Reimagining Science and Statecraft in Postcolonial Kenya

Stories from an African Scientist

By: Denielle Elliott

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Hardcover | 13 August 2018

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Hardcover
242 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.42

Hardcover

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This book examines the development of medical sciences in postcolonial Kenya, through the adventures and stories of the controversial Kalenjin scientist Davy Kiprotich Koech. As a collaborative life story project, it privileges African voices and retellings, re-centring the voice of African scientists from the peripheries of storytelling about science, global health research collaborations, national politics, international geopolitical alliances, and medical research.

Focusing largely on the development of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and its collaborations with the US Centers for Disease Control, the Walter Reed Project, Japan's International Cooperation Agency, the Wellcome Trust, and other international partners, Denielle Elliott and Davy Koech challenge euro-dominant representations of African science and global health in both the contemporary and historical and offer an unconventional account which aims to destabilize colonial and neo-colonial narratives about African science, scientists, and statecraft. The stories force readers to contend with a series of questions including: How do imperial effects shape contemporary medical research and national sovereignty? In which ways do the colonial ghosts of early medical research infuse the struggles of postcolonial scientists to build national scientific projects? How were postcolonial nation-building projects tied up with the dreams and visions of African scientists? And lastly, how might we reimagine African medicine and biosciences?

The monograph will be of interest to students, educators, and scholars working in African Studies, Science and Technology Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Global Health, Cultural Anthropology, and Medical Anthropology.

Industry Reviews

Stories attest to the profoundly relational nature of human experience and achievement. With these engaging tales from the life of one of Kenya's most prominent scientists, Denielle Elliott's book reveals the intricate web of relationship and heritage through which postcolonial citizens here and elsewhere pursue knowledge, negotiate statecraft, and navigate the promises and pitfalls of transcontinental connection.

Anand Pandian, Johns Hopkins University, USA

This book delivers a rare first-person account of international research by an African scientist. It is a book about experiments, by medical researchers facing a terrible plague, by an ambitious man in post-colonial Kenya, and by an anthropologist looking for new ways to narrate stories about African science. Davy Kiprotich Koech bravely recalled his memories of a sometimes controversial life in interviews with Denielle Elliott. Elliott's sensitive framing of Koech's testimony offers critical insight into the politics of knowledge in Africa, of power in Kenya, and of the ways that stories make selves.

Nancy J. Jacobs, Brown University, USA

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