'One of the Most Urgent Problems to Solve': Malnutrition, Trans-Imperial Nutrition Science, and Nestlé's Medical Pursuits in Late Colonial Africa.

Infant nutrition was key field of imperial health policies in Africa from the inter-war period to the end of colonisation. Although this phenomenon has been documented on the scale of some African countries, this article argues that infant nutrition stood as a particularly crucial field of trans-imp...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History Vol. 48; no. 5; pp. 914 - 934
Main Author: Wilhelm, Lola
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Oct2020
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:Infant nutrition was key field of imperial health policies in Africa from the inter-war period to the end of colonisation. Although this phenomenon has been documented on the scale of some African countries, this article argues that infant nutrition stood as a particularly crucial field of trans-imperial exchanges on the scale of the African continent. It further demonstrates that trans-imperial rivalries and collaborations in Africa created a propitious political, institutional, and scientific context for business participation in infant nutrition. The article illustrates these phenomena by examining colonial, trans-imperial, international, and public-private nutrition initiatives in Africa, focusing especially on the Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa (CTCA) and the food company Nestlé.