SOAN’s local expert on West Africa, Professor Mary Moran, has coedited a series of analyses and responses to the Ebola crisis in the online version of the journal, Cultural Anthropology. In the introduction to this series, Professor Moran and her coeditor, Daniel Hoffman, seek to put Ebola in context, both culturally and historically, and argue for the importance of a deeper understanding of the recent histories of countries such as Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in order to more effectively address the disease: “In the current epidemic, as in the violence that preceded it and in the long uncertain period to come, intervention and understanding are not separate. One is not possible without the other.” Everyone has seen news reports about the recent Ebola epidemic, but these essays provide the background that you will not find in other media—take a look to learn more.
Professor Moran also gave a talk recently at Duke University on the potential political fallout for Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; you can read the text of her talk here.
Going through some of these articles I cannot help that most arguments are of the “well Russian roulette is only deadly in one case out of six”. Does this mean we should let everyone who does not already have a fever but might just as well be a virus carrier travel the globe spreading the disease POTENTIALLY to hundreds of people? There are, even in the US and the European Union, not enough resources to effectively quarantine, let alone treat, even a low three-digit figure of patients.