The Past, Present and Future of US Global Health Partnerships in Africa

The term “partnership” has become a core value in the field of global health over the past fifteen years, signaling a rejection of older, more paternalistic modes of Western health interventions in Africa. However, steep economic and political inequalities make equitable partnerships difficult to achieve. Histories of colonialism, as well as ongoing issues of race and representation within and between the United States and its partners, further complicate efforts to create partnership. Throughout 2016-2018, this project connected diverse faculty from across the University of Washington, along with an international invited keynote speaker, Iruka Okeke (Professor of Pharmaceutical Microbiology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria), in a series of workshops. These workshops culminated in the drafting of a series of essays examining “partnership” as a programmatic priority and affective ideal in global health initiatives between the United States and African countries, and beyond. • “Humanistic Perspectives on Global Health Partnerships in Africa and Beyond” workshops November 4, 2016, and February 24, 2017 • Keynote lecture, Iruka Okeke, “Africans in Pathogen Genomics Research,” February 23, 2017 • Katz Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities, Paul Farmer, “The Caregivers’ Disease - The History and Political Economy of Ebola in West Africa,” February 7, 2018 • Faculty publications in Africa Is a Country in January 2018 and in Medicine Anthropology Theory in May 2018. See simpsoncenter.org/mat