Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to formulate and elevate a new counter discourse of "the healthy Africa(n)" as an antithesis to the discourse of “the sick Africa(n)” which is epitomised by Michael Gelfand’s 1943 colonial medical guidebook – and suffuses aspects of world thinking about health in an African context.

Paper long abstract:

Although it continues to linger and cause havoc like a drug resistant bug, the colonial and international discourse of Africa as a sick continent blighted by pestilence and famine has long been discredited. It is therefore not the aim of this paper to resuscitate this shibboleth of colonial medicine and kill it again for scholarly amusement; instead, the aim is to begin to fill a gap that has remained open in critiques of colonial medical discourses by formulating and elevating a new discourse of the healthy Africa(n). What are the healthy habits of Africans? How does a healthy and nourished African child look like? What concepts of health are African in origin? What discourses of a healthy Africa(n) exist in the literature?

The aim of the paper is not to produce a “merry Africa” essentialist discourse as a counter to the overly negative image of the continent’s health profile that has been predominant from the era of imperial tropical medicine, through colonial medicine, to postcolonial and global health which have carried the vestiges of the past. Instead, it seeks to paint a dynamic picture that acknowledges the health challenges of the continent but, most importantly, emphasises the healthy aspects of the continent’s profile which are often overshadowed by images of deprivation, disease, and a dark continent.

The paper will draw from historical and contemporary examples to argue for a more assertive alternative profile.