Leprosy and the Colonial Gaze: Comparing the Dutch West and East Indies, 1750–1950

Abstract

Summary This article is looking at colonial governance with regard to leprosy, comparing two settings of the Dutch colonial empire: Suriname and the Dutch East Indies. Whereas segregation became formal policy in Suriname, leprosy sufferers were hardly ever segregated in the Dutch East Indies. We argue that the perceived needs to maintain a healthy labour force and to prevent contamination of white populations were the driving forces behind the difference in response to the disease. Wherever close contact between European planters and a non-European labour force existed together with conditions of forced servitude (either slavery or indentured labour), the Dutch response was to link leprosy to racial inferiority in order to legitimise compulsory segregation. This mainly happened in Suriname. We would like to suggest that forced labour, leprosy and compulsory segregation were connected through the ‘colonial gaze’, legitimising compulsory segregation of leprosy sufferers who had become useless to the plantation economy.

How Colonial Power, Colonized People, and Nature Shaped Hansen’s Disease Settlements in Suriname

“…The Construction of a "Cordon Sanitaire" Snelders et al explain that there was much fear of contracting boasie among white settlers. The authors furthermore suggest that forced labor, leprosy, and compulsory segregation were connected through a "colonial gaze," 3 legitimizing compulsory segregation of leprosy sufferers who had become useless to the plantation economy and might threaten the health of white inhabitants [49]. Fear and the "colonial gaze" may explain the rather stringent leprosy containment policy.…”

“…6 The number of leprosy patients segregated at Batavia declined in the years just prior to the abolition of slavery in 1863, pointing to a weakening of leprosy control. An explanation might be found in the fact that slave owners were unwilling to report leprosy among their slaves, as slaves suspected of having leprosy were excluded from financial compensation for their owners [49] (p. 11).…”

“…For example, Eddy Jharap, an ex-Hansen's patient and co-founder and former director of one of Suriname's main industries (state oil), said that his successful career is inseparably associated with his confinement in Bethesda [61] (pp. [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]. However, from interviews with ex-leprosy patients, we have concluded that the general feelings and attitudes of the inmates were more ambiguous-leaning towards compliance, on the one hand, and disobedience and resistance, on the other.…”

“…New Bethesda has made way for urbanization and industrialization resulting from the southward expansion of Paramaribo [22] (pp. [49][50]. Majella is now practically located in the heart of the capital due to the northward expansion of Paramaribo.…”

Curing Leprosy with DDS: Metamorphosis of Colonial Medicine into Global Health

“…Although the literature on the history of leprosy in nineteenth- and twentieth-century empires is rich, not enough is known about the relationship between colonial medicine and the development of postwar leprosy control measures. This literature reveals that in colonial societies, fear of racial degeneration and the perceived need to maintain a healthy labor force led to various policies to control leprosy, including compulsory segregation in some countries (Edmond 2006; Vongsathorn 2012; Snelders, van Bergen, and Huisman 2021). In the first half of the twentieth century, leprosy became an archetypal tropical illness that had to be defeated with the assistance of Western know-how.…”