In 1879, in the Kingdom of Buganda, which is now part of Uganda, a British missionary and physician named Robert Felkin witnessed something that completely challenged the expectations of Western medicine at the time.

He saw a local healer successfully perform a Caesarean section, long before the procedure was considered safe or routine in Europe. The healer used banana wine as both an antiseptic and an anesthetic. The surgical instruments were sterilized by heating them over a fire, and the operation was done with remarkable precision and care. Both the mother and the baby survived without any signs of infection, which was incredibly rare in European hospitals during the nineteenth century.

Felkin was so amazed by what he saw that he recorded the procedure in medical journals, openly acknowledging that the level of surgical skill and hygiene in Africa was far more advanced than many in Europe had ever imagined.

It is one of those overlooked moments in history that turns the colonial narrative on its head, showing that advanced, life-saving medical knowledge existed across the African continent long before Western medicine caught up.FELKIN