The Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa claimed more than 11, lives between The source is believed to have been a single infection of a small boy, caused by contact with a bat. A huge international effort was mobilized to stem the spread of the disease. However, these efforts were hampered by a strong and sometimes violent resistance against the relief workers.
This article focuses on the resistance in Guinea, arguing that the resistance was fueled by conspiracy theories, often originating in urban centers and communicated via social media. The conspiracy theories then merged with local sorcery beliefs, producing narratives in which Ebola relief workers and local politicians were presented as implicated in a sinister occult plot. We would like to express our deep gratitude to our respondents for their assistance during the fieldwork.
We also thank Pr. His death was the first in what would become the largest recorded outbreak of the Ebola virus disease evd βone of the worst public health crises in modern history. International efforts were eventually mobilized to stem the spread of the disease, and national and international relief teams were sent into affected areas.
However, as during earlier outbreaks in Central and East Africa and the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo drc , there was a widespread feeling of distrust towards health workers, resulting in resistance, and sometimes violent attacks. This distrust and resistance presented a major challenge to the evd eradication initiative and likely contributed to the speed with which the epidemic spread.
The present paper focuses particularly on the resistance towards evd relief teams in Guinea, arguing that it was fueled by conspiracy theories, often merged with local notions of witchcraft and malevolent magic sorcery. These conspiracy theories, reportedly originating from the capital cities and urban centers in the region, associated the epidemic and the relief effort with an imagined sinister plot involving powerful local politicians as well as Western agents and agencies.
