Mosquitoes, modernity, and post-colonial Lagos

The presentation considers the shifting relationship between malaria and modernity in Lagos with particular emphasis on the 1940s, which marked a transitional phase through to the post-colonial era.  The term “modernity” is deployed in this context as a contradictory amalgam of different impulses ranging across fields such as architecture, law, and medicine, encompassing both the forcible rationalization of space and also demands for the improvement of human welfare.

Matthew Gandy is Professor of Geography at UCL.