Title: Colonial Public Health and the Management of Epidemics in Northern Nigeria: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Historical Perspective
Authors: Babale, Tanimu Shitta, Steve, Paul Anuye, Sunday, James Gajere
Volume: 9
Issue: 12
Pages: 48-53
Publication Date: 2025/12/28
Abstract:
The 1918 Influenza Pandemic, often described as the most catastrophic health crisis of the 20th century, had a profound yet understudied impact on colonial Northern Nigeria. While global scholarship has extensively documented its effects in Europe and North America, African colonial experiences particularly those of indigenous societies remain marginal in the historiography of epidemics. This paper examines the trajectory, responses, and legacy of the 1918 influenza outbreak in Northern Nigeria, focusing on how colonial medical neglect, racialized health policies, and infrastructural underdevelopment intensified its devastation. Drawing on archival records, colonial health reports, missionary documentation, and oral histories, the study reveals how British colonial authorities prioritized the protection of European lives and commercial interests, while largely abandoning African communities to cope through traditional methods. Indigenous responses including Qur'anic healing, herbal medicine, ritual cleansing, and community-wide fasting offered culturally grounded alternatives to biomedical interventions, which were viewed with suspicion or entirely inaccessible. The paper also explores how traditional rulers mediated between colonial directives and local populations, shaping both compliance and resistance. In the aftermath of the pandemic, modest reforms were introduced, yet they entrenched a two-tiered healthcare system that marginalized rural Northern Nigerians for decades. The memory of the pandemic persisted in local narratives and influenced responses to later outbreaks, including COVID-19 and Lassa fever. By situating the 1918 pandemic within a broader historical framework of disease, governance, and indigenous agency, this article contributes to the field of African medical history and highlights the relevance of historical epidemics to contemporary public health discourse.