Colonialism, Decolonization, and Global Health

Abstract

This chapter serves as a bridge between the social sciences and humanities, and clinical research. It identifies the utility of anthropological and historical perspectives for the purposes of decolonizing global health, demonstrating the relevance of multidisciplinary approaches for the discipline. The chapter illuminates the historical trajectory of global health from its roots in colonial medicine, tracing the negative legacies that now impact former-colonial nations, and the modern discipline of global health. Using the case of Mauritius, the chapter presents how the processes of colonialism led to poor health in the past, disenfranchisement, and high mortality in laboring peoples. Lines are then drawn between the historical and modern context, urging the reader to consider how the heterogenous nature of colonialism must now be accounted for during the ongoing process of decolonization, particularly regarding global health partnership.