The Professionalisation of African Medicine


Book Description

Originally published in 1986, this book draws upon a range of authors to reflect wide interest in systematising traditional medicine, and to include material on significant instances of regulation or organisation. It was the first book to study the efforts of traditional healers and their newly formed professional associations and as such constitutes a pioneering collection of sources. Because of the changing position of traditional medicine it may well also be a unique record: before long what is described here will largely have disappeared.




East African Doctors


Book Description

John Iliffe's 1998 book is a history of the African medical profession in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania from the earliest training of modern medical staff in the 1870s to the present day. Based on extensive research, and dealing exclusively with African doctors, it offers an understanding of professionalisation in the Third World. It describes the recruitment and education of doctors, their understanding and practice of modern medicine, the struggle for international recognition of their qualifications and efforts to develop East African medical systems after independence, and their experiences during a period of political and economic difficulty. The book ends with an account of the significant work of East African doctors in the study and control of AIDS. This is a major contribution to the social history of Africa and to the social history of medicine more broadly.




Healing Traditions


Book Description

Healing Traditions offers a historical perspective to the interactions between South Africa's traditional healers and biomedical practitioners. It provides an understanding that is vital for the development of medical strategies to effectively deal with South Africa's healthcare challenges.







Biomedical Hegemony and Democracy in South Africa


Book Description

In Biomedical Hegemony and Democracy in South Africa Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta and Tabi Chama-James Tabenyang unpack the contentious South African government’s post-apartheid policy framework of the ‘‘return to tradition policy’’. The conjuncture between deep sociopolitical crises, witchcraft, the ravaging HIV/AIDS pandemic and the government’s initial reluctance to adopt antiretroviral therapy turned away desperate HIV/AIDS patients to traditional healers. Drawing on historical sources, policy documents and ethnographic interviews, Pemunta and Tabenyang convincingly demonstrate that despite biomedical hegemony, patients and members of their therapy-seeking group often shuttle between modern and traditional medicine, thereby making both systems of healthcare complementary rather than alternatives. They draw the attention of policy-makers to the need to be aware of ‘‘subaltern health narratives’’ in designing health policy.




The African Transformation of Western Medicine and the Dynamics of Global Cultural Exchange


Book Description

Beginning with the colonial era, Western biomedicine has radically transformed African medical beliefs and practices. Conversely, in using Western biomedicine, Africans have also transformed it. The African Transformation of Western Medicine and the Dynamics of Global Cultural Exchange contends that contemporary African medical systems—no less “biomedical” than Western medicine—in fact greatly enrich and expand the notion of biomedicine, reframing it as a global cultural form deployed across global networks of cultural exchange. The book analyzes biomedicine as a complex and dynamic sociocultural form, the conceptual premises of which make it necessarily subject to ongoing change and development as it travels the globe. David Baronov captures the complexities of this cultural exchange by using world-systems analysis in a way that places global cultural processes on equal footing with political and economic processes. In doing so, he both allows the story of Africa’s transformation of “Western” biomedicine to be told and offers new insights into the capitalist world system.




Health and Health Care in Developing Countries


Book Description

The volume covers a range of areas, central Africa, Nigeria, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Nepal, China, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Mexico, and a broad scope of topics, from emergency care, the AIDS epidemic, and women's health care, to public health programs and national health care policies. Contributors address the central question of whether health systems in developing areas should emphasize the role of clinical medicine and individual physicians or community and preventive medical resources. The major health problems faced by these societies, inadequate sanitation, infectious disease, high infant-child mortality, and a lack of family planning, indicate the greater need for health educators and public health workers despite many poor nations' desire for Western doctors. Other topics that are examined include the process of seeking medical aid; the relationship between traditional and modern medicines; medical education, hospital care, and communication between doctors and patients in developing countries; and the relevance and application of sociology in Third World settings. This volume seeks to draw attention to the significance of medical sociology for understanding Third World health problems and to show how examining developing societies may necessitate reframing or modifying some Western sociological notions.




Non-Western Educational Traditions


Book Description

This text provides a brief yet comprehensive overview of a number of non-Western approaches to educational thought and practice. Its premise is that understanding the ways that other people educate their children--as well as what counts for them as "education"--may help us think more clearly about some of our own assumptions and values, and to become more open to alternative viewpoints about important educational matters. The value of this informative, mind-opening text for preservice and in-service teacher education courses is enhanced by "Questions for Discussion and Reflection" and "Recommended Further Readings" included in each chapter. New in the Third Edition: *Chapter 2, "Conceptualizing Culture:" 'I, We, and The Other,' is new to this edition. It is a response to feedback about the problems inherent in our general discourse about "culture," and in addition provides an example of a culture that is near to us but nevertheless alien-the culture of the Deaf-World. *Chapter 9-which deals with Islam and traditional Muslim education-has been substantially revised. *The subtitle of the Third Edition has been changed to Indigenous Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice, reflecting not so much a change in the emphases found in the book, but rather, a recognition of the growing scholarly interest in indigenous peoples, their languages, cultures, and histories. *Various points throughout the text have been expanded and clarified, and chapters have been updated as needed.




Doctors in a Divided Society


Book Description

"Many of the goals of South Africa’s new democracy depend on the production of professionals who have not only the knowledge and skills to make our country globally competitive, but also a commitment to working and living here. Despite numerous reforms, the South African health system, ten years into democracy, remains divided: first world private care that ranks with middle income countries internationally at the one end, and at the other extreme, in the rural public sector in particular, conditions that are superior only to the poorest of African countries. Much work has been done to change medical school curricula in line with the primary health-care focus of government policy, and international trends towards problem-based learning. The student profile in medical schools is now not only more representative of the demographics of South Africa, but also reveals a significant increase in female students. Whether these students will stay in the country after graduating, and serve where they are needed most, remains to be seen."--Publisher's website.