A history of malaria in the south eastern lowveld of Colonial Zimbabwe, 1890 to 1979

[摘要] English: This thesis is a historical examination of the relationship between malaria and colonialism in the south eastern lowveld of Southern Rhodesia, present day Zimbabwe, from 1890 to 1979. It contributes to scholarly debates on the nature of colonial science and argues for the retention of the term and its analogue, colonial medicine, as categories of analysis in the writing of the history of medicine and colonialism. By corroborating the political economy of health approach and an analysis of views of medical men and scientists involved in malaria work in Southern Rhodesia, the thesis demonstrates that malaria was a problem in the establishment of the settler colony and malaria intervention was targeted at enhancing white settlement and creating a 'healthy' African labour force for the benefit of the colonial economy. Malaria control in the south east lowveld of Southern Rhodesia was closely linked to post Second World War government investment into commercial irrigated agriculture and sugar production. An examination of the views of medical men who implemented anti-malaria campaigns shows that they struggled to simultaneously serve the state, science and humanity. Although some medical men held differentiated views on the implementation of the campaigns, their agency was checked by political authority. Political and economic priorities prevailed over the scientific and the humane. The thesis further argues that the results derived from the entomological experiments carried out in the south east lowveld as part of the World Health Organisation pre-eradication campaign in South East Africa in the late 1950s entrenched the use of insecticides residual spraying as the primary method of malaria control especially in African areas surrounding the sugar estates. This led to a reduction in the use of other methods that had been previously employed and failure in interrupting malaria transmission. On the other hand, the use of a multi-pronged malaria control policy at the privately owned Triangle Sugar Estates led to the reduction of malaria to negligible cases. By the end of colonial rule the south east lowveld was characterised by a skewed spatial epidemiology of malaria.

[发布机构] University of the Free State