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Book Cover
E-book
Author Rankin, John, Ph. D., author.

Title Healing the African body : British medicine in West Africa 1800-1860 / John Rankin
Published Columbia, Missouri : University of Missouri Press, [2015]

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Introduction -- 1. The Ideas of Race and Medicine -- 2. British and West African Health Care -- 3. British Missionaries and the Health of Africans -- 4. African and European Health in the West African Squadron -- Conclusion -- Appendix
Summary This timely book explores the troubled intertwining of religion, medicine, empire, and race relations in the early nineteenth century. John Rankin analyzes the British use of medicine in West Africa as a tool to usher in a softer form of imperialism, considers how British colonial officials, missionaries, and doctors regarded Africans, and explores the impact of race classification on colonial constructs. Rankin goes beyond contemporary medical theory, examining the practice of medicine in colonial Africa as Britons dealt with the challenges of providing health care to their civilian employees, African soldiers, and the increasing numbers of freed slaves in the general population, even while the imperialists themselves were threatened by a lack of British doctors and western medicines. As Rankin writes, The medical system sought to not only heal Africans but to uplift them and make them more amenable to colonial control ... Colonialism starts in the mind and can be pushed on the other solely through ideological pressure.-- Provided by Publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on November 16, 2015)
Subject Medicine -- Africa, West -- History -- 19th century
British -- Africa, West -- History -- 19th century
Imperialism and science -- Africa, West -- History -- 19th century
HISTORY -- Africa -- West.
British
Imperialism and science
Medicine
SUBJECT Africa, West -- History -- 19th century
Subject West Africa
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780826273482
0826273483