Chinese Medicine in East Africa
Chinese medicine in Africa exemplifies a technology transfer from the East to the South, contrary to the usual one of globalisation from the West to ‘the rest'. Chinese medicine in the southern hemisphere is often called an ‘advanced traditional' medicine, and there is some confusion over whether to treat it as a ‘traditional' medicine or a ‘complementary and alternative medicine', which in urban areas, with the growing purchase power of the upwardly mobile self-styled 'middle classes', is gaining in importance. In Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Kampala, Mombasa, and Stonetown of Zanzibar, there are also Chinese clinics that target the popular sector, located at bus stations or in the harbour area, and in Mbeya and Tanga, there are no clinics but simply drug stores, sometimes staffed by local Tanzanian youth only. The book project, commenced in 2001 by Professor Elisabeth Hsu, has so far led to the publication of several articles and the collection of medical commodities for a display case on the ‘Treatment options for HIV/AIDS patients in Tanzania' in the permanent exhibition on ‘Living and Dying' at the British Museum, London. A monograph on this subject is in preparation for publikcation with the Berghahn series "Epistemologies of Healing".
