Please join us on Monday, February 25:
STS Special Lecture
FORCE MULTIPLIERS
'Pest Control' and the Origins of Rhodesia's Biological and Chemical
Warfare Against Zimbabwean Nationalist Guerrillas, c. 1890-1980
Clapperton Mavhunga
University of Michigan
4:00 pm, MIT, E51-095
How is it that technologies designed to control 'nature' shift from
being used for controlling animals and plants to controlling
'people'? In other words, how do we arrive at the re-invention of
people into pests (pesthood)? This presentation considers the ways in
which poisons were used to combat "dangerous" insects, wild animals,
and people in the British colony of Rhodesia in 1890-1974. The
discussion revolves around the state's social engineering of
"transgression" (of crops, livestock ranches, and sovereignty) and
how the battle between state and pest was fought through mobility and
technology. The argument is that British colonialism was virtually
impossible without pest control work.
Debbie Meinbresse
STS Program, MIT
617-452-2390
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