Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how possibilites to trust others changed in the Ebola epidemic

Paper long abstract:

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa transformed all kinds of social connection, from the intimate to the governmental. The epidemic was characterised by the introduction of new forms of separation that aimed to curtail the spread of the disease. These have huge implications for possibilities for trust in intimate, governmental and therapeutic relations. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, this article explores the effects of these forms of social separation. In doing so, this paper contributes to anthropological literature on the constitution of forms of detachment and separation within social relations.