Sierra Leone’s History of Epidemics, 1787- 2015

FAIN: FEL-263155-19

Tamba M'bayo
West Virginia University Research Corporation (Morgantown, WV 26506-6201)

A book-length study about the history of epidemic disease in Sierra Leone between 1787 and 2015.

This funding request is for financial support during the writing phase of my second book-length study titled “From ‘White Man’s Grave’ to Ebola Makona: Sierra Leone’s History of Epidemics, 1787- 2015.” With archival research to be completed this summer, writing the manuscript will be during my sabbatical leave in the 2019-20 academic year. The monograph aims to locate the 2013 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic in the longue durée of disease outbreaks in Sierra Leone. The main thrust of the book’s argument is that the colonial discourse through which Sierra Leone and the rest of West Africa emerged as a “diseased environment” is too simplistic to explain the complex cultural, social, political, and economic landscape in which disease outbreaks have been recurrent for over two centuries. Although conceived as a history book, the study brings together insights from multiple disciplines by engaging history, public health, cultural and ecological studies.

Associated Products

Researching a History of Epidemics in Sierra Leone during the Coronavirus Pandemic (Article)
Title: Researching a History of Epidemics in Sierra Leone during the Coronavirus Pandemic
Author: Tamba E. M'bayo
Abstract: This article provides a narrative about archival research experience in Sierra Leone as the coronavirus outbreak spread globally in early 2020. Coincidentally, the research concerned the country’s history of epidemics since 1787, when Freetown, its first city, accommodated freed Blacks repatriated from Britain and the Americas. As Sierra Leone prepared for another disease outbreak after Ebola in 2014, leaving or staying in Freetown (after seven months into a ten-month Fulbright US Scholar term) had health and research outcomes at stake. Historicizing the pandemic while engaging personal/social memory in historical accounts, the article highlights containment measures adopted against epidemics/pandemics across time.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/researching-a-history-of-epidemics-in-sierra-leone-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/96F02E2CBE5202F3D67EDDE41897F4C9
Primary URL Description: Cambridge University Press: Cambridge Core
Secondary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/history-in-africa/article/researching-a-history-of-epidemics-in-sierra-leone-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/96F02E2CBE5202F3D67EDDE41897F4C9
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: History in Africa
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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