Armed with his faith and his medicine: visions of Africa and the African from Albert Schweitzer’s diary

• Main Author: Naiara Krachenski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2018-12-01
• Series: Esboços
• Subjects: Imperialismo; Discurso médico; Colônias africanas
• Online Access: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/esbocos/article/view/48957

The objective of this article is to comprehend in which ways the medical discourse was a structural element in the production and reproduction of stereotypes about Africa and the African in the context of European imperialism. Therefore, we use as main source the memoirs of the German physician Albert Schweitzer about his work between 1913 and 1916 in French Equatorial Africa. At first, we analyse the motives and intentions presented by the author to initiate his journey. Secondly, we indicate two stereotypes that were frequently used in Schweitzer’s text – the innate laziness of the Black man and their addiction to alcohol. Finally, we point to other two characteristics in the physician’s memoirs that structure the imperialist way of thinking: the so called superiority of the European and the construction of an animalistic Otherness