Medicine, Mobility and the Empire

This book makes a new contribution to histories of medicine and health in the colonial era, with particular focus on Malawi, the British Empire and Southern Africa. It argues that mobility of people, ideas and materials was crucial within the dynamic, intertwined and networked medical culture of colonial Malawi. -- .

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David Livingstone’s Zambesi expedition marked the beginning of an ongoing series of medical exchanges between the British and Malawians. This book explores these entangled histories by placing medicine in the frameworks of mobilities and networks that extended across Southern Africa and beyond. It provides a new approach to the study of medicine and empire.

Drawing on a range of written and oral sources, the book argues that mobility was a crucial aspect of intertwined medical cultures that shared a search for therapy in changing conditions. Mobile individuals, ideas and materials played key roles in medical networks that involved both professionals and laypeople. These networks connected colonial medicine with Protestant Christianity and migrant labour.

The book will be of value to scholars and students of history and anthropology of colonialism and medicine, as well as a wider readership interested in the plural search for health in Africa and globally. -- .