About the Exhibition

Building on the decolonisation work LSHTM Archives began in 2020, this exhibition explores the colonial entanglements within our collections.

Through items chosen from the Nyasaland papers this exhibition will look at the colonial encounter and the way the people of Nyasaland resisted researchers’ interventions, as well as examining the presence of dissenting voices from within the Nutrition Development Unit.

The Nutrition Development Unit was set up in 1940, in response to the research carried out by the Nyasaland Survey – which aimed to gather information on agricultural practices, eating habits, economic health and the growth and development of children, within the Kota Kota district of Nyasaland (modern day Malawi).

The material within this exhibition, shows the way colonial attitudes and beliefs informed the work carried out by researchers in the Unit, and the resistance they encountered, as they attempted to impose ideas of nutrition, food production and lifestyle onto the people of Nyasaland.