Histtory of sexually transmitted diseases in Mbozi District, Tanzania, 1905-2005

This thesis examined trends in the prevalence of STDs in Mbozi district in Mbozi district in Tanzania, the forces that shaped their sprend, the discoursed on their social impact, as well as the responses of society and the government to these diseases. Rather than synchronically investigate STDs by focusing on specific populations as has been the case with many studies this study explores the history of STDs in Mbozi society as a whole over a period of one hundred years. It is argued that the spread and impact of, and the responses to, STDs in Mbozi society were determined by a confluence of local, regional, national, and global contexts, interpreting historical data by drawing on a combination of theoretical perspectives including social constructionism, political economy, agency and cultural dynamics, this study has established that the spread of STDs was driven by diverse factors, that STDs impacted on marital and extra-marital relations; that the diseases enlisted varied discourses from governments and society about their social impact; and that both government and society perceived STDs as afflictions suffered by specific social groups constructed on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender and generation. Moreover, measures taken by the government and society to control STDs recorded precious little success due to economic, social and medical limiting factors. The evidence that supports these findings was derived from archival, oral, ethnographic and enthropological sources. In studying STDs at the level of a local area of Mbozi, the thesis seeks to make a contribution to the growing body of knowledge in the field of history of diseases that links local epidemics to the wider social milieu, including national, regional and global forces and responses.