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Towards an Objective Account of Nutrition and Health in Colonial Kenya: A Study of Stature in African Army Recruits and Civilians, 1880–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

Alexander Moradi
Alexander Moradi*
Affiliation:
Lecturer, Department of Economics, Arts Building E, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9SN, United Kingdom. E-mail: A.Moradi@sussex.ac.uk.
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Abstract

This study presents fresh evidence on nutrition and health in colonial Kenya by using a new and comprehensive data set of African army recruits and civilians and applying a powerful measure of nutritional status: mean population height. Findings demonstrate huge regional inequalities, but only minor changes in the mean height of cohorts born 20 years before and after colonization. From 1920 onwards secular improvements took place, which continued after independence. I conclude that however bad colonial policies and devastating short-term crises were, the net outcome of colonial times was a significant progress in nutrition and health.

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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 69 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 719 - 754
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Copyright © The Economic History Association 2009

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