The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic
In 1962, laughter spread through a girls' school in Tanganyika and then from village to village, until schools had to close.
What was reported
In January 1962, at a girls' boarding school in Kashasha, near Lake Victoria in what was then Tanganyika, a few pupils began laughing uncontrollably. Within weeks, dozens of students were affected, with bouts of laughing and crying lasting hours, and the school closed.
When the girls went home, the laughter spread to their villages and to other schools. Over the following months, around a thousand people were affected, and more than a dozen schools closed for a time.
Explanations offered
Doctors found no infection or poison. It is now considered a well-documented case of mass psychogenic illness, in which stress and anxiety spread through a group, showing up as real physical symptoms. The country had just become independent, and pupils faced new pressures at school.
- When
- 1962
- Where
- Kashasha, near Bukoba, Tanzania
- Witnesses
- Pupils, teachers and villagers
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.