This book is the first major work to explore the utility of the border as a theoretical, methodological, and interpretive construct for understanding colonial public health by considering African experiences in the Zimbabwe-Mozambique borderland. It examines the impact of colonial public health measures such as medical examinations/inspections, vaccinations, and border surveillance on African villagers in this borderland. The book asks whether the conjunction of a particular colonized society, a distinctive kind of colonialism, and a particular territorial border generated reluctance to embrace public health because of certain colonial circumstances which impeded the acceptance of therapeutic alternatives that were embraced by colonized people elsewhere. It asks historians to look elsewhere for similar kinds of histories involving racialized application of public health policies in colonial borderlands.

Explores how two different colonial systems tried to control infectious disease in the border region between Zimbabwe and Mozambique Draws on archival sources from both British and Portuguese colonial documents, as well as oral interviews conducted in Zimbabwe and Mozambique Uses a cross-disciplinary approach and appeals to scholars from history, public health, epidemiology, ethnography, environmental and medical humanities, as well as the study of Africa during the colonial period

Autorentext

Francis Dube is Associate Professor of History at Morgan State University, USA. He specializes in the history of the environment and health in Southern Africa. Before joining Morgan State University, he was Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, USA.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Chapter 1: The Creation Of The Border And The Making Of The Border As A Public Health Problem.- Chapter II: The Political Ecology Of Disease Control: The Border And Sleeping Sickness.- Chapter III: Cross-Border Movements, Smallpox Epidemics, And Public Health.- Chapter IV: Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Borders, And Public Health.- Chapter V: Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Borders, And Public Health.- Chapter VI: Independent African Churches, The Border, And Public Health.- Chapter VII: Medicine Without Borders: The Cross-Border Work Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions.- Conclusion.- Postscript: The Border Region Today.