Shifting Agendas and Competing Interests within Public Health, Science and Technology, and Medicine in Africa

In lieu of the abstract, here is the review\u27s first paragraph: Until recent times, the conventional history of public health, of science and technology, and of medicine has been presented in the West as a tale of out-migration from the advanced, developed world (principally Europe and the United States) to the less developed (or underdeveloped) world.1 By this account, Africa emerges as a peculiar mix of charity case, experimental laboratory, and lucrative market. The four works considered here mark a significant turn in this curiously one-side and resilient story line. Each text begins from the premise—some more forcefully then others—that Africans have always been, and remain today, active agents in the creation, development, innovation, and adaptation of knowledge and practices across public health, science and technology, and medicine