Page 57 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9
P. 57
MY AFRIKA
the Pharaoh Djoser of the 3rd the medieval period. The first a hole through the skull to the
dynasty, Imhotep’s gifts as a was through tutorship by one’s outer covering of the brain to
physician overshadowed all the parents. Sons and daughters of remove fragments from a skull
others. learned physicians often learned fracture compressing the brain,
the profession from their father, to treat epilepsy and headache.
Hippocratic medicine had and medicine might become Why one would ask, did the
direct antecedents in Egyptian a family’s major profession for Egyptian medical expertise
medicine. The Egyptians were generations. and sophistication not spread
writing medical textbooks as to sub- Saharan Africa? The
early as 5000 years ago. Out of The second method was reason is that external invasions
the hundreds and thousands through self-teaching, whereby after 661 BC caused the Egyp-
of papyri that may have been serious-minded students taught tian officials to look northward
written, we are lucky to have at themselves by compiling a list of towards Europe rather than the
least 10, which give us a window medical texts, which were then south. Thus, trade-in material
into medical practice among read until they were satisfied goods and culture and medical
those ancient Africans. The city- that their contents had been knowledge was only trans- Med-
state of Athens used to import learned. The major pitfall of this iterranean. Added to this is the
Egyptian physicians, as did most method was that the student factor of the famine and dry
of the Kingdoms of the Near may misinterpret certain sci- phase of ca. 2500BC that created
East. The Magico-spiritual and entific terms in a way different the Sahara Desert and caused
rational elements intermingle in from the intended meaning. the Negroid cultures of middle
Egyptian medicine. That notwithstanding, successful Africa to move southwards. This
The dissemination of medical doctors did emerge from this effectively isolated sub-Saharan
knowledge was often limited tradition. Africa from the scientific chang-
to a few families, though oth- The third method was that a stu- es occurring in the Mediterra-
ers who showed enough talent dent entered the medical profes- nean basin.
could be allowed to practice. sion through classes in hospitals
The physician was highly re- or medical schools. The tradi- Sub-Saharan Africa, with the
spected and is referred to as tion of medical specialization exemption of Ethiopia, was
Hakim (a wise man or philos- is said to have originated with predominantly non-literate until
opher). Doctors had their own the Egyptian ancient medical the 11th century AD when Islam
boats and traveled the Nile to system. There were specialists introduced Arabic literacy into
treat patients. who treated the different parts western Sudan. That literacy
Rulers surrounded themselves of the body: eyes, head, teeth, came late into sub-Saharan Afri-
with physicians to ensure they intestines etc. This tradition of ca does not mean that it has no
were well taken care of in case specialization seemed to have history. In fact, some of the best
of illness. Medical cures ranged disappeared for some centuries ideas in the history of human
from the use of potent speech until it came back again in the thought were the earliest, yet
(incantation or magico-spiritual 4th century BC. Once again, this most histories of ideas ignore
element) to the more preventive tradition disappeared around 30 them. This is due to the wrong
and rational diagnosis based BC and did not resurface until assumption that history started
on ancient Egyptian medical the 20th century. with the invention of writing,
practices. Egyptian medical en- thereby leaving out the ideas of
terprise flowed across Rome and Skulls found from ancient Egyp- our earliest ancestors. However,
the rest of Europe, where it was tian graves indicated that they most societies, for most of histo-
modified over many centuries. practiced trephination. This op- ry, have esteemed oral tradition
There were three routes to eration is a forerunner of neu- more highly than writing. Their
becoming a skilled physician in rosurgery and involves boring ideas are inscribed in other
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