Crossing colonial boundaries: health and the responses of “colonial mediators” to the crisis of the 1930s in the French and British Caribbean

Abstract

This paper explores the responses of two Caribbean men, the Jamaican Harold Moody and the French Guyanese Félix Eboué, to the economic and political crisis in the Caribbean in the 1930s, focusing on their views about health and colonial medical systems. It examines some of the international and Caribbean experiences that shaped their views and careers. Despite their differences (Moody was a medical doctor who lived in the UK for much of his life, where he lobbied for Afro-Caribbean rights, and Eboué was a colonial administrator and governor in Guadeloupe), they placed concerns about bodily health at the center of their views of colonial life, civilization, and metropolitan obligations. Both maintained that imperial powers had a moral and pragmatic obligation to improve colonial conditions through reforming health and medical services. As did many of their contemporaries, they saw good health and access to medical care as representing modernity and as necessary for economic development.

Cet article explore le positionnement critique de deux hommes caribéens, le Jamaïcain Harold Moody et le Guyanais français Felix Eboué, face à la crise économique et politique qui agita les Caraïbes dans les années 1930. L’article expose leurs pensées dans les domaines de la santé et du système de soins aux Caraïbes, à travers une sélection d’expériences internationales et caribéennes qui ont modelé leurs opinions et leurs carrières. Malgré leurs différences biographiques (Moody était médecin et a vécu la plus grande partie de sa vie au Royaume-Uni, où il a lutté activement pour les droits des Afro-Caribéens, et Eboué était un administrateur et gouverneur des colonies en Guadeloupe), ils ont tous deux placé la thématique de la santé corporelle au cœur de leur perception de la vie coloniale, de la civilisation, et des devoirs de la métropole. Tous deux ont avancé que les pouvoirs impériaux étaient dans l’obligation pratique et morale d’améliorer les conditions coloniales à travers une réforme des systèmes sanitaires et systèmes de soin. A l’instar d’un grand nombre de contemporains, ils voyaient dans la bonne santé et l’accès aux soins une manifestation de la modernité ainsi qu’une condition nécessaire du développement économique.

Keywords:

• British Caribbean
• French Caribbean
• history of health and health policy
• protests of 1930s
• empire
• Harold Moody
• Félix Eboué

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this journal and Amitava Chowdhury for their helpful comments, as well as those offered by colleagues at the conferences at which we presented some of this material. Any errors remain our responsibility.

Notes

1. For a discussion about these protests, see Knight (2004), Bolland (1995), Fraser (1996) and Jennings (2001, 82, 83).

2. Laguerre (1989). See also Bridget Brereton (1989) on some of these points.

3. James (1963), quoted in Laguerre (1989, 139).

4. The scholarship on this subject is vast. Historians have discussed the ideas and activities of many of these Caribbeans and the extent to which they were involved in international organizations and movements. See for example, Dewitte (1985), Marable (2011), James (1998), Laguerre (1989), Stovall (2009), Boittin (2005), Rush (2002) and Whittall (2011).

5. For example, see Howe (2000), Jennings (1998), and Dumont (2006). For the impact of the First World War on health, see Dumont (2009).

6. British Medical Association (hereafter BMA), “Medical Services in the West Indies”, in West India Royal Commission (hereafter WIRC), “BMA. Memorandum of Evidence”, CO 950/888, 9, NA.

7. Moody became involved with a number of organizations that reflected his religious beliefs, such as the Colonial Missionary Society, the Christian Endeavour Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and the London Missionary Society. See Rush (2002, 364), Obituary (1947, 7), and Macdonald (1973, 292).

8. Harold A. Moody to Phillip Cunliffe Lister, secretary of state for the colonies, 20 June, 1933, No. 10565, 7, CO 323/1218/5, NA.

9. Harold Moody to A. T. Stanton, 31 December, 1932, in CO 323/1218/5, NA.

10. He left several studies on the language of drums and native languages.

11. The scholarship on colonial health is growing rapidly and is global in its reach. It is impossible to adequately summarize it here but the following references provide a good starting point: Ernst and Bernard (1999) and Arnold (1988, 1996, 1993).

12. The scholarship on the history of health and medicine in the Caribbean is expanding and moving beyond its early focus on slave health. More recent work addresses the activities of the Rockefeller Foundation (the International Health Board), public health, and epidemic diseases. The most comprehensive summary of the scholarship is De Barros, Palmer, and Wright (2009). See also Margaret Jones’ (2013) recent and important book. For the French West Indies, there are far more works for the period of slavery than the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For the nineteenth century the best work is Taffin Dominique, Maladies et médecins à la Guadeloupe au XIX siècle, Thèse École des Chartes 1985, but this thesis has not been published. For the twentieth centyry, see Guillaume (2001). For an overview presentation, see Dumont (2011b).

13. Palmer (2010, 59). But also see the following on this subject: Stern (2005, 39–41), Renda (2001), Stepan (1978), and Lord (2003).

14. On these developments, see Palmer (2010), Pemberton (2003), Riley (2005), Ettling (1981), Cueto (1994), and Jones (2013).

15. Sir W. Beveridge, “Report on Public Health Conditions”, British Guiana, 1931, CO 111/696/2, 45, 144; “Resolution passed by Sixth Meeting of the First West Indies Conference held on the 31st January, 1929, at Barbados”, CO 318/395/3, no. 66637.

16. For example, see No. 65, Robertson to the Secretary of State, February 11, 1932, “Part II. Correspondence, 1931, Relating to Medical and Health Matters”, No. 420, CO 885/33/4, 152, 153; No. 69, Denham to the Secretary of State, November 17, 1931, ibid., 156, 157.

17. United Kingdom House of Commons (2006), British Parliamentary Papers, “West India Royal Commission Report, 1944–1945” [Cmd. 6607], chapter 8 (hereafter “WIRC Report”).

18. Rapport du 25 septembre 1929 sur l’activité du service de santé, ADM, SC 1237.

19. Rapport annuel du service de santé, 1935, ADG, SC 879.

20. Fraser (1996, 2–6); see also Bolland, On the March, 299, 356–7, 358–9.

21. “WIRC Report”, chapter 8.

22. “WIRC Report”, 122, 125, 136, 148, 156, 432, 425.

23. BMA, “Medical Services in the West Indies”, in WIRC, “BMA. Memorandum of Evidence”, CO 950/888, 1, NA.

24. BMA, “Medical Services in the West Indies”, in WIRC, “BMA. Memorandum of Evidence”, CO 950/888, 2, 7, 9, NA.

25. On these developments and these individuals, see Whittal, “Creating Black Places in Imperial London” (24, 22), Wahab (2007, 2008), Schwartz (2003, 6), Killingray (2007, 2008) and Sherwood (2013).

26. League of Coloured Peoples (hereafter LCP) (and The International African Service Bureau (hereafter IASB) and the Negro Welfare Association [afterwards NWA]), “Memorandum on the Economic, Political, and Social Conditions in the West Indies and British Guiana presented by the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP, IASB, and NWA, Memorandum of Evidence”, September 9, 1938, CO 950/30, NA, 19–21, 23, 26–28.

27. LCP, IASB, NWA, “Addition to Serial No. 21, Supplementary Memorandum for the WIRC prepared by the LCP, the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP (and IASB, NWA), Memorandum of Evidence”, CO 950/30, NA, 6.

28. LCP, IASB, NWA, “Memorandum on the Economic, Political, and Social Conditions in the West Indies and British Guiana presented by the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP (and IASB and NWA), Memorandum of Evidence”, September 9, 1938, CO 950/30, NA, 9.

29. LCP, IASB, NWA, “Memorandum on the Economic, Political, and Social Conditions in the West Indies and British Guiana presented by the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP (and IASB and NWA), Memorandum of Evidence”, September 9, 1938, CO 950/30, NA, 11–13.

30. LCP, IASB, NWA, “Memorandum on the Economic, Political, and Social Conditions in the West Indies and British Guiana presented by the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP (and IASB and NWA), Memorandum of Evidence”, September 9, 1938, CO 950/30, NA, 8.

31. LCP, IASB, NWA, “Memorandum on the Economic, Political, and Social Conditions in the West Indies and British Guiana presented by the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP (and IASB and NWA), Memorandum of Evidence”, September 9, 1938, CO 950/30, NA, 13.

32. LCP, IASB, NWA, “Memorandum on the Economic, Political, and Social Conditions in the West Indies and British Guiana presented by the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP (and IASB and NWA), Memorandum of Evidence”, September 9, 1938, CO 950/30, NA, 4, 5.

33. West India Royal Commission, 1938–39: Statement of Action Taken on the Recommendations, Cmd. 6656, 13, 14.

34. LCP, IASB, NWA, “Memorandum on the Economic, Political, and Social Conditions in the West Indies and British Guiana presented by the IASB, the LCP, and the NWA”, in WIRC, “LCP (and IASB and NWA), Memorandum of Evidence”, September 9, 1938, CO 950/30, NA, 21.

35. See British Guiana, Report on the Onderneeming School for 1906–1907, CO 114/116, NA, 470; British Guiana, Report on the Onderneeming School for 1908–1909, CO 114/125, NA, 518; British Guiana, Report on the Onderneeming School for 1909–1910, CO 114/130, NA, 425.

36. Report on the Onderneeming School for the Year 1907–1908, CO 114/121, NA, 483. On cricket and hegemony in the British Caribbean, see especially Downes (2005). Keith A.P., Report on the Onderneeming School for the Year 1907–1908, CO 114/121, NA, 483, and Sandiford (1998, 28). See also Stoddard (1998) and Downes (2000).

37. Although some of the key sources (FM Guernut, ANOM: Overseas Archives center, Aix en Provence) have been used by several researchers, there is no synthetic work on that commission.

38. Speech to the ex-servicemen, March 7, 1937.

39. General Council 2nd ordinary session, October 31, 1936, Archives départementales de la Guadeloupe (ADG), 2MI152.

40. Ibid.

41. Speech delivered at the Town Hall of Port Louis, August 1, 1937.

42. Speech delivered at the congress of civil servants, September 12, 1937.

43. But as for the visiting nurses, who had problems reaching all the communes, the gap between intentions and realities is great. The small number of physicians were not able to examine the 12,000 pupils in schools.

44. The first two stadiums in Guadeloupe were built on Eboue’s initiative. The one in Basse Terre was unofficially opened on the day he left Guadeloupe and is named (Stade Félix Eboué) after him.

45. Commission Guernut: Report addressed to the official enquiry in the overseas territories, 1937, FM Guernut 81, CAOM (Overseas Archives center, Aix en Provence).

46. Speech delivered at the Front Populaire banquet, June 6, 1937.

47. General Council 2nd ordinary session, October 1936, op. cit.

48. Ibid.

49. For the importance in the colonies of this national school for physical education, see Dumont (2011a, 2006b).

50. End of mission final report by the Governor of Guadeloupe, July 22, 1938, ADG.

51. Speech delivered at the congress of civil servants of Guadeloupe, September 12, 1937.

52. Ibid.

53. Speech delivered at the ceremonial audience of the Appeals court, October 4, 1937.

54. End of mission final report by the Governor of Guadeloupe, July 22, 1938, ADG.

55. CAOM, fonds Moutet (Moutet archives), 28PA/1.

56. BMI, n°5, May 1937.

57. The archives of the De Gaulle foundation contain many handwritten letters that Eboué kept among his personal papers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Juanita De Barros

Juanita De Barros is an associate professor in the Department of History at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, where she teaches Caribbean and African diasporic history, urban history, and the social history of health and medicine. Her research concentrates on the post-emancipation Anglophone Caribbean. Her most recent publication is titled Reproducing the British Caribbean: Sex, Gender, and Population Politics after Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014).

Jacques Dumont

Jacques Dumont is a professor of history at the University of French Antilles and Guyane AIHP (Archéologie industrielle, histoire et patrimoine) Laboratory. His research focuses on the social history of health and medicine, sport, and physical education. His main publications include Sport et assimilation en Guadeloupe, les enjeux du corps performant de la colonie au département, 1914–1965 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2002), and Sport and formation de la jeunesse à la Martinique: Le temps des pionniers (fin XIXe années 1960) (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2006).