Civilization and Syphilization: A Doctor and His Disease in Colonial Morocco

Abstract

In colonial North Africa a mutilating disease resembling syphilis was a focal point for French medical debate about the world history of syphilis, the physiological effects of climate and race, and the science of microbiology. From 1916 to 1919, the French venereologist Georges Lacapère established a pilot scheme in Fez, Morocco, for diagnosis and treatment of "native" syphilis. In 1923 he published his research findings and coined the disease concept "Arab syphilis" to describe a form of syphilis found in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, which he characterized in behavioral terms. Lacapère's work was not simply derivative of earlier discourses, nor was it a straightforward outcome of his clinical experience in Morocco. The careers of Lacapère and Arab syphilis problematize the analytical use of race to understand colonial biomedicine in the Maghreb.

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