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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Keeping the City Totally Clean: Yellow Fever and the Politics of Prevention in Colonial Saint-Louis-du-Senegal, 1850-1914 |
| Author: | Ngalamulume, Kalala |
| Year: | 2004 |
| Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
| Volume: | 45 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Period: | July |
| Pages: | 183-202 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Senegal France |
| Subjects: | colonialism health policy yellow fever History and Exploration Health and Nutrition Urbanization and Migration |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/4100463 |
| 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 the second half of the 19th century in Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal at a time when physicians knew very little about the aetiology, 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 aetiology 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. The materials for the article were collected in 1994-1995 during fieldwork research in Senegal and France. Note, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
