Colonial Listening and the Epistemology of Deception

Focusing on nineteenth-century colonial southern Africa, this paper suggests that the deployment of European listening technologies led equally to new forms of knowledge and new forms of deception. Particularly in colonial medical practice, deception proliferated in two main arenas: first, there was tremendous anxiety surrounding medical imposters, that is, con men and women without training who acted like doctors and nurses, and who pretended to listen to the signs of the body while making (fake) diagnoses; second, physicians doubted the efficacy of stethoscopes and frequently compared the devices to the paraphernalia of “Zulu witchdoctors.” Taken together, these twin uncertainties produced epistemological instability. In addition and contrary to increased rationalization and efficiency, imperialism therefore produced acoustic deception, counterfeiting, and illusion. Taking a cue from Ackbar Abbas, I advocate the analysis of an epistemology of deception alongside the more typical epistemology of truth.