AFRICANIZING ONCOLOGY, creativity, crisis, and cancer in Uganda

260pp., illus., paperback, Athens, 2021

“In recounting half a century of research and care at the Uganda Cancer Institute, Marissa Mika tells an unforgettable story of the power of connections and the consequences of their loss. Ugandan physician/researchers and their staff proved the value of therapies because they had made friendships that motivated families to return to Kampala for follow-up, but that knowledge became useless when funders’ priorities changed and international partnerships ended. Mika’s story of UCI shows horrifying wounds - and the possibility of healing - in post-independence Uganda, in global health, and in the way we think about the world.” Holly Hanson, author of To Speak and Be Heard: Seeking good government in Uganda, ca. 1500–2015

“In this historically and ethnographically rich book, Marissa Mika shows how African doctors and nurses practice oncology by creating, adapting, and transforming medical infrastructures. Tracing the life of the Uganda Cancer Institute through historical periods of independence, dictatorship, war, structural adjustment, and the HIV pandemic, this powerful book reveals the challenges and opportunities of Africanizing oncology. This is a landmark study on the history - and future - of global oncology.” Carlo Caduff, author of The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic events in a public culture of danger

Marissa Mika is a visiting scholar at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine & Society at the University of California, Berkeley.