user
IM
intramuscular(ly)
IV
intravenous(ly)
KS
Kaposi’s sarcoma
MMWR
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
NIBSC
National Institute for Biological Standards and Control
ONUC
Organisation des Nations-Unies au Congo
OPV
oral polio vaccine
SC
subcutaneous(ly)
SFV
simian foamy virus
SIV
simian immunodeficiency virus
STD
sexually transmitted disease
UNESCO
United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization
WHO
World Health Organization
WWI
World War I
WWII
World War II
Note on terminology
Before we move on, I want to point out that for readers unfamiliar with virology, the Appendix provides a brief overview of the viruses that we will be discussing. In a few chapters where this is necessary, elements of molecular biology will be discussed. I aimed to explain them succinctly to readers who have no training in this field.
With regard to toponymy, in English-language publications West Africa generally encompasses all countries on the Atlantic coast of Africa, plus some in the corresponding hinterland. I will rather use French terminology whereby West Africa starts in Mauritania, ends with Nigeria and also includes the corresponding hinterland. Central Africa (in colonial times, Equatorial Africa) starts with Cameroon and Chad, goes all the way to Rwanda and Burundi and also encompasses the two Congos, Gabon, the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea. Most of the story told in this book occurred in central Africa.
In former French colonies, city names did not change much after independence. Gabon’s major port is still calledPort-Gentil, despite the latter character’s dubious human rights record. However, in the former Belgian Congo, these traces of the colonisers were enthusiastically erased so that Léopoldville became Kinshasa, Stanleyville became Kisangani, Elisabethville was renamed Lubumbashi, and so on. The country itself was successively known as the Congo Free State, the Belgian Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after 1960 (or Congo-Léopoldville, and then Congo-Kinshasa), Zaire under Mobutu’s dictatorship and then DRC again after Mobutu was overthrown.
The federation of Afrique Équatoriale Française (AEF) included four distinct colonies: Moyen-Congo (present day Republic of Congo, orCongo-Brazzaville), Oubangui-Chari (Central African Republic),Gabon andTchad.AEF disappeared as a geographic entity shortly before 1960 when independence was granted to the four countries. To avoid confusion between the two Congos, I will use the term Congo-Brazzaville(it also changed names a few times) to designate the independent country that succeeded Moyen-Congo. Cameroun Français, or just Cameroun with the French spelling, refers to the part of current dayCameroon that was administered byFrance under a mandate from the League of Nations after World War I (WWI) and the United Nations after World War II (WWII), until the country became independent in 1960. The maps in this book use the names of countries and cities as they were known at the time of the events in question, and in principle the location of each city, district, region, river or park mentioned anywhere in the book should be shown on at least one of the maps.
Map 1 Map of Africa.
15 Epilogue: lessons learned
Twenty-nine million deaths later, are there any useful lessons that can be drawn from this tragedy? Or was it just an extraordinary confluence of chance events, unlikely ever to be repeated? In retrospect, two factors probably drove the emergence of SIV cpz into HIV-1. Even if their respective contributions will never be fully sorted out, there is little doubt that without them the pandemic would not have developed.
The first was the profound social changes that accompanied the European colonisation of central Africa, eventually leading to sexual behaviours far different from those of traditional societies which had lived there for 2,000 years. A relatively small number of women had sex against remuneration, initially
IM
intramuscular(ly)
IV
intravenous(ly)
KS
Kaposi’s sarcoma
MMWR
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
NIBSC
National Institute for Biological Standards and Control
ONUC
Organisation des Nations-Unies au Congo
OPV
oral polio vaccine
SC
subcutaneous(ly)
SFV
simian foamy virus
SIV
simian immunodeficiency virus
STD
sexually transmitted disease
UNESCO
United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization
WHO
World Health Organization
WWI
World War I
WWII
World War II
Note on terminology
Before we move on, I want to point out that for readers unfamiliar with virology, the Appendix provides a brief overview of the viruses that we will be discussing. In a few chapters where this is necessary, elements of molecular biology will be discussed. I aimed to explain them succinctly to readers who have no training in this field.
With regard to toponymy, in English-language publications West Africa generally encompasses all countries on the Atlantic coast of Africa, plus some in the corresponding hinterland. I will rather use French terminology whereby West Africa starts in Mauritania, ends with Nigeria and also includes the corresponding hinterland. Central Africa (in colonial times, Equatorial Africa) starts with Cameroon and Chad, goes all the way to Rwanda and Burundi and also encompasses the two Congos, Gabon, the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea. Most of the story told in this book occurred in central Africa.
In former French colonies, city names did not change much after independence. Gabon’s major port is still calledPort-Gentil, despite the latter character’s dubious human rights record. However, in the former Belgian Congo, these traces of the colonisers were enthusiastically erased so that Léopoldville became Kinshasa, Stanleyville became Kisangani, Elisabethville was renamed Lubumbashi, and so on. The country itself was successively known as the Congo Free State, the Belgian Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after 1960 (or Congo-Léopoldville, and then Congo-Kinshasa), Zaire under Mobutu’s dictatorship and then DRC again after Mobutu was overthrown.
The federation of Afrique Équatoriale Française (AEF) included four distinct colonies: Moyen-Congo (present day Republic of Congo, orCongo-Brazzaville), Oubangui-Chari (Central African Republic),Gabon andTchad.AEF disappeared as a geographic entity shortly before 1960 when independence was granted to the four countries. To avoid confusion between the two Congos, I will use the term Congo-Brazzaville(it also changed names a few times) to designate the independent country that succeeded Moyen-Congo. Cameroun Français, or just Cameroun with the French spelling, refers to the part of current dayCameroon that was administered byFrance under a mandate from the League of Nations after World War I (WWI) and the United Nations after World War II (WWII), until the country became independent in 1960. The maps in this book use the names of countries and cities as they were known at the time of the events in question, and in principle the location of each city, district, region, river or park mentioned anywhere in the book should be shown on at least one of the maps.
Map 1 Map of Africa.
15 Epilogue: lessons learned
Twenty-nine million deaths later, are there any useful lessons that can be drawn from this tragedy? Or was it just an extraordinary confluence of chance events, unlikely ever to be repeated? In retrospect, two factors probably drove the emergence of SIV cpz into HIV-1. Even if their respective contributions will never be fully sorted out, there is little doubt that without them the pandemic would not have developed.
The first was the profound social changes that accompanied the European colonisation of central Africa, eventually leading to sexual behaviours far different from those of traditional societies which had lived there for 2,000 years. A relatively small number of women had sex against remuneration, initially
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