ABSTRACT
Health concerns constituted the official rationale for most Town Planning schemes that were implemented in colonial Africa. Some of the most prominent of the public health schemes that were executed during the colonial era in Africa have been exhaustively discussed by Curtin. The schemes can be appreciated under the following three broad categories according to their avowed purposes, namely malaria combating strategies; plague control and combating; and general hygiene and public health promotion. Consequently, there is a vast gap in our knowledge of how public health served as a pretext for attaining other important objectives of the colonial project in Africa. As a public health promotion strategy, it was not enough, colonial authorities believed, to simply isolate European residential units from indigenous settlements. The Germans were initially persuaded by theories advocating prophylactic measures such as the mass distribution of quinine as a means of protecting Europeans against tropical diseases.
