Jimoh Mufutau Oluwasegun
Federal University Brinin-Kebbi, Nigeria
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin
Perhaps more than any other disease, the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis) has been historically and epidemiologically entangled with the urban environment. Still, even after its medical identification, its mode of transmission, persistence and evolved forms in urban spaces remain subjects to debate across different disciplines, time and space. None of the diseases that ravaged colonial Lagos equaled the bubonic plague in terms of impact on livelihood, social temperament and the physical morphology of the town. Yet, the dispositions taken by the indigenous population to react to the epidemic control measures put into place by colonial authorities appear to be missing from most studies of the social and political dynamics of the bubonic plague in Lagos. This study will therefore seek to examine the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Lagos within the larger context of British colonial public health policies and imperial medical perceptions of the colonized. In order to achieve this objective, this paper will discuss and analyze the interrelation existing between bubonic plague epidemics and colonial urban politics in the historical context of Lagos in the early 20th century.
Email: oriyomijimoh4@gmail.com