DDT Relations: Tracing chemical alterlife in South Africa malaria control

Insecticides are the mainstay of global health interventions to address vector-borne illnesses such as malaria. With the ramp-up of malaria control in the last 30 years, insecticides — such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) — are increasingly used in indoor residual spraying programmes across Southern Africa. However, DDT remains controversial for its adverse effects on human and environmental health, described both as a ‘magic bullet’ as well as a ‘poison’. Yet there is little attention to the meanings of DDT amongst those living with it every day, including the communities in sprayed areas where DDT becomes entangled in intimate spaces and the vital substances of life. Through a multi-sited ethnographic project over five years, I will explore DDT through its relations and entanglements in different sites in South Africa: A) Communities that receive indoor residual spray with DDT; B) researchers studying the intergenerational effects of DDT exposure; C) policymakers (past and present), state officials, and government workers who arbitrate its usage, procure DDT, and spray it in homes. In understanding DDT, its meanings, and its effects, this project will contribute new knowledge on chemically driven global health interventions, its politics and its consequences, as well as providing novel theorizing on accountability.