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Abstract
Early historiography on medicine in British colonial Africa suggests that colonial government and missionary medicine occupied two relatively distinct spheres, and that government officials viewed medical missionaries with suspicion and distrust. Contrary to this paradigm, this article suggests that missionaries and colonial government officials collaborated extensively and amicably in the treatment of leprosy in Uganda. Mission, medical, and government correspondence and reports are drawn upon in order to demonstrate that the suspicion and tension that characterised so many other interactions between British colonial government officials and missionaries was largely absent in the treatment of leprosy in Uganda. The mutual social and cultural priorities of missionaries and government administrators led to a system of isolated, in-patient leprosy care that was limited in scope and reflective not of a goal for the public health of Uganda, but rather a vision for the future of Uganda as a “civilised” and Christian country.
Notes
1. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 74–5; Beck, History of the British Medical Administration, 54.
2. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 39; Comaroff, “Diseased Heart of Africa,” 320; Ranger, “Godly Medicine,” 261.
3. Good, Steamer Parish, 337; Manton, “Roman Catholic Mission and Leprosy Control,” 114–19; Shankar, “Medical Missionaries and Modernizing Emirs.”
4. Jennings, “Healing of Bodies, Salvation of Souls,” 37; Hunt, A Colonial Lexicon, 161.
5. Dr J. Ross Innes, “Report No. 4, Uganda,” Uganda National Archives (UGA), Entebbe, J6/25I.
6. Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Wiggins 1930; Minutes of the Standing Committee of the Upper Nile Mission, 1948, CMS G3/A10/2; Kumi Leper Settlement, CMS G3/A10/m1A 1950–1.
7. “CMS Medical Missions: VII. The Care of the Leper,” 147.
8. Langley, “A Beginning on the Leper Island,” 20; Mash, “Miss Mash,” 10.
9. Nyenga Leprosy Hospital: Report in Brief, 1982, St Francis Leprosy Hospital, Nyenga, 1; Innes, “Report No. 3,” UGA, J6/25I.
10. Hansen “Colonial State's Policy”; Hansen, Mission, Church and State; Good, Steamer Parish, 336–7; McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi, 197–225.
11. Williams, “Healing and Evangelism.”
12. Smith, “Leprosy in Kigezi,” 314.
13. Uganda Herald, “A Leper Settlement.”
14. Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Langley 1933.
15. Ranger, “Godly Medicine,” 262; Walls, “The Heavy Artillery of the Missionary Army,” 288; Matthew 10.8 (Holy Bible).
16. There was no effective biomedical treatment for leprosy until the introduction of sulphone drugs in the late 1940s; Mary Sharp (daughter of Dr L.E.S. Sharp), in interview with the author, November 2009; “CMS Medical Missions: VII. The Care of the Leper,” 147; Sharp, “Lake Bunyonyi Leper Colony.”
17. Mother Kevin, “Worldwide Appeal for Lepers.”
18. Walls, “Heavy Artillery of the Mission Army,” 288; Williams, “Healing and Evangelism,” 276; “C.M.S. Medical Missions,” 130–4.
19. “CMS Medical Missions: VII. The Care of the Leper,” 147; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Langley 1932.
20. Medical Mission Auxiliary Year Review, 1936–7, CMS H/H5/E2.
21. Sharp, “Kigezi,” 103; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Atkinson 1932; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Langley 1931.
22. Langley, “Letter,” 12; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Atkinson 1931; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Robinson 1931.
23. Manton, “Roman Catholic Mission and Leprosy Control,” 114–19; Shankar, “Medical Missionaries and Modernizing Emirs.”
24. Innes, “Report No. 1,” UGA, J6/25I; Innes, “Report No. 4” UGA, J6/25I; Innes, “Report No. 5,” UGA, J6/25I.
25. Annual Report of the Medical Department, Uganda Protectorate, 1947, United Kingdom National Archives (UKNA), London, CO 685/30, 55; Innes, “Report No. 12, Uganda,” UGA, J6/25I.
26. Ross Innes, “Report No. 1,” UGA, J6/25I; Letter from Busoga DC to Superintendent of St Francis Leper Settlement, Nyenga, December 11, 1948, Jinja District Archives (JDA), Infectious and Contagious Diseases; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Mash 1943.
27. Annual Report of St. Francis’ Leper Settlement, Nyenga, 1936, Bishop's House, Jinja, Nyenga Leper Camp.
28. Crozier, Practising Colonial Medicine, 78.
29. Letter from Kigezi District Medical Officer (DMO) 1929, KDA, Medical General.
30. Letter from Kigezi DMO 1929, KDA, Medical General.
31. Letter from Acting Western Provincial Commissioner (PC), Philipps, to Chief Secretary, May 23, 1930, KDA, Medical General; Letter from Kigezi DC to Western PC, May 15, 1930, KDA, Medical General.
32. Letter from Kigezi DC, Philipps to the Western PC, April 24, 1929, KDA, Medical General.
33. Wiggins, The Proposed Anti-Leprosy Campaign in Teso, Uganda, June 1, 1928, The Leprosy Mission Archives, Brentford, 118/16.
34. “Ng'ora,” 106.
35. Letter from Wiggins to Hooper, March 31, 1929, CMS G3/A10/m1A 1934–9; Cook, “Editorial Notes,” 30.
36. Wiggins, The Proposed Anti-Leprosy Campaign in Teso, June 1, 1928, Leprosy Mission, 118/16.
37. Letter from Eastern Provincial Medical Officer to Busoga DC, March 1943, JDA, Medical: Leprosy.
38. Innes, “Report No. 12,” UGA, J6/25I.
39. Annual Report of the Medical Department, Uganda Protectorate, 1947, UKNA, CO 685/30, 18.
40. Innes, “Report No. 12,” UGA, J6/25I.
41. Letter from J.H. Wallace, Entebbe to Potter, Colonial Office, January 15, 1949, UGA, J6/25I.
42. A similar point is made by Tiberondwa, Missionary Teachers, 39–44.
43. Walls, “Heavy Artillery of the Mission Army,” 288; Williams, “Healing and Evangelism,” 276; Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 86.
44. Crozier, Practising Colonial Medicine, 59.
45. Crozier, Practising Colonial Medicine, 60.
46. “Obituary: C.A. Wiggins, 363.
47. Sharp, “Letter,” 27.
48. Mother Kevin, “Worldwide Appeal for the Lepers.”
49. Crozier, Practising Colonial Medicine, 61; Hardiman, “Introduction,” 20.
50. Senior Medical Officer, Jinja, to Busoga DC, September 26, 1930, JDA Medical: Leprosy; Memo from Director of Medical Services, Buchanan containing summary of BELRA Meeting Notes from July 1943, JDA Medical: Leprosy; Sharp, “Kigezi,” 103; Smith, “Leprosy in Kigezi,” 314.
51. Beidelman, Colonial Evangelism, 21; Stanley, Bible and the Flag, 157–61.
52. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 79.
53. Minutes of Uganda's BELRA Committee Meeting, April 8, 1946, Rubaga Cathedral Archives (RCA), Rubaga.
54. Langley, “Cleanse the Lepers,” 314.
55. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 79.
56. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills, 83, 88; Sharp, “Account of the R.G.M.M. and Leprosy,” 6; Sharp, “Letter,” 10; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Mash 1949; Joy Gowers (daughter of Dr L.E.S. Sharp), in interview with the author, February 2010.
57. A similar point is made by Manton, “Roman Catholic Mission and Leprosy Control,” 108 and Jennings, “Healing of Bodies, Salvation of Souls,” 34.
58. Makower, Not a Gap Year, 66.
59. Annual Report of the Medical Department, Uganda Protectorate, 1930, UKNA, CO 685/30, 10–1; Sharp, interview.
60. Langley, “Report of the Leper Work,” 318.
61. Makower, Not a Gap Year, 53; Letter from Kigezi DMO, 1929, KDA, Medical General; Gowers, interview.
62. Letter from Western PC, Cooper, to Principal Medical Officer, Entebbe, September 22, 1922, KDA, Medical General.
63. Letter from Western PC, Cooper, to Principal Medical Officer, Entebbe, September 22, 1922, KDA, Medical General.
64. This is the most prolonged disagreement that is evident in the sources available in Uganda. A fuller analysis of the relationship between missions and government is hampered by the limitations of available archival sources on the Catholic leprosy settlements, the Buganda District government (responsible for the hospital at Nyenga), and the Protectorate Medical Department.
65. Letter from Kigezi DC, Philipps, to Western PC, April 24, 1929, KDA, Medical General; Letter from Kigezi DMO, 1929, KDA, Medical General.
66. Letter from Kigezi DC to Western PC, March 24, 1927, KDA, Medical General; Letter from the Kigezi DC to the Western PC, March 1928, KDA, Medical General.
67. Letter from Western PC to the Director of Medical Services (DMSS) Keane, September 1928, KDA, Medical General.
68. Letter from DMSS Keane to Kigezi DC, Philipps, March 30, 1929, KDA, Medical General; Record of meeting on 31/1/29, KDA, Medical General.
69. Crozier, Practising Colonial Medicine, 115.
70. Crozier, Practising Colonial Medicine, 119–24; Hardiman, “Introduction,” 41–2.
71. Makower, Not a Gap Year, 15.
72. Letter from DMSS Keane to Kigezi DC, Philipps, March 30, 1929, KDA, Medical General.
73. Minutes of a meeting of the CMS Medical Subconference at Mengo Hospital, May 7, 1930, CMS G3/A7/O.
74. Wiggins, “Ng'ora,” 106; Annual Letter, CMS G3/AL Wiggins1930.
75. Wiggins, “The Proposed Anti-Leprosy Campaign in Teso, Uganda,” June 1, 1928, Leprosy Mission, 118/16.
76. Several letters refer to this incident, from 1930 to 1931, Leprosy Mission, 118/16.
77. Letter from Acting DMSS to Chief Secretary, November 2, 1932, UGA, J6/11; Nyenga Annual Report, Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa Convent (FMSA), Dundalk, Ireland, e. Nyenga.
78. C. Ferlay, “Les Pères Blancs et les ‘Anglais’ au Buganda de 1879 à 1929,” 351.
79. Letter from Bishop Campling, September 9, 1932, Mill Hill Mission, Freshfield, England, UGA/24 1932; Letter from Mother Kevin to Father Minderop, May 31, 1933, Bishop's House, Jinja, Uganda, Nyenga Leper Camp.
80. Innes, “Report No. 1,” UGA, J6/25I; Innes, “Report No. 3,” UGA, J6/25I; Innes, “Report No. 5,” UGA, J6/25I.
81. Letter from Acting Eastern PC Kennedy to Chief Secretary, November 11, 1938, UGA, 4001.
82. Buluba Annual Report, 1946, RCA.
83. Letter from Secretary, Uganda Branch BELRA to St. Francis Leper Village, Buluba, September 17, 1946, RCA.
84. Letter from Secretary, Uganda Branch BELRA to General Secretary BELRA London, October 9, 1946, RCA.
85. Ongino Annual Report, 1944, CMS G3/A10/m1A.
86. Kumi and Ongino Annual Report, 1948, RCA.
87. Minutes of Uganda's BELRA Committee Meeting, April 19, 1951, RCA; Good, Steamer Parish, 340.
88. Crozier, Practising Colonial Medicine, 124.
89. Letter from the Busoga to President of the Busoga Lukiko and Busoga DMO, October 3, 1930, JDA, Medical: Leprosy; Letter from Mother Solano to Busoga DC, October 9, 1945, JDA, Medical Leprosy; Letter from Busoga.
90. Letter from Busoga DMO to Busoga DC, July 13, 1943, JDA, Medical Leprosy; Letter from Busoga DC to Sr Felicity, Buluba, April 13, 1945, JDA, Medical Leprosy.
91. Minutes of Uganda's BELRA Committee Meeting, April 8, 1946, RCA; “Leprosy,” 250; Letter from Busoga DC to M. Solano, St Francis Leper Settlement, Buluba, October 3, 1945, JDA, Medical Leprosy; Letter from Teso Health Office to Kumi, May 16, 1956, Kumi Hospital.
92. Jennings, “Healing of Bodies, Salvation of Souls,” 50.
93. Hansen, “Colonial State's Policy,” 158.