The Sorcerer's Apprentice: sleeping sickness, onchocerciasis and unintended consequences in the Gold Coast and Ghana, 1930–60 — ADDENDUM

THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE: SLEEPING SICKNESS, ONCHOCERCIASIS, AND UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES IN GHANA, 1930–60

The Journal of African History ◽

10.1017/s0021853721000177 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-29

Author(s):

David Bannister

Keyword(s):

Unintended Consequences ◽

Sleeping Sickness ◽

Gold Coast ◽

Central Administration ◽

Medical Department ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Northern River ◽

Economic Preferences ◽

Independence Era ◽

Northern Territories

Abstract The Northern Territories Protectorate and its people were located on the economic and political margins of Britain's Gold Coast Crown Colony (now Ghana) throughout the colonial period. The article examines how the region's peripherality allowed the Gold Coast Tsetse Control Department to carry out an extensive campaign of bush clearing and resettlement along northern river valleys from the 1930s to 1950s, with little supervision by the Gold Coast Medical Department or northern officials. Intended to control human and animal sleeping sickness and to meet the economic preferences of the colony's central administration, this campaign had the effect of greatly increasing the exposure of northern communities to another disease, onchocerciasis, causing widespread blindness and contributing to a serious public health crisis in the early independence era.

Download Full-text

The Ecology of Epidemic Sleeping Sickness II.—The Effects of an Epidemic.

Bulletin of Entomological Research ◽

10.1017/s0007485300040554 ◽

1952 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 375-396 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

K. R. S. Morris

Keyword(s):

Close Correlation ◽

Reproductive Rate ◽

Sleeping Sickness ◽

Gold Coast ◽

Infection Rates ◽

Obvious Effect ◽

The Past ◽

The North ◽

Glossina Palpalis ◽

Upper Volta

The most obvious effect of sleeping sickness is depopulation, which can be occasioned directly, through mortality from the disease, and indirectly, through a lowering of the reproductive rate of a community because of induced sterility and increased infant mortality.The problem was studied in the north of the Gold Coast and the neighbouring French Upper Volta Territory, where severe epidemics have occurred, in localised form since at least the middle of last century, and in widespread form during the past 30 years. The vectors have been the riverine tsetse Glossina palpalis and G.tachinoides.A close correlation was found to exist between the incidence of sleeping sickness and the population trend with a marked depopulating effect coming in at infection rates above 3 per cent. It was also found that both the rates of trypanosomiasis infection and the extent of depopulation showed closely similar relationships to the proximity of affected villages to the nearest flybelt.

Download Full-text

Crime prevention and reduction programs: How does knowing about community initiatives moderate attitudes towards criminal victimisation?

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology ◽

10.1177/0004865817717055 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 51 (2) ◽

pp. 239-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Michael L Chataway ◽

Timothy C Hart

Keyword(s):

Crime Prevention ◽

Fear Of Crime ◽

Property Crime ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Gold Coast ◽

Future Research ◽

Community Programs ◽

Community Initiatives ◽

Fear Reduction ◽

Positive Effects

The current study examines the association between fear of crime and awareness of community programs designed to prevent or reduce crime and social disorder. Data were collected from a community survey of household residents living on the Gold Coast of Australia ( N = 713). Results indicate that those reportedly aware of community initiatives, fear property crime and crimes against persons differently than those reportedly unaware of them. For fear of personal victimisation, awareness of crime prevention programs within an area weakened relationships between (a) perceptions of incivility and social cohesion; (b) perceptions of the consequences of victimisation and likelihood of victimisation; and (c) perceptions of the likelihood of victimisation and worry about personal crime. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications on future research, and strategies for developing crime prevention and fear reduction programs that maximise the positive effects on attitudes towards crime, while minimising their unintended consequences, are also offered.

Download Full-text