Race and the spatialisation of risk during the 2013-2016 West African Ebola epidemic

This paper examines the spatial navigation of risk by international health responders working in Ebola Treatment Centres (ETCs) during the West African Ebola epidemic. Drawing on Black studies and geographies it argues for a race-conscious analysis o f spatial strategies of risk aversion in order to highlight the geographical, postcolonial and racial inequalities at the heart of the West African Ebola response. Based on interviews with international health responders to Liberia and Sierra Leone, it argues that the spatial organisation of ETCs perpetuated non-equivalence between Black and white lives and contributed to the normalisation of Black suffering and death.

Automated summary

This paper examines how international health responders navigated the risks in Ebola Treatment Centers during the West African Ebola epidemic, emphasizing the need for a race-conscious analysis of spatial strategies of risk aversion. Interviews with responders in Liberia and Sierra Leone revealed that the spatial organization of ETCs perpetuated inequalities between Black and white lives, contributing to the normalization of Black suffering and death.