“An All-white Institution”: Defending Private Practice and the Formation of the West African Medical Staff

The efficient recruitment of physicians “specially qualified” in the principles of “modern tropical medicine and hygiene” proved, however, to be a difficult task. To address this problem, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, organized a committee in 1901 to draw up plans for amalgamating the six medical departments of British West Africa. Their primary goal was to devise incentives to attract a greater number of physicians for service in the infamous “white man’s grave”. As a result, the West African Medical Staff (WAMS) was created and officially announced with the publication of the 1902 pamphlet, Information for the use of candidates for appointments in West African Medical Staff. When the WAMS was publicized in 1902 it was the only department in the empire that was explicitly racist: it formally excluded West Africans—or any physician not of “European parentage”—from joining its ranks. In 1915 the governor of the Gold Coast,