An epidemic on wheels? Road safety,public health and injury politics in Africa (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

Anthropologists have showed only marginal interest in road safety, despite the loss of some 1.3 million people killed in road crashes every year, the bulk of which occurs in ‘developing’ countries. 2011 marks the beginning of a UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. Its scope is ambitious: to save five million lives and fifty million injuries by the end of the ‘decade’ in 2020. In this article, the author examines the way public health professionals and educators have appropriated the language of epidemiology to argue that road death and injury can be viewed as an ‘epidemic on wheels’ or a ‘disease of development’, to mention two often cited epithets among participants in the global road safety lobby. One major consideration of interest to anthropologists and policy makers is to what extent this effectively essentializes road death in Africa and depoliticises its injury politics. Bearing in mind the historical context of medical interventions in Africa, the article examines the global road safety lobby and its affinity with public health as a form of transnational governance, arguing alternatively that if the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety is to have any significant impact, it must recognize more clearly the political stakes being raised in claims to reduce deaths and injuries caused by automobility.     

Independence and Corporations in Pre‐Reform Freeman Boroughs: A Case Study – Newcastle‐under‐Lyme in the 1810s

This article draws on a wide range of evidence – corporation records, pollbooks, newspapers, squibs and broadsides, and private correspondence and accounts – to put forward some significant revisions to the electoral history of the borough of Newcastle‐under‐Lyme in the early 19th century. In the process, the article contributes to our understanding of the conflict between ‘oligarchy’ and ‘independence’ which characterised politics in this and other freeman boroughs. The independent party in the town emerges as a powerful force in its own right, one which came to monopolise access to the ‘rhetoric of independence’, rather than being a mere vehicle for ambitious candidates. The ability of the corporation to influence events by manipulation of the voting roll is also reassessed, and is seen to have been less significant than has been supposed.     

Cargo Cult Horror

Anthropological analyses of cargo cults offer certain plots alongside ethnographic detail. Many such accounts assume one or the other of three common storylines. Cargo cults have been plotted as bildungsroman, as horror story, and as carnival. Bildungsroman cargo narratives suggest that cargo is good but culting is bad. Carnivalesque accounts reverse this polarity to celebrate culting while disparaging the dangers of cargo. The horror storyline laments both cargo and culting. Over the past fifty years, shifting appreciations of modernity, technology, and progress have reshaped the stories in which cargo cults get accounted: Modernity's cargo bildungsroman has given way to postmodern horror.     

Some shore features in South‐East Ireland

The Peoples and Politics of the Far East: Travels and Studies in the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese Colonies, Siberia, China, Japan, Korea, Siam, and Malaya. By Henry Norman. With 60 Illustrations and 4 Maps. Pp. xvi + 608. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. Price 1 Guinea.

The Story of Africa and Its Explorers. By Robert Brown, M.A., Ph.D., etc. Vol. IV. Europe in Africa—Colonies and Colonists—The Scramble for an Empire—A Continent under Companies. With 200 . original Illustrations. London : Cassell and Co., Limited, 1895. Pp. 300 and Index to the four volumes. Price Is. 6d.

A travers l'Afrique Australe. Par Jules Leclercq. Paris: Plon, 1895. Pp. 312.

The Diversions of a Prime Minister. By Basil Thomson. Edinburgh : Black‐wood and Sons, 1894. Pp. viii + 407. With a Map and numerous Illustrations. Price 15s.

Mes Grandes Chasses dans L'Afrique Centrale. By Edouard Foa, Explorateur. Paris: Firmin‐Didot, 1895. Gr. 8vo, pp. 340. 76 Figs.

Korea—Eine Sommerreise nach dem Lande der Morgenruhe, 1894. Von Ernst von Hesse‐Wartegg. Dresden and Leipzig : Carl Eeissner, 1895. Pp. iv + 220.

La République d'Haïti : Son Présent, Son Avenir Économique. Par Paul Vibeht. Paris : Berger‐Levrault &; Cie., 1895. Pp. 360. Price 5 frs.

The Story of the L.M.S., 1795–1895. By C. Silvester Horne, M.A. With Maps and many Illustrations. London : Snow &; Co., 1894. Pp. 444. Price 2s. 6d

Letters and Sketches from the New Hebrides. By Maggie Wiiitecross Paton. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1894. Pp.382. Illustrations and Map. Price 6s.

Supplement au Volume V. du T'oung‐Pao. Die Lander des Islam nach chinesischen Quellen. Von Prof. Dr. Friedrich Hirtii. Leyden : E. J. Brill, 1894. Pp. 64.

Instructions to Observers of the Indian Meteorological Department. By J. Eliot, M.A., F.E. Met. Soc., Meteorological Reporter to the Government of India. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1894. Pp. iv + 103. Price 3 Rupees.

Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel (new issue). Africa: Vol. I., North Africa. By A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. London: Edward Stanford, 1895. 8 Maps, and 77 Illustrations. Pp. 624. Price 15s.

The Great Dominion. Studies of Canada. By George R. Parkin, M.A., Hon. LL.D., University of New Brunswick. With Maps. London : Macmillan &; Co., 1895. Pp. viii + 251.

Outlines of English Industrial History. By W. Cunningham, D.D., and Ellen A. M'Arthur. Cambridge : University Press, 1895. Pp. xii+274.

Egypt. Handbook for Travellers. Edited by Karl Baedeker. Part First: Lower Egypt and the Peninsula of Sinai. With 14 Maps, 7 Views, and 7 Vignettes. Third Edition, revised and augmented. Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1895. Pp. 280 and Index. Price 12s.

Leitfaden der Qeographie für höhere Lehranstalten. Von Dr. E. Lanqenbeck, Oberlehrer am protestantischen Gymnasium zu Strassburg. Leipzig : Wilhelm Engelmann, 1894. 2 Teile. Pp. viii + 125 and vi + 340. Price 2 M. 10 Pf.; boards, 2 M. 40 Pf.

L'Afrique : Anthologie Géographique. Par Noël Garnier. Paris : Delagrave, 1894. Pp. 566. Price 4 Frs.

D'Alger à Tanger. Par Marius Bernard. 120 Illustrations, par A. Chapon. Paris : Henri Laurens, n.d. Pp. 388. Price 10 Frs.; bound, 13 Frs.

Bibliotheca Geographica, herausgegeben von der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin. Bearbeitet von Otto Baschin unter Mitwirkung von Dr. Ernst Wagner. Band i. Jahrgang 1891 und 1892. Berlin : W. H. Kühl, 1895. Pp. 506.