Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-l4ctd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-30T18:17:53.395Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Parish Registers: a Challenge for African Historical Demography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Harri Siiskonen ,
Anssi Taskinen  and
Veijo Notkola
Harri Siiskonen
Affiliation:
University of Joensuu
Anssi Taskinen
Affiliation:
University of Joensuu
Veijo Notkola
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

On the worldwide scale Africa is the least-known continent demographically. Until the mid-twentieth century not even the size of the population was precisely known in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The major problems in African historical demography have either been the almost total lack of relevant sources or, if some have been available, they have been fragmentary and non-systematic. The reliability of the most commonly-used sources in African historical demography—population counts and early censuses—remained questionable until the 1960s. However, fairly far-reaching conclusions and estimations based on these sources using indirect methods have been drawn. Despite the development of methods in historical demography, the questionable source materials have naturally provided serious grounds for argumentation.

An excellent example is the debate between the natalistic and antinatalistic school over changes in fertility and mortality in sub-Saharan African societies during the precolonial and early colonial period. The fragmentary nature of the available sources has offered a firm basis for the disagreement.

The objective of this paper is to discuss limitations, pitfalls, and opportunities related to sources used in African historical demography. The paper first reviews the conventional sources—population counts, censuses, and surveys—and then presents an old but seldom-used group of sources, Christian parish registers. The usability of parish registers is discussed through a concrete research project based on data produced since the late nineteenth century in the parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN). Finally, attention is paid on widening the range of disciplines where African parish registers could be utilized.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 32 , 2005 , pp. 385 - 402
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See e.g., Fetter, Bruce, “Demography in the Reconstitution of African Colonial History” in Demography from Scanty Evidence. Central Africa in the Colonial Era, ed. Fetter, Bruce (Boulder, 1990), 1–22Google Scholar; Tarver, James D., The Demography of Africa (Westport, 1996)Google Scholar.

2 See, e.g., Caldwell, John C., “The Social Repercussions of Colonial Rule: Demographic Aspects” in General History of Africa VII: Africa under Colonial Domination, ed. Boahen, A. Adu (Berkeley, 1985), 461–86Google Scholar; Kirk, Dudley, “Demographic Transition Theory,” Population Studies 50(1996), 361–87CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Cordell, Dennis D., Gregory, Joel W., and Piché, Victor, “African Historical Demography: The Search for a Theoretical Framework” in African Population and Capitalism: Historical Perspectives, ed. Cordell, Dennis D. and Gregory, Joel W. (Madison, 1994), 14–29Google Scholar; Kitching, Gavin, “Proto-Industrialization and Demographic Change: A Thesis and Some Possible African Implications,” JAH 24(1983), 221–40CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

3 For the results of the research program, see e.g., Notkola, Veijo and Siiskonen, Harri, Fertility, Mortality, and Migration in SubSaharan Africa: The Case of Ovamboland in North Namibia, 1925–90 (Basingstoke, 2000)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Notkola, Veijo, Timaeus, Ian M., and Siiskonen, Harri, “Impact on Mortality of the AIDS Epidemic in Northern Namibia Assessed Using Parish Registers,” AIDS 2004, 18:1061–65Google Scholar.

4 Tarver, , Demography of Africa, 4–9Google Scholar.

5 Fetter, , “Demography,” 7–8Google Scholar.

6 Kuczynski, Robert R., Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire. Vol. I: West Africa, vol. II: East Africa, vol. III: West Indian and American Territories (London, 1948, 1949, 1953)Google Scholar.

7 Stengers, Jean, “Some Methodological Reflections” in Demography from Scanty Evidence, 25–28Google Scholar.

8 Fetter, , “Demography,” 7–8Google Scholar.

9 Brass, Williamet al., The Demography of Tropical Africa (Princeton, NJ, 1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 DHS+ homepage, www.measuredhs.com/who/our_history.

11 United Nations, Manual X: Indirect Techniques for Demographic Estimation, Department of International Social and Economic Affairs, Population Studies 81 (New York, 1983)Google Scholar.

12 Hastings, Adrian, The Church in Africa 1450–1950 (Oxford, 1994), 71–86Google Scholar.

13 See also Iliffe, John, Africans: The History of a Continent (Cambridge, 1995)Google Scholar; Shillington, Kevin, History of Africa (Basingstoke, 1989)Google Scholar; Opoku, K. Asare, “Religion in Africa during the Colonial Era” in General History of Africa VII: Africa under Colonial Domination 1880–1935, ed. Boahen, A. Adu (London, 1985), 508–538Google Scholar.

14 Feltz, Gaëtan, “Catholic Missions, Mentalités, and Quantitative History in Burundi, ca. 1900–1962” in Demography from Scanty Evidence, 113–29Google Scholar.

15 Thornton, John, “Demography and History in the Kingdom of Congo, 1550-1750,” JAH 4(1977), 507–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also idem., “An Eighteenth Century Baptismal Register and the Demographic History of Manguenzo” in African Historical Demography. Proceedings of a seminar held in the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 29th and 30th April 1977, ed. C. Fyfe and David McMaSster (Edinburgh, 1977), 405–16.

16 Feltz, , “Catholic Missions,” 113–29Google Scholar.

17 Benoit, Daniel and Lacombe, Bernard, “Towards Getting Precise Data in Contemporary Africa for the Years 1920–30” in African Historical Demography, 68–70Google Scholar; see also Lacombe, Bernard, Fakao (Sénegal); dépouillement de registres paroissiaux et enquête démographique rétrospective, méhodologie et résultats (Paris, 1970)Google Scholar; Benoit, Daniel, Mariatang: enquête de sources complémentaires en pays Dagara (Haute-Volta) (Paris, 1982)Google Scholar.

18 Ross, Robert, “The ‘White’ Population of South Africa in the Eighteenth Century,” Population Studies 29(1975), 217–30Google ScholarPubMed; Gouws, N.B., “Bevolkingstendense van blankes in Suid-Afrika voor 1820” (PhD., Rand Afrikaanse University, 1986)Google Scholar.

19 Katzenellenbogen, J., Yach, D. and Dorrington, R.E., “Mortality in a Rural South African Mission, 1837–1909: An Historical Cohort Study Using Church Records,” International Journal of Epidemiology 22(1993), 965–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 See e.g., Lau, Brigitte, Namibia in Jonker Afrikaner's Time (Windhoek, 1987)Google Scholar; Goldblatt, Isaac, History of South West Africa from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century (Cape Town, 1971)Google Scholar.

21 Buys, G.L. and Nambala, Shekutaamba V.V., History of the Church in Namibia 1805–1990: An Introduction (Windhoek, 2003)Google Scholar; Carl–J. Hellberg, , Mission, Colonialism and Liberation: The Lutheran Church in Namibia 1840–1966 (Windhoek, 1997)Google Scholar; Peltola, Matti, “Suomen Lähetysseuran Afrikan tyon historia II” in Sata vuotta suomalaista lähetystyötä 1859–1958, ed. Peltola, Matti, Saarilahti, Toivo, and Wallendorf, Per (Helsinki, 1958)Google Scholar.

22 Notkola, /Siiskonen, , Fertility, 26–30Google Scholar.

23 Ibid.

24 See e.g., Willigan, J. Dennis and Lynch, Katherine A., Sources and Methods of Historical Demography (New York, 1982), 57–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; HansJohansen, Chr.et al, “Historical Demography,” Scandinavian Economic History Review 20(1972), 71–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Notkola, /Siiskonen, Fertility, 63–66Google Scholar.

26 Tuupainen, Maija, Marriage in a Matrilineal African Tribe: A Social Anthropological Study of Marriage in the Ondonga Tribe in Ovamboland (Helsinki, 1970)Google Scholar.

27 The project has been implemented in collaboration with the Department of Sociology of the University of Helsinki, the Department of History of the University of Joensuu, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia, the University of Namibia, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

28 The following are the number of parishioners in the microfilmed parishes at the end of 1991. Ovamboland parishes: Eenhana 5,577, Elim 5,704, Nakayale 7,141, Okahao 9,220, Olukonda 7,080, Omulonga, 4,511, Onankali 7,184, Oshigambo 9,082, Oshitutuma 2,946, Tshandi 8,398. Kavango parishes: Mpungu 4,463, Mupini 3,330, Nepara 1,397, Nkarapamwe 3,705, Nkurenkuru 5,889, Rupara 5,203. Auala ELCIN Library Archives, Oniipa, Statistical Tables of ELCIN for the Year 1991; Republic of Namibia (RoN), 1991 Population and Housing Census. Report A: Statistical Tables, Volume 1, (Windhoek, 1993), 1Google Scholar.

29 Fleury, Michel and Henry, Louis, Nouveau manuel de dépouillement et d'éxploitation de l'état civil ancien (Paris, 1965)Google Scholar.

30 Knodel, John E., Demographic Behaviour in the Past: A Study of Fourteen German Village Populations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1988), 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Pauli's project is a sub-project in the ACACIA Research Programme carried out at the University of Cologne.

32 Auala ELCIN Library Archives, Oniipa, Statistical Tables of ELCIN for the Years 1980, 1990, 2000.

33 See, e.g., Feltz, , “Catholic Missions,” 113–29Google Scholar; Benoit, /Lacombe, “Towards Getting Precise Data,” 68–70Google Scholar; Katzenellenbogen, et al., “Mortality,” 965–75Google Scholar.

34 See Siiskonen, Harri, Trade and Socioeconomic Change in Ovamboland, 1850–1906 (Helsinki, 1990), 41–44Google Scholar.

35 Republic of South Africa, Report of the Commission of Enquiry into South West Africa Affairs 1962–1963 (Pretoria, 1964), 29–43Google Scholar.

36 Mendelsohn, Johnel Obied, Selma, and Roberts, Carole, Profile of North-Central Namibia (Windhoek, 2000)Google Scholar.

37 Notkola, /Siiskonen, , Fertility, 17–19Google Scholar; RoN, 1991 Population and Housing Census, 1Google Scholar.

38 For more about the results of the fertility analysis see Notkola, /Siiskonen, , Fertility, 68–87Google Scholar; Raitis, Riikka, “Fertility in the Northwest Region of Namibia,” Yearbook of Population Research in Finland 32(1995), 106–17Google Scholar.

39 For more about the mortality analysis see Notkola, /Siiskonen, , Fertility, 88–109Google Scholar; Notkola et al., “Impact on Mortality.”

40 For more about the analysis of migration see Notkola, /Siiskonen, , Fertility, 112–63Google Scholar.

41 Saarelma-Manunumaa, Minna, Edhina ekogidho—Names as Links the Encounter Between African and European Anthroponymic Systems Among the 'Ambo People in Namibia (Helsinki, 2003)Google Scholar.