Medicine As A Weapon In The Struggle For Namibian Liberation (original) (raw)

Abstract

HARARE 22-24 APRIL 1987 r \ V " i USTI^IRNATIOInIAL SEMINAR SERIES • DISCUSSION PAPERS Please N a t e : These discussion papers have been reproduced as they were presented at the seminars, without editing. The papers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Co-ordinating Committee -members,. the Departments of Economics, L a w , or Political and Administrative Studies, or the Ford Foundation who have sponsored the seminars.' / MEDICINE IN TEE STKUGSLE EOE NAIOIDIAN LIBERATION INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR SERIESJ "SOUTHERN AFRICAN RESPONSES TO IMPERIALISM" University oe zimbabye, Harare APRIL 22-24, 1937 DR. AKWASI AEDOO . INSTITUTE OE DEVELOBISET STUDIES UNIVERSITY OE DAR S3 SALAAM TANZANIA ETThODUCTION In 1849 when Rudolph .Virchow, the famous German public health physician remarked pithily that "medicine is a social science and politics is medicine on a large scale",.'* he was to draw attention to a critical dimension of the link between political economy and medicine. The import of Virchow's statement is that in class society medicine in its broadest terms is indeed a reflection of class politics. This conception is very insightful for a funda mental reason. Medicine, given its generally innocuous aura, is often accorded value-free and non-political/non-social attributes. \ ' \ And yet in this epoch of imperialism, medicine has been organised principally to enhance the accumulation of capital and the politicocultural hegemony of imperialism. The notion that medicine is scientific and therefore harmless and promotes health as an end in itself is nothing but liberal mythology. Frantz Fanon captured the instrumental character of medicine under imperialism when tie observed that: In the colonies, the doctor is an integral part of colonization, of domination, of exploitation.'-The historical origins of m o d e m medicine in Africa are deeply rooted in imperialism^ In the long and systematic process of establishing European colonial control, medical doctors served as powerful agents of propaganda and socialisation to imperialist penetration and hegemony, oftentimes serving as officers in the

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