutrition levels and also contributed to a rise in childhood obesity. Second, it will illustrate that a traditional deficit-led approach to child malnutrition was followed in post-independent Jamaica, focussing on the public and individuals as targets for intervention and using quantitative measures to trace progress. And third, it will question whether the double burden of child malnutrition will give rise to 'healthy publics'-'dynamic collectives of people, ideas and environments that can enable health and well-being'.

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“Food Comes First”: The Development of Colonial Nutritional Policy in Ghana, 1900–1950

Cited by 8 publications

References 49 publications

The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana

The Scarcity Slot: Excavating Histories of Food Security in Ghana

Why food insecurity persists in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of existing evidence

Tackling child malnutrition in Jamaica, 1962–2020

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