Industrialisasie, verstedeliking en gesondheid: die gesondheid van swartes in Brakpan 1919-1945

Abstract

From the town's attainment of municipal status in 1919, the Brakpan health department experienced serious difficulties in providing all aspects of proper health care due to the population growth. Within the context of the health legislation of that time and white conceptions of black inferiority, the health services offered to blacks in Brakpan had serious limitations. Blacks were excluded from formal health structures and the quality of both medical services and health facilities for blacks was distinctly lower than those for whites. However over this period blacks gradually moved away from their traditional health practices as they began to experience the advantages of western medicine.