Overview

In this book, Rebekah Lee offers a critical introduction to the diverse history of health, healing and illness in sub-Saharan Africa from the 1800s to the present day. Its focus is not simply on disease but rather on how illness and health were understood and managed: by healthcare providers, African patients, their families and communities. Through a sustained interdisciplinary approach, Lee brings to the foreground a cast of actors, institutions and ideas that both profoundly and intimately shaped African health experiences and outcomes. This book guides the reader through a wide range of historical source material, and highlights the theoretical and methodological innovations which have enriched this scholarship. Part One delivers a concise historical overview of African health and illness from the long ‘pre-colonial’ past through the colonial period and into the present day, providing an understanding of broad patterns – of major disease challenges, experiences of illness, and local and global health interventions – and their persistence or transformation across time. Part Two adopts a ‘case study’ approach, focusing on specific health challenges in Africa – HIV/AIDS, mental illness, tropical disease and occupational disease – and their unfolding across time and space. Health, Healing and Illness in African History is the first wide-ranging survey of this key topic in African history and the history of health and medicine, and the ideal introduction for students.

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9781474254373

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The range of sources discussed and the examples [Rebekah Lee] covers repeatedly extend beyond disciplinary boundaries. It is as medically informed as it is anthropologically and politically scientific. * H-Soz-Kult (Bloomsbury Translation) * An immensely useful and erudite synthesis, ideal for advanced undergraduate students learning about the practice of historical inquiry as well as graduate students studying for comprehensive exams. ... As both a road map of our past and a blueprint for the future, it is essential and rewarding reading. * ISIS Journal *

The range of sources discussed and the examples [Rebekah Lee] covers repeatedly extend beyond disciplinary boundaries. It is as medically informed as it is anthropologically and politically scientific. * H-Soz-Kult (Bloomsbury Translation) *

Author Information

Rebekah Lee is Senior Lecturer in History, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. She is the author of African Women and Apartheid: Migration and Settlement in Urban South Africa (2009).

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