Anatole Romaniuk (, ; 28 February 1924 – 5 March 2018) was a Ukrainian Canadian demographer who contributed to fertility and sterility, African demography, Aboriginal studies, demographic processes, and population forecasting. He played a key role in numerous population censuses, including the first population census in the Democratic Republic of Congo, several censuses in Canada from 1970 through to 1993, and the first census of independent Ukraine (2001).
Early life and education Anatole Romaniuk was born on 28 February 1924 in Zarozhany, currently Dniester Raion, Ukraine. Losing his father at age five in 1929, in 2009, he published a biography of him in Ukrainian.Романюк, A. 2009. Іван Онуфрійович Романюк та Його Рід. Внесок у Відродження Історичної Пам’яті Хотинщини. Видавництво «Мс» Львів. (Biography of Ivan Onufriyovych Romaniuk and his Kin) (in Ukrainian). He was forced into exile at age 16 and lived in several countries, including Germany, Belgium, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States, before settling in Canada in 1964.
He pursued university studies at the University of Erlangen in Germany and the University of Leuven in Belgium where he earned a Ph.D. in Economics. He undertook post-graduate training at the INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques) in Paris, and holds a certificate in Demography from Princeton University.
Career He began his career as a demographer in the Belgian Congo, as Chief of the Demography Bureau (1953–1961),Ngondo a Pitshandenge Séraphin, Ibrahima L. Diop, Daniel M. Sala-Diakanda and Jean Wakam. 2003. "Anatole Romaniuc: Pioneer in African Demography," Canadian Studies in Population, vol. 30 (1): 163-177. where he led the first population census in that country.Caldwell C. John. 2003. "The Crossing of Paths: Interactions with Anatole Romaniuk on Africa", Canadian Studies in Population, vol. 30 (1): 159-162. With the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo he joined the University of Kinshasa as a researcher while continuing to serve the Congolese Central Government in his capacity as adviser on population to the Minister of Planning and Economic Coordination. He was Research Associate at the Office of Population Research, Princeton University from 1961 to 1964. While at Princeton, he participated in the African Demographic Project which resulted in a major collective book, The Demography of Tropical Africa (Brass et al., Princeton University Press, 1968). Two men played a key role in the advancement of his earlier career: Leon H. Dupriez, the renowned Belgian economist, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and Ansley J. Coale, the foremost American demographer and long-term director of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.
In Canada, he pursued an academic career as Professor at the University of Ottawa and the University of Montreal. He occupied senior positions at Statistics Canada (1968-1993), including as Director of the Demography Division. Upon his retirement in 1993, he joined the University of Alberta as Adjunct Professor where, until 2014, he was pursuing research in the field of population studies.
He was Fellow of the US Population Council (1961–62), President of the Federation of Canadian Demographers and a longstanding member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. He was honored for "his many contributions to international and Canadian demography" with a special issue of the Canadian Studies in Population.Canadian Studies in Population, Special Issue in Honour of Anatole Romaniuc, vol. 30 (1), 2003.
Contribution to population studies Romaniuk has written extensively in the areas of substantive, methodological and theoretical demography as well as in political demography. His work has made significant contributions to the literature on human population, fertility in Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of CongoBrass William et al. 1968. The Demography of Tropical Africa, Princeton University Press. and the demography of Canada's Aboriginal peoples.Trovato Frank. 2003. Introduction to Anatole Romaniuc's contributions to Aboriginal demography, Canadian Studies in Population, vol. 30 (1): 71-74.Romaniuk A. 2000. Aboriginal population of Canada: Growth Dynamics under Conditions of Encounter of Civilizations, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, vol. 20(1). He is best known for his studies of human sterility in what was known as the "sterility belt" in central AfricaRomaniuk A. 1961. L'aspect démographique de la stérilité des femmes congolaises, Studia Universitatis Louvanium, Léopoldville, Éditions de l'Université, 40 p.Frank Odile. 1992. Sexual Behaviour and Diseases Transmission in Sub-Saharan Africa: Past Trends and Future Prospects, in Tim Dyson (ed.) Sexual Behaviour and Networking: Anthropological and Socio-Cultural Studies on Transmission of HIV. IUSSP.Hunt Rose Nancy. 1999. Colonial Lexicon of Birth Ritual, Medicalization, and Mobility in the Congo. Duke University Press.
In technical demography, his contributions are in population estimates and projections, and in the application of non-conventional estimation methods in developing countries.
In the realm of theoretical demography, some of his work has helped to expand the literature on the theory of demographic transition in connection with the dynamics of fertility changes during the early stages of societal modernizationRomaniuk, A. 1980. Increase in Natural Fertility during Earlier Stages of Modernization: Evidence form African Case Study, Zaire, Population Studies, vol. 34(2). as well as in connection with the emergence of a post-transitional demographic regime, what he calls the regime of demographic maturity.Romaniuk A. 2010. Fertility in the Age of Demographic Maturity: An Essay". Canadian Studies in Population, Special Issue, vol.30(1) : 283-295. He has also contributed to the epistemology of forecasting. With regard to population policies, he advocates for a stationary population.
Substantive demography Of particular interest to demographers are his writings regarding Sub-Saharan Africa on the colonial demography of the Congo,Romaniuk A. 2013. La démographie de la RD du Congo sous le régime du colonialisme mercantile belge, 1885-1940: un cas de dépopulation pour cause de dénatalité d'origine pathologique, XXVIIe Congrès international de la population, 26-31 août 2013, Busan, Corée du Sud. the current state of fertility in AfricaRomaniuk, A. 2011. Persistence of High Fertility in Tropical Africa: The Case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Population and Development Review, vol.37 (1), March 2011. and the emerging fertility patterns in African urban agglomerations.
The earlier period of Belgian colonial rule in the Congo was dominated by concerns of depopulation believed to be brought by an excessive mortality due to the exploitation of native populations in mercantile pursuits (rubber extraction, in particular) as well as to new infections, introduced by the coloniser, all the more lethal as natives lacked natural immunity. This was the version of depopulation of post-Colombian America. Some Western authorsHochschild A. 1998. King Leopold Ghost, a Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. went so far as to speak of genocide being perpetrated during the Belgian colonial rule under Leopold II's reign (losses of 10 million population are being cited). Romaniuk makes a strong case of depopulation by widespread sterility caused by venereal diseases. Remarkably, the zone of massive sterility coincides geographically, grosso modo, with the regions in central and North-East of the Congo devastated by Afro-Arab slavery campaigns in the second half of the 19th century. These regions have since recovered demographically; excessive sterility has practically disappeared. This seems to be due to anti-venereal campaigns, growing public awareness of the sexually transmitted diseases, and possibly due to the degeneration of the venereal germs as they evolve from the epidemic to endemic states (typical case for syphilis).
In most of Sub-Saharan Africa, fertility remains high even today. Under the prevailing conditions of persistent precarious economic conditions and social insecurity, Romaniuk argues, the nuclear family is not an alternative to the extended kinship with its deep-seated sense of solidarity and lineage. Moved by culture and atavism, and no less by economic rationality, the belief regarding the benefits of numerous progeny for security continues to prevail, although procreative patterns are moderate to optimise the chances of coping with the challenges of modernity.
Since he moved to Canada in 1964, Romaniuk took a particular interest in the demography of Aboriginal peoples. According to Romaniuk, in the four centuries since the Europeans first set foot in the country, the demography of the Aboriginal peoples has taken dramatic twists, from near extinction, due primarily to the epidemics brought by Europeans to which they lacked immunity, to impressive demographic recovery. However, their resilience against superior forces, their vitality to recover under the most adverse of conditions, should not blind us from recognising, he argues, the inherent vulnerability of a minority, which is numerically weaker, fragmented, and widely dispersed, still contending with many attributes of an underprivileged class of people.
Theoretical demography Of significance are his contributions to the theory of the onset of the demographic (fertility) transition and post-transitional demographic regime.
It is generally assumed that modernisation brings with it fertility decline. This is true generally but not necessarily at its earliest stages. In traditional, pre-modern society, a host of biological and cultural factors, such as protracted lactation, prolonged post-partum sexual abstinence, malnutrition and infections-induced sterility kept fertility well below the potential. With modernisation, these fertility-depressing factors are weakened or removed all together. Yet, birth control had not reached the critical level to counter these modernisation-associated factors - hence the rise in fertility. Evidence from African populations and North American Aboriginals support the thesis.
As to the post-transitional demographic stages, according to Romaniuk, nations of western civilisation in particular, have entered what he calls demographic maturity. Living longer and healthier while at the same time reproducing less and less are its two major correlates. Generational sub-replacement fertility, advanced aging and population implosion are its inherent features. To manage the emerging demographic regime new ways of thinking about population and innovative policy approaches are called for, according to him.
Methodology