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dc.contributor.authorMolefi, R.K.K.
dc.date.accessioned2011-03-08T07:29:55Z
dc.date.available2011-03-08T07:29:55Z
dc.date.issued2001
dc.identifier.citationMolefi, R.K.K. (2001) Of rats, fleas, and peoples: towards a history of bubonic plague in southern Africa, 1890-1950, Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies Vol. 15, No 2, pp. 258-267en_US
dc.identifier.issn0256-2316
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10311/736
dc.description.abstractThis paper examines the responses of colonial governments to outbreaks of bubonic plague in the interior, particularly that of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana) administration. Bubonic plague first reached Southern Africa through the seaports of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, and Durban in 1900 at the height of the Anglo-Boer war of 1899- 1902. The dread disease found Southern Africa's ports, harbours and railway stations bursting at the seams with wartime commerce, and with an influx of refugees from the interior and large numbers of migrant labourers. From the ports, the plague spread to towns close to railway stations and finally into the interior where it caused havoc for the political economy of rural Southern Africa. Bubonic plague normally spreads as a disease among rodent populations living in the vicinity of human habitation. Fleas from dead rats if unable to find another rodent host begin to infest people instead. Bubonic plague became endemic in Southern Africa, and natural reservoirs of the malady still exist in the region.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Botswana, Research and Development Unit / http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/browse.cfm?colid=12en_US
dc.subjectRatsen_US
dc.subjectFleasen_US
dc.subjectPeoplesen_US
dc.subjectHistoryen_US
dc.subjectBubonic plagueen_US
dc.subjectSouthern Africaen_US
dc.titleOf rats, fleas, and peoples: towards a history of bubonic plague in southern Africa, 1890-1950en_US
dc.typePublished Articleen_US
dc.linkhttp://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/browse.cfm?colid=12en_US


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