Struggling Nation

The spraying of inside walls of houses with insecticides has regained popularity in malaria control. In Ghana it was a corporate social responsibility project of a major gold-mining company that has brought insecticide spraying firmly back as a national agenda. Taking the project of the gold-mining company as a point of departure, this chapter reflects on the relationship between the ecology of spraying, democracy, and para-statal health care. I propose that insecticide spraying in the age of biological resistance is best understood as a real-world experiment. The notion emphasizes the uncertainty and tentativeness that characterizes insecticide spraying against malaria today and raises questions about global health, ecology, and democracy. Furthermore, the chapter excavates the complex relations between transnational donors and state and private business in this Ghanaian malaria control project, and questions what role the public may retain in para-statal configurations in global health.