Record #342691 - GSI Repository

CATTLEFRONTIERS

(Post)Colonial Cattle Frontiers: Capitalism, Science and Empire in Southern and Central Africa, 1890s-1970s

Grant period	2023-10-01 - 2028-09-30
Funding body	European Union
Call number	ERC-2022-STG
Grant number	101076565
Identifier	G:(EU-Grant)101076565

Note: This project explores the transformations in cattle production in Southern and Central Africa during the colonial and early postcolonial period. During this period, (post)colonial governments, scientists, entrepreneurs and settlers promoted a broad range of interventions to overcome the allegedly uneconomic attitudes of African pastoralists and turn cattle into profitable commodities. Contested, adapted or eluded by African cattle herders and owners, these interventions transformed pre-existing cattle economies, pastoralist societies, rural ecologies and animal populations in many and often unexpected ways. This history, however, is still under-studied, only partially understood and marginalised in both African and global history. This project breaks new ground by offering the first history of these transformation processes from hoof to table, for multiple empires and over a long time frame, and by integrating them into global history through the concept of ‘commodity frontiers’. It pursues these objectives through a series of interlocking case studies on French, Portuguese and Belgian (post)colonies in Southern and Central Africa. These draw on multi-sited and multilingual archival work and combine methodological approaches from African, social, economic, environmental, colonial and global history, as well as the history of science. The project not only rewrites and rethinks the history of Africa’s (post)colonial cattle economies. In so doing, it will also write livestock back into the agricultural and socio-economic history of Africa thus far focused on cash crops and minerals, integrate African cattle in global economic and commodity history and greatly enhance our knowledge of veterinary science and knowledge. By analysing how the interplay of global capitalism, science and empire transformed cattle regimes in Africa and beyond, it will also enhance our understanding of current debates on the social and ecological costs of livestock production.

Recent Publications

There are no publications

Record created 2023-08-27, last modified 2023-08-27

Similar records

Add to personal basket
Export as Author List with IDs BibTeX (UTF-8), EndNote XML, EndNote Text, RIS, MARC, Print MARC, MARCXML, DC,
Request correction
Submit fulltext

GSI Homepage \| GSI Library \| English Deutsch \| guest :: login GSI Repository
Search	Submit	Personalize Your alerts Your baskets Your searches	Help