“No one may starve in the British Empire”: Kwashiorkor, Protein and the Politics of Nutrition Between Britain and Africa

Abstract

Summary Throughout the twentieth century it was widely assumed that African diets were grossly deficient in protein, that childhood protein deficiency was a natural result of this generalised diet and that a relative lack of meat and milk went some way to explaining African economic underdevelopment. This article explores why these conclusions took hold; the European deification of animal protein in previous centuries; structural changes to African diets and food economies under colonial government; and the political value of such a consensus. Unlike elsewhere in the world, where deficiency was removed from the exceptionalism of tropical medicine, protein malnutrition was constructed as a particularly African concern. Focusing this discussion on the history of the severe childhood deficiency, kwashiorkor, this article explores how the politically informed othering of African nutrition came to direct, or misdirect, the medicine of malnutrition in twentieth-century Africa.

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

“…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).…”

Racial capitalism and the US formula shortage: A policy analysis of the formula industry as a neocolonial system

“…Throughout coastal and central countries of Africa in which there was severe social and economic upheaval due to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, control of female reproduction was central to colonial approaches to population control. In his analysis of the role that nutritional science played in the biopolitics of British colonialism in Africa, Nott ( 2021 : p. 571–572) writes:…”

“…In sum, CMF products were disseminated through international markets, many of which were established during western European colonial expansion throughout the Global South (Sasson, 2016 ; Wilhelm, 2020 ; Nott, 2021 ). The global expansion of the CMF industry has led to significantly lower breastfeeding rates, which is associated with substantial maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality incurred over the last 5 decades (Victora et al, 2016 ; Changing Markets Foundation, 2017 ; Walters et al, 2019 ; Baker et al, 2021a ), particularly across the Global South and in socioeconomically disadvantaged and racially oppressed populations of the US and elsewhere in the Global North (Burnett et al, 2016 ; Tomori et al, 2022a ).…”

Historicising global nutrition: critical reflections on contested pasts and reimagined futures

“… 24–26 The ‘discovery’ of kwashiorkor, Nott writes, traded on the British imperial portrayal of Africa as a place riddled with poverty and disease. 26 Yet, this new science that sought to understand the role of distinct nutrients in maintaining or disabling physical health ignored the ‘pervasive upturn in undernutrition, food insecurity and famine that accompanied the transition to colonial capitalism’ (p. 4). 26 …”

“… 26 Yet, this new science that sought to understand the role of distinct nutrients in maintaining or disabling physical health ignored the ‘pervasive upturn in undernutrition, food insecurity and famine that accompanied the transition to colonial capitalism’ (p. 4). 26 …”