Sexual Health in Britain’s West African Colonial Army (1898–1960)

Unlike the British metropolitan military, Britain’s new West African colonial army of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ignored sexually transmitted diseases, more concerned with tropical disease and establishing medical infrastructure. This changed after the First World War when British officers in West Africa launched aggressive interventions against venereal disease in the ranks, including genital inspections, punishments, and emergency disinfection, none of which had any impact. After the Second World War, with more effective treatments, British officers stopped obsessing over sexually transmitted disease among West African soldiers. Colonial stereotypes around race and gender informed these military health policies.