A Geographer with the World Health Organization

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World Health Organization and, during the weeks that I spent at headquarters in Geneva being briefed for work in Africa, I was frequently asked, 'What are you doing?', 'Why should a geographer be working for W.H.O.?' These were questions which were often repeated in Africa during the months spent as a consultant to the Division of Malaria Eradication. I found little difficulty in answering them and I pro? pose to do that in this paper. I shall outline how I came to be asked to undertake the consultantship and indicate the nature of the work with reference to the problems that were considered, and finally speak of the relevance of geography in practical affairs, particularly those which are the concern of the World Health Organization.x In this way I hope to show clearly why a geographer should have been involved as I was. In 1954-5, as a research fellow of the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research, I studied some of the problematic relationships of people and land in the northern parts of Sokoto Province in Northern Nigeria (Prothero, 1957, 1958 and 1962). One of the most significant manifestations of these relationships is the move? ments of population which take place during the dry season. There are considerable movements which take place within the Province over comparatively short distances {c. 30-40 miles) associated with trading, fishing and dry season farming or simply with social relationships. These are common in other parts of Northern Nigeria and in comparable areas in West Africa where there is a long dry season. In addition to these internal movements there is a great exodus from the Province, mostly of adult males who travel great distances in search of work. A census taken in 1952-3 showed that nearly 200,000 adult males left the Province, and in some districts between 25 and 50 per cent of the adult males are away during the dry season. The main areas to which they go are those which are relatively advanced economically and where there are de? mands for labour (Fig. ia). These migrants travel on foot and by road, rail and river (usually a combination of two or more of these), over distances of many hundreds of miles (Fig. ib). Similar movements of seasonal migrant labour take place from the Republics of Mali, Haute-Volta and Niger and from parts of northern Ghana. There is a third important category of movements in Sokoto Province?the seasonal migra? tions of the pastoral Fulani in search of pasture and water for their cattle. Even when shown diagrammatically on a map the complexity of the pattern of these movements is apparent (Fig. 2). In studying migrant labour I was particularly interested in the volume and the pat? tern of the movements and in the environmental and economic conditions which are the main factors responsible for migration, and I considered some of the implications and effects of migrant labour both on the home areas of migrants and on the places where they go to seek work. I was aware of the possible effects of long journeys on the health of migrants, though these were not investigated, and I realized the possi? bilities for the transmission of diseases through the uncontrolled movements of large numbers of people. For example, in May 1955 there was a minor outbreak of smallpox in Sokoto Province which coincided with the return from work of the majority of migrant labourers and some of them were very probably responsible for it. The full implications of the movements of people in the control and eradication of malaria was brought to my notice only in 1956, more than a year after I had left Nigeria. A report of my work was then being circulated in Northern Nigeria and was read by the Senior 1 A paper has been published based on the report made to the Division of Malaria Eradica?