IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB674289047

Colonial rodent control in Tanganyika and the application of ecological frameworks (2023)

Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Volume: 80
Issue: 2
Pages: 83-111
Publication date: 2023
Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/00033790.2023.2181399

URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00033790.2023.2181399

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Life sciences Ecology Great Britain, colonies Public health Plague 20th century, early Tanzania (Tanganyika, Zanzibar)

At the end of the 1920s, Tanganyika Territory experienced several serious rodent outbreaks that threatened cotton and other grain production. At the same time, regular reports of pneumonic and bubonic plague occurred in the northern areas of Tanganyika. These events led the British colonial administration to dispatch several studies into rodent taxonomy and ecology in 1931 to determine the causes of rodent outbreaks and plague disease, and to control future outbreaks. The application of ecological frameworks to the control of rodent outbreaks and plague disease transmission in colonial Tanganyika Territory gradually moved from a view that prioritised 'ecological interrelations' among rodents, fleas and people to one where those interrelations required studies into population dynamics, endemicity and social organisation in order to mitigate pests and pestilence. This shift in Tanganyika anticipated later population ecology approaches on the African continent. Drawing on sources from the Tanzania National Archives, this article offers an important case study of the application of ecological frameworks in a colonial setting that anticipated later global scientific interest in studies of rodent populations and rodent-borne disease ecologies.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB674289047

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Thesis Masebo, Oswald; (2010)
Society, State, and Infant Welfare: Negotiating Medical Interventions in Colonial Tanzania, 1920--1950 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001562772/)

Book Mari K. Webel; (2019)
The Politics of Disease Control: Sleeping Sickness in Eastern Africa, 1890–1920 (/p/isis/citation/CBB175864050/)

Article Sharad Master; (2022)
Mapping Basutoland: Correspondence Between Geologists Gordon Murray Stockley and Alexander Logie Du Toit (1938–1946) (/p/isis/citation/CBB503908538/)

Article Decker, Corrie R.; (2014)
Biology, Islam and The Science of Sex Education in Colonial Zanzibar (/p/isis/citation/CBB001213852/)

Article Huijzendveld, Frans D.; (2008)
Changes in Political Economy and Ecology in West-Usambara, Tanzania: ca. 1850--1950 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001031158/)

Book Kate Luce Mulry; (2021)
An Empire Transformed: remolding bodies and landscapes in the Restoration Atlantic (/p/isis/citation/CBB768133601/)

Article Tilley, Helen; (2004)
Ecologies of Complexity: Tropical Environments, African Trypanosomiasis, and the Science of Disease Control Strategies in British Colonial Africa, 1900-1940 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000750318/)

Article Amina Issa; (2011)
Malaria and Public Health Measures in Colonial Urban Zanzibar, 1900-1956 (/p/isis/citation/CBB089360016/)

Article Kumar, Deepak; (1999)
“Colony” under a Microscope: The Medical Works of W. M. Haffkine (/p/isis/citation/CBB000340240/)

Article Hawgood, Barbara J.; (2007)
Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine, CIE (1860--1930): Prophylactic Vaccination against Cholera and Bubonic Plague in British India (/p/isis/citation/CBB000831622/)

Book Kumar, Deepak; Damodaran, Vinita; D'Souza, Rohan; (2011)
The British Empire and the Natural World: Environmental Encounters in South Asia (/p/isis/citation/CBB001201905/)

Book Debjani Bhattacharyya; (2018)
Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making of Calcutta (/p/isis/citation/CBB311086106/)

Article Morgan J. Robinson; (2023)
When a Wonder Is Not a Wonder: Swahili, Translation, and the Communication of Knowledge (/p/isis/citation/CBB737008309/)

Article Frank Edward; Mikael Hård; (June 2020)
Maintaining the local Empire: The Public Works Department in Dar es Salaam, 1920–60 (/p/isis/citation/CBB951503443/)

Chapter Longair, Sarah; (2012)
“The Lady Curator's Style”: Negotiating Curatorial Challenges in the Zanzibar Museum (/p/isis/citation/CBB001201471/)

Article Sabea, Hanan; (2008)
Mastering the Landscape? Sisal Plantations, Land, and Labor in Tanga Region, 1893--1980s (/p/isis/citation/CBB001031159/)

Book Emily Brownell; (2020)
Gone to ground : A history of environment and infrastructure in Dar es Salaam (/p/isis/citation/CBB674765682/)

Article Håkansson, N. Thomas; (2008)
Regional Political Ecology and Intensive Cultivation in Pre-Colonial and Colonial South Pare, Tanzania (/p/isis/citation/CBB001031160/)

Article Stephen J. Rockel; (2019)
The Tutsi and the Nyamwezi: Cattle, Mobility, and the Transformation of Agro-Pastoralism in Nineteenth-Century Western Tanzania (/p/isis/citation/CBB644679714/)

Article Håkansson, N. Thomas; Widgren, Mats; Börjeson, Lowe; (2008)
Introduction: Historical and Regional Perspectives on Landscape Transformations in Northeastern Tanzania, 1850--2000 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001031157/)