“Since early 2014, the international coverage of Africa has been dominated by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Much of that coverage represents the region as helpless and hopeless, a tragic victim of illogical beliefs and dangerous cultural practices. The contributors to this Hot Spots series offer their personal and professional experience in this region as a critical counter-argument. The essays collected here explore the political landscapes that make the state itself both a vector for and victim of this disease (Abramowitz, Ammann, Batty, Ferme, Harman, Nguyen); they write of the social realities of funeral practices, both their limits and their potential for change (Richards); they write of the media coverage of the disease and the complex ways in which information flows in and around the region (McGovern); they write of the way Ebola discourse has entered popular culture (Benton, Tucker), occult narratives (Bolten), and the diasporic imaginary (Sayegh, Wesley); and they write of the complicated ways it links to the region’s history of violence (Schroven, Soderstrom).”

by Daniel Hoffman and Mary Moran

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