Book Description

Curing their Ills traces the history of encounters between Europeanmedicine and African societies in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. Vaughan's detailed examination of medical discourse ofthe period reveals its shifting and fragmented nature, highlightsits use in the creation of the colonial subject in Africa, andexplores the conflict between its pretensions to scientificneutrality and its political and cultural motivations. The book includes chapters on the history of psychiatry in Africa,on the treatment of venereal diseases, on the memoirs of European'Jungle Doctors', and on mission medicine. In exploring therepresentations of disease as well as medical practice, Curingtheir Ills makes a fascinating and original contribution to bothmedical history and the social history of Africa.