1 - Introduction

Summary

Historical interpretations of the nature and dynamics of health care give racial and cultural conflicts pride of place as critical factors in the introduction, management, and development of Western biomedicine in colonial Africa. Such conflicts and dichotomies present the African as overwhelmed by the colonial state, mesmerized by Western biomedicine, and humbled by European colonization. Indeed, the preexisting African traditional political, economic, and social environment faced many and varied changes brought by colonization. The previously existing political structures were restructured to accommodate the reality of the new colonial order in which the colonial state began to reign supreme.¹ At the same time, new economic frontiers symbolized by the emergence of migrant wage labor, the growth of the European settler economy, and the development of colonial trade began to affect household economic production patterns. The economic and political developments necessitated the development of social infrastructure: schools and hospitals. These projects of the new colonial order generated debates among local communities in Kenya on how to go about incorporating some of the newly introduced changes. Specifically, the issue for most Africans was how to incorporate some of the newly introduced schemes that were relevant to their needs. The stakes were quite high, particularly in the area of Western biomedicine because of the way in which it was introduced. The proponents of Western biomedicine adopted an uncompromising attitude toward African healing strategies. They sought to supplant traditional values, knowledge, and beliefs that were critical to African therapeutic practices. Yet the traditional values and beliefs expressed and reinforced fundamental ideas about health and healing. The flagrant denial of those values amounted to cultural disinheritance. Consequently, Africans critiqued certain aspects of Western biomedicine and some of its proponents. Suffice it to remark, however, that Africans and Europeans were not locked in perpetual conflict. The truth of the matter is that beneath the strands of conflicts that attended the introduction and institutionalization of Western biomedicine there existed an array of accommodations and compromises.

This book examines the conflicts brought on by the introduction, management, and institutionalization of Western biomedicine through the prism of African proactive involvement in conceptualization, interpretation, and acceptance of biomedical practices against the backdrop of colonial policies in Kenya. It is about contact, conflict, and compromise in the making of health care in twentieth-century Kenya.