Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College
Abstract
Drawing on oral traditions and archival materials, this article examines the validity of claims made by the French colonial physicians and administrators that the African patients’ mistrust of and resistance to biomedicine had to do with their superstition, apathy, and ignorance, as well as with the pressure exercised upon them by healers, marabouts, and midwives. It argues that the African patients’ therapeutic choices were rational and were informed by their cultural history
