In a Time of Plague: Memories of the ‘Spanish’ Flu Epidemic of 1918 in South Africa

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Notes

1 In spite of its historic importance as a global pandemic of massive catastrophic magnitude, national and global histories have not paid much attention to the Spanish influenza, in comparison, for instance, to the Great Wars. Howard Phillips identifies only five substantial works on the Spanish influenza in South Africa, which include his own books and articles and three university dissertations by other scholars (xxi).

2 M. Heaton and T. Falola, ‘Global Explanations versus Local Interpretations: The Historiography of The Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919’, History in Africa, 33 (2006) 205–206.