Aleena Zaidi & Jessica Wong
Notes for Thursday, September 15th
Readings: “Inventing Africa”
Speaker: Peter Taylor
Inventing Africa Notes
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Vision of Africa before Europeans…myth.
African safaris and wild parts are artificial
Transformation happened when Italy invaded the horn of Africa
o Soldiers carried livestock…which carried Rinderpest
 Rinderpest = cattle virus that causes disease
As rinderpest spread, it ruined cattle-dependent kingdoms all over the continent…making
colonial invasion easier and leaving behind the dry bush we most commonly associate with
Africa
Rinderpest virus: close relative of measles and canine distemper…native to central Asia, moved
through Europe via the spreading of cattle…devastation was huge.
Camels were not susceptible…so rinderpest was unknown south of the Sahara
1887: - “cattle plague” appeared in Eritrea…at the site of the Italian invasion…spread into
Ethiopia in 1888….followed ox trails along rift valley and west across Sahel herding routes via
Sudan and Chad into West Africa.
o Took five years to reach Atlantic…and within a decade it arrived in South Africa.
Mortality rate for cattle- 90 percent
o “so many corpses of cattle and people that vultures had forgotten how to flu”
1500 km barbed wire fence and shooting infected cattle…implemented by British in S. Africa
By end of century..1899, most of the cattle in southern Sudan had died …5.5 million
Pandemic – called the greatest natural calamity ever to befall Africa…no immunity to the diseas
Rinderpest only targets cloven hoofed animals
o Indirectly affects humans…kills all livestock, not only food, but farming animals
Humans got small pox, cholera and typhoid…as well as others brought by Europeans
o No exact number of casualties...roughly a third of Ethiopia between 1888 and 1892.
Around seven million people…combined effect of rinderpest and drought
John Ford: 1970 study of the impact of rinderpest in cent. Africa west of Lake Victoria
o In two typical districts, Bukoba and Biharamulo…cattle population dropped from
400,0090 to 20,000 in one year
 Result was famine in huma in karagewe, and ankole, the tutude in Rwanda and
Burundi, and the soga of Uganda…all lived almost entirely on a diet of ilk and
blood…inSW Africa, the nama and herero pastorlists also starved..
Masai in Kenya were the worst hit
o Folklore of the enkida aroto (the destruction) of 1891. Most of their livestock died…led
to wars over cattle and begging for meat from caravans
o Oskar Baumann estimated two thirds died.
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Wealth of Tropical Africa was ruined because of rinderpest…
o Botanist Scott Elliot travelled lake Victoria three years after rinderpest to find that the
community was destroyed and the country uninhabited due to the wars and cattle raids
About the Northern Nigerian Fulani he said “having lost all of nearly all…became demented.
Roamed the bush calling for imaginary cattle”
o Included the Dinka, Bari (Sudan). And the karamajong in Uganda…these societies never
recovered their numbers or wealth/power
Rinderpest allowed for the “scramble for Africa” in end of 19th century…
o Germans and Brits: control of Tanzania and Kenya
 Lugard notes: “rinderpest favored our enterprise…powerful warlike tribes…their
pride humbled and out progress facilitated by this visitation…the advent of the
white man had not else been so peaceful”
Cattle disease also allowed for the tsetse fly…which even today is second only to AIDS as an
obstacle to Africa’s development
o Tsetse fly lives among wild animals In a lowland bush
o Carries trypanosomiasis…disease lethal to cattle and humans…also called the sleeping
sickness
o Initially rinderpest epidemic was bad for the flies…killed their hosts.
o Flies like lush vegetation…when cattle began dying out, vegetation grew fast…creating
ideal conditions for the spread of tsetse fly
East Africa became tsetse infected…S Africa tsetse came back in 1904, after rinderpest
For humans: huge impact… Not much known about sleeping sickness, early 20th c, millions of
deaths…led to land being abandoned, only causing better conditions for the flue…four million
people died in Uganda alone
Half a million people contracted the sleeping sickness each year… killing 100,000
Tsetse fly still a major obstacle
Europeans turned empty savannah into game reserves…many of these areas are no tsete
infested game parks
After rinderpest pandemic = hunting safaris
Today…two ecosystems in eastern and southern Africa…one where farmers and cattle herders
are, with tamed bust and tsetse. And the other where bush and tsetse flourish.
Summary of Eijkman reading:
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Focuses on Chistiaan Eijkman and search for the cause of beriberi in Dutch East Indies in
1890
Oct 1886 three doctors from the Netherlands travel to Java
A typical Dutchman would have to develop a taste for rice, a staple in this region
One of the doctors, Christiaan Eijkman, 28yo, contracted malaria within two years and
returns to Netherlands.
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In Sinhatese beri means weak and doubling it intensifies its meaning. Symptoms of beriberi
include weight loss, muscle weakness, loss of feeling and eventually paralysis in the limbs,
fatigue, confusion, depression, irritability, and heart failure. 80% of patients died.
Late 1880s epidemics became more frequent. Dutch were concerned regarding fleet crews
and native workforce was suffering. They wanted to find a cure or even prevent the disease.
History of beriberi dates back 4,000 years
When Eijkman returned to java he was fascinated with role of bacteria in disease. Previously
went to Berlin to study with Robert Koch who discovered “germ theory of disease.” This was
the result of microscopic organisms that infect the body. Koch was able to isolate strains,
and breed a pure culture on a solid medium. He was able to identify bacteria that caused TB,
cholera, and diphtheria.
Outbreaks of beriberi were common in armies, natives, and prisons; all closed communities.
Dutch questioned if the disease was infectious. Goal was find bacterium that caused beriberi
and isolate it to make a vaccine.
Eijkman characterized disease with symptoms of nerve degeneration, visible microscopically
in tissues. He confirmed it was a bacterium that caused beriberi. The infection pattern was
strange; could not infect 1 organism by another unless it resided in the area of beriberi for
weeks. Eijkman established a small laboratory and continue to work.
Three years passed and Eijkman fell upon a chance observation that chickens had same
signs and symptoms of beriberi that humans had. He posed the question, could chickens
have beriberi? He moved chickens to new location but they were suddenly cured.
Eijkman found the chicken’s diet had been changed from polished rice to red rice which still
had the cuticle on it.
Eijkamn decided the polished rice must be the source of the infection. This explained why
beriberi has increased prevalence in nations were rice was a staple food.
Eijkman experimented with feeding chickens the two types of rice and the chickens getting
sick then recovering. Eijkman reasoned the antidote to the bacterium in the polished rice
must be in the red rice.
Not everyone agrees with Eijkmans findings and conclusions
Controversy over new germ theory of disease worldwide. One skeptic in Germany
swallowed a vial of live cholera bacteria to demonstrate his belief that bacteria did not
cause disease; he did not get sick.
Eijkman does study at prison, 5.8% of population had beriberi. When substituted red rice for
polished, all cases of beriberi were cured. But did not demonstrate there was a bacterium in
polished rice has caused beriberi.
Eijkman and Voderman(supervisor of civil health department of java) Surveyed incidence of
beriberi on a large scale. In each prison, prisoners ate either polished, half, polished, or a
mixture. This was a natural experiment. Voderman led study of beriberi in 100 prisons in
Java.
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Prisons who served half polished rice 1 in 10,000 prisoners had beriberi. Prisons who served
a mixture rice 1 in 416 had beriberi. Prisons who served polished rice 1 in 39 prisons had
beriberi. But 38 out of 39 prisoners who ate polished rice still did not contract beriberi.
Voderman looked at other possible sources of infection such as age of buildings, floors,
ventilation, and population density but found no correlations. Did find the number of cases
of the disease increased with the arrival of a prisoner who already had beriberi.
Eijkman focused on cure and found water and alcohol extracts of rice cuticle could cure the
disease but were destroyed when heated over 120 degrees Celsius. He left others to pursue
the problems of beriberi.
Other researchers tried and failed to find a bacterium present in the rice. Concluded beriberi
was not bacterial.
Gerrit Grijns took over Eijkmans lab and felt beriberi was caused by a nutrient deficiency not
a germ.
Beriberi vitamin (thiamine) isolated in 1925 by jansen Donath.
Beriberi became more prevalent in early 1870 because mills introduced to east. Milling
stripped essential vitamins from rice and with increased efficiency.
Peter Taylor
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What is Epidemiology?
o Distribution and determination (causes) of disease
o Its not just about epidemics, but disease as a whole.
Beri Beri: an international disease, Beri means “weak” in Sinhalese
o Involves weight loss, muscle weakness, loss of feeling and eventual paralysis of the
limbs.
o Fluid collection in legs causes circulatory problems and eventual heart failure.
o 1-80% of patients died.
o No cure
o In late 1800’s  epidemic of beriberi in Asia
 Japan (1880-1881)
 Dutch government concerned for fleet crew…wanted to find a cure for disease
and preventable measures.
October 1886, three Dutch doctors, including Dr. Christiaan Eijkman, travelled to the East Indies
(Indonesia) to study Beri Beri
o Disease was examined before…Chinese physician identified it 4000 years earlier, and it
was reported in East Indies as early as 1642. But no cure was known.
Question 1: What might have caused this epidemic? Possible causes? Confirming
one over the other?
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Diet/Nutritional cause, all Asian countries.
Spread via bacterium in water
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Sanitation Issues? Rats on ships, closed quarters
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Eijkman set up a small laboratory in Java and used new studies…specifically the role of bacteria
in disease to attempt to figure out a cure
o Koch’s germ theory of disease  microscopic organisms infect the body
o Pasteur’s method of creating vaccines through bacterium isolation
He was unable to establish a pure culture for three years
1890: Eijkman noticed chickens in hospital yard showed symptoms similar to beriberi patients
o Difficulty walking, breathing, and perching…lying on sides
o Could chickens be infected with same germ as beriberi patients?
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Question 2: What should be planned next? How would Eijkman know if it was the
same disease as human beriberi? What would he gain from studying chickens?
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Make parallels between chickens and humans
Develop a chicken culture and see if there are similarities to the human culture
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Eijkman had chickens moved to another location…their health improved with no administered
treatment
Question 3: Appropriate next step? Where to look next for clues?
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Look at what was different in previous location compared to new location
Maybe bacteria is in the air?
Move the chickens back to “contaminated” area and see if they become sick again
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Eijkman noticed one clear difference…when chickens got sick, they were fed leftover boiled rice.
o At new location, they were fed beras merah, or red rice, which was covered with a red
cuticule.
Eijkman believed the polished, white rice must contain some sort of bacterium which caused
beriberi  fits the history since beriberi was most prevalent in Asia, where rice is a common
food staple.
When red cuticle was added to diet, the chickens got better…even when around other sick birds.
 believed that an ingredient in the red cuticle acted as an antidote.
Many people were skeptical of this theory…some believed that while rice might be responsible,
it may not be because of the reasons Eijkman specified.
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Question 4: Imagine that you were among the skeptics of Eijkman’s discovery.
How would you interpret the findings in another way? How might Eijkman have
designed a test to respond to your criticism?
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Criticism: there is something in the red cuticle, nutritionally, that is not in the white rice.
Set up a controlled experiment, keeping track of varied ratios of white to red rice.
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Controversy of germ theory world wide, some studies were in favor of the theory, while some
were not.
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Eikjman was unable to demonstrate exactly how the polished rice was part of beriberi.
Question 5: How would you construct an experiment on human diets, while
following basic ethical principles?
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Diffucult because you cannot conduct a controlled experiment on human diets without violating
human rights
Serving only polished rice = unethical
Question 6: If Voderman was able to show a correlation between diet and
beriberi, why were these additional statistics necessary? What purpose does each
serve?
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Allow us to examine any other factors that come into play concerning the disease
Only one of 39 prisoners being fed a diet believed to cause beriberi…why didn’t the other 38
contract the disease? Additional statistics are needed to figure this out!
Question 7:What conclusions can be drawn fr om Vorderman’s study beyond what
Eikhman could conclude from the chickens?
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Number of cases of beriberi increased with the arrival of a prisoner who already had the
disease…could suggest a contagious bacteria? Maybe diet is not the only cause of the disease?
Conclusions
 Beriberi was found to be a deficiency of thiamine, a vitamin, and not infectious at all
 Hopkins and Eijkman both won the Nobel Prize in Medicine, though Eijkman did not accept it
(still believed it was caused by a bacteria).
 We cannot be too sure as to if diet is the reason behind the disease…some points to note
o Why had the disease advanced to epidemic proportions between certain years and in
specific places? (ex. Japan in 1880-81).
o Its important to look at the WHOLE picture, rather than just points here and there… a
large variety of reasons can come into play as why things are the way they are.
Themes and Further Analysis
The determination of a disease is not straight forward. In the “Inventing Africa” reading the
cattle epidemic, Rinderpest, caused a change in the ecosystem of Africa. By killing the majority of the
cattle it greatly affected humans. There were not only any livestock but also farm animals. This then led
to extreme susceptibility to the Western diseases of small pox and cholera when they invaded the
continent. Rinderpest also indirectly led to “sleeping sickness.” The determination of these diseases that
affected the African population were not just about the microorganism or virus that caused the
diseases; the factors that allowed the diseases to happen in the first place should be examined as well.
In other words what factors made this population so susceptible?
In the case of beriberi even though the scientific cause was a lack of thiamine, what were the
other factors that made the disease so prevalent in Java. In the experiments done on the prisons, it was
correct in looking for other causes that led to beriberi since 38 out 39 prisoners who ate polished rice
did not have beriberi. Whether it was that they were eating another food that contained thiamine or
they were not as vulnerable to thiamine deficiency as others, it is important to look at how the
environment influences disease patterns. Towards the end of the reading, we learn that milling was
introduced which more efficiently stripped the rice of the cuticle which contained thiamine.
Consequently, the incidence of beriberi increased.
During the in class discussion with Peter Taylor, we, as a class, attempted to play detective by
studying Eijkman’s case. The class was instructed to think as if we were in the 1880’s alongside Eijkman
and try to find the cure and cause of beriberi, which proved to be exceedingly difficult, as many of the
technological advancements we have today were part of science fiction of the past. I feel that the class
gained a greater appreciation for not only scientists of the past, but also the whole process of making
advancements in medicine.