The league of Nations health organization: Water, health and development in colonial Africa, 1925-40

This chapter uses water as a conceptual lens to examine how colonial and international health connected between 1925 and 1940, particularly in British-colonised Uganda and Sudan. It draws upon evidence from conferences sponsored in the 1920s and 1930s by the League of Nations Health Organization (LNHO) to illustrate the shift from an epidemic disease control focus in the 1920s to broader “social” conceptualisations of health in the 1930s. In light of contemporary developments within Uganda and Sudan, it argues that despite limited and uneven involvement on the African continent, the role of the “international” in formulating and shaping health agendas became more visible. Whilst colonial authorities succeeded in thwarting some LNHO attempts to coordinate health in Africa, it provided a unique forum for health debates. Reviewing conceptualisations of water in colonial and international health discussions aptly demonstrates the multiplicity of ideas that vied for attention in interwar medical policy. Guarding against transnational generalisations and questioning the use of the adjective “global” to describe the interwar period, this chapter also contributes to ongoing terminological and methodological debates.

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