Western medicine in Africa, part II: Ethiopia, East and Southern Africa to 1900

Abstract

AbstractBefore 1900, Western medicine struggled to attract patients in Africa. As part 2 of the history of European medical practice in Africa before 1900, this article describes how practitioners from Europe tried to win over patients in Ethiopia and East and Southern Africa, regions that already had pluralistic healing networks of herbal and spiritual therapies. Western medicine began at a disadvantage because it could offer little to combat the diseases of the tropics or fight epidemics sweeping the continent from Asia. However, over the course of several centuries, emissaries, missionaries, and explorers from Europe were able to bring a unique set of European healing ideas, practices, and medicines to the continent with them. African patients showed skepticism towards practices that they regarded as overly invasive, such as surgery at hospitals, but they were open to experimenting with pharmaceuticals as treatments for illnesses for which they had no cure. Western medicine did not “save” the people of Africa nor did it achieve hegemony, but by 1900, it was able to gain a footing on the Horn of Africa, on the coast of East Africa, and throughout Southern Africa.