Page 50 - Afrika Must Unite

SOCIETY UNDER COLONIALISM 35
explained by the fact that water development is costly and no
more than a public service for the people being administered. It
gave no immediate prospect of economic return. Yet a fraction
of the profits taken out of the country by the business and mining
interests would have covered the cost of a first-class water
system.
U nder the colonial administration there was, until more
recent times, discrimination in the Gold Coast health services.
For example, there were seven hospitals in the country which
catered for under 3,000 Europeans as against thirty-six for about
4,000,000 Africans. We all remember when the Ridge hospital
in Accra was reserved for whites and when only in very special
cases any of our own people were adm itted there. Korle Bu, the
principal Accra hospital, was always over-crowded. Even at
that, it was considered one of the best in Africa. In fact, as with
education, so the public health and medical services of the Gold
Coast were rated to be well ahead of those in most other colonies.
Yet the services they provided were hopelessly inadequate.
Some attem pt had been made by the administration to raise
health standards, and medical men and nurses had been brought
in from Britain to complement the medical services which had
been started by the missions. The budget, however, was terribly
restricted and practically nothing was done by way of preventive
medicine. The greatest scourge of our people is m alaria, which is
almost endemic. It is extremely debilitating and one of its effects
is sterility in women. To get rid of m alaria one has to rid the
country of the anopheles mosquito. O ther diseases* like tuber­
culosis, yaws, and kwashiorkor, take a shocking toll of life and
energy, and are immediately ascribable to poor nutrition, over­
crowded living conditions and bad drinking water. Infant
mortality rates are appallingly high, and many surviving
children are crippled or invalid.
Attempts were being made to bring about some amelioration,
through the health services, but administrative policy did
nothing to eliminate the economic conditions which assisted the
incidence of death-dealing and energy-depriving diseases and
maladies. To some degree lack of education can also be blamed,
because without knowledge superstition persists. H ealth and
education most certainly go hand in hand, and many of our