The Afterlives of Visual Archives: Restitution, Subjectivity and Affect in Visual Representations of Tropical Diseases in Malawi and Sudan (1902-1918)

Abstract

This thesis offers a novel exploration into the intersections between colonialism and medicine by examining medical photography in Malawi and Sudan during the early twentieth century. It explores the historic and contemporary meanings of a range of photographs from two colonial- era collections using the disciplinary frames of medical anthropology and visual history, to gain new insights into disease histories, state power and doctor-patient relationships. Focusing on the photographic practices and collections of two former colonial medical officers, the thesis explores how much photography from the period can tell us about the ways ideas about tropical medicine were conceptualised, visualised and rationalised.

The thesis raises critical questions about (1) the role of race in shaping the field of tropical medicine and (2) in the contemporary interpretation of these photographs. It investigates the extent to which racialized perceptions of African patients influenced medical practices and how photography contributed to constructing ideas about race and disease, particularly in the depiction of conditions like elephantiasis, smallpox, and bilharzia.

Methodologically, this thesis combines historical and ethnographic approaches by engaging with specific British colonial archival sources alongside theoretical analyses of what constitutes “the archive,” to create a multi-modal intervention that examines how archival practices shape understandings of race, medicine, and colonial histories. In addition to studying the photographs in their archival and historical contexts, the thesis describes how these medical images were received and (re)interpreted through a process of visual return and photo-elicitation interviews. By involving various audiences, including artists and medical professionals, the thesis offers affective readings of these images, challenging and disrupting established historical narratives. The thesis contributes to the broader discourse on the construction of Black lives and health within the colonial archive, offering new perspectives on the afterlives of archival records.