• Features
  • Books
  • Teaching
  • Digital & Film
  • Blog
  • IHS
  • Texas
  • Spotlight
  • About

The past is never dead. It's not even past

Not Even Past

Episode 80: Colonial Medicine and STDs in 1920s Uganda

Part of the civilizing mission of European powers in their colonies in Asia and Africa was an interest in encouraging hygiene and health among the population, according to recently established medical practices in Europe. Diseases such as cholera and plague were often targeted, but in sub-Saharan Africa, British colonial officials were especially concerned with sexually transmitted diseases (or, rather, what were assumed to be sexually transmitted diseases), which allowed colonial officials to tackle both the disease as well as what was assumed to be the licentious behavior that led to its spread.

Guest Ben Weiss has been studying the history of public health in Africa from the colonial era through to the current HIV/AIDS epidemic, and discusses these earliest encounters between indigenous Africans and European medical practitioners.

Posted March 29, 2016 More 15 Minute History, Podcasts

Recent Posts

  • Celebrating Research Excellence: The Lathrop Prize and the Perry Prize, 2021
  • Digital Archive Review: Age of Revolutions and the Newberry French Pamphlet Collection
  • IHS Talk: “Confessions of a Failed Pandemic Planner” by Nancy Tomes, Stony Brook University
  • Citizens at Last Film
  • Resources For Teaching Black History
NOT EVEN PAST is produced by
The Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
We are supported by the College of Liberal Arts
And our Readers

Donate
Contact

All content © 2010-present NOT EVEN PAST and the authors, unless otherwise noted

    Sign up to receive the monthly Not Even Past newsletter

    • Features
    • Books
    • Teaching
    • Digital & Film
    • Blog
    • IHS
    • Texas
    • Spotlight
    • About