#15. The spectacle of a colonial disease

Abstract

The visual representation of the sleeping sickness was part of the "Scramble for Images" of colonial cinema in Africa (Glenn Reynolds, 2015). Photographs and films of the campaigns against sleeping sickness during the first half of the 20th century show how the "Native Africans Health Care" was very important to the visual narrative on the “civilizing mission” in the tropics. Their Images gives us a better understanding of the tropical medicine’s contribution to the spectacularization of a disease that was often linked with colonial propaganda. Images of sleeping sickness could also be seen in colonial exhibitions. They show the spectacle of a “colonial disease” (Lyons, 1992).

About the speaker (PT)

Sílvio Marcus de Souza Correa é professor da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Doutor em sociologia pela Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (Alemanha), com estágios de pós-doutorado no Centre national de recherche scientifique (CNRS) do Québec (Canadá) e de pesquisador visitante no Institut d’Etudes Avancées de Paris (França). Pesquisador com bolsa produtividade do CNPq desde 2011. Atualmente, bolseiro da CAPES e pesquisador visitante sênior junto ao Centro Interdisciplinar de História da Ciência e da Tecnologia (CIUHCT) da Universidade Nova de Lisboa e do Centre d'études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques (CESSMA) da Universidade Paris VII. Seu campo de investigação é o colonialismo em África numa perspectiva de história global.

CC Collection:18'19