Contradictions and complexities in an indigenous medical service: The case of Mesulame Taveta

Journal of Pacific History

Volumn 41, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 125-143

  Stuart, Annie ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61249706512     PISSN: 00223344     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00223340600826029     Document Type: Review

References (88)

1. Telegram. 11 Mar. 1935, 'Mesulame, Taveta, NMP: Personal', New Hebrides British Service (hereinafter NHBS) NHBS 1/T 10/1932. Research in both NHBS files and Western Pacific High Commission Minute Paper Series 4 (hereinafter WPHC) was undertaken at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Archives, Hanslope Park, UK; both collections are now held at the University of Auckland Library. For information on blackwater fever, see fn. 48 below.
2. Sylvester Lambert outlined his 21 years work for the IHB in Australia and the Pacific in his popular A Doctor in Paradise (London/Melbourne 1946).
3. A. Stuart, 'Parasites lost: the Rockefeller Foundation and the expansion of health services in the colonial South Pacific, 1913-1939', PhD thesis. University of Canterbury (Christchurch 2002), provides a broader analysis of Lambert's work.
4. R. Fosdick, The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation (London 1952) provides a general history.
5. For more rigorous analysis, see E.R. Brown, Rockefeller Medicine Men: medicine and capitalism in America (Berkeley 1979);
6. Robert Amove (ed.), Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism: the foundations at home and abroad (Boston 1980);
7. E.H. Herman, The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy: the ideology of philanthropy (Albany, New York 1983).
8. Lambert perceived and exploited the importance of the 'cultural intermediary', but the concept (along with associated terms 'culture/cultural broker' and 'border crossing') has more recently become the subject of analysis in an effort to understand the varied motives, effects and experiences of intermediaries in encounters between sub/cultures, or in the transfer of specialised knowledge - especially in science teaching and in the medical sphere; e.g., Henrv A. Giroux, Border Crossings, Cultural Workers and the Politics of Education (New York 1992);
9. Margaret Council Szasz (ed.), Between Indian and White Worlds: the cultural broker (Norman, Oklahoma 2001);
10. Michael Michie, in 'The role of culture brokers in intercultural science education', http:// members.ozemail.com.au/∼mmichie/Culture-brokers1.htm, accessed 15 Dec. 2005.
11. Stephen Frankel's work (e.g., 'Peripheral health workers are central to primary health care: lessons from Papua New Guinea's aid posts', Social Science of Medicine, 19:3 (1984), 279 90) illustrates that the role of intermediary, and its dilemmas, continues as a feature of the NMPs' modern equivalent, the primary healthcare worker in the developing world
12. These attitudes featured strongly in the Australian territories' decision against participating in the Central Medical School, and in the failure of the Papuan administration's foray into native medical training at Sydney University in 1934. L.P. Mair, Australia in New Guinea (2nd ed., Melbourne 1970), 231.
13. D.W. Hoodless, The Central Medical School (Suva 1947);
14. Margaret Guthrie, Misi Utu: Dr D.W. Hoodless and the development of medical education in the South Pacific (Suva 1979);
15. H. Lander and J. Miles, The Fiji School of Medicine: a brief history and list of graduates (Sydney 1992).
16. Guthrie, Misi Utu, 15-18.
17. Bose Vakaturaga, Proceedings of the Native Council, or Council of Chiefs, 29 Jun. 1911, 45-7, Suva, National Archives of Fiji, on microfilm, Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University; J.L.V. Sukuna in Hoodless, The Central Medical School, 1.
18. and Sowani Puamau (alternatively recorded as Sowane Vuamau) in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (Lambert, Doctor in Paradise, 387 88).
19. For Fiji's educational developments, see Carmen M. White's 'Historicizmg educational disparity: colonial policy and Fijian educational attainment', History of Education, 32: 4 (2003), 345-65.
20. Europeans perceived skill in anatomy as the most convincing proof of Fijians' readiness for scientific medical training - this was after all the foundation from which all later specialisations of western biomedicine evolved, and which differentiated it from other medical traditions, firmly establishing illness in the individual body rather than embedded in cosmic or social relationships. Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: a medical history of humanity (New York 1998), 7-8.
21. Indian doctors professionally educated through the Indian Medical Service also faced discriminatory treatment in Fiji's medical hierarchy, but on more overtly racial grounds, 5 and 13 May 1919, CO 419, 'Registers of Correspondence, Fiji', Public Records Of lice, Kew, UK.
22. Asa C. Chandler, Hookworm Disease: its distribution, biology, epidemiology, pathology, diagnosis, treatment and control (London 1929);
23. cf. O.A. Schad and K.S. Warren (eds), Hookworm Disease: current status and new direction (London 1990).
24. Lambert to Heiser, 30 Jul. 1926, (older 7, box 1, series 419L, Record Group (RG) 1.1, Rockefeller Foundation Archives (hereinafter RFA), Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
25. Lambert to Chief Medical Officer, 31 Oct. 1922, in 'Fiji: Hookworm Disease Repons, 1918 and 1922', folder 162, series 3, RG 3, RFA.
26. idem, 'Health Survey of the Cook Islands', 27, Appendix, A.-3 Appendices lo the Journal of the House of Rcpresenlalices, Wellington (hereinafter AJHR) 1926.
27. Montague, Memo, 9 May 1924, WPHC 2339/1923.
28. F.F. Russell to Heiser, 13 Nov. 1924, folder 2512, box 197, series 1.2, RG 5, RFA. The Rockefeller Foundation was instrumental in defining Standards for modern medical education in the United States, then exported these along with financial support for compliant institutions. See E.R. Brown, Rockefeller Medicine Men;
29. M.B. Bullock, An American Transplant: the Rockefeller Foundation and the Peking Union Medical College (Berkeley 1980);
30. P. Donaldson, 'Foreign intervention in medical education: a case study of the Rockefeller Foundation's involvement in a Thai medical school', in Vinrente Navarro (ed.), Imperialism, Health, and Medicine (New York 1979), 107 26.
31. British Agent Islay McOwan to Tugi (Premier of Tonga), 29 Jan. 1925, and reply, 7 Feb. 1925, WPHC 333/1925.
32. In 1929, the Colonial Office had Medical School tutors from Makaree (Uganda) and Singapore review the syllabus. 'Correspondence on the subjects of the syllabus', 2-3, IT 18/24 pt. 1, National Archives of New Zealand, Wellington (hereinafter NANZ). Recent analyses of indigenous medical training in the African colonies provides useful comparison to the Pacific situation;
33. see John Iliffe, East African Doctors: a history of the modern profession Cambridge 1998);
34. George O. Ndege, Health, State, and Society in kenya (Rochrster NY 2001).
35. T. Clunie, 'Correspondence on the subjects of the syllabus', 2, IT 1 8/24 pt. 1, NANZ.
36. Lambert, 'Quarterly Report, 1 April to 30 June 1928', box 162, series 3, RG 5, RFA.
37. See Albert Maori Kiki's account, Kiki: Ten Thousand Years in a Lifetime: a New Guinea autobiography (Melbourne 1968) 73 4.
38. Hoodless, Fiji Annual Medical and Health Report, 1931, 46, VVPHC 3783/1932.
39. Idem, 'CMS Annual Report 1935', 2, IT 1. 110/6:1, NANZ.
40. Idem, Fiji Arnaud Medieai and Health Report, 1936, 31, WPHG 4135/1937;
41. idem, 'Report on Central Medical School' in Fiji Annual Medical and Health Report, 1938, 27, WPHC 923/1940.
42. V.W.T. McGusty, 'Note on the Central Medical School in Suva in relation to the Health Problems of the Pacific' in Fiji Annual Medical and Health Report., 1937, 33. WPHC 4577/1938.
43. Hoodless, 'Medical Education of Native Races', Fiji Annual Medical and Health Report, 1937, 30.
44. Hoodloss, 'Report on Central Medical School', Fiji Annual Medical and Health Report, 1937, 36.
45. See also idem, 'Report on Central Medical School', Fiji Annual Medical and Health Report, 1938, WPHC 923/40;
46. idem to DMS, 23 Mar, 1944
47. and idem to Col. Voecker, 21 Jun. 1946, both IT 1 8/24:1, NANZ.
48. William Miles coins the term 'condocolonialism' to describe the particular processes and respective mindsets that underlay and exacerbated Anglo-French rivalries in the Condominium; William Miles, Bridging Mental Boundaries in a Postcolonial Microcosm: identity and development in Vanuatu (Honolulu 1998), 29 58.
49. See also Howard Van Trease, The Politics of Land in Vanuatu: from colony to independence (Suva 1987);
50. and Brian Bresnihan and Keith Woodward feds), Tufala Gavman: reminiscences from the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides (Suva 2002).
51. Condominium Finances', NHBS 1/I 208/1932.
52. Encls., 'Confidential Report by High Commissioner on British in the New Hebrides Condominium', NHBS 1/I 293/1931.
53. For a review of medical services in the Condominium, see Joy to Western Pacific High Commissioner, 16 Jul. 1928, and enclosures., WPHC 1320/1928.
54. NHBS 1/I 293/1931.
55. F. Fleming and E, Corlette to British Resident Commissioner, n.d. NHBS1/I 105/1925.
56. MP Malakai, NH, 1925-1928', NHBS 1/I 105/1925;
57. 'Position of NMP Malakai, NH', WPHC 2936/ 1927;
58. and 'Malakai, Medical Reports, Stores, etc.' NHBS 1/I 61/1928.
59. Blackwater fever is a complex condition, fatal in about 30% of cases. Earlier thought to be a separate disease, it is a potential sequela of the most pathogenic of the tour types of malaria, falciparum malaria, especially if treatment has been inadequate or sporadic. The parasites disrupt glucose metabolism and cause acidosis leading to acute haemolylic anaemia and renal failure. The rapid, massive breakdown of haemoglobin darkens urine, giving the syndrome its name. 'Crusade against malaria', http://www.malaria-ipca.com/cl- complication.html, accessed 8 Mar. 2006;
60. Anton Sebastian, A Dictionary of the History of Medicine (New York 1999), 128.
61. Joy to Fletcher, 7 Jul. 1930;
62. 'Reports on NH students (Fijian), Dec. 1930', NHBS 1/1 135/1930.
63. Blandy to High Commissioner, to Nov. 1930, WPHC 3337/1930, and Correspondence Feb.-Apr. 1931, WPHC 883/1931.
64. Bland y to Fletcher, 28 Feb. 1931, WPHC 883/1931.
65. Morin to French Resident Commissioner, 23Jan. 1932;
66. Carlotti to Joy, 25 Jan. 1932;
67. Miles, Bridging Mental Boundaries, 38.
68. Joy to CMO Tassy, 23 Mar. 1933, XHBS 1/I 10/1932.
69. NMP - Yaws and Hookworm Treatment, New Hebrides', WPHC 1171/1934.
70. Tassy to Joy, 1 Dec. 1933, WPHC 2313/1932 (translated).
71. Joy to High Commissioner, n.d.; Seymour to Joy., 22 Feb. 1934, both WPHC 2313/1932.
72. Laporte to CMO, Vila, 30 Apr. 1934, WPHC 2313/1932.
73. Sautot to Joy, 8 May 1934;
74. Sautot and Joy to Mesulame, 10 May 1934, both WPHC 2313/1932.
75. Laporte to Sautot, 30 Apr. 1934 and 2 May 1934;
76. Joy to High Commissioner, 5 Jun. 1934, WPHC 2313/1932.
77. Clunie to CMS Board Secretary 6 Jul. 1934, Minutes, WPHC 2313/1932.
78. All from Minutes: Lambert, 19Jul. 1934;
79. Clunie, 18 Jul. 1932;
80. Correspondence, 9 Jun. 1934-21 Aug. 1934, NHBS 3/I 10/1932.
81. High Commissioner to Joy, 27 Ort. 1934, WPHC 2313/1932.
82. Tom Harrisson describes Siller's circumstances in Malekula in Savage Civilisation (London 1937), 290 8. For information on blackwater fever, see fn. 48 above.
83. Quinine can be both cure and cause for blackwater fever-it has long been implicated as a trigger, especially if used inappropriately or erratically in response to malarial attacks; however, with growing resistance to chloroquine and other anti-malarials, it remains a treatment but with cautions of anaphylactic-like reactions in susceptible individuals, John S. Axford and Chris A. O'Callaghan (eds), Medicine (2nd ed., Oxford 2004), 128-30;
84. D.K. Farver and M.N. Lavin, 'Quinine-induced hepatotoxicity', The Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 30:1 (1999), 32 4.
85. Significantly, Mesulame's grave at Norsup was completely neglected until Lambert asked that it be marked. The administrations hastened to comply; Lambert to Joy, 7 May 1936; French Resident Commissioner to Joy, 17 Jun. 3936 and 28 Jul. ]936;
86. Lambert, Minute, 7 Jun. 1935, WPHC 2313/1932.
87. Minnies, Marpherson, 14 Jun. 1935 and Clunie, 14 Jun. 1935, WPHC 2313/1932.
88. E. Corlette to Joy, 23 Jan. 1936, and enclosures, NHBS 1/I 31/1933.