Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:24:54.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Maize, Cattle and Mosquitoes: the Political Economy of Malaria Epidemics in Colonial Swaziland1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Randall M. Packard
Randall M. Packard
Affiliation:
Tufts University, Massachussetts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Malaria was a major health problem in Swaziland during the colonial period. Prior to the commencement of vector control measures in the late 19405 annual outbreaks of malaria occurred during the summer and autumn months from December to May. These seasonal epidemics incapacitated large numbers of Swazis as well as a few Europeans. During most years the epidemic was limited to the lower regions of the country and was marked by relatively few deaths. In other years, however, the annual epidemic spread throughout the country and was accompanied by a high rate of mortality especially among young children. Colonial medical opinion ascribed these major epidemics to abnormally heavy rainfall and increased vector breeding. Yet they were also a product of long-term trends in the Swaziland political economy – the semi-proletarianization of Swazi herdsmen/cultivators and the subordination of Swazi economic interests to those of South African and local European capital - which produced a state of nutritional vulnerability among many Swazi families. This, vulnerability in combination with short-term economic crises, such as the worldwide depression of the early 19305, and drought, gave rise to famine conditions which greatly increased the severity of subsequent outbreaks of malaria, as seen in the histories of the major epidemics of 1932 and 1946.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 1984 , pp. 189 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 Bundy, Colin, The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Palmer, R. and Parsons, N., The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (London, 1977)Google Scholar; Alverson, H., Mind in the Heart of Darkness (New Haven, 1976)Google Scholar; Murray, Colin, Families Divided (Cambridge, 1981)Google Scholar; Marks, Shula and Rathbone, R., Industrialization and Social Change in South Africa (London, 1982).Google Scholar

3 Vail, L., ‘Ecology and history: the example of eastern Zambia’, Journal of Southern African Studies, III (1977), 129–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Kuper, Hilda, Uniform of Colour (Johannesburg, 1947)Google Scholar; Schapera, I., Migrant Labour and Tribal Life (London, 1947)Google Scholar; Prins, G., ‘Disease at the crossroads: toward a history of therapeutics in Bulozi since 1876’, Social Science and medicine, vol. 13 B, 4 (1979).Google Scholar

5 The list of such studies is too extensive to cite here. Persons interested in the relationship between development and malaria are encouraged to consult the World Health Organization-sponsored bibliography compiled by Sotiroff-Junker, Jaqueline, A Bibliography on the Behavioural, Social, and Economic Aspects of Malaria and its Control (Geneva, 1978).Google Scholar

6 The following geographical description of Swaziland is based largely on that of Murdoch, G. in his study Soils and Land Capacity in Swaziland (Ministry of Agriculture, Mbabane, 1969).Google Scholar

7 Jones, H. M., Report on the 1966 Swaziland Population Census (Mbabane, 1968), 86–87Google Scholar; Hughes, A. J. B., Swazi Land Tenure (Institute for Social Research, University of Natal, 1964).Google Scholar

8 Mastbaum, O., ‘Report on the Malaria Survey in Swaziland’, Mbabane, 1946Google Scholar, RCS 831, Swaziland National Archives (SNA); Mastbaum, , ‘The past and present position of malaria in Swaziland’, Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, LX, v (1960), 119–127Google Scholar; Delfini, L. F., ‘Report on a Short Term Mission on Malaria in Swaziland’, AFR/MAL/98, WHO, Geneva, 1969Google Scholar; Shrestha, R. M., ‘Malaria in Swaziland’, WHO, 1978.Google Scholar I wish to thank Peter Matthews, Director of the Swaziland National Malaria Eradication programme, for having allowed me to consult the last two documents listed here.

9 Mastbaum, , ‘Report on the malaria survey in Swaziland’.Google Scholar

10 Ramakrishna, V., ‘Malaria in Swaziland’, AFR/MAL/142, WHO, Brazzaville, 1974.Google Scholar

11 Prothero, R. M., Migrants and Malaria (London, 1965).Google Scholar

12 Booth, A., ‘The development of the Swaziland labour market, 1900–1968’, South African Labour Bulletin, VII, vi (1982), 34–57Google Scholar; Crush, J., ‘The colonial division of space: the significance of the Swaziland land partition’. International Journal of African Historical Studies, XII, i (1980), 71–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Doveton, D., The Human Geography of Swaziland (London, 1937), 37–38.Google Scholar

14 Jones, Sonya, A Study of Swazi Nutrition (Institute for Social Research, Durban, 1963), 66.Google Scholar

15 See Booth, ‘The Development of the Swaziland Labour Market’ and De Vletter, F. et al. , ‘Labour migration in Swaziland’, in Bohning, W. R., Black Migration to South Africa (Geneva, 1981), 45–90Google Scholar, for more detailed discussions of the origins of migrant labour in Swaziland. According to J. Crush (personal communication) cash replaced cattle as the basis of bridewealth following the rinderpest epidemic of 1896.

16 Rosen-Prinz, B. D. and F. A., ‘Migrant Labour and Rural Homesteads’, ILO Migration for Employment Project (Geneva, September 1978), 8–10.Google Scholar

17 De Vletter, , ‘Labour Migration in Swaziland’, 50.Google Scholar

18 Rosen-Prinz, , ‘Migrant Labour and Rural Homesteads’, 9.Google Scholar

19 ‘Reports on concurrent occupation from 1914–1920’, located in the Swaziland National Archives, suggest that while a large number of Swazi kraals were moved from concession lands during this period, many household heads preferred to enter labour tenancy contracts with the concession owners.

20 Alan Pim, Financial and Economic Position of Swaziland. Report of the Commission appointed by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (Cmd. 4114, 1932). The Pim Report indicated that enough good land was provided throughout the country, with the exception of the Makiana area, to provide the Swazi with adequate land for a period of about ten years.

21 Jones, , Report on the 1966 Swaziland Population Census, 8Google Scholar; Van Biljon, F. J., ‘Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Cattle Industry of Swaziland’ (Manzini, 1962), 3.Google Scholar

22 Pim Report, 1932; Kuper, , Uniform of Colour, p. 4Google Scholar; Annual District Report, Hlatikulu District, 1931 RCS 22/32 SNA. These forces did not affect all Swazi homesteads to the same degree. Class differentiation and social stratification were clearly present in Swazi society prior to European settlement, and certain royal and commoner lineages with close ties to the kingship enjoyed superior access to land and labour which enabled them to maintain high levels of household productivity during this period. The resulting disparity in productivity is reflected in the sale of surplus grain at high prices by certain Swazi said to represent the Paramount Chief during the famine of 1931 (Asst. Comm. Ubombo to Government Secretary, Mbabane, 6 Aug. 1931, RCS 701 SNA).

23 Annual District Reports, 1931, RCS 22/32 SNA.

24 Meeting of Chiefs with Assistant Commissioner Ubombo District, 24 March 1931, RCS 135/31 SNA.

25 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Ubombo, 29 May 1931, RCS 135/31 SNA.

26 Annual District Reports, Mbabane and Ubombo, 1931 22/32 SNA; Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Mankiana, 19 Oct. 1931, with Asst. Comm. Bremersdorp, 23 Sept. 1931, RCS 135/31; meeting with Paramount Chief 4 Sept. 1931, RCS 73/31, SNA.

27 This general pattern of stock sales emerges out of a review of Agriculture and Veterinary Reports included in the Swaziland Annual Report Files from 1919 to 1920; Swaziland Livestock and Agriculture Department, ‘The Cattle of the Swazi’, Mpisi Series no. 1 (Mbabane, 1947). For a more extensive discussion of the relationship between South African meat markets and the production of cattle in neighbouring territories see Phimister, I. R., ‘Meat and monopolies: beef cattle in Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1938’, Journal of African History, XIX, iii (1978), 391–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Correspondence: Williams, G. W., Acting Secretary for Agriculture for the Union of South Africa to Resident Commissioner, Mbabane, 12 Sept. 1923Google Scholar, RCS 472/23; Report of the Central Committee of Stegi Farmers Association, 4 Aug. 1923, RCS 472/23; Resolution, Southern Swaziland Farmers Association, 20 June 1923, RCS 472/23, SNA.

29 Williams to Resident Commissioner Mbabane, 12 Sept. 1923, RCS 472/23, SNA.

30 Government Secretary Mbabane to Acting Administrative Secretary, Cape Town, 16 Jan. 1935, RCS 116/355, SNA, and sources cited in note 28.

31 Annual Veterinary Reports 1931 RCS 22/32; Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Ubombo, 23 July, 1931, 19 Nov. 1931, RCS 135/31.

32 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Bremersdorp, 18Dec. 1931; Asst. Comm. Piggs Peak, 31 Dec. 1931; Asst. Comm. Hlatikulu, 13 Oct. 1931; Asst. Comm. Ubombo, 19 Nov. 1931, RCS 135/31; meeting of chiefs with Asst. Comm., Ubombo, 22 Feb., 1922, RCS 73/32, SNA.

33 These figures are based on the average annual prices reported in annual district reports. They are only a rough approximation of price ratios, since the prices for both maize and cattle fluctuated considerably during any given year. The price of cattle tended to decline towards the end of the year while the price for maize tended to rise, so that in any given year the ratio of bags of maize per head of cattle was normally lowest towards the end of the year when the Swazi were most dependent on purchased maize.

34 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Ubombo, 24 Mar. 1931, 29 May 1931; Asst. Comm. Bremersdorp, June 1931. RCS 135/31 SNA.

35 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Mankiana, 31 Aug. 1931; Ubombo, 28 Aug. 1931, 19 Nov. 1931; Asst. Comm. Mbabane, 28 Aug. 1931, RCS 135/31 SNA.

36 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Ubombo, 28 Aug. 1931, 19 Nov. 1931; Asst. Comm. Hlatikulu, 13 Oct. 1931; Asst. Comm. Mankiana, 31 Aug. 1931; Asst. Comm. Peak, Piggs, 26 Sept. 1931, RCS 135/31 SNA.Google Scholar

37 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Ubombo, 19 Nov. 1931, 12 Dec. 1931,9 Sept. 1931, 17 Sept. 1931, RCS 135/31, SNA.

38 Asst. Comm. Hlatikulu to Govt. Secretary Mbabane, 22 Jan. 1931; Meeting of Missionary Association with resident Commissioner Bremersdorp 16 Oct. 1931, File 1470 SNA.

39 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Hlatikulu 19 Jan. 1932, RCS 73/32, SNA.

40 Annual District Reports 1932 RCS 21/33; findings of a Committee to look into the Starvation among Europeans in Hlatikulu District, RCS 179/32 SNA.

41 Annual Report, Superintendent of Police, 1932 in Annual Report File RCS 21/33.

42 Annual Medical and Sanitary Report 1932, RCS 33/33 SNA.

43 Meeting of Chiefs with Asst. Comm. Ubombo, 13 May 1932 RCS 73/32.

44 Annual Medical and Sanitary Reports, 1932 RCS 33/33 SNA.

45 Culver, F. W. P., ‘Malaria control in Natal and Zululand’, typescript, RCS 278/39, SNA.Google Scholar

46 Annual Agriculture and Veterinary Report, 1945, File 793 B, SNA.

47 Annual Agriculture and Veterinary Report, 1944, File 793, SNA.

48 Swaziland Livestock and Agricultural Bulletin no. 35, May 1946; Annual Agriculture and Veterinary Report, 1945, File 793 B, SNA.

49 Annual Medical and Sanitary Report, 1945, File 333 B, SNA.

50 Annual Agriculture and Veterinary Reports, 1945, 1950. A scheme proposed in 1945 to export Swaziland beef outside South Africa in order to compensate for reductions in South African quotas was abandoned following the report of an economist from the University of Witwatersrand which stated that such a scheme was not practical given the uncertainty of the world market and the danger that such a scheme would antagonize the Union cutting the territory off from its natural market (Annual Veterinary and Agricultural Report, 1945, File 793 B, SNA).

51 de Vletter, , ‘Labour Migration in Swaziland’, 52.Google Scholar

52 Annual District Report, Mbabane, 1946, File 1155, SNA.

53 O. Mastbaum to Deputy Director of Medical Services, Mbabane, 16 Nov. 1945, File 741, SNA.

54 DrSelby, S., ‘Report on the Nutritional Condition of Swazi Children’, Mbabane, 1945Google Scholar, File 986, SNA.

55 DrSquires, B. T., ‘Report on the Nutritional Status of Swazi Children’, 1945Google Scholar, File 2045, SNA.

56 Native Recruiting Corporation, ‘Returns showing the number of contracted Natives rejected for underground work at the W.N.L.A. compound and the causes therefor’, December 1945-December 1948, located at the Employment Bureau of Africa (TEBA) Headquarters, Siteki.

57 Mastbaum, to Director of Medical Services, Mbabane, 16 Nov. 1945, File 741, SNA.

58 Annual Medical and Sanitary Report, 1946, File I, SNA.

59 Mastbaum, , ‘Report on the Malaria Survey in Swaziland’, Mbabane, 1946, File 831, SNA.Google Scholar

60 Fontaine, R. E. et al. , ‘The 1958 malaria epidemic in Ethiopia’, Am. J. Trap. Med. Hyg x (1961), 795–803Google Scholar; Gill, C. A., ‘Some points in the epidemiology of malaria arising out of the study of the malaria epidemic in Ceylon, 1934–1935’, Trans. Roy. Soc. Trap. Med. Hyg. XXIX (1936), 427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 There are two exceptions to this pattern. The first is the epidemic of 1919, which was preceded by a year of heavy rainfall and generally good crops. However, as noted above, the concurrence of the influenza pandemic of that year with the onset of the malaria season contributed to the malaria epidemic of 1919 by both confounding diagnoses and contributing to the mortality rate. The second exception is the epidemic of 1937. Again, 1936 was a year of moderate rainfall throughout the country and the crops were above average. However, 1935 was marked by a major drought which destroyed crops throughout the country. Moreover, as in 1931 and 1945, restrictions on the export of cattle to South Africa, this time on veterinary grounds, knocked the bottom out of the cattle market, preventing the Swazi from bartering their cattle for maize. Given these conditions and what has been described above, one would have expected that a severe malaria epidemic might have occurred in 1936. On the surface, however, 1936 appears to have been only amoderate year for malaria. The Annual Medical Report notes that the outbreak of malaria was ‘not at all severe’. Yet other sources refute this conclusion and suggest that the reported low level of malaria cases in 1936 only reflects the absence of many cases in the higher areas of the country where the medical officers travelled. Meetings with chiefs in the lowveld report a severe outbreak of malaria during the summer of 1935–6. Moreover, census takers operating in the lowveld reported that the year was an extremely bad one for fever and that large numbers of children died within a few months prior to their visit. The occurrence of a severe epidemic of malaria in lowveld areas during the autumn of 1936 helps to explain the epidemic which occurred throughout the country in 1937 and to connect that major epidemic with the drought of 193 5. The 1936 epidemic was not only severe in the lowveld, but also long-lasting. The late appearance of winter frosts meant that malaria transmission continued through the winter. This continued transmission created a large reservoir of parasites within the human population for the following malarial season of 1937, when heavy rainfall throughout the country led to extensive vector breeding. The combination of a large pool of parasite carriers with extensive mosquito breeding set the stage for the major epidemic in 1937.

62 Gill, C. A., ‘Epidemics of fulminant malaria together with a preliminary study of the part played by immunity in malaria’, Indian Journal of Medical Research, II (1914), 268Google Scholar; Gill, , ‘Some points in the epidemiology’Google Scholar; Covill, G. and Bailey, J. D., ‘Observations on malaria in Andamans with special reference to the enlarged spleens in adults’, Indian Journal of Medical Research, xv (1927)Google Scholar; 309 above cited in Christophers, S. R., ‘Endemic and epidemic malaria’, in Boyd, M., ed., Malariology (Philadelphia, 1949), 280–281.Google Scholar

63 Mastbaum, , ‘Malaria Survey in Swaziland’, 1946, File 831.Google Scholar

64 Burgess, H. J. L., Trop. Geogr. Med. XXI (1969), 39Google Scholar, cited in Beaton, G. H. and Bengoa, J. M., Nutrition in Preventive Medicine (WHO, Geneva, 1976), 259Google Scholar; Scrimshaw, N., Interactions of Nutrition and Infection (Geneva, 1968), 33–34Google ScholarPubMed; Fontaine, R. E. et al. ‘The 1958 malaria epidemic in Ethiopia’, Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg. x (1961), 803Google Scholar; Chandra, R. K. and Newberne, P. M., Nutrition, Immunity and Infection; Mechanisms of Interaction (New York, 1974)Google Scholar; McGregor, I. A. et al. ‘Effects of heavy and repeated malarial infections on Gambian infants and children: effects of erythrocytic parisitization’, British Medical Journal 11 (1965), 686.Google Scholar

65 Harris, R., ‘Ecology and Malaria in the Niger Delta’, Annals of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene LV (1961), 340.Google Scholar

66 Mastbaum, ‘Some Observations on Malaria Incidence in the Rural Population During the Non-Transmission Season of 1945 and 1946’, File 831 SNA. The role of migration stimulated by famine as a catalyst to the spread of infectious disease has been described in relation to smallpox epidemics in Kenya by Dawson, Marc, ‘Smallpox in Kenya, 1880–1920’, Social Science and Medicine, XIII B (1979), 245–250.Google Scholar

67 This pattern emerges from the monthly reports of NRC recruiters from 194510 1960, TEBA Headquarters, Siteki.

68 Annual Medical and Sanitary Report, 1939, RCS 31/40, SNA.Google Scholar

69 De Meillon, Botha, ‘Malaria in Swaziland’, South African Institute for Medical Research, Johannesburg, 9 August 1941, 4, RCS 211/41, SNA.Google Scholar

70 It is also probable that people living in drought-stricken areas visited their better-off kinsmen in the higher regions of the country in search of food at this time. This response was evidently common during the pre-colonial era (personal communication from Jonathan Crush).

71 The conditions which contributed to the outbreak of malaria following the commencement of anti-vector spraying will be discussed in a subsequent publication.

72 de Meillon, Botha, ‘Malaria in Swaziland’, 4.Google Scholar

73 Christophers, S. R., ‘Malaria in the Punjab’, Science Memoir Office of the Medical and Sanitary Department, Government of India, n.s. no. 46, 1911.Google Scholar

74 These three years clearly illustrate how the occurrence of regional epidemics depended on a combination of several factors, the absence of any one of which could act to reduce the level of malaria in the country. In 1917–18 the occurrence of drought conditions and the loss of crops was followed by excessive rains. However, a strong cattle market allowed the Swazi to offset the loss of their crops. Moreover, the rains in 1918 were so excessive that they inhibited the breeding of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito, which breeds in shallow hoofprints, potholes and ditches. In years of heavy rain such as occurred in 1918 these breeding places are repeatedly swept clean, disturbing the breeding sites and reducing the mosquito population. Excessive rains also appear to have accounted for the limited outbreak which occurred in 1925 despite the occurrence of famine conditions in the months preceding the outbreak of malaria. The epidemic of 1920, like that of 1918, was limited by the ability of the Swazi to sell their cattle. Moreover, there was no depression in employment opportunities as occurred in 1931 and to a lesser extent in 1945. The Swazi were therefore able to cope with the loss of their crops more successfully and were less vulnerable to malaria.