Kalala Ngalamulume. Colonial Pathologies, Environment, and Western Medicine in Saint-Louis-du-Senegal, 1867–1920

This book is a closely researched case study of the interplay of disease, environment, colonial medicine, and colonial rule in Saint-Louis, Senegal, between 1867 and 1920. Saint-Louis was Senegal's most important colonial settlement until it was eclipsed by Dakar at the turn of the twentieth century. It was the colony's capital, and briefly the headquarters of the Government General of French West Africa. As the author notes, the city was home to a vibrant civil society composed of Europeans, a powerful métis elite, and a predominantly Muslim black African population. During the 1870s, male inhabitants of all races acquired the right to vote for municipal officials, a General Council that controlled a portion of the colony's budget, and a deputy to represent them in the French legislature. These political formations provided checks on administrative power, though the administration increased its authority over time. The book covers new ground in the history of the region. There are few English-language studies of disease and colonial health policy in Senegal or French West Africa more broadly, with the major exception of Myron J. Echenberg's work on the bubonic plague in Dakar between 1914 and 1945. Kalala Ngalamulume's periodization is particularly enticing because it encompasses the emergence of two developments of great importance to the topic: first, a revolution in the understanding of the genesis and transmission of epidemic diseases such as yellow fever and plague; and second, the gradual ascendancy of a professional, civilian (as opposed to military) colonial administration in Senegal.

Administration (probate law) · Ancient history · Capital (architecture) · Colonialism · Economic history · Elite · Ethnology · Geography · Government (linguistics) · Plague (disease) · Political science · Politics · Population · Power (physics) · SAINT · Settlement (finance) · Sociology · Demography · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · History of Medicine and Tropical Health · History of Science and Medicine · Law