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KEEPING THE CITY TOTALLY CLEAN: YELLOW FEVER AND THE POLITICS OF PREVENTION IN COLONIAL SAINT-LOUIS-DU-SÉNÉGAL, 1850–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2004

KALALA NGALAMULUME
KALALA NGALAMULUME
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College
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Abstract

This article explores the ways in which French colonial authorities met the life and death challenge represented by the re-emergence of yellow fever epidemics in Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal at a time when physicians knew very little about the etiology, diagnosis, transmission and treatment of most infectious and parasitic diseases. The discussion focuses on changing strategies and policies designed to address yellow fever threats, the attitudes and priorities of the authorities, the limits of ‘colonial medicine’ and the responses of people affected by sanitary measures. The article argues that because of the ignorance of the etiology and epidemiology of yellow fever, policies were misdirected and did not achieve their primary goals. Even after the introduction of germ theory, the gap between medical thinking and practice persisted for another decade. The African urban working class and underclass were the first victims of this state of affairs. The article also examines the conflict between the interests of public health, commerce and privacy rights.

Keywords

Senegalhealthcolonial
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , July 2004 , pp. 183 - 202
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The materials for the article were collected in 1994–5 during fieldwork research in Senegal and France assisted by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and from the Joint Committee of African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies with funds provided by the Ford, Mellon and Rockefeller Foundations, and in 2001 assisted by a Summer research grant from Bryn Mawr College, and in 2002 assisted by the Lindback Foundation Minority Grant. I thank them all for their support. I gratefully acknowledge the comments made on the earlier draft of this article by Professors David Robinson, Harold Marcus, Beverly Heckart, Gary McDonogh, Dr Fred Quinn and Philip Kilbride. I also wish to thank the anonymous readers of the Journal of African History for their critical comments. Any shortcomings are mine.