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Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information |The Political Life of an Epidemic Zimbabwe’s catastrophic cholera outbreak of 2008–09 saw an unpreced- ented number of people affected, with 100,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths. Cholera, however, was much more than a public health crisis: it represented the nadir of the country’s deepening political and economic crisis of 2008. This study focuses on the political life of the cholera epidemic, tracing the historical origins of the outbreak, examining the social pattern of its unfolding and impact, analysing the institutional and communal responses to the disease, and marking the effects of its aftermath. Across different social and institutional settings, competing interpret- ations and experiences of the cholera epidemic created charged social and political debates. In his examination of these debates which surrounded the breakdown of Zimbabwe’s public health infrastructure and failing bureau- cratic order, the scope and limitations of disaster relief, and the country’s profound levels of livelihood poverty and social inequality, Simukai Chi- gudu reveals how this epidemic of a preventable disease had profound implications for political institutions and citizenship in Zimbabwe. simukai chigudu is Associate Professor of African Politics at the Uni- versity of Oxford and Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford. He was awarded the biennial Audrey Richards Prize for the best doctoral thesis in African Studies examined at a UK university. He is the author of several articles in leading academic journals including African Affairs, Critical African Studies, and Health Policy and Planning. He worked as a medical doctor before moving into academia. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information The Political Life of an Epidemic Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe simukai chigudu University of Oxford © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia 314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India 79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906 Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108489102 DOI: 10.1017/9781108773928 © Simukai Chigudu 2020 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2020 Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd, Padstow Cornwal A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Chigudu, Simukai, 1986– author. Title: The political life of an epidemic : cholera, crisis and citizenship in Zimbabwe / Simukai Chigudu. Description: New York : Cambridge University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019042513 (print) | LCCN 2019042514 (ebook) | ISBN 9781108489102 (hardback) | ISBN 9781108733441 (paperback) | ISBN 9781108773928 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Cholera–Zimbabwe. | Cholera–Political aspects–Zimbabwe. | Cholera–Social aspects–Zimbabwe. | Public health–Zimbabwe. | Public health administration–Zimbabwe. Classification: LCC RA644.C3 C45 2020 (print) | LCC RA644.C3 (ebook) | DDC 362.1969320096891–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042513 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042514 ISBN 978-1-108-48910-2 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information For Hope and Tafi & For Mr J, we made it. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information Contents List of Figures page viii List of Tables ix Preface xi List of Abbreviations xvii Map of Zimbabwe xix Introduction: Stories and Politics of Cholera 1 1 The Making of Urban (Dis)Order: Situating the Cholera Outbreak in Historical Perspective 35 2 ‘When People Eat Shit’: Cholera and the Collapse of Zimbabwe’s Public Health Infrastructure 63 3 Emergency Politics: Cholera as a National Disaster 93 4 The Salvation Agenda: Medical Humanitarianism and the Response to Cholera 123 5 ‘People Were Dying Like Flies’: The Social Contours of Cholera in Harare’s High-Density Townships 155 Conclusion: More to Admire Than to Despise? 184 References 205 Index 226 vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information Figures 2.1 Raw sewage spills onto a street from a burst sewer main in the high-density suburb of Chitungwiza on the outskirts of Harare page 76 3.1 Links between cholera response and epidemiological trends 97 3.2 Headlines in The Herald about cholera in December 2008 110 4.1 Makeshift cholera treatment centre in the high-density suburb of Chitungwiza on the outskirts of Harare 129 4.2 Cholera on the South Africa–Zimbabwe border 130 4.3 Central role of MoHCW in coordinating the multi-sectoral response 133 5.1 Tony Namate’s satirical cartoon of a police commander requesting permission from President Robert Mugabe to arrest all cholera sufferers 177 viii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information Table 1 Zimbabwe’s urbanisation trends, 1961–2002 page 47 ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48910-2 — The Political Life of an Epidemic Simukai Chigudu Frontmatter More Information Preface I was in my fifth year of medical school at Newcastle University when I first stumbled upon a startling article in The New York Times entitled, ‘Cholera Epidemic Sweeping across Crumbling Zimbabwe’ (Dugger 2008). The piece, published in early December 2008, began by recounting how the disease had claimed the lives of the five youngest members of the Chigudu family with ‘cruel and bewildering haste’. The children had been playing in the sewage-flooded streets of a Harare township, gleefully unaware of the deadly bacteria lurking therein. It was only a matter of hours before all five children began purging and vomiting. Within less than a day, they were limp and hollow-eyed as life seeped out of their desiccated bodies. ‘Then they started to die’, said their brother Lovegot, ‘Prisca was first, second Sammy, then Shantel, Clopas and Aisha, the littlest one, last’ (Dugger 2008). The New York Times, along with numerous other media agencies as well as regional and international organisations, reported that this outbreak was indis- putable evidence that Zimbabwe’s most fundamental public services – including water and sanitation, public schools and hospitals – had shut down, much like the organs of a severely dehydrated cholera victim. The spread and lethality of the disease did not abate. The country’s public health systems floundered in response to a straightforward bacterial infection – one that is easy to prevent, difficult to spread, and simple to treat. Over the course of ten months, Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak reached catastrophic proportions that are almost unrivalled in the modern history of the disease. Throughout 2008, I felt like I was drowning, engulfed by a deluge of disaster reports, articles, opinion pieces, blogs and analyses of the situation in Zimbabwe. From rigged elections to political violence, a desperate economy and the collapse of public services, cholera was now the latest in a litany of catastrophes. I could not afford the ticket home that December. Even if I could, I would be impotent to help. It terrified me that four and a half years of xi © in this