Colonial public health campaigns and local perceptions of illness: case study of the Gogo of Mpwapwa district, central Tanzania, 1920-1950’s
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Date
2007
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Publisher
Unversity of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
This study had two main concerns. The first was to examine the influence of local perceptions of illness on the implementation of colonial public health directives. Second, it investigated the impact of colonial public health campaigns on local peoples' understanding of health and illness. To achieve its goals, the study needed to address gogo perceptions of illness, as an example, and colonial public health campaigns in Mpwapwa district. The study therefore, integrated written and oral information in reconstructing the history of colonial public health interventions in Mpwapwa district. The study found out that colonial public health campaigns were intended to make local people adopt the western practices ofdisease control and make them part and parcel of their social habits. Evidently, however, the introduction ofcolonial public health regulations were not an easy task. Local people tried to interpret the colonial innovations before adopting them. Their interpretation was strongly influenced by their previously held perceptions of illness and life as a whole. As a result, some innovations were accepted and some were neither accepted nor utilized. In the process some long-standing traditional conceptions were transfomied while others persisted. Thus, the confrontation between local and western perceptions of illness did not result in the complete demise of local traditional system. Although in the long run the Gogo accepted some ofthe colonial principles regarding disease control, they maintained some oftheir local practices till the end. The study concludes that local perceptions of illness, taboos, social values and other social cultural factors played a major role in determining successes or failures in the colonial public health campaigns
Description
Available in print form, East Africana Collection, Dr. Wilbert Chagula Library, Class mark (THS EAF RA981.A4T34H34)
Keywords
Public health, Citizen participation, Health services, Colonial policy, Tanzania, Gogo (African people), Mpwapwa, district, Central Tanzania 1920-1950s
Citation
Halii, B. (2007) Colonial public health campaigns and local perceptions of illness: case study of the Gogo of Mpwapwa district, central Tanzania, 1920-1950’s, Master dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam