Medical Moulages and Models from Mid-20th Century East and Southern Africa

Much has been written about medical models and moulages within European contexts. Medical modeling and moulage making was not, however, confined to Europe: it traveled across imperial networks to European colonies and beyond. This paper examines two sets of medical models from East and Southern Africa: a collection of busts of children afflicted with Burkitt’s lymphoma and a set of feet depicting the progression of a cut from infection to malignancy. Each set is situated in its local and epistemic context, showing how the busts were used primarily as research tools and the feet as teaching tools.