Inter-imperial Learning and African Health Care in Portuguese Angola in the Interwar Period

This article shows that, aside from economic and humanitarian considerations, the international critique of Portugal's colonial policies and ensuing anxieties that the country might lose its colonies were decisive in convincing political decision makers in Lisbon to provide the necessary funding for this project. The article's main argument is that the Angolan AMI programme was profoundly and deliberately shaped by processes of inter-imperial comparison and borrowing. Efforts towards the institutionalisation of inter-imperial learning and collaboration, though backed by international organisations such as the League of Nations' Health Organisation, were often not or only partially successful, as they were caught in the complex interplay between nationalism and internationalism. Inter-imperial hierarchies of prestige conditioned whether inter-imperial borrowings were made explicit or hidden.
Source: Social History of Medicine - Category: History of Medicine Authors: Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research