Medicine, mobility and the empire: Nyasaland networks, 1859–1960

287 Pages·2017·7.568 MB·English

by  Markku Hokkanen

General editor: Andrew S. Thompson
Founding editor: John M. MacKenzie
When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded
by Professor John M. MacKenzie more than thirty years
ago, emphasis was laid upon the conviction that
‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as significant
an effect on the dominant as on the subordinate societies’.
With well over a hundred titles now published, this
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and American imperialism, and particularly welcomes the
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Medicine, mobility and the empire
SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES
WRITING IMPERIAL HISTORIES
ed. Andrew S. Thompson
EMPIRE OF SCHOLARS
Tamson Pietsch
HISTORY, HERITAGE AND COLONIALISM
Kynan Gentry
COUNTRY HOUSES AND THE BRITISH EMPIRE
Stephanie Barczewski
THE RELIC STATE
Pamila Gupta
WE ARE NO LONGER IN FRANCE
Allison Drew
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
ed. Robert Burroughs and Richard Huzzey
HEROIC IMPERIALISTS IN AFRICA
Berny Sèbe
Medicine, mobility
and the empire
nyasaland networks, 1859–1960
Markku Hokkanen
MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © Markku Hokkanen 2017
The right of Markku Hokkanen to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
ALTRINCHAM STREET, MANCHESTER M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 7849 9146 3 hardback
First published 2017
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any
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Typeset
by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
For Liz and in memory of my mother, Marja-Liisa Hokkanen

CONTENTS
Lists of maps and figures—page viii
Acknowledgements—ix
Abbreviations—xii
Glossary—xiii
Maps—xiv
Introduction: medicine, mobility and the empire 1
1 Mobilities, medicine and health in the Malawi region:
networks of empire, missions and labour,
c.1859–c.1960 23
2 Laypeople, professionals and the ‘Livingstone tradition’:
assessing European health, spaces and mobilities in
South-Central Africa, c.1859–c.1940 54
3 Spiritual and secular medicine in Malawian–British
Protestant mission networks, c.1859–c.1940 86
4 Knowledge, secrecy and contestation: early medical
encounters, c.1859–c.1930 116
5 African medical middles and migrant doctors,
c.1890–c.1960 157
6 Quinine, malarial fevers and mobility: a biography
of a ‘European fetish’, c.1859–c.1940 186
7 Colonising African medicines? Central African
medicines and poisons and knowledge-making
in the empire, c.1859–c.1940 218
Epilogue: mobilities, networks and the making
of colonial medical culture 240
Bibliography—245
Index—265
[ vii ]
MAPS AND FIGURES
Maps
1 Malawi region, late nineteenth century page xiv
2 Southern Africa, early twentieth century xv
Figures
1 ‘Dr. Livingstone unlocking Central Africa’, 1870
(Wellcome Library, London) 148
2 Steam power on the Zambesi, 1859–63
(Wellcome Library, London) 149
3 Livingstone’s portable medicines, 1860s
(Science Museum, London, Wellcome Images) 150
4 Commercial view of mobile medicine in
Central Africa, 1910 (Wellcome Library, London) 151
5 Colonial knowledge-production in the field (1):
sleeping sickness commission, c.1911
(Wellcome Library, London) 152
6 Colonial knowledge-production in the field (2):
sleeping sickness commission, c.1911
(Wellcome Library, London) 153
7 ‘Livingstone Rousers’ in tabloid form
by Burroughs Wellcome, 1896 (Wellcome Library,
London) 154
8 Tropical plants investigated: variant of
Strophanthus plant, 1885 (Wellcome Library,
London) 155
9 Processed medicine from the tropics:
strophanthin by Burroughs Wellcome, 1917
(Science Museum, London, Wellcome Images) 156
[ viii ]