Ebola in Perspective – Cultural Anthropology Journal

Since early 2014, the international coverage of Africa has been dominated by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Much of that coverage represents the region as helpless and hopeless, a tragic victim of illogical beliefs and dangerous cultural practices. The contributors to this Hot Spots series offer their personal and professional experience in this region as a critical counter-argument. The essays collected here explore the political landscapes that make the state itself both a vector for and victim of this disease (Abramowitz, Ammann, Batty, Ferme, Harman, Nguyen); they write of the social realities of funeral practices, both their limits and their potential for change (Richards); they write of the media coverage of the disease and the complex ways in which information flows in and around the region (McGovern); they write of the way Ebola discourse has entered popular culture (Benton, Tucker), occult narratives (Bolten), and the diasporic imaginary (Sayegh, Wesley); and they write of the complicated ways it links to the region’s history of violence (Schroven, Soderstrom).

Edited by Daniel Hoffman and Mary Moran