The Unseen Histories of One Health: Tracing the Colonial and Post-Colonial Footprints of Disease Control

Abstract

The history of tsetse and trypanosomiasis control in Kenya spans over a century, shaped by colonial-era disease outbreaks and evolving ecological dynamics. Over time, control strategies evolved, incorporating interdisciplinary collaboration among entomologists, veterinarians, and medical experts focusing on animals, humans, the fly and the environment.  However, political unrest, resource scarcity, and inconsistent application of new technologies hindered progress. The institutionalization of tsetse control during the colonial period laid the groundwork for continued efforts, culminating in the establishment of national research Institutions, whose footprints can still be seen today but with widened mandates.  This presentation traces the footprint of one health in tsetse and trypanosomiasis control from the past to the present highlighting the key considerations for disease control today.

This is the third  event in a series to launch the IAS major project Interest in cattle: value, risk and security in eastern and southern Africa.  

This project, which will run up to Easter 2026, with fellows resident in Durham from January to March 2026, takes an innovative approach to questions of value and well-being in eastern and southern Africa. It will bring together scholars from diverse disciplines - from public health to history and anthropology, all of whom share an interest in cattle. Cattle, we suggest, lie at the intersection of multiple, distributed, strategies for securing the future. They are an everyday resource in livelihood strategies; a target of bio-security interventions informed by contemporary One Health approaches; a way to build and reaffirm horizontal social ties; an investment opportunity for those who seek to accumulate – and they are the centre of an enduring aesthetic which valorises them as things of beauty as well as cultural and economic resources.

The project will enable us to develop and refine a series of questions around these intersecting forms of interest in cattle – and to draw on historical experience as well as contemporary research in producing a series of outputs that will inform current debates, encourage engagement with the complex questions raised by the place of cattle in our more-than-human world, and enable and guide future research on this topic.

ADDITIONAL EVENTS

19 June 2025, 10.00 – 17.00

Institute of Advanced Study

Launch event and workshop – details to follow