Abstract
This article re-examines the social history of smallpox in Africa and challenges in part the celebratory narrative assigning credit to colonial medicine and the World Health Organization (WHO) for the eradication of the disease. By tracing local conceptions of smallpox and its social and political implications in Abeokuta, Western Nigeria, this study renders a history of smallpox from the perspective of the lived experience of colonial subjects. It shows that while colonial eradication projects and WHO’s global eradication were important factors in eradication, they were not singularly transformative contributions. In doing so, this analysis departs from conventional narratives of smallpox, and accounts for the continuance of smallpox deities and rituals despite its medical eradication.
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