East Coast Fever in Socio-Historical Context: A Case Study from Tanzania

East Coast Fever, a form of the cattle disease known as theileriosis, has been a scourge of livestock-owning inhabitants of many African countries during the twentieth century. It constitutes one of the major threats to the cattle industry in Tanzania and indeed a large expanse of eastern, central and southern Africa.l Analysis of theileriosis in these regions, nevertheless, has not nosed into the flow of historians' narratives.2 Their familiar litany of late nineteenthand early twentieth-century afflictions famine, rinderpest, trypanosomiasis, smallpox, cholera generally omits East Coast Fever. Its neglect in historical literature is all the more noteworthy considering that recent writing on East and South African history is distinguished by its concern with health, disease, and environmental issues.