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On the Food and Nutrition of African Natives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

E. B. Worthington
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Extract

Food and nutrition together provide a subject with many ramifications, and yet one on which but little direct research has been attempted in Africa. To gain an all-round view one must digress on the one hand into subjects such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, economics and sociology, in order to understand what food supplies exist for the native, and how they are being or might be used; while on the other hand there are involved medical and physiological studies on the native himself in health and disease, in order to estimate the results of nutrition whether good or bad.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 1936 , pp. 150 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1936

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References

Note. Some of the material contained in this article has been collected in connexion with inquiries made for the African Research Survey. The article, however, represents work as a private individual, and any opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the African Research Survey. I would like to make acknowledgement to authorities with whom I have been in touch during work for that body, particularly to Sir John Orr, Sir Robert McCarrison, Dr. J. L. Gilks, Dr. W. R. Aykroid, Dr. E. Mellanby and Dr. F. W. Fox, who have provided me with references or who have in other ways supplied information about the questions raised.

Since the manuscript of this article was prepared, I have been privileged to read the Heath Clark Lectures for 1935 on ‘The Improvement of Native Agriculture in Relation to Population and Public Health’, by Sir Daniel Hall, K.C.B., F.R.S. Several of the subjects discussed in the following pages are treated at greater length in those lectures, particularly in the fourth of the series, where extracts are quoted from papers and reports bearing on the nutrition of natives. The related subjects of agriculture and animal husbandry are considered in the other lectures, where also Sir Daniel Hall shows how the food supplies of Africa could be improved both in quality and in quantity. The lectures are to be published shortly.

page 151 note 1 There is some experimental evidence on animals in support of this view. It has recently been gathered together by MissClapham, P. A., Recent Researches on Helminth Immunity. Published by the Imperial Bureau of Agricultural Parasitology, 1953, pp. 20.Google Scholar

page 153 note 1 Reports published in the League of Nations Health Organization, Quarterly Bulletin, vol. ii, no. i, 1933, pp. 115.

page 154 note 1 J. B., Orr, and J. L., Gilks, ‘The physique and health of two African tribes.’ Medical Research Council. Studies of Nutrition. 1931.Google Scholar

page 154 note 2 W. E., McCulloch, ‘Ulcers in Northern Nigeria: a review and a theory.’ W. Afr. Med. Journ., vol. ii, 1928, pp. 1–6.Google Scholar

page 155 note 1 W. E., McCulloch, ‘An enquiry into the dietaries of the Hausa and town Fulani.’ W. Afr. Med. Journ., vol. iii, 1930, pp. 1–75.Google Scholar

page 155 note 2 SirR., McCarrison, ‘Studies in deficiency disease.’ Oxford Medical Publications, 1921.Google Scholar

page 155 note 3 It seems that these results on fertility are open to criticism, because some changes in diet, even without introducing deficiency, may have effects on the fertility of captive rats.

page 156 note 1 H. L., Gordon, ‘Amentia in the East African.’ Eugenics Review, 1954, pp. 223–235.Google Scholar The full results are not yet published.

page 156 note 2 F. W., Fox, ‘Diet in relation to health in South Africa.’ S.A. Medical Journal, 1934.Google Scholar

page 156 note 3 N. L., Corkill, ‘Pellagra in Sudanese millet eaters.’ Lancet, June 30, 1934, p. 1387.Google Scholar

page 157 note 1 L'Alimentation Indigene dans les Colonies Françaises, Protertorats et Territoires sous Mandat. Vigot frères, Paris, 1934.

page 158 note 1 J. W., Foster, ‘Pica.’ Kenya and E. Afr. Med. Journ., 1927, p. 9.Google Scholar

page 159 note 1 J. L., Rosedale, and C. J., Oliveiro, ‘The nutritional properties of red palm-oil.’ Malayan Med. Journ., vol. ix, 1934, pp. 140–145.Google Scholar

page 160 note 1 R., Firth, ‘The Sociological Study of Native Diet.’ Africa, vol. vii, 1934, pp. 401–414.Google Scholar

page 161 note 1 Report published in Nairobi, 1934, p. 35.

page 163 note 1 V. E., Fuchs, ‘The Lake Rudolf Rift Valley Expedition’, 1934.Google ScholarGeographical Journal, vol. lxxxvi, 1935, pp. 114–142.