Troppenkoller
Troppenkoller,also called "tropicalneurasthenia","Tropical madness "or" Tropical lunacy ", is the term used to describe a condition that some believed affected White European settlers in tropical regions likeSamoa.It was based on the belief that the hot and humid climate of these places caused behavioral and psychological changes in Europeans.Wilhelm Solfwho was colonial governor of Samoa from 1900 to 1910 believed that Troppenkoller was a symptom of racial degeneration and because of this he discouraged permanent settlement in Samoa. According to Solf settlers who lived in Samoa for longer than 25 years would suffer racial degeneration frommiscegenationortroppenkoller.[1]
Background
[edit]Historians consider the diagnosis of "tropical neurasthenia" to be the product of colonial anxieties.[2]In the 19th century tropical madness was widely considered an "occupational hazard" for European settlers.[3]There was serious concern and anxiety aboutTroppenkollerand the ability of colonists to maintain their cultural (and racial) identities.[4]
Colonial accounts
[edit]Ludwig Külz(1875-1938) recounted an evening where he became convinced an arrow has flown past his head, which he believed had been fired by a Negro. He was feverish at the time from an insect bite and he said: "I am sure that if by some unfortunate coincidence I had discovered a Negro hunched down in the grass during the course of my ghost chase I would have shot him on the spot. He believed he had been suffering fromTroppenkoller(often associated with violence and brutality).[5]
Henry Marshallclaimed that settlers in tropical areas suffered a higher rate of neurological disorders. He wrote that madness was "particularly prevalent among theimportedinhabitants of low latitudes where the temperature of the atmosphere is high ".[6]
References
[edit]- ^"Going Troppo in the South Pacific: Dr. Bernhard Funk of Samoa"(PDF).University of Auckland.
- ^Crozier, Anna (2009)."What was tropical about tropical neurasthenia? The utility of the diagnosis in the management of British East Africa".J Hist Med Allied Sci.64(4): 518–548.doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrp017.PMID19531548.
- ^Bewell, Alan (1999).Romanticism And Colonial Disease.Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 291.ISBN9780801862250.
- ^Osayimwese, Itohan (11 August 2017).Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany.University of Pittsburgh Press.ISBN9780822982913.
- ^Bischoff, Eva.Tropenkoller:Male Self-Control and the Loss of Colonial Rule.,p117 inHelpless Imperialists: Imperial Failture, Fear and Radicalization
- ^Bewell, p291
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