Population Politics in the Tropics explores colonial population policies in Angola between 1890 and 1945 from a transimperial perspective. Using a wide array of previously unused sources and multilingual archival research from Angola, Portugal and beyond, Samuël Coghe sheds new light on the history of colonial Angola, showing how population policies were conceived, implemented and contested. He analyses why and how doctors, administrators, missionaries and other colonial actors tried to grasp and quantify demographic change and 'improve' the health conditions, reproductive regimes and migration patterns of Angola's 'native' population. Coghe argues that these interventions were inextricably linked to pervasive fears of depopulation and underpopulation, but that their implementation was often hampered by weak state structures, internal conflicts and multiple forms of African agency. Coghe's fresh analysis of demography, health and migration in colonial Angola challenges common ideas of Portuguese colonial exceptionalism.

'An entirely fresh history. Coghe richly expands the links between colonial demography and depopulation, in this detailed study of Portuguese Angola. A key addition to new population histories.'

Alison Bashford - author of Global Population: History, Geopolitics and Life on Earth

'Population Politics in the Tropics is a sophisticated analysis of the works of empire, colonial medicine, public health and population politics with reference to 20th century colonial Angola. With an impressive use of previously unexplored sources, Samuël Coghe gives us a rich, prismatic approach to an understudied context by examining closely the politics towards sleeping sickness, maternity, African migrations and the making of statistical knowledge, while also expanding the concept of biopower in colonial settings and masterfully weaving the analysis of depopulation anxieties, inter-imperial circulation of medical knowledge and practices, and the related racialized politics. This book should become a reference in multiple fields – global and African history, comparative colonial studies, history of (tropical) medicine, history of science and technology, history of demography, and the intersections between them.'

Cristiana Bastos - University of Lisbon

'Impressively researched and cogently argued, Population Politics reframes understanding of African historical demography. Using new sources, Coghe shows how Portuguese fixation with African emigration shaped their competitive engagement in transimperial demographic networks; how Angolan policy was transformed by doctors’ purposive data-gathering; and how local interventions were mediated by African agency.'

Shane Doyle - University of Leeds

‘The book is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of medicine and the history of Angola. It also contributes to the histories of Portugal and of transimperial networks. It will find a ready audience not only among researchers but also as a classroom addition for students in courses on medical, imperial, global, European, and African history.’

Deborah Neill Source: H-Soz-Kult

‘Samuël Coghe’s masterful study of population politics in Angola between 1890 and 1945 is a grounding reminder of the long history of population anxiety in the region. … This is a carefully researched monograph, with meticulous detail on how population knowledge and policies are constructed.'

Sarah Walters Source: The Journal of African History

‘… central for readers interested in imperial/colonial history, as well as the history of science, but also for those concerned with future demography and population politics.’

Jorge Varanda Source: Isis

‘… an innovative study that contributes to the advancement of knowledge about Angola in the first half of the twentieth century … However, it is much more than that. Inscribed in a global history that goes beyond national frameworks, it will certainly assert itself as a reference in the historiography of population policies in colonial Africa. Written with elegance and clarity … the work includes an index and a set of maps, tables, reproductions of documents and images that add information to the text and, in the case of photographs, the presence of human experience.’

Cláudia Castelo Source: História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos

‘Coghe’s well-documented study on health in Angola is recommended reading for medical historians, historians of Lusophone Africa, or indeed anyone interested in health strategies in Angola and former African colonies.’

Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger Source: History of the Human Sciences

‘This book should be most welcome by scholars from a variety of fields … This study provides us with a rich, prismatic and inspiring combined analysis of de-population anxieties, labour practices, migration, racialised politics, and inter-imperial circulation of medical knowledge and practices.’

Cristiana Bastos Source: Social History of Medicine