The World Health Organization and Southern Nigeria: a history of collaboration, 1960–2000

There has been much debate about WHO’s role in combatting outbreaks of disease and resolving health crises. Much less attention has been paid to how health issues are tackled jointly by WHO and the national ministries of health in Africa.

I will conduct an in-depth historical analysis of how disease outbreaks were resolved jointly by international health agencies and people in Africa by focusing on the eradication of smallpox and Guinea worm disease in south-west Nigeria from 1960 to 2000.

This study will contribute to the history of non-Western humanitarianism in diverse regions relating to responses to health emergencies in Africa.