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

通过健康的多方面视角探索殖民时期非洲商品文化的崛起，暴露了欧洲帝国主义经久不衰、研究不足的一面。商品在殖民时期被定义为“权力的货币”和具有道德-物质意义的物品，在性质和目的上演变和扩展，以反映霸权国家不断变化的欲望、要求和遗产。这一分析试图举例说明，从最初的传教士时代--当时福音派和不墨守成规的团体担任“帝国的第一步兵”--到殖民时代晚期，即第二次世界大战结束后的时期，帝国代理人、意识形态和做法在殖民非洲密不可分地交织在一起，健康和商品化。

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.