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*** Medical Anthropology Seminars ***
(Jointly organised by the Health Policy Unit and the Centre for History in Public Health) 

* please note: this seminar will start at 5.30pm, not 5.15 *

Speaker: Guillaume Lachenal, Paris 7

Title: "High-insecurity laboratory: Pasteurian science and the informality of rule in post-colonial Cameroon"

Abstract: High-insecurity laboratory : Pasteurian science and the informality of rule in post-colonial Cameroon This paper is a historical ethnography of the Pasteur Institute of Cameroon, the most important institution of biomedical research in Cameroon. Created in 1959, this laboratory has been exclusively run by French Pastorian expatriates up to nowadays, in close relation with the Pasteur Institute in Paris. On the other hand, Cameroonian scientist s have been kept away from the management of the Institute. Subtle and solid hierarchies thus ruled the functioning of the institute, as well as its insertion in international collaborations.I will explore how the ruling hierarchies of medical research were defined, through successive conflicts and compromises, between French expatriates and local elites. I will stress that theses hierarchies were not based on a technical basis, but often overlapped with racial distinctions; that they were rigidified because they were ultimately defined on an informal ground - that is, on the basis of culture, morality and body (mis-)conducts. I will eventually suggest that the constant efforts to define Cameroonians as cultural inapt for decent governance also mirrors French expatriates insecurity about their own (mis-)behaviour.The post-colonial history of the Pasteur Institute of Cameroon then reveals much of the practices and style of the Franco-african relation : an intimate link where inequity is embedded in informality and familiarity.

D ate: Tuesday 31st January, 5.30 - 6.45pm 

Venue: Room 5, Keppel Street site

*** all are welcome ***

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