October Virtual Speaker Series

Date: October 3, 2025
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm ET
Title: “I Just Want to Be of Help to My Own People”: Race and Inequity in Gold Coast’s (Ghana) Nursing Service, 1940-1950s
Speaker: Lucky Tomdi 

Brief Abstract: Racial discrimination in colonial healthcare services in Africa and its consequent creation of class distinctions among European and African staff is documented yet overly focused on the medical profession. In the Gold Coast (now Ghana), racial discrimination within the nursing service is poorly understood and sparsely documented. Race and inequity in nursing and how local nurses responded are rarely openly considered in the Ghanaian historiography. In what ways do the professional lives of African nurses tell us about racism and inequity within the Gold Coast health service and the local responses to discriminatory practices? This talk examine the work and experience of an African nurse, Ethel F. Roberts to demonstrate the racial and discriminatory aspects of nursing in the Gold Coast within a transnational framework. Trained as a nurse in the Gold Coast, Ethel F. Roberts moved to the United Kingdom (UK) for further studies in the 1940s. After training in the UK, Roberts applied for posting to the Gold Coast to work as a Nursing Sister, but she faced obstacles, partly due to racial discrimination. Roberts’ experience embodies one of the multiple and complex developments that defined racial discrimination in the nursing profession. Using a biographical approach, I draw on private letters, application forms, recommendation and appointment letters, and government records to argue that African nurses did not succumb to discrimination within the profession but contested existing colonial structures leading to health labour reforms in the twentieth century. Roberts’ story unravels key events in the development of nursing in the Gold Coast, focusing on negotiations and contestations surrounding racial discrimination, professional advancement and policy directives. Examining Robert’s career trajectory framed within a transnational context provides fresh insights on race and nursing in the Gold Coast.

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