York University Hosts Meeting of International Scholars on Colonialism and Public Health in the Tropics

TORONTO, June 17, 1999 -- Leading world experts on Colonialism and Public Health in the Tropics will meet at York University, Fri., June 18, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sat., June 19, 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. to present a historical perspective on health and health policy as one of the tools of empire in colonial Africa, India and the Caribbean.

The two-day conference will look at the cultural and ideological dimensions of public health in Britain's tropical empire from the late 19th century onward. New research by scholars from five continents will describe the effects of infectious disease pandemics on demography and social and economic development in the former British colonies, and the slow reaction of government to these crises. Topics will range from the epidemics of leprosy, bubonic plague and influenza, to urban sanitation and public health relating to gender, race and identity.

"Despite great advances in virology since 1919, influenza remains an unpredictable disease, widely endemic, but with certain strains capable of assuming epidemic and pandemic proportions," says University of London historian, Professor David Killingray. He will describe the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 and the inadequate government warning systems and inability of the medical and scientific professions to provide an effective treatment or cure. Killingray notes that it was only after the Second World War than an international influenza centre was established in London with nearly one hundred bases around the world.

David Arnold from the London School of Oriental and African Studies is the keynote speaker. He has edited two important works on the history of medicine and imperialism--Warm Climates and Western Medicine: the emergence of tropical medicine, 1500-1900 (1996); and Imperial Medicine and Indigenous Societies (1988).

Also presenting are York University professors, Juanita De Barros and Kwabena Akurang-Parry. Professor De Barros recently completed her PhD at York's history department and will discuss "Sanitarianism in Colonial Georgetown: An Alternative Vision of Public Space".

Kwabena Akurang-Parry, originally from Ghana, is a historian and post-doctoral fellow at York's Nigerian Hinterland Project. His presentation, "The Gold Coast (Ghana) Press and Health Issues in Colonial Ghana, 1874-1899" will show how the European presence in Ghana caused the abandonment of traditional methods of healing and health care, which, combined with the shortage of European drug treatments for Africans, promoted the spread of infectious disease.

The event is sponsored by the Dept. of History, Founder's College, The York Centre for Health Studies, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine. It takes place at Founders College, Senior Common Room, (Room 305) York University, 4700 Keele St.

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For more information, please contact:

Juanita De Barros
Nigerian Hinterland Project
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 30322

Sine MacKinnon
Senior Advisor, Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22087

Susan Bigelow
Media Relations Officer
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22091
YU/072/99

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Conference Schedule

Fri., June 18: (Registration: 8:30 a.m.-9:30 a.m., Opening Plenary: 9:30 a.m.-10 a.m.)

Session I: Public Health in the Age of Empire, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Chair: A.S. Kanya-Forstner (York University)

David Killingray (University of London) "A New Imperial Disease: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 and Its Impact on the British Empire"

Michael Worboys (University of Sheffield) "Mission and Mandate: Leprosy in the British Empire, 1920-1940"

D. Kumar (Jawaharlal Nehru University), "Questions of Public Health and Foreign Philanthropy: Rockefeller Foundation in India, 1918-1947"

Keynote Speaker: David Arnold (School of Oriental and African Studies)

Session II: Gender and Colonial Health Care Policy, 1:30 p.m. - 3:20 p.m.

Chair: Bettina Bradbury (York University)

Sheryl McCurdy (Columbia University) "Women Rule: Indirect Rule and African and European Attempts To Control Sexuality and Fertility in Kigoma, Tanganyika, 1924-36"

Denise Roth (Princeton University) "Making Motherhood Safe in Tanganyika: Risk, Maternal Health, and Colonial Culture"

Elizabeth Akinyi Kearly (University of South Florida) "Transforming and Relocating Childbirth: The State, Gender, and Authority of Health Knowledge in South Nyanza, Kenya, 1900-1990."

Pedro Welch (University of West Indies) "Race, Class and Gender in a Colonial Public Health Context: Barbados, 1850-1920"

Session III: Public Health, Sanitation and Urban Spaces, 3:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Chair: David Trotman (York University)

Juanita De Barros (York University), "Sanitarianism in Colonial Georgetown"

Marisa Chambers (University of Liverpool) "The Duality of Colonial Health Care Systems in British West Africa: How Public Was Public Health?"

Richard Harris (McMaster University) "Public Health and Urban Housing Policy in British Colonies, 1945-1960"

Janice Mayers (University of West Indies) "For the Children? A Preliminary Analysis of Health-Related Issues Discussed at the 1921 Education Conference in Trinidad"

Sat., June 19:

Session IV: Public Health and the Construction of Race and Identity, 9:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.

Chair: Sean Hawkins (University of Toronto)

Jock McCulloch (RMIT, Melbourne) "Depressive Illness and Colonial Inferiority in Africa, 1920-1960"

Eric Strahorn (Florida Gulf Coast University) "The Construction of Race and Immunity to Malaria in Colonial North India"

Steven Pierce (University of Michigan) "Garden Secrets: Tax Evasion as Sanitary Problem in Late-Colonial Kano Emirate, Nigeria"

Session V: Indigenous Ideologies of Healing and Health Care, 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.

Chair: Paul Lovejoy (York University)

Kwabena Opare Akurang-Parry (York University) "The Gold Coast (Ghana) Press and Health Issues in Colonial Ghana, 1874-1899"

Susan OBrien (University of Wisconsin-Madison) "Healing and Bori [Spirit Possession] in Northern Nigeria"

Session VI: Health Care, Empire and a Comparative Perspective, 1:30 p.m. - 3 p.m.

Chair: Stuart McCook (The College of New Jersey)

Liu Shi-Yung (University of Taiwan), "Acclimatization and Assimilation in Colonial Taiwan"

Rita Pemberton (University of the West Indies), "Unhooking and Penetrating: The International Health Commission/Board, Health and Sanitation in the British Caribbean 1914-1930"

Rebecca Lord (University of Maryland), "Quarantine in the Fort Ozoma Dungeon: The War Against Venereal Disease and Prostitution During the American Occupation of the Dominican Republic, 1916-1924"

Kohei Wakimura (Osaka City University), "Malaria Control Under Colonial Rule: India and Taiwan"