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On January 30th, 1962, an all-girls boarding school in Kashasha, Tanganyika, witnessed one of the oddest types of mass hysteria ever recorded in human history: The Laughter Epidemic.

This epidemic, obviously noted by hysterical laughter, as well as crying, restlessness, fainting, pain, respiratory problems, and rashes, affected a total of 95 girls between the ages of 12 to 18, causing the school to close twice within four months.

Unfortunately, the laughter epidemic didn’t stop at Kashasha. Over the course of 18 months, this mass hysteria spread to the Nshamba, Ramashenye, and Kanyangereka villages, affecting at least 1,000 people during its run.

Mass Hysteria?

Mass Hysteria has been documented several times throughout history, most notably the Salem Witch Trials in Colonial Massachusetts. It’s often separated into two distinct groups:

• Mass anxiety hysteria, which shows up in close-knit groups or communities, and

• Mass motor hysteria, which shows up in large groups of people experiencing long-term stress.

There’s also a more modern term, Mass Psychogenic Illness, in which physical symptoms are spread through a group seemingly without a catalyst or illness present, so while the symptoms are real, the ‘why’ comes from psychological factors instead of physical ones. 

Why Did This Happen?

To understand how a laughter epidemic could find a serious stronghold in the minds of 1,000 people, we need to provide some context.

Tanganyika had fought and won its independence from the United Kingdom only the year prior, leaving the country on a shaky foundation for the 4 years it ran independently.

Okay, so we have a country trying to find its footing, but that can’t be the only thing that caused such a wide reach of hysteria. That’s correct, dear reader. There’s more.

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During the UK’s occupation of Tanganyika, they pushed for the implementation of missionary schools—faith-based schools that clashed against the traditional cultural practices that existed within African communities for thousands of years. 

The cherry on top is that the primary affected group was adolescents, who are facing just as much internal, hormonal stress on top of conflicting external pressures, while many of them reach maturity in a newly independent state. We mean, can you really blame them for this reaction?

Correlating Events

While the laughter mania was the first mass hysteria experienced within African communities, it certainly wasn’t the last.

In July and November 1963, two Ugandan communities, Kigezi and Mbale, experienced a “running mania,” which was described with the following symptoms.

• Running

• Chest Pain

• Agitation

• Talkativeness

• Violence

• Anorexica

• Exhaustion

• Quietness

• Depression

This mass hysteria came on almost immediately; the laughing mania teetered out, showcasing that these widespread cultural feelings hadn’t dissipated. What’s even more compelling is that psychiatrists noticed that there were common symptoms in groups from different tribal boundaries. 

This particular fact convinced Benjamin H. Kagwa, a psychiatrist at the time, that these manias were indeed rooted in a rapid shift from traditional beliefs.

"We must not, however, think for one moment that this is peculiar to Africans,” Kagwa writes. There is much historical evidence to prove that emotional upheavals associated with hysteria occur whenever a people's cultural roots and beliefs become suddenly shattered."