'This Open Sore of the World:' The Legacy of Dr. David Livingstone, the First Physician Missionary: Hero and Adventurer

Author

Audrey Provenzano

Date of Award

8-17-2010

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Medical Doctor (MD)

First Advisor

Dr. John H. Warner

Abstract

At the end of the nineteenth century, Dr. David Livingstone became extraordinarily famous throughout Europe as the first physician-missionary. Livingstone embodied certain characteristics, adventurism and heroism, that Europeans found desirable and commendable. Livingstone issued a call for young men, particularly physicians, to follow him to Africa and continue his work. Using personal letters, journals, and other accounts of the physicians who followed Livingstone to Africa, specifically the region of Buganda, this paper explores how these themes of heroism and adventurism can be traced through the lives of the physicians who responded to Livingstones call. This paper traces these common themes of adventurism and heroism through the lives of missionary physicians in the region of Buganda, the lives of physicians of the British protectorate in Uganda, and the lives of physicians working in Uganda today. In undertaking international health work, Western physicians must recognize these commonalities we share with the Western physicians who came before us.

Comments

This is an Open Access Thesis.

Recommended Citation

Provenzano, Audrey, "'This Open Sore of the World:' The Legacy of Dr. David Livingstone, the First Physician Missionary: Hero and Adventurer" (2010). Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library. 83.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ymtdl/83