Trypanosomiasis Control in African History: An Evaded Issue?

Abstract

Social control of trypanosomiasis in African history deserves further study. The pioneering work in this field is John Ford's respected but neglected The Role of the Trypanosomiases in African Ecology (1971). While Ford's arguments have received support from recent findings in immunological, epidemiological and epizootiological research, they have rarely met with evaluation or engagement, either in historical or scientific literature. Historians have tended to describe trypanosomiasis control as a matter of avoiding contact with tsetse fly. In so doing they have implicitly rejected the position of Ford, who regarded infrequent contacts between tsetse and mammalian hosts as necessary for the maintenance of host resistance. Ford believed that host resistance, rather than avoidance of tsetse, was the basis of trypanosomiasis control. The historical nature of Ford's work requires that a satisfactory evaluation of The Role of the Trypanosomiases make use of historical, as well as scientific, data. The evidence of trypanosomiasis and cattle-keeping from one region of north-eastern Tanzania supports Ford and suggests that other explanations of trypanosomiasis control are inadequate. The Tanzanian evidence shows that precolonial societies coexisted with, but could not avoid, tsetse. They could not eradicate tsetse because scarcity of water prevented permanent occupation of large areas. Tsetse and trypanosomiasis did not prevent cattle-keeping, but helped to keep the region's cattle population low and confined it to relatively densely settled neighbourhoods. Social control of trypanosomiasis collapsed during the pre-Second World War period of colonial rule. Economic and political developments were primarily responsible for a series of famines between 1894 and 1934. Famine-induced depopulation allowed steady spread of tsetse and wildlife reservoirs of trypanosomes into formerly cultivated areas which had been free of tsetse before the colonial period.

Descent of Iron Age Farmers in Southern Africa During the Last 2000 Years

“…This region was, and still is, host to a suite of animal diseases, and the often-fatal malaria in humans with relatively poor farming potential (Plug 1988). However, the impact of animal diseases such as nagana were probably far less severe than previously thought (Badenhorst 2008; also see Ford 1971;Giblin 1990aGiblin , 1990b. In addition, the presence of farming communities in the lowveld region for more than a millennium (Plug 1988) suggests that farming was possible (cf.…”

“…While some may argue that this is the result of the presence of animal diseases such as trypanosomiasis (nagana) (sensu Gifford-Gonzalez 2000), these diseases likely had a minimal impact on farmers and their herds before the spread of guns (Badenhorst 2008; also see Ford 1971;Giblin 1990aGiblin , 1990b. We must consider the possibility that some Bantu-language speakers in southern Africa labelled as 'farmers' did not keep livestock.…”

‘The gloomy forebodings of this dread disease’, climate, famine and sleeping sickness in East Africa

“…Indeed, as Worboys (1994, 90) has highlighted, the epidemic ‘was understood at the time to have had its origins in the increased movement of the indigenous population due to pacification, migration and the growth of trade following the establishment of colonial rule’. With the establishment of British colonial rule came conflict, social, economic and political upheaval, migration and changes to traditional mobility patterns and methods of environmental management (Giblin 1990). The ‘hut tax’ may have also contributed to considerable population mobility around the turn of the century.…”

Seeing beyond Our Borders: US and Non‐US Historiographies

“…When forces disrupted that control -colonial policies and practices most notablyand the landscape went feral, the disease wreaked havoc with human and livestock populations. The history of trypanosomiasis control in Africa provides a poignant and concrete example of how the protection, and in some cases the expansion, of wild nature at the expense of human control can have a dramatic impact on human populations and economies (Ford 1971;Kjekshus 1977;Giblin 1990Giblin , 1992.…”