The British colony of the Gold Coast, which became the Dominion of Ghana in March 1957, was known in historical times as the ‘white man’s graveyard’ due to the high mortality among European immigrants caused by endemic tropical diseases. The main causes of death were malaria, yellow fever and cholera. However, by the end of the 20th century, Europeans working at Ghana’s three great universities – at Legon, Kumasi and Cape Coast – could avoid these diseases with standard precautions, and the White Man’s Cemetery had been transformed into an environment healthy in which Europeans could live and grow up. your families.

Before traveling to Ghana in February 1971, the author lived in England, where he and members of his family had become accustomed to one or two common colds a year. In Ghana, common colds became a distant memory and the next twenty-six years passed without any recurrence of colds or influenza. Yellow fever and cholera were prevented by regular inoculations, and malaria was kept at bay by a daily prophylactic pill. While these precautions caused some inconvenience, they provided complete protection and decades of healthy life. He reserved space in the Kumasi cemetery for foreigners, but it was only needed on rare occasions.

Europeans in Ghana in the 1970s and 1980s were at greatest risk to their health from accidental injuries. If the event occurred during working hours, it might be possible to get good medical care at a private clinic, but for injuries sustained at other times, there was usually the prospect of a long wait in a hospital’s accident and emergency department. local state. In this situation, Europeans were forced to share the few medical services provided to the general population. Here one joined the long line of farmers with machete wounds and snakebites and schoolchildren with malarial fever, diarrhea and pepper-induced stomach ulcers. It was one of the few situations where the expatriate community was forced to witness and share in the suffering of the indigenous people.

In the 21st century, Ghana’s economy has progressed steadily towards middle income status and some of the newly gained wealth has hopefully been spent on improving living conditions and medical services. If this is so, then the health of the indigenous population should have improved. At the same time, there are signs that the malaria virus has become resistant to the prophylactic pills of yesteryear. New formulations are offered to the intrepid traveler, but without the confidence of the 1970s. In this change of situation, it seems that locals could suffer proportionally less illness and visitors more, a convergence that does not please everyone but that manifests an element of justice by offering fairer, more equitable opportunities to avoid the cemetery.