How malaria has shaped humanity
The parasite shows how history is partly created by non-human forces
TWO CENTURIES ago, at Anna Pépin’s house on Gorée Island, off the coast of Senegal, ladies with fashionably pointed hats sashayed up the stairs to sip fine wines in an airy salon with a stupendous view of the Atlantic. Under the staircase was a windowless punishment cell for recalcitrant slaves. Young, fertile women were separated from the other slaves, for reasons as obvious as they are odious.
Pépin, an Afro-French trafficker, must have heard her captives rattling their shackles as she shared canapés with her guests. If she looked down from her balcony, she must have seen them being pushed through a narrow opening—the “door of no return”—and loaded onto ships bound for the Americas.
This article appeared in the Christmas Specials section of the print edition under the headline "History, written by the vectors"
Christmas Specials December 16th 2020
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From the December 16th 2020 edition
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