Swiss Researching Africa Days (Bern, 23-24.10.2020)
The Swiss Society for African Studies invites paper propositions for the upcoming 6th Swiss Researching Africa Days. The objective of this biannual convention is to promote the exchange among the community of researchers working on Africa in Switzerland. Panels typically integrate young and established scholars (Master, PhDs, postdocs, professors). Please submit your proposal before 31 July 2020 directly to the convenors of the respective panel.
Panel 6: African Contributions to Global Health Practices
Convenors: Tanja Hammel, Andrea Azizi Kifyasi & Andrea Graf, Department of History, Chair for African History, University of Basel
Medical histories in and on Africa have often focused on the activities and achievements of Euro-American missionaries, philanthropists, humanitarians, scientists, and organizations. For a long time, discourse on innovation was based on the (tacit) understanding that new developments occur in the North, while Southern countries adopt them only after some delay. This view created the impression that countries of the South had nothing or little to offer to global health practices. Challenging these unidirectional models, this panel focuses on African contributions to global health practices, examining critically its role in the production, use and circulation of medical knowledge within the continent and around the world. By referring to “health practices” we would like to transgress the biomedical sphere and include sociomedical aspect and broadly conceptualize health. The broad questions we would like to raise, are: What forms of knowledge, practices, or applications have been designed for improving health and well-being in Africa and have become relevant to global questions of health? What is the history and context behind these African contributions to global health practices?
In Western scholarship, cooperation and exchange between Southern actors is often neglected. Therefore, this panel explicitly welcomes studies on South-South cooperation, highlighting the forms and particularities of African medical knowledge exchange with the Southern world. What kind of collaborations have been established? What kind of knowledge has been circulated, how and to whose benefits?
While our panel is motivated by present-day concerns to respond to challenges in health systems, it is based on the premise that intercontinental exchanges in public health share a much longer trajectory, starting before the onset of colonialism and continuing after the Second World War with the emergence of international health politics. We therefore particularly invite historians to contribute but are interested in learning from scholars in other disciplines working in the field.
Topics: May include but are not limited to the following;
- Medical knowledge production and circulation within South-South cooperations
- African inventions/concepts in medical research or health practices
- African interventions against diseases
- Public health practices forged in African contexts and established elsewhere
- Practices of Traditional African Medicine/Herbalism
- Knowledge created on medicine (e.g. in clinical trials) conducted in African research centers and development of pharmaceutical industries in Africa
- Health policies in post-colonial Africa
Paper proposals (500 words max) should be sent no later than 31 July 2020 to: Andrea.Graf@unibas.ch
