Winner of the 2016 Lavinia Dock Award from the American Association for the History of Nursing

 Awarded first place in the 2016 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award in the History and Public Policy category

The most dramatic growth of Christianity in the late twentieth century has occurred in Africa, where Catholic missions have played major roles. But these missions did more than simply convert Africans. Catholic sisters became heavily involved in the Church’s health services and eventually in relief and social justice efforts. In Into Africa, Barbra Mann Wall offers a transnational history that reveals how Catholic medical and nursing sisters established relationships between local and international groups, sparking an exchange of ideas that crossed national, religious, gender, and political boundaries.
 
Both a nurse and a historian, Wall explores this intersection of religion, medicine, gender, race, and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the years following World War II, a period when European colonial rule was ending and Africans were building new governments, health care institutions, and education systems. She focuses specifically on hospitals, clinics, and schools of nursing in Ghana and Uganda run by the Medical Mission Sisters of Philadelphia; in Nigeria and Uganda by the Irish Medical Missionaries of Mary; in Tanzania by the Maryknoll Sisters of New York; and in Nigeria by a local Nigerian congregation. Wall shows how, although initially somewhat ethnocentric, the sisters gradually developed a deeper understanding of the diverse populations they served. In the process, their medical and nursing work intersected with critical social, political, and cultural debates that continue in Africa today: debates about the role of women in their local societies, the relationship of women to the nursing and medical professions and to the Catholic Church, the obligations countries have to provide care for their citizens, and the role of women in human rights.
 
A groundbreaking contribution to the study of globalization and medicine, Into Africa highlights the importance of transnational partnerships, using the stories of these nuns to enhance the understanding of medical mission work and global change.

BARBRA MANN WALL is the Thomas A. Saunders III Professor in Nursing at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Her book Unlikely Entrepreneurs: Catholic Sisters and the Hospital Marketplace, won the 2006 Lavinia Dock Award for Best Book, American Association for the History of Nursing. She is the author of American Catholic Hospitals: A Century of Changing Markets and Missions (Rutgers University Press).

"Into Africa is a commendable read."

"Wall has done an admirable job of showing how Catholic sisters bravely navigated political, social and cultural complexities to promote healing beyond the narrow focus on curative care."

"The critical work of Catholic women’s religious organizations in sub-Saharan Africa comes alive in this important new book. Anyone concerned with gender, health, and transnational cooperation will be fascinated by this nuanced and thoughtful analysis that rethinks the relationship among mission work, colonialism and the post-colonial global world."

"By exploring Catholic sisters from both international and indigenous religious communities who delivered health services in Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania after World War II until 1985, Barbra Mann Wall sheds light on important episodes and issues, illuminating women’s experiences otherwise unknown."

"Barbra Mann Wall’s new history of postwar Catholic medical missions in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, and Tanzania is a much-needed entry into the story of women religious in the 20th century."

"Wall writes with great clarity. Her insight into the relationship between health care and history is insightful and worth quoting ... The book is an excellent read for North Americans who can see medical practices in relation to other systems, for medical students and personnel interested in working in Africa, Asia, or parts of Latin America, for people interested in expanding their knowledge of the work of women, and for missionaries, whether engaging in short or longer period of service, as a way into the culture of the country to which they are sent."

“A particularly striking exploration of the interplay between religion, health, gender, and politics. Wall's work enriches and challenges existing perspectives on the development of health care in sub-Saharan Africa, and provides an essential historical link between the colonial period and the present day."

"Into Africa does something quite important by opening three of Africa’s late colonies and fledgling postcolonies to analytic counterpoint. This trio featuring decolonization, health, and nuns in Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania yields fascinating results as an unusual work in historical comparison."