Article ID: CBB354084470

Trypanosomiasis, Tropical Medicine, and the Practices of Inter-Colonial Research at Lake Victoria, 1902-07 (2019)

unapi

Webel, Mari K. (Author)


History and Technology
Volume: 35
Issue: 3
Pages: 266-292


Publication Date: 2019
Edition Details: Special Issue: Empires of Knowledge
Language: English

As sleeping sickness appeared in epidemics across Africa c. 1900, it stimulated a race among colonial medical personnel and Europe-based scientists to discover its causative pathogen, its mode of transmission, and, ideally, a cure. Scientists circulated between hubs of research in Europe and key field sites in Africa, monitoring each other’s progress and often maintaining long-term relationships colored by collaboration and competition. The Lake Victoria littoral was an epicenter of both significant mortality and important research before WWI. This article explores the intellectual implications of colonial connectivity at local scale, focusing on changing ideas about sleeping sickness, the communication of research strategies and methods, and the circumstances of life and research in this imperial hinterland and colonial borderland in eastern Africa. Exploring research dynamics around Lake Victoria illuminates the inadequacies of colonial scientific and medical capabilities and both the generative and limiting aspects that the contingencies of colonial research created.

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Article Axel Jansen; John Krige; Jessica Wang (2019) Empires of Knowledge: Introduction. History and Technology (pp. 195-202). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB354084470/

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Authors & Contributors
Webel, Mari K.
Neill, Deborah Joy
Junaidi
Scarfone, Marianna
Weiskopf, Julie M.
Tilley, Helen
Concepts
Colonialism
Trypanosomiasis, African
Medicine
Epidemics
Public health
Epidemiology
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
18th century
17th century
Places
East Africa
Africa
Tanzania (Tanganyika, Zanzibar)
North America
Burundi
Libya
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