Leprosy and segregation in colonial Mozambique

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May 2017

Image of the book “Junod e as sociedades africanas”, by Patrick Harris,  editora Paulinas, 2007.

Drawing on medical reports produced between the early nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, the paper Leprosy: disease, isolation, and segregation in colonial Mozambique indicates the different views on leprosy between locals, doctors and missionaries.

Valdemir Zamparoni, of the History Department at Universidade Federal da Bahia, focuses on the tensions concerning the practice of segregating lepers and its social and sanitation implications.

In the early twentieth century, leprosy was one of the most feared diseases and often attracted the attention of missionaries, such as the Swiss Henri Junod.

Junod realized that the Western and local views on disease were quite different. According to him, the tsonga people believed that diseases were transmitted by supernatural forces. Read about leprosy in HCSM-Manguinhos: Cueto, Marcos and Puente, José Carlos de la. Vida de leprosa:the testimony of a woman living with Hansen’s disease in the Peruvian Amazon, 1947. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.337-360. ISSN 0104-5970 Maciel, Laurinda Rosa et al. Memories and history of Hansen’s disease in Brazil told by witnesses (1960-2000). Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.308-336. ISSN 0104-5970 Joseph, D. George. “Essentially Christian, eminently philanthropic”: The Mission to Lepers in British India. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.247-275. ISSN 0104-5970 Pandya, Shubhada S. The First International Leprosy Conference, Berlin, 1897: the politics of segregation. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.161-177. ISSN 0104-5970 Hunter Smith III, Thomas. A monument to Lazarus: the leprosy hospital of Rio de Janeiro. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.143-160. ISSN 0104-5970 Monteiro, Yara Nogueira. Prophylaxis and exclusion: compulsory isolation of Hansen’s disease patients in São Paulo. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.95-121. ISSN 0104-5970 Benchimol, Jaime L. and Sá, Magali Romero. Adolpho Lutz and controversies over the transmission of leprosy by mosquitoes. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.49-93. ISSN 0104-5970 Oliveira, Maria Leide Wand-del-Rey de et al. Social representation of Hansen’s disease thirty years after the term ‘leprosy’ was replaced in Brazil. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.41-48. ISSN 0104-5970 Robertson, Jo. Leprosy and the elusive M. leprae: colonial and imperial medical exchanges in the nineteenth century. Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos, 2003, vol.10, suppl.1, p.13-40. ISSN 0104-5970    

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