People Are Not the Same: Leprosy and Identity in Twentieth-Century Mali (Social History of Africa Series)

These firsthand accounts are frank and often gripping, helping the reader to understand (insofar as it is possible) the depth of suffering caused not so much by the disease itself as by the manifold, and almost entirely unnecessary, social stigma that accompany it. By reinforcing his interviews with documentary evidence from French colonial clinics, leprosariums, and other sources, the author puts his subjects' stories in wider perspective. He even taps into centuries-old Arabic manuscripts for insight into the status and conditions of lepers in pre-colonial Mali.

Silla's obvious familiarity with many aspects of Malian society shows through his writing, his references to local language, proverbs, and history. This is the way social histories ought to be done, putting their primary subjects and their own words first whenever possible, making judicious use of historical documents, and keeping theory in the background where it belongs. "People Are Not the Same" is one of those rare studies which manages to enlighten without indulging either in obscurantist analysis or oversimplification.