Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the djabakós – traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties. Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. They also discuss heretical ideas about the health of the body and the spirit being integrated that have an application to our own time, especially in the context of excess deaths in many countries increasing since 2021; and the ongoing relevance of the idea that those who diagnose any condition are generally empowered to claim the authority to heal it.
About Frank Armstrong
Frank Armstrong is the editor of Cassandra Voices, a magazine with a global perspective based in Ireland. During the pandemic he wrote extensively on the impact of lockdowns and edited a wide range of articles including by marginalised doctors, dissenting lawyers and musicians unable to perform. Prior to setting up Cassandra Voices in 2018 his writing was published in the Irish Times, the London Magazine, the Dublin Review of Books, Village Magazine, and the Law Society Gazette, among others.
About Toby Green
Toby Green is a professor of African history at King’s College London and has conducted research in 9 countries across Africa. His previous book, A Fistful of Shells, was awarded several international literary prizes as well as being shortlisted for the LA Times Book Prize and the Wolfson History Prize. He has written widely about the Covid- 19 pandemic for outlets including African Arguments, Prospect, and UnHerd, and is a member of the steering group of Collateral Global. His book The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor – A Critique from the Left, co-authored with Thomas Fazi, was published in January 2023.
You can find more about Toby Green’s research here.
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