Virtual: ‘Countless Blessings: A History of Childbirth and Reproduction in the Sahel’

Join the African Studies Center and Barbara M. Cooper on February 11 at 12:00 p.m. for a discussion on her new book, Countless Blessings, about the history of childbirth and reproduction in the Sahel. Cooper is a professor of history at Rutgers University. 

Cooper sets out to understand childbirth in a country with the world’s highest fertility rate and an alarmingly high rate of maternal and infant mortality. She shows how the environment, slavery and abolition, French military rule, and the rapid expansion of Islam have all influenced childbirth and fertility in Niger from the nineteenth century to the present day.

This talk is part of the Jama series sponsored by the Carolina Seminar in African Ecology and Social Processes. One of the longest standing Carolina Seminars currently running, the seminar in African Ecology and Social Processes engages pressing interdisciplinary questions that deepen scholarly knowledge and conversations about African Studies. This talk is open to all faculty and graduate students in any discipline. Register here to attend.