title: History of psychiatry in West Africa.
abstract: This paper explores the social context of the development of mental asylums in colonial Nigeria. The characteristics of the medical leadership is described, as is the environmental condition of the asylums. The colonial period produced conceptualizations of the African mind and of the pattern and distribution of mental illness in Africans. These conceptualizations are critically examined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham, UK. Femi.Oyebode@bsmht.nhs.uk
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oyebode
mesh_terms: D000354:Africa, Western; D018595:Colonialism / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D006272:Health Facility Environment; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000266:history* / Q000458:organization & administration; D008486:Physician Executives; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000266:history*; D012962:Sociology, Medical / Q000266:history