Richard Carver writes:
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| David Sanders (1944-2019) |
A very great number of people benefitted from the life of Professor David Sanders.* I should know, because I am one of them, although for me this was very personal - he was one of my oldest friends. Most importantly, David was an immensely influential figure in the progressive health movement internationally and in southern Africa. Central to that influence was his first book, The Struggle for Health: Medicine and the Politics of Underdevelopment. This first came out in 1985 and a second edition has just been published. (The open access e-book is here.)
David was born in South Africa of Jewish descent - something he was very attached to. Students who have heard my lectures on refugees in history may recall a discussion of the arrival of Lithuanian Jews in the Cape during the ostrich boom. I owed all that to David’s delightful anecdotes. He grew up in Zimbabwe, became a doctor, and was involved in the liberation movement. This was how I first came to know him and my collaboration on the book meant that I stumbled inadvertently, but delightedly, into a lifetime of work on human rights in Africa.
It will be launched at an online lecture on Monday, 22 May.
First, a personal note. David died suddenly nearly four years ago. When one loses a friend the sadness is often expressed as a feeling that we didn’t spend enough time together - that there was so much more we wanted to talk about. In David’s case, this was literally true. We had been friends since the 1970s, but except for when we first met in London, we barely lived on the same continent.
The Struggle for Health was of great importance in forming our friendship. David enlisted me as an editor and occasional amanuensis. This project began as a briefing booklet for medical personnel volunteering overseas. By the time I got involved, it was already shaping up to be a book. I knew nothing about health, but I could edit and write, so I came on board. Fairly soon, however, David was making use of me as a historical researcher. I ended up writing parts of the book and was very generously credited as co-author of the first edition. I say generously because the entire argument and theoretical framework of the book was David’s.
When he died, David was working on a second edition of The Struggle for Health. The central argument of the book is as relevant as ever - indeed some of it may read as truistic for the simple reason that it was ahead of the field and highly influential. It never lost touch with its origins as a briefing for health workers. The book argues that social determinants are by far the most important influences on health - not medicine of any sort, including preventive interventions, which were becoming more fashionable when he wrote the book. But that does not mean that the role of the health worker is irrelevant. If they understand these determinants and are prepared to work with others for social transformation, then health workers have a part to play. The book is particularly important in considering the role of community health workers, a development that David championed on his return to Zimbabwe at independence in 1980 - and later for nearly 30 years back in South Africa. Many of these experiences are reflected in greater depth in the new edition.
David did not finish the revised edition, but his widow, Professor Sue Fawcus, was determined that the work should be completed. A small committee took this on, including Sue herself, Wim de Ceukelaire, and Barbara Hutton. I was asked to review the draft, but my name, quite rightly, is no longer on the cover.
The second edition of The Struggle for Health is being launched on 22 May at the annual David Sanders Lecture in Public Health and Social Justice, to be delivered by Professor Fran Baum of the University of Adelaide, and with contributions from the book’s editorial committee.
The event is being streamed and is at 14.00 South African time, which is 13.00 BST.
* Not to be confused with the former CENDEP director, David Sanderson.
