We are a network of practitioners, researchers, artists and activists across Africa interested in health related issues.
Our aim is to bring people who are interested in or already working in this space together. We provide a space for people to showcase their projects and to provide information on work/exhibitions/projects/education/research related to medical and health humanities on the continent.
To develop and strengthen Medical and Health Humanities networks across the continent by providing information on projects, and opportunities for research and collaborative work between and within African countries.
To build online resource for people interested and working in Africa in areas where issues related to medicine and health meet the social sciences, humanities and the arts.
You can read more about the network in the BMJ Medical Humanities special issue Medical Humanities in Africa (December 2018).
We see medical and health humanities as both a gathering impulse and a field of study that explores “the human condition through the arts (visual, performed, applied), humanities (philosophies, literatures, and histories), social sciences (anthropology, politics, law, sociology) and their engagement with a broad spectrum of the health and biological sciences and practices, including illness, medicine, treatment, recovery and death” (Kalinga 2019).
We are also interested in the concept of ‘rigorous improvisation‘ or ‘disciplined curiosity‘ as a way of approaching this intersection between disciplines. This site has tabs for events we think might be of interest, as well as a resource for literature, case studies, and project links. Please feel free to browse the site and comment on the content.
To find out more about MHHA, please contact us.
Nolwazi Mkhwanazi is a Professor in Anthropology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She is currently running a Wellcome Trust funded project on Reimagining Reproduction in Africa.
Carla Tsampiras is a feminist, vegan, health historian. She is a Senior Lecturer in Medical and Health Humanities in the Primary Health Care Directorate, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of Cape Town.
Chisomo Kalinga, PhD is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the department of Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Her transdisciplinary work engages storytelling and literary traditions in Malawi focusing on the intersections between narrative ethnography, the body and the communities that produce stories about health and wellbeing. She is currently working to build an international platform for collaboration and exchange between individuals and institutions within critical disabilities and health and medical humanities studies at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh.
Charlotte Visagie holds an MA in Anthropology from the University of Johannesburg. Her research explores the persistence of religion, and the interpretation of religion in non-confirmative spaces. She is currently the academic event organiser and digital manager for MHHA.
Nokuzola Miya holds a diploma in Visual Art from the University of Johannesburg. She is currently a Digital Communications Officer at Medical and Health Humanities Africa and an Assistant Curator of the Constitutional Court Trust. Nokuzola has tremendous interest in the Christian religion, new-age spirituality, performance art and African mythology.
Malwande Mthethwa is currently a Digital Communications Officer at MHHA. She holds a BA Fine Art degree from the Michaelis School of Fine Art (UCT). Some of her background is in visual arts, curatorship and social media management.
Benson A. Mulemi is an Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology and Senior Research Fellow at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Kenya. He also serves as a visiting Professor in the Masters of Medical Anthropology Programme in the Faculty of Medicine, at Gulu University, Uganda.
Victoria Osei-Bonsu is a Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Ghana, Legon. She is interested in the connections and/ or disruptions between literature, aesthetic or artistic forms of expression and health.
Neusa Torres-Tovela is a Lecturer and Researcher based at the Higher Institute for Health Sciences (ISCISA) and the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM). She has a background in Anthropology and Public Health.
Emmanuel Babatunde Omobowale is a Professor of Literature and Medicine, based at the Department of English and the Department of Bioethics and Medical Humanities, University of Ibadan. Published widely, he is the author of The Eagle Must Fly and Other Stories (1992), The Melting Pot (1993), Seasons of Rage (1997 reprinted 2015-2018), An Eye for An Eye (2000) and The President’s Physician (2004).
Dr. Musa Sadock is Lecturer in History at Department of History, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He specializes in Social History of Diseases including HIV and AIDS.
Joseph Kalibbala is a Lecturer at the Bill and Joyce Cummings Institute of Global Health at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. He aims to promote equity for the most vulnerable through approaches that foster partnership and solidarity. He is interested in health economics research; taking low-cost interventions/innovations to scale. He will be a representative for Uganda/Rwanda on Medical and Health Humanities in Africa.
Thandeka is a behavioural scientist trained as a medical anthropologist with a PhD in critical global health. She is a specialized qualitative researcher interested in investigating decision-making structures, dynamics that influence individual choices, and priority ranking that shape behaviour patterns and how these evolve over time. Thandeka is the MHHA representative for eSwatini.
Mutsawashe Mutendi is a PhD candidate and part time lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Her research interests include extractive industries, health, occupational lung diseases, tuberculosis, obstetric and reproductive healthcare, mobility, migration, peace, development, and urban livelihoods. She has been involved in promoting health and gender equity; and social justice in mining communities in Zimbabwe. She is the MHHA country organiser for Zimbabwe.
Victoria Hume is Director of the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance (England) and a research associate in the Medical Humanities at WiSER (South Africa). She has a background as a composer, researcher and project manager specialising in culture, health and wellbeing, and was an arts manager for the NHS (UK) for 15 years.
Sasheenie is a PhD candidate at the University of Oxford. Her qualitative research focuses on understanding lived experiences of pregnant youth living with HIV.
Zinhle Maeko holds a BA in International Relations and Political Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. She is currently a Digital Communications Officer at Medical and Health Humanities Africa and is also a Democracy Works Academy Alumna.
Renée van der Wiel is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. She is also an academic event organiser for the Southern and East African Medical and Health Humanities network (SEAMHH).
