Commodifying Cattle. The Transformation of Livestock Economies and Knowledge Regimes in the French Colonial Empire, 1890-1960

• Applicant: Dr. Samuël Coghe
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390148801

This project explores the integration of peripheral colonial spaces into an expanding capitalist world economy through the example of cattle farming in the French colonial empire (ca. 1890-1960). At the turn of the twentieth century, many veterinarians, administrators and entrepreneurs came to believe that the already existing cattle farming in the French colonies, especially in French West Africa, Madagascar and Indochina, harboured a great economic potential. Yet, in order to turn cattle into a profitable commodity, they believed it would be necessary to change the practices and attitudes of the local pastoralists, which they often criticized as irrational, and to modernize the entire value chain. Therefore, they devised a broad series of interventions, ranging from the improvement of local breeds and new methods of cattle disease management to the taxation of cattle, the sedentarization of pastoralists and the establishment of meat factories and new cattle trading networks.Based on a wide range of published and archival sources, this project analyses the rationales, dynamics and consequences of such interventions. It shows that these economic processes were closely linked to social changes, new subjectivities and novel forms of expert knowledge. It thereby pays particular attention to the often ambivalent role of veterinary scientists and their conflicts and negotiations over knowledge with indigenous actors. Overall, the main working hypothesis of this project is that colonial interventions were in many cases not entirely successful in changing the economic practices and world views of local pastoralists, due to indigenous agency and practical problems, but that throughout the colonial period they often also triggered other, unintended and far-reaching consequences.By analysing the barely researched history of colonial livestock, this project promises valuable new insights into the history of global capitalism, agricultural development and colonial knowledge regimes. Compared to the numerous studies on colonial cash crops, it zooms in on other, notably pastoralist, indigenous actors and societies, other groups of experts and knowledge practices, other spaces and conflicts. Moreover, by examining French colonies in different parts of Africa and Asia, this project not only allows to lay bare differences and similarities between individual colonies, but also to transcend the usual boundaries of area studies and to provide a more global view on French colonialism. Simultaneously, it moves beyond the common historiographical focus on the British Empire and thus contributes to a more differentiated picture of colonial capitalism and agricultural development in the Global South.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants