The 1918-19 influenza pandemic remains the worst plague in modern history. The Spanish flu killed over 50 million people worldwide, including over 2 million deaths in sub-Saharan Africa. The Spanish flu provoked profound disruptions of social and economic activities globally. In Lagos, the commercial nerve center, and the settler’s capital of Nigeria, the influenza outbreak decimated 3.5 percent of its population over a month. The piece studies the social and economic effects of 1918-19 influenza in Lagos. The thesis maintains that the epidemic occasioned profound dip in cash crops and scarcity of staple foods. The study revealed that enormous influenza deaths provoked disruptions in agricultural and economic activities. Previous research on the subject had focused on the political and social implications of 1918-19 influenza measures on Lagos inhabitants. However, this study outlines the social and economic implications of an epidemic. Focusing on Lagos, the capital of colonial Nigeria, illuminates our understandings on how epidemics impact the socio-economic spaces in a regional context.
Almond, D. (2006). Is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Over? Long-Term Effects of in Utero Influenza Exposure in the Post-1940 U.S. Population. Journal of Political Economy, 114, 672-712. https://doi.org/10.1086/507154
Arnold, D. (1993). Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Diseases in Nineteenth Century India. University of California Press.
Brainerd, E., & Siegler, M. V. (2003). The Economic Effects of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic. Technical Report, CEPR Discussion Papers 3791.
Crookshaft, F. (1922). Influenza: Essays on Several Authors. William Heinemann Ltd.
Curtin, P. D. (1985). Medical Knowledge and Urban Planning in Tropical Africa. The American Historical Review, 90, 594-613. https://doi.org/10.2307/1860958
Dalziel, J. M. (1973). The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa (p. 377). Crown Agents.
de Almeida, M. A. P. (2013). Epidemics in the News: Health and Hygiene in the Press in Periods of Crisis. Public Understanding of Science, 22, 886-902. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662512473212
de Francisco (Shapovalova), N., Donadel, M., Jit, M., & Hutubessy, R. (2015). A Systematic Review of the Social and Economic Burden of Influenza in Low-and Middle-Income Countries. Vaccine, 33, 6537-6544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.10.066
Emukule, G. O., Paget, J., Velden, K. v. d., & Mott, J. A. (2015). Influenza-Associated Disease Burden in Kenya: A Systematic Review of Literature. PLOS ONE, 10, e0138708. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138708
Fischer, W. A., Gong, M., Bhagwanjee, S., & Sevransky, J. (2014). Global Burden of Influenza as a Cause of Cardiopulmonary Morbidity and Mortality. Global Heart, 9, 325-336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gheart.2014.08.004
Forrester, R. (2016). The History of Medicine. SSRN Electronic Journal . https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2867148
Gordon, A., & Reingold, A. (2018). The Burden of Influenza: A Complex Problem. Current Epidemiology Reports, 5, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40471-018-0136-1
Heaton, M., & Falola, T. (2006). Global Explanations versus Local Interpretations: The Historiography of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 in Africa. History in Africa, 33, 205-230. https://doi.org/10.1353/hia.2006.0014
Igboh, L. S., McMorrow, M., Tempia, S., Emukule, G. O., Talla Nzussouo, N., McCarron, M. et al. (2021). Influenza Surveillance Capacity Improvements in Africa during 2011-2017. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, 15, 495-505. https://doi.org/10.1111/irv.12818
Itodo, U. F. (2023). A History of Exploitation of the Colonised in Northern Nigeria during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919. African Historical Review, 54, 13-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/17532523.2024.2314401
Jimoh, M. O. (2015). Managing Epidemic: The British Approach to 1918-1919 Influenza in Lagos. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 52 , 1-13.
Klepser, M. E. (2014). Socioeconomic Impact of Seasonal (Epidemic) Influenza and the Role of Over-The-Counter Medicines. Drugs, 74, 1467-1479. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40265-014-0245-1
Kolata, G. (2000). Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It. Atria Books.
Lafond, K. E., Porter, R. M., Whaley, M. J., Suizan, Z., Ran, Z., Aleem, M. A. et al. (2021). Global Burden of Influenza-Associated Lower Respiratory Tract Infections and Hospitalizations among Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. PLOS Medicine, 18, e1003550. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003550
Lin, M., & Liu, E. M. (2014). Does in Utero Exposure to Illness Matter? The 1918 Influenza Epidemic in Taiwan Region as a Natural Experiment. Journal of Health Economics, 37, 152-163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.05.004
Noymer, A., & Garenne, M. (2000). The 1918 Influenza Epidemic’s Effects on Sex Differentials in Mortality in the United States. Population and Development Review, 26, 565-581. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2000.00565.x
Nyamusore, J., Rukelibuga, J., Mutagoma, M., Muhire, A., Kabanda, A., Williams, T. et al. (2018). The National Burden of Influenza‐associated Severe Acute Respiratory Illness Hospitalization in Rwanda, 2012‐2014. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, 12, 38-45. https://doi.org/10.1111/irv.12494
Ohadike, D. C. (1991). Diffusion and Physiological Responses to the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 in Nigeria. Social Science & Medicine, 32, 1393-1399. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(91)90200-v
Ojo, O. B. (2020). Socio-Economic Impacts of 1918-19 Influenza Epidemic in Punjab. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 55, 1023-1032. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909619900906
Olapoju, O. M. (2020). Estimating Transportation Role in Pandemic Diffusion in Nigeria: A Consideration of 1918-19 Influenza and COVID-19 Pandemics. Journal of Global Health, 10, Article ID: 020501. https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.020501
Patterson, K. D. (1983). The Influenza Epidemic of 1918-19 in the Gold Coast. The Journal of African History, 24, 485-502. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700028012
Patterson, K. D., & Pyle, G. F. (1983). The Diffusion of Influenza in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1918-1919 Pandemic. Social Science & Medicine, 17, 1299-1307. https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(83)90022-9
Patterson, K. D., & Pyle, G. F. (1984). Influenza Diffusion in European History: Patterns and Paradigm. Ecology of Disease , 2, 173-184.
Roberts, A. D. (2003). The Colonial Moments in Africa (p. 155). Cambridge University Press.
Sambala, E. Z., Mdolo, A., Banda, R., Phiri, A., Wiyeh, A. B., & Wiysonge, C. S. (2018). Burden of Seasonal Influenza in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review Protocol. BMJ Open, 8, e022949. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022949
Schram, R. (1972). A History of Nigeria Health Services. Ibadan University Press.
Swanson, M. W. (1977). The Sanitation Syndrome: Bubonic Plague and Urban Native Policy in the Cape Colony, 1900-1909. The Journal of African History, 18, 387-410. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700027328
Tempia, S., Moyes, J., Cohen, A. L., Walaza, S., Edoka, I., McMorrow, M. L. et al. (2019). Health and Economic Burden of Influenza-Associated Illness in South Africa, 2013‐2015. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, 13, 484-495. https://doi.org/10.1111/irv.12650
Theo, A., Tempia, S., Cohen, A. L., Simusika, P., Chentulo, E., Chikamukwa, C. M. et al. (2018). The National Burden of Influenza-Associated Severe Acute Respiratory Illness Hospitalization in Zambia, 2011-2014. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, 12, 46-53. https://doi.org/10.1111/irv.12492
Tomkins, S. M. (1994). Colonial Administration in British Africa during the Influenza Epidemie of 1918-19. Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue canadienne des études africaines , 28, 60-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.1994.10804338
World Health Organization (WHO) (2018). Influenza (Seasonal). http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/