The Colonial Medical Service and the struggle for control of the Zanzibar Maternity Association, 1918–47

Greenwood, Anna

Abstract

The Zanzibar Maternity Association (ZMA) was a charitable organisation established in 1918 to help Zanzibari women during parturition. Majority funding came from the Arab and Indian communities who, correspondingly, had considerable say in the organisation’s remit and agenda. Although the colonial British government had no alternative maternity service of their own on Zanzibar, this chapter shows how anxious the colonial government was about ZMA activities and influence during the 1930s and 1940s. Struggles over ZMA control are positioned as revealing of broader anxieties over the erosion of colonial hegemony and also as demonstrative of the highly flexible way the British constructed racialised discourses about health and hygiene. Ultimately, the British rejected cooperation when it was not precisely on the terms that they wanted.

Citation

Greenwood, A. (2015). The Colonial Medical Service and the struggle for control of the Zanzibar Maternity Association, 1918–47. In A. Greenwood, & H. Topiwala (Eds.), Beyond the state: The Colonial Medical Service in British Africa (85-103). Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137074.00009

• Online Publication Date: Jan 21, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2015
• Deposit Date: Feb 28, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 1, 2022
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Pages: 85-103
• Book Title: Beyond the state: The Colonial Medical Service in British Africa
• Chapter Number: 5
• ISBN: 9780719089671
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526137074.00009
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2213916
• Publisher URL: https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526137074/9781526137074.00009.xml