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Pandemic Lessons from History

The Wits Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, and the Adler Museum, invite you to attend our next Pandemic Pangolins Webinar. In this live discussion, titled "Pandemic Lessons from History” we draw in the perspective of historians Prof Howard Phillips and Dr Glen Ncube, hosted by Doctoral Candidate, Sinethemba Makanya, tracing patterns and enduing features of pandemics, addressing these issues:

  • How epidemics reveal the fault lines and character of societies – issues such as inequality, poverty, and overcrowding are true of every pandemic.
  • How they reveal underlining attitudes of society –  'pathogens project prejudices' – history shows us how people look for origin points and entities to blame. 
  • How they accelerate trends and patterns – transport, medico-technological discovery, clinical and health infrastructure all gather rapid pace.
  • How epidemics entente into debates about public trust in experts and in the modern era in science –  and the rise of anti scientific movements and campaigns.
  • How epidemics trigger zeal for legal reform, especially in public health, because they show up health systems and their inadequacies.

Prof Howard Phillips

Having gained a PhD on the history of the Spanish flu epidemic in South Africa he began to develop the field of the social history of medicine. Among the many books he have written, co-written or edited are: ' "Black October": The Impact of the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 on South Africa' (1990); 'The Cape Doctor in the 19th Century: A Social History' (2004); 'The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19: New Perspectives' (2003); 'Plague, Pox and Pandemics: A Pocket History of Epidemics in South Africa' (2012); 'At the Heart Of Healing: Groote Schuur Hospital 1938-2008' (2008); and 'In a Time of Plague: Memories of the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 in South Africa' (2018).

Dr Glen Ncube

Having gained a PhD at the University of Cape Town, he specialises in the histories of medicine and healthcare, with specific focus on Zimbabwe tracing changes in healthcare policy and medical practice in colonial societies characterised by struggles over power, culture, and resources. His doctoral thesis, titled 'The Making of Rural Healthcare in Colonial Zimbabwe: A History of the Ndanga Medical Unit, Fort Victoria, 1930–1960s’, explores how colonial encounters spawned and stifled particular forms of ambiguous medical initiatives as the healthcare of Africans began to occupy centre stage in colonial policy initiatives. He presented works showing how photographic traces, and everyday medical documents and colonial archives of sickness were produced in the context of asymmetrical colonial power relations. He is currently wiring about the contemporary history of codeine addiction in Africa. Ncube teaches African and global history at the University of Pretoria.

Sinethemba Makanya

Sinethemba Makanya is doctoral candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, and a Fulbright Alumnus who completed her MA in drama therapy at New York University. She is a Mellon Foundation and Centre of Excellence in Human Development scholar who is currently reading for her PhD in Medical Humanities and Psychology at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER). The working title for her PhD is 'Ukugula Kwabantu: A study of Traditional Healers’ constructions of Mental Health.’ examining how psychology can integrate with ubunyanga (‘traditional healing’) to offer integrated approaches to (mental) healing.

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