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Article ID: CBB591035348

"I Was Doctor": White Settler Women's Amateur Medical Practice in East and South-Central African Communities, 1890–1939 (2018)

Wells, Julia (Author)

Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Volume: 92
Issue: 3
Pages: 413-438

DOI: 10.1353/bhm.2018.0054

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/707068

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Women and health Medicine and culture Medicine, traditional Medicine Amateurs Health Great Britain, colonies 19th century 20th century Rhodesia Kenya Africa

Professional medicine in colonial British Africa has been extensively examined by historians. Few scholars, however, have adequately considered the role that white settlers without medical training played in the provision of colonial health care in local African communities. This article addresses the gap by exploring amateur medical treatment by white settler women in East and South-Central African communities between 1890 and 1939, primarily in highland areas of Kenya and Southern Rhodesia. It examines the types of conditions treated, what techniques and equipment were used for treatment, and where treatment was carried out. It also explores medical identity in settler women’s memoirs. Last, it considers the degree of choice exercised by patients in these amateur medical encounters. Overall, this article situates white settlers’ amateur treatment in African communities as an important strand of colonial health care and as an intimate contact zone between white settlers, colonial medicine, and local people.

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