African Historical Demography in the Years since Edinburgh

Abstract

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.