Development as experiment: Science and state building in late colonial andpostcolonial Africa, 1930-1970

This paper explores the continuous role that science has played in the esta blishment of a colonial and post-colonial "development regime" in Africa. E xamining development schemes that flourished between 1930 and 1970, the pap er shows how African agrarian societies became objects of both state interv ention and expert knowledge. In pursuing large scale social engineering and social experiments, these schemes constituted a particular-coionial?-way o f managing the African environment and of crafting knowledge on African soc ieties. In constructing development ideologies and practices in the late co lonial and post independence periods, they also played an important part in the construction of the African state. Their approaches shaped the future of tropical medicine, agriculture, and development studies. Ironically, the y also created the preconditions for later interest in the values of indige nous knowledge.