Empire, race, and medical achievement: A changing dynamic and the Smith-Easmon medical dynasties
The first in a series of three seminars on the medical history of Africa, exploring links between tropical medicine, race and imperialism.
This seminar focuses on the Easmon dynasty of doctors, and the racial barriers which blocked professional advancement in colonial times. There will also be artefacts to view.
This seminar featuring Professor C.S.F. Easmon and historian Nigel Browne-Davies examines the changing dynamics of race in the British Empire between the 19th and 20th centuries and the opportunities and limitations this placed on the medical achievement of medical doctors of African descent in colonial West Africa and Britain. Using three generations of the Sierra Leone Creole Easmon and Smith medical families as a lens, this talk examines the shift from an open-ended period of achievement for medical students of African descent between the middle to late 19th century to the Europeanization and racial segregation of the colonial medical service in British West Africa between the late 19th and middle 20th centuries.
M.C.F. Easmon, a Sierra Leonean medical doctor and alumni of the LSTHM, entered the medical profession at the height of racial barriers for medical doctors of African descent. The scion of the distinguished Easmon and Smith medical dynasties, the medical careers of M.C.F. Easmon and that of his father, Dr J.F. Easmon, who had a distinguished career in the Gold Coast colonial medical service, were limited following the advent of social Darwinism that viewed Africans as ‘inferior’ and required ‘pure European descent’ for medical professional advancement. This talk explores the declining fortunes of medical doctors of African descent through the careers of J.F. Easmon and M.C.F. Easmon and the breaking down of racial and professional barriers in the third generation of the Smith-Easmon medical dynasties as experienced by Professor C.S.F. Easmon.
Speakers
- Professor C.S.F Easmon
- Nigel Browne-Davies (Historian)
Event notices
- Please note that the recording link will be listed on this page when available.
Admission
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