The Malaria Guru

Zul Premji’s Malaria Memoirs begins in much the same way as Primo Levi’s classic The Periodic Table: deep within a childhood world of family relationships. Perhaps especially for a scientist, those early days of self-discovery influence one’s personal folklore in ways that can hardly be classified.

For both Levi and Premji, the importance of siblings, teachers, and youthful adventures is self-evident, proof that science and life play out side by side. To connect these realms — physical nature and the human world — and to notice their correspondences is to gain insight into personal, social, and political experiences. In the tradition of the Italian chemist, Premji has written an episodic narrative full of metaphors and broader lessons drawn from a long career.

Premji was born in 1954 in Iringa, Tanzania, to a somewhat poor Ismaili family who were often on the move. First in Morogoro, then in Tanga, then on the outskirts of Masasi, he...