# The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/167-the-tanganyika-laughter-epidemic/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 167 · Moral Panic / Mass Hysteria
The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic
The Kashasha laughter epidemic
1962 – 1963 · Kashasha, Nshamba and the Bukoba district, Tanganyika (now Tanzania)
XVI. CONTAGION — SYMPTOMS THAT SPREAD WITHOUT A PATHOGEN
None doctrinally, though the affected schools were mission-run.
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 9 DECEMBER 1961 Tanganyika becomes independent. The mission schools are under new expectations and considerable pressure.
- 30 JANUARY 1962 AT A MISSION-RUN GIRLS' BOARDING SCHOOL IN KASHASHA, THREE PUPILS BEGIN LAUGHING AND CANNOT STOP. It spreads. Eventually 95 OF THE 159 PUPILS, AGED 12 TO 18, ARE AFFECTED. Staff are not.
- 18 MARCH 1962 THE SCHOOL IS CLOSED, AND CLOSING IT SPREADS THE OUTBREAK. Pupils carry it home to their villages and to other schools.
- APRIL–MAY 1962 At NSHAMBA, a village about 55 miles west of Bukoba where several of the girls lived, 217 PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED OVER 34 DAYS.
- 1962–63 In all, ABOUT 14 SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED AND AROUND 1,000 PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED. The phenomenon dies out roughly 18 months after it began.
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