"Health is Wealth": The Intersection of Health, Commodity Culture and Consumption in Colonial Africa

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Exploring the rise of commodity culture in colonial Africa through the multifaceted lens of health exposes an enduring and critically understudied facet of European imperialism. Defined as 'currencies of power' and objects of moral-material significance in the colonial context, commodities evolved and expanded in nature and purpose to reflect the changing desires, demands and legacies of hegemonic states. This analysis seeks to exemplify that from the earliest missionary days, when evangelical and non-conformist groups served as the 'first foot soldiers of empire', through to the late colonial age, defined hereafter as the period following the end of the Second World War, imperial agents, ideologies and practices inextricably wove together health and commodification in colonial Africa.