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FROM LONG-TERM PATTERNS OF SEASONAL HUNGER TO CHANGING EXPERIENCES OF EVERYDAY POVERTY: NORTHEASTERN GHANA C. 1930–2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2006

JÉRÔME DESTOMBES
JÉRÔME DESTOMBES
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Abstract

This article is a West African case-study of the nutritional history of everyday poverty. It draws on unusually rich statistical evidence collected in northeastern Ghana. In the 1930s, pioneer colonial surveys revealed that seasonal poor diet was pervasive, by contrast with undernourishment. They pave the way for constructing a new set of anthropometric data in Nangodi, a savanna polity where John Hunter completed a classic study of seasonal hunger in the 1960s. A re-survey of the same sections and lineages c. 2000, during a full agricultural cycle, shows a significant improvement in nutritional statuses, notably for women.

Keywords

ColonialpostcolonialGhanapoverty
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , July 2006 , pp. 181 - 205
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This article draws on Jérôme Destombes, ‘Nutrition and chronic deprivation in the West African savanna: north-eastern Ghana c. 1930–2000’ (Ph.D. dissertation, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2001). An earlier version was presented at the African Studies Association of the UK Biennial Conference, University of Birmingham, 9–11 September 2002. This research was supported by the Institute of Historical Research (University of London) and the British Economic History Society (Tawney Fellowship, 2000–1); the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant R00429734453, 1997–2000); the Central Research Fund of the University of London (Fieldwork grant, Jan.–Feb. 2000); the Eileen Power Fund/Economic History Society (Studentship, 1998–9); the Department of Economic History of the London School of Economics and Political Science (Research studentship, 1998–2000).