Résistance à la médecine en situation coloniale : la peste à Madagascar

Resistance to medicine in a colonial situation : the plague in Madagascar Even if the reaction of the inhabitants of Madagascar to the plague -a "new" disease which appeared in the Central Highlands in 1921- was in many respects comparable to that of the Europeans in the Middle Ages or in modern times, their colonial circumstances conferred a real originality to their attitude. In addition to the anxiety generated by the prospects of a periodic re-occurrence of the plague and of epidemics striking at entire families and villages, there was the fear not only of a certain death but also of painful burial. In effect, the sanitary rules decreed by outsiders without taking local traditions into account, prevented the return of the deceased to the ancestral land. In the eyes of the indigenous population, by a series of severe and often inconsistent prophylactic measures the oppressive colonial administration was seeking nothing but the perpetuation of French domination. The plague -if it existed at all- was nothing but a pretext for pressure on the indigenous population, and the ineffective anti-plague vaccines, nothing but a ruse to destroy them. Nationalist leaders thus found in the plague and the various measures adopted to combat it an excellent theme for propaganda. The indigenous reaction to the anti-plague campaign organized by the colonists assumed the character of veritable political resistance especially during the period of the Popular FrontEsoavelomandroso Faranirina. Résistance à la médecine en situation coloniale : la peste à Madagascar. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 36ᵉ année, N. 2, 1981. pp. 168-190