The Riddle of Malnutrition: The Long Arc of Biomedical and Public Health Interventions in Uganda, by Jennifer Tappan

With its focus on Uganda, Jennifer Tappan’s rich study, The Riddle of Malnutrition, explores how complex health issues in Africa and other regions of the Global South have been falsely constructed as problems that can be addressed through the application of externally derived biomedical technologies. Through its intelligent and coherent organisation, it gives important perspectives on global health, especially considering that more than ten million children in the world suffer from the syndrome now known as severe acute malnutrition annually. In Uganda, malnutrition came to be perceived as a disease rather than a preventable condition, and this severely compromised nutritional health in the East African country. Medical doctors responded to the plummeting nutritional situation by developing a new public health programme known in local parlance as Mwanamugimu. The new approach was unique because it prioritised local expertise and empowerment, blending biomedical knowledge with indigenous African cultural competencies. In the aftermath of its launch, it scored incredible successes.