African Historical Demography Research Articles

African Population History: Contributions of Moral Demography

AbstractImproving knowledge about African historical demography is essential to addressing current population trends and achieving deeper understanding of social, economic, and political change in the past and present. I use census and parish register data from Tanganyika to address the origins of twentieth-century population growth, to describe how major changes in fertility and child mortality began in the 1940s, and to emphasise the significance of the large rise in fertility between the 1940s and 1970s. Through this work and my wider survey of parish registers in Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia, I consider the relationships between power, evidence, and meaning in these data sources. Alongside the macro gaps in Africa's population history are significant microsilences — lacunae in the sources and data which reflect the hegemonic structures within which they were produced. I suggest a moral demography approach to their analysis, borrowing from the reflexive and dialectic method found in studies of moral economy.

Africa and the Demographic Consequences of the Columbian Exchange

Abstract Patrick Manning has been one of the leading scholars of African historical demography since the late 1970s. This essay takes stock of his contribution to the field and highlights some of the debates in which Manning has participated over the past forty years. The essay also discusses some of the main challenges of extrapolating African population series into previous centuries, arguing that the models designed by Manning capture the potential negative consequences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on African population development since 1500 well, but that the next step forward requires methods for estimating the positive effects of the introduction and diffusion of New World food crops in Africa.

Parish Registers: a Challenge for African Historical Demography

On the worldwide scale Africa is the least-known continent demographically. Until the mid-twentieth century not even the size of the population was precisely known in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The major problems in African historical demography have either been the almost total lack of relevant sources or, if some have been available, they have been fragmentary and non-systematic. The reliability of the most commonly-used sources in African historical demography—population counts and early censuses—remained questionable until the 1960s. However, fairly far-reaching conclusions and estimations based on these sources using indirect methods have been drawn. Despite the development of methods in historical demography, the questionable source materials have naturally provided serious grounds for argumentation.An excellent example is the debate between the natalistic and antinatalistic school over changes in fertility and mortality in sub-Saharan African societies during the precolonial and early colonial period. The fragmentary nature of the available sources has offered a firm basis for the disagreement.The objective of this paper is to discuss limitations, pitfalls, and opportunities related to sources used in African historical demography. The paper first reviews the conventional sources—population counts, censuses, and surveys—and then presents an old but seldom-used group of sources, Christian parish registers. The usability of parish registers is discussed through a concrete research project based on data produced since the late nineteenth century in the parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN). Finally, attention is paid on widening the range of disciplines where African parish registers could be utilized.

African Historical Demography in the Years since Edinburgh

The study of African demography, unlike the study of populations in Europe, North America, and even Asia, has been remarkably ahistorical. The absence of historical understandings of the facts and dynamics of African populations based on focused, local research has led to the creation and perpetuation of notable myths about African populations in the past. Perhaps the most powerful of these stereotypes is the Malthusinn and neo-Malthusian belief that, whatever the historical era and whatever the social and economic contexts, African populations have invariably sought to maximize births.In 1977 participants at the first conference on African historical demography, convened at the African Studies Center in the University of Edinburgh, argued for a more historicized analysis of the evolution of African populations. Papers presented at Edinburgh in 1977, at a second seminar there in 1981, and in a respectable number of conferences, seminars, and panel sessions in the last two decades, confirm in a variety of time periods and social and economic contexts just how historical research contributes to our understanding of the pasts and presents of African societies.This paper surveys research in African historical demography by demographers and by historians “in the years since Edinburgh,” concluding with a mention of a variety of demographic topics—fertility, nuptiality, mortality, migration, and family history—to show how such research has added depth and complexity to our appreciation of social history in Africa, and how various were the ways that African societies sought to ensure their demographic survival.

African Historical Demography: To the Memory of Joel Gregory, 1944-1988

African Historical Demography: To the Memory of Joel Gregory, 1944-1988

African Historical Demography: To the Memory of Joel Gregory, 1944–1988

"African Historical Demography: To the Memory of Joel Gregory, 1944–1988." Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 23(1), p. vii

Joel Gregory: An Appreciation

I do not know if this field can be said to have a founder, but Joel was certainly its prophet and its leading practitioner since the mid-1970s. In one sense, his work was a straightforward extension, into one more disciplinary terrain, of the logic of African studies at its best, multivariate and multidisciplinary social science linked with commitment to social justice. At the same time, Joel's approach to the reproduction of human population helped unleash some profound changes in African studies and in demography. He identified the strategic intellectual importance of African historical demography and contributed to that nascent field the originality and the prescience of his approach, plus his ability to lead and orient the work of those around him. He worked in a collective style, so that one cannot separate his work from that of his closest co-workers Dennis Cordell and Victor Pich6, nor from his colleagues such as Mohamed Mbodj and former students such as Lututala Mumpasi. To celebrate Joel's work is to celebrate the work of all in the

African Historical Demography: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography

This is an interdisciplinary bibliography of studies concerned with African historical demography. While the bibliography is largely without annotations some entries have a one-line descriptive note. bibliography is divided into six major sections. The first Interregional Studies and Methodology is general. The others are regional: North Africa West Africa Central Africa East Africa and Southern Africa. Four subsections are common to each major section: Broad Studies and Methodology (including works falling into more than one of the following categories) Fertility and Nuptiality Mortality and Morbidity and Migration and Urbanization. The first major section Interregional Studies and Methodology also includes two additional subsections one on Research Aids and another on Slavery Slave-Raiding and the Slave Trade. Author and subject indexes are included. (EXCERPT)

Christopher Fyfe and David McMaster (ed.)]: African historical demography. Vol.II: Proceedings of a seminar held in the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 24th and 25th April 1981. [vi], 709 pp., 3 maps. Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, [1982]. £8.

[Christopher Fyfe and David McMaster (ed.)]: African historical demography. Vol.II: Proceedings of a seminar held in the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 24th and 25th April 1981. [vi], 709 pp., 3 maps. Edinburgh: Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, [1982]. £8. - Volume 47 Issue 2

African Historical Demography, Volume II

African Historical Demography, Volume II

Seminar on African Historical Demography

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Historical Demography and Demographic History in Africa: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations

The authors examine the nature of African historical demography with respect to the objectives of demography and the reasons for studying African demography in particular. The variety of available data sources and the methods for African historical demography are reviewed (SUMMARY IN FRE) (ANNOTATION)

African Historical Demography: Proceedings of a Seminar Held in the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 29th and 30th April 1977

African Historical Demography: Proceedings of a Seminar Held in the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 29th and 30th April 1977

Seminar on African Historical Demography

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.