Hunt recently urged Africanists to write new kinds of histories for new publics; students committed to “global health,” in particular, needed to learn about the long and troubled record of expatriate medical interventions.1 Graboyes’ imaginative new book takes up Hunt’s challenge.
Two introductory chapters orient readers to several East African sites that have long been hotbeds for medical research and interventions. Subsequent chapters then move through four key moments in research encounters—the arrival of researchers, the interactions that surround consent or coercion to participate, the balancing of benefit and risk, and the conclusion of the experiment. Graboyes illustrates each moment with a pairing of two case studies from East Africa, one historical (mostly from the 1950s), and one contemporary (mostly since the millennium). These narratives provide insight into the issues at stake in large-scale research projects. The innovative structure, not chronological but thematic, draws out continuities through its vivid...