Self-Medication and the Trade in Medicine within a Multi-Ethnic Context: A Case Study of South Africa from the Mid-Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

The article analyses the distinctive experience of self-medication in South Africa, where the preferences of racial and ethnic groups structured a differentiated consumption of herbs, home and folk remedies, patent and proprietary medicines, and pharmaceuticals. Also examined are the interlocking agencies of missionaries, traders, storekeepers and pharmacists in the creation of regional diversity within an evolving medical market. The article indicates that sufferers developed hybrid and plural forms of self-medication that were historically and culturally variable as a result of natural and manufactured products becoming increasingly accessible and affordable. These provided attractive substitutes and/or complements to the medicines of both 'western' and traditional doctors.