02237nas a2200241   4500000000100000008004100001260004900042653001600091653002600107653001100133653001200144653001200156653001300168653001800181653001700199100001300216245007200229856005100301300001100352490000700363520161100370022001401981       2011                            d  c2011 JunbLEPRA Health in ActionaColchester10aColonialism10aHistory, 20th Century10aHumans10aleprosy10aNigeria10aPolitics10aSocial stigma10aStereotyping1 aManton J00aLeprosy in Eastern Nigeria and the social history of colonial skin.  uhttps://leprosyreview.org/article/82/2/12-4134  a124-340 v823 a<p>To the historian, the 'historical' experience of leprosy control is not simply a backdrop to contemporary patterns or problems in disease control. The control of leprosy has been enacted in different ways in localities, territories and states across the world. The specific clinical, political, and institutional choices made in leprosy control have been highly significant in shaping attitudes and approaches to leprosy. The term stigma has a history of usage, contention and re-definition. Stigma, then, is a product of its intersecting social, economic, and medical contexts. In order to capture the degree to which stigma associated with leprosy has mutated and changed over time, this article concerns itself specifically with the colonial experience of leprosy, with a focus on the formerly leprosy-endemic area of southeastern Nigeria (known as the Eastern Region, or Eastern Nigeria) in the last quarter century of colonial rule ending in 1960. The article examines how leprosy was presented, identifying some of the forms in which ideas of stigma and taint with respect to leprosy were communicated. It goes on to examine how leprosy was encountered as a medical problem in Eastern Nigeria, placing leprosy in the context of skin diseases most commonly encountered by colonial medical services. It concludes by demonstrating how leprosy was understood, looking briefly at local and biomedical means of identifying and combating these diseases, and the meanings of these diseases in the rapidly changing contexts of mid- and late-colonial rule and the onset of Nigerian Independence in 1960.</p>  a0305-7518