[For context: in the mid-20th century, a hospital was set up near the estate of Shiwa Ngandu for use by the native population. It was staffed with British and native workers, and it was initially a struggle to convince the native Bemba people to use the hospital instead of their own plant-based remedies. This all changed when a local chief came to the doctor there with a tapeworm problem.]
The Shiwa hospital was apparently prospering as a result of Chief Mukwikile and the tapeworm. Monica told her uncle that one morning one of the chief’s court counsellors had appeared at her surgery, bearing a scrap of newspaper with a segment of tapeworm wrapped up in it. She didn’t have the right medicine but her book of remedies suggested a mix of castor oil and chloroform. It sounded dangerous, but to her relief was highly effective, the tapeworm passing straight out of the chief’s system. She put the worm, many yards of it, in formalin in a jamjar and placed it on the shelf in the dispensary.
Soon everyone had heard the story and villagers were coming from all over to gape at it, and to be treated themselves.
Source:
Lamb, Christina. “Part Two: 1927-1967, Chapter 15.” The Africa House: The True Story of An English Gentleman and His African Dream. Harper Collins Publishers, 2004. 226. Print.
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