catch of the day...

...1935 and the first petition in Ifakara by the Indian merchants for better health services! Later they would repeat this petition together with the African Association (click on the images to blow them up).

Another day in the archive: the beauty of the source

For today I give you two snapshots from my research at the Tanzanian National Archives. The first one reflects the sheer beauty of an archival collection. The second one a testimony to the fact that it the mission was also the most able and powerful building company in Ulanga. Not more than 500 meters from the small hospital of Sr. Arnolda, the mission was employed to build another 'hospital' which was in fact a dispensary of the "Native Authorities".

Dar es Salaam and sources on Ifakara 'hospital' in the 1950s

I am back in Dar es Salaam and have already spent a couple of hours in traffic jams. The reward for this is the time I can spend in the National Archives. I found some new documentes on the government support to Capuchin medical work in the 1950s. These documents prove the case that - especially if compared to the other mission societies - the Capuchins were, at that time, really a small outfit in the medical dimension. Furthermore their services were not considered to be of a particularly high quality by the administration - rather the contrary. For example this document shows that the old Ifakara hospital in 1953 "was not a good unit as regards building and accommodation". At that time, Ifakara hospital really was more like an old stable than like a modern hospital building.

Among other things I found this interesting map from the end of the 1920s (which includes leprosy care centres in the area - click the image to enlarge).