Ankylostomiasis (uncinariasis) and coffee: the antecedents of the Rockefeller Foundation's intewention in Colombia: 1900-192

Abstract

This article shows the extent to which Colombian doctors' cognitive interests respecting ankylostomiasis and local coffee growers' economic interests coincided with the Rockefeller Foundation's economic interests and those of the North American State, to allow the Ankylostomiasis (Uncinariasis) Campaign, led by the Rockefeller Foundation, to begin in 1920. The situation of disease in the country between 1900 and 1919 is first examined from the doctors' point of view and their attempts to create campaigns against it, as well as the interest which the coffee producers showed in the disease. Secondly, an examination is made of how the Rockefeller Foundation was conceived and how it used the ankylostomiasis campaign as a mechanism to penetrate Latin- American states in order to positively influence these governments in favour of the Foundation's actions in public health which would benefit, ultimately, their businesses in exploiting the region's raw materials. It was found that the doctors as well as the large-scale Colombian farmers who were part of the social élite, associated ankylostomiasis with negative effects for coffee production, at a time when Colombia was trying to link itself with international capitalism in a very definite way, thanks to the exportation of grain. This meant that the Colombian State easily acquiesced with the Foundation's campaign, a campaign which for the local élite represented an end and for the Rockefeller Foundation a means.