The film Trypanosomiasen-Forschung in Tanganyika (1949) documents British imperial sleeping-sickness research in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) by moving from field entomology in Shinyanga to biomedical experimentation in the Tinde laboratory, tracing the tsetse fly, the trypanosome parasite, and their transmission across animals and humans. Shot by the Swiss zoologist Rudolf Geigy, the film visualizes colonial knowledge production through African labour, animal experimentation, and microcinematography, while largely erasing local names, perspectives, and consent. It stages transnational scientific networks linking British imperial medicine, Swiss academic ambition, and the pharmaceutical-chemical industry, particularly through the use of DDT and suramin (marketed as Germanin or Antrypol). As both research tool and visual argument, the film naturalizes colonial hierarchies while promoting a technoscientific vision in which chemical killing appears as the endpoint of medical and ecological management.
Trypanosomiasis Research in Tanganyika (1949)
«Trypanosomiasen-Forschung in Tanganyika 1949»
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