African voices in global health: Knowledge, creativity, accountability

摘要

In this article we offer an introduction to a special issue of Global PublicHealth on the theme of ‘African Voices in Global Health: Knowledge,Creativity, Accountability’. This special issue explores Africans’ selfunderstoodroles – and voices – in global health (as both researchersand interlocutors in relation to various global health institutions/policies). We argue that the special issue’s focus on African voices inglobal health is critical in view of the legacies of colonial medicine andpublic health for contemporary narratives, discourses, and practices. It isimportant to acknowledge that Africans continue to address thestructural injustices facing them in relation to global health policies andpractices on the continent. In the face of this they have demanded thatdonors, NGOs, governments, and intergovernmental organisations bepolitically, fiscally, and ethically accountable to the people they serveon the continent. As the special issue highlights, critical scholars ofglobal health based in Africa are increasingly offering challenges to thefrequent positioning of African patients and study-participants as eitherinvisible, or disempowered, in understanding and shaping their ownlived experiences of health in a transnational context.