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Explaining how leprosy was considered in various historical settings by referring to categories of uncleanliness in antiquity, is problematic. The book historicizes how leprosy has been framed and addressed. It investigates the history of leprosy in Suriname, a plantation society where the vast majority of the population consisted of imported slaves from Africa. The relationship between the modern stigmatization and exclusion of people affected with leprosy, and the political tensions and racial fears originating in colonial slave society, exerting their influence until after the decolonization up to the present day. The book explores leprosy management on the black side of the medical market in the age of slavery as contrasted with the white side. The difference in perspectives on leprosy between African slaves and European masters contributed to the development of the 'Great Confinement' policies, and leprosy sufferers were sent to the Batavia leprosy asylum. Dutch debates about leprosy took place when the threat of a 'return' of leprosy to the Netherlands appeared to materialise. A symbiotic alliance for leprosy care that had formed between the colonial state and the Catholics earlier in the nineteenth century was renegotiated within the transforming landscape of Surinamese society to incorporate Protestants as well. By 1935, Dutch colonial medicine had dammed the growing danger of leprosy by using the modern policies of detection and treatment. Dutch doctors and public health officials tried to come to grips with the Afro-Surinamese belief in treef and its influence on the execution of public health policies.
say: to avenge themselves for the injustice done to them by us, the Negroes –or rather the Surinamese –have given us this legacy [of leprosy] [my translation]’. Van Woensel, ‘West-Indische fragmenten’, p. 51. 42 42 Leprosy and colonialism 56 Schilling, Verhandeling, pp. 29– 32. On sexual relations in Suriname between Europeans and Africans: van Stipriaan, ‘Surinaams contrast’, p. 396; Buddingh’, Geschiedenis, pp. 65–9. On other Caribbean colonies: R. Hyam, Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990), pp