Comprendre l’histoire, la dynamique et le fonctionnement des épidemies dans le Sahel

The sudden appearance of Covid-19, its worldwide spread, and the sheer number of deaths in such a short space of time, gave rise to speculation in scientific circles. In the context of this pandemic, historians were much in demand in the mainstream media, which gave their work new visibility. In this way, the health crisis was read through the accounts of other more or less recent epidemics and pandemics. In Sahelian Africa, the collective memory still includes some major pandemics, some of which are comparable to the current one. The ability to draw lessons from previous crises and adapt them to any new context is one of the keys to disaster management, including health management. In this proposal, focused on Sahelian Africa, our aim is to take a retrospective look at the major pandemics in history and their management. We will also compare past and present health crises from a historical perspective. Our research is based on a rigorous application of the methodological canons of the historical sciences, using written and, above all, iconographic sources.