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Abstract
The Third Plague Pandemic originated in Southwest China in the mid-nineteenth century, reached Africa's shores around 1900, and spread globally for about a century. This article examines three plague loci in colonial Senegal (Dakar, 1914), Nigeria (Lagos, 1924), and the Gold Coast (today's Ghana; Kumasi, 1924). A tripartite comparative analysis is made of French and British doctrines of colonial rule, colonial urban planning policies, and anti-plague practices. While some common features are demonstrated in the policies and practices of the colonizing forces such as the implementation of rigorous measures and embracing segregationist solutions, divergent features can also be distinguished. These relate to the methods of implementation of planning and anti-plague policies, in accordance with colonial ideology (assimilation, direct and indirect rule); and to the very nature of autochthonous communities, responses, and levels of agitation. Our both comparative and more nuanced site-related view is also based on a large collection of archival and secondary materials from multilateral channels.
Acknowledgements
The conceptualization of this article was stimulated by the conference ‘Plague and the City: Disease, Epidemic Control and the Urban Environment’, held at the University of Cambridge's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, December 2014. I owe much to the generous invitation of one of its organizers, Dr Christos Lynteris. The conference is part of an EU interdisciplinary research project entitled ‘Visual Representations of the Third Plague Pandemic', led by Dr Lynteris.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Liora Bigon (BA, Tel Aviv; MA, Jerusalem; Ph.D., Manchester, UK) is a Research Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A specialist in colonial urban history, architecture, and planning cultures in sub-Saharan Africa, she has taught in several Israeli universities and academic institutions and published widely in these fields, including articles, encyclopaedic entries, and (co-edited) books (A History of Urban Planning in Two West African Colonial Capitals, NY, 2009; Garden Cities and Colonial Planning in Africa and Palestine, Manchester, 2014; French Colonial Dakar, forthcoming, Manchester, 2015).
Notes
1. Martin-Moreno, “Ebola” and Mbembe, “Ebola ist wie wir.”
2. Robinson, “Perfect System of Control?” Such a system was not achieved even through the planning practices of South Africa, an extreme case of colonialism.
3. This partial list includes book-length studies only: Arnold, Warm Climates; Bell, Frontiers of Medicine; Curtin, Death by Migration; Curtin, Disease and Empire; Echenberg, Black Death; Gallagher, Medicine and Power; Hartwig and Patterson, Disease in African History; Headrick, Colonialism, Health; King, Colonial Urban Development; Lyons, Colonial Disease; MacPherson, Wilderness of Marshes; Monnais-Rousselot, Médecine et colonisation; Packard, White Plague, Black Labor; Vaughan, Curing Their Ills; and Yeoh, Contesting Space.
4. For book-length studies, see Beeckmans, “Making the African City”; Bigon, A History of Urban Planning; Goerg, Pouvoir Colonial; Njoh, Planning Power; Goerg, Pouvoir colonial; Njoh, Planning Power; and Njoh, Urban Planning. For an unprecedentedly pioneering article, see Curtin, “Medical Knowledge.”
5. Swanson, “Sanitation Syndrome.”
6. For instance, Beinart and Dubow, Segregation and Apartheid; Bonner, Posel, and Delius, Apartheid’s Genesis; Chari, “State Racism”; Mabin, “Comprehensive Segregation”; and Parnell, “Creating Racial Privilege.”
7. Maylam, “Explaining the Apartheid City,” 24.
8. Brennan, Burton, and Lawi, Dar es Salaam; Murunga, “Inherently Unhygienic Races”; and Poleykett, “Unbuilding the City.”
9. Cherry, Cities and Plans, 23–6.
10. Home, Of Planting and Planning, 78–80; Yeoh, Contesting Space, 100–60; and Parnell, “Creating Racial Privilege.” For more on local opposition, see, for instance, Bonner, “Division and Unity”; Brennan, Burton, and Lawi, Dar es Salaam; and Myers, Verandahs of Power.
11. Parts of this section on Dakar were published in: Bigon, “A History of Urban Planning” (incorporated here with permission). I have only used them here briefly in order to stress the links to French colonial ideology, on which the next section builds. Apart from comparing British Lagos and Kumasi, the next section provides comparative glimpses of French Dakar as well.
12. Curtin, Disease and Empire; Curtin, Death by Migration; and Sinou, “La Sénégal,” 51.
13. As described by a Marseille-based company immediately after an outbreak of yellow fever in 1900, ‘the public services are disorganised, the [French] troops have been recalled, train traffic has been suspended, commercial stores have been closed. There is a general exodus of the white population, normal life in this country has been interrupted’. ANOM, FM SG, SEN XII, 50.
14. For instance, Archives Nationales du Sénégal (hereafter ANS), P 168: Assainissement et urbanisme de Dakar: travaux de l'avenue des Madeleines, 1905-1913.
15. M'Bokolo, “Peste et société urbaine,” 13.
16. Betts, “Establishment” and M'Bokolo, “Peste et société urbaine,” 16.
17. ANS, P 190: Assainissement et urbanisme de Dakar, village de Médina, création de village, 1915-1919; ANS, H55: Peste à Dakar, 1914; and Echenberg, Black Death.
18. The AOF (Afrique Occidentale Française or French West Africa) was created in 1895, alongside of the neighbouring (later) federation of French Equatorial Africa (AEF). The aim was to facilitate the centralist decision-making process in Paris. It included eight colonies: Senegal, French Sudan (today's Mali), French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Dahomey (today's Benin), Upper Volta (today's Burkina Faso), Niger, and Mauritania.
19. Johnson, Emergence, 38–62.
20. Seck, Dakar, 129.
21. This argument is inspired by Foucault, Discipline and Punish and Yeoh, Contesting Space.
22. ANS, H55: Peste à Dakar, 1914 and Seck, Dakar, 134.
23. ANS, H22: l'Hygiène à Dakar, 1919-1920, rapport sur l'hygiène à Dakar de 1899 à 1920 and Seck, Dakar, 134.
24. ANS, H55: Peste à Dakar, 1914.
25. ANS 4P 133: Urbanisme à Dakar: aménagement de la Médina, plan d'extension, 1927; ANS 4P 1514: Mosquée de Dakar, 1938; ANS, 4P 1537: Construction d'un Marché couvert à Médina, 1940; ANS, 4P 512: Residence de Médina, 1941; ANS 4P 141 and 144: Médina, secteur 2B, plans et devis, 1940-1955.
26. Bugnicourt, “Dakar Without Bounds,” 30.
27. Çelik, Urban Forms and Davie, “Beirut and the Étoile.”
28. A discussion of assimilation itself is beyond the scope of this paper. At least in principle, the aim of this doctrine as asserted by the Third Republic was to turn the colony into an integral part of the mother country, and its population was to be considered equal as far as possible to that of the mother country, subjected to the same laws. At the heart of this attitude to the colonies lay the idea of human equality, which was inherent in the Revolution, and the belief that French culture, together with its mission civilisatrice, was not inferior to any other culture, to say the least. See, for more, Lewis, “One Hundred Million”; Betts, Assimilation and Association; and Conklin, Mission to Civilize.
29. Rabinow, French Modern and Prost, “Rapport general.”
30. Betts, “Establishment,” 148. For the aerial photos, see ANS, H22: l'Hygiène à Dakar, 1919-1920, rapport sur l'hygiène à Dakar de 1899 à 1920.
31. See, for more, Johnson, Emergence, 30–7.
32. Betts, “Establishment,” 145–9.
33. Coquery-Vidrovitch, “Émeutes urbaines.”
34. Betts, “Establishment,” 145, 147.
35. Conklin, Mission to Civilize, 147–50 and Betts, “Establishment,” 151.
36. For more about the positions of Ponty and Diagne, see ANS, H55: Peste à Dakar, 1914. See also Betts, “Establishment,” 151. A considerable part of Echenberg's study that deals with the 1914 epidemic (Echenberg, Black Death, Part I) covers very thoroughly these critical days in Dakar, though his sociopolitical analysis is less concerned with spatial issues.
37. Discussing the ‘indirect rule’ philosophy itself is beyond the scope of this study. In brief, it represents the British colonial doctrine applied in its West African dependencies, among other places. This doctrine favoured the ‘development’ by the colonial power of ‘peoples who are not yet able to stand by themselves’, on the one hand, and ‘the general welfare of mankind’, on the other. ‘Development’ – that is, the economic utilization of local raw materials by the colonizing country – was expected to occur with the least interference in indigenous customs. Such a philosophy worked, through appointed chiefs, in the Islamic emirates of Northern Nigeria. Yet direct British control was imposed on Lagos as it served as the capital city, with unprecedented economic and administrative importance. See, for more, Lugard, Dual Mandate. The quotations above were taken from the front page of his book.
38. Frederick D. Lugard (1858–1945) was born in India to missionary parents, served in the British Indian Army and led expeditions to many parts of Africa through the 1890s. He then served as the first high commissioner of the protectorate of Northern Nigeria (1900–1906), governor of Hong Kong (1907–1912), and finally as Governor General of Northern and Southern Nigeria (1912–1919). Apart from Lagos, there were 18 Second-Class and 50 Third-Class townships. Abumere, “Nigeria.”
39. For a reconstruction of a Yoruba habitat in precolonial Lagos, see Akinsemoyin and Vaughan-Richards, Building Lagos.
40. ‘Segregation is also impossible in so densely populated an area [ … ] where the residences of Europeans and natives are already so hopelessly intermixed’, Lugard, Lugard and the Amalgamation, 90.
41. Lloyd, Drums of Kumasi and Agbodeka, African Politics. In the following, the term ‘Asante’ designates the precolonial kingdom and the sub-ethnic group, and the term ‘Ashanti’ refers to the British colonial administrative entity.
42. Ingham, “Colonialism.”
43. Boateng, Geography of Ghana, 176.
44. Lagos: Sanitary Report for 1887, 4–5 and Gale, “Lagos.”
45. British Archives (hereafter BA), CO, 96/664: Colonial Reports, Ashanti, 1921; and Boateng, Geography of Ghana, 176. Also in Shanghai, the outbreaks of plague in the late nineteenth century did not persuade the British authorities to invest in costly waterworks or to municipalize them. MacPherson, Wilderness of Marshes, Chap. 5.
46. Schildkrout, People of the Zongo, 194–6. Only from 1926, there were British attempts to apply indirect rule in Kumasi.
47. Governor William MacGregor (1899–1903), himself an MD, was the only one sympathetic to Lagos inhabitants and to foster a healthy-for-all sanitary policy there. His successors, such as Walter Egerton and Lugard, tried to create exclusive white areas but failed due to quick local response. BA, CO 147/164: Lagos original correspondence; lecture on malaria by Sir William MacGregor; Curtin, “Medical Knowledge,” 601–2; Olukoju, “Population Pressure”; and Rhodes house (hereafter RH), Mss. Brit. Emp. S. 99 I: Revenues and expenditure [Lugard], 1901-1916, ff 238–49, 1913.
48. For Bathurst and Accra, see Curtin, “Medical Knowledge,” 601–2.
49. NAN, CSO 26, 13001 vol. III: Outbreak of plague in Lagos, 1924.
50. Baker, Urbanization, 33.
51. Brown, “Increased Intercommunication,” 193–4. This is an excellent source on the series of diseases in contemporary Ashanti, but the understanding of Kumasi's spatiality can only be made in between the lines. For the crucial influence of colonial transportation systems on the indigenous settlements in West Africa, see Home, “Influence.”
52. NAN, CSO 26, 13001 vol. I: Outbreak of plague in Lagos, 1924.
53. Leith-Ross, Stepping Stones, 85.
54. Olukoju, “Population Pressure,” 37–8 and NAN, CSO 26, 13001 vol. III: Memorandum: Plague in Lagos, 4 October 1924.
55. P. S. Selwyn-Clarke, Report on the Outbreak of Plague in Kumasi. Ashanti, Gold Coast Sessional Paper 11, 1925-26 (1926). Quoted in Brown, “Increased Intercommunication,” 195.
56. Rabinow, French Modern, 32–6.
57. Intercolonial direct connections and dissemination of professional knowledge in this nationalistic period took place in the form of a series of international conferences and publications, and circulation of hundreds of technical and medical experts. See, for more, Tilley, Africa as a Living Laboratory, 4–24, 130–2.
58. NAN, CSO 26, 13001 vol. III: Memorandum: Plague in Lagos, 4 October 1924.
59. Sarfoh, “West African Zongo,” 72–3. In Lagos, no ‘Zongo’ quarter has been established and African ‘strangers’ (like Dan Sokoto) resided within the existent indigenous quarters on the Island or in the expanding suburbs on the mainland. For the dynamics between the British colonial authorities and the zongos in Nigerian cities, see Home, “Town Planning.”
60. Schildkrout, People of the Zongo, 67–9.
61. This sentence and the next paragraph are based on Brown, “Increased Intercommunication,” 193–9.
62. In a relapsing fever outbreak among northern immigrants in Kumasi (1930–1931), all who entered through the North Road were bathed, shaved, and their cloths were disinfected. In one day, over 1100 persons were cleaned, and the Zongo was subjected to police inspections. Brown, “Increased Intercommunication,” 199–200.
63. NAN, CSO 26, 13001 vol. III: Memorandum: Plague in Lagos, 4 October 1924.
64. NAN, CSO 26, 13001 vol. VII: Outbreak of Plague in Lagos, 1926.
65. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 37, 43.
66. Lyons, Colonial Disease, 190; Cell, “Anglo-Indian Medical Theory,” 326; and Yeoh, Contesting Space, 119–22.
67. NAN, CSO 26, 13001 vol. III: Memorandum: Plague in Lagos, 4 October 1924.
68. This is clear from consulting the following files at NAN, series CSO 26: 15686, Lagos town planning scheme, no. 2 (1926-7); no. 3 (1927-8); no. 4 (1928-9); 15686/1, Lagos town planning scheme, no. 3 (1932); 15686/S Lagos town planning scheme, no. 4 (1935); no. 5 (1936); 15686/S 2, Lagos town planning scheme, no. 7 (1937); 15686/S 3, Lagos town planning scheme, no. 6 (1938).
69. Hopkins, Proposed Rules, 1. Compared with Hopkins and Butler, Regulations, 1.
70. Its creation was inspired by similar planning bodies that already existed in India and Malaya, and it operated independently of the Lagos Town Council, with direct grants from the colonial administration. BA, CO 583, 163/9: Lagos Town Planning Ordinance, 1928. The LEDB reflected an intensified governmental interest in public health, which was similar to what had started in Britain in 1848. Home, Of Planting and Planning, 80–1.
71. BA, CO 583, 163/9: Lagos Town Planning Ordinance, 1928.
72. BA, CO 583, 163/9: Lagos Town Planning Ordinance, 1928.
73. Jones, Outcast London, 166.
74. As described by Neville Miller in 1931, in Vaughan-Richards, “Le Nigeria,” 284, without an original reference, quoted from the French.
75. BA, CO 323/1050/5: Inter-Colonial Conference on Yellow Fever, Dakar, April 1928.
76. BA, CO 323/1050/5: Inter-Colonial Conference on Yellow Fever, Dakar, April 1928. See also Bigon, “Transnational Networks,” 25.
77. BA, CO 323/1050/5: Inter-Colonial Conference on Yellow Fever, Dakar, April 1928 (p. 34).
78. NAN, Com. Col. I, 958: Anti-plague campaign demolition of premises, 1931.
79. NAN, Com. Col. I, 958: Anti-plague campaign demolition of premises, 1930–1931.
80. All quotes from: NAN, Com. Col. I, 958: Anti-plague campaign demolition of premises, 1930-1931.
81. Henderson, “Lagos”; NAN, Com. Col. I, 3860: Lagos slum clearance scheme, advisory committee, 1955.
82. Marris, “Motives and Methods,” 43.
83. Sule, “Ethno-spatial Dimension” and Vale, Architecture, 134–47.