Health, Healing and Illness in African History

Rebekah Lee's book offers a critical introduction to the diverse history of health, healing, and illness in sub-Saharan Africa from the 1800s to the present day, focusing on how illness and health were understood and managed by healthcare providers, African patients, their families, and communities. It provides a historical overview of African health and illness, as well as a case study approach to specific health challenges in Africa, such as HIV/AIDS, mental illness, tropical disease, and occupational disease.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 25 February 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Rebekah Lee's book offers a critical introduction to the diverse history of health, healing, and illness in sub-Saharan Africa from the 1800s to the present day. It focuses 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 forefront a cast of actors, institutions, and ideas that profoundly and intimately shaped African health experiences and outcomes. The book guides the reader through a wide range of historical source material and highlights the theoretical and methodological innovations that 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, such as 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.

Weight: 442g
Dimension: 234 x 157 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474254373