A New Era for the Health Geographies in (and of) Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

While geographers have been researching and writing about health in sub-Saharan African (SSA) for quite some time, over the past decade or so the volume of geographic scholarship into health and well-being in SSA has reached a critical mass. It is set against this backdrop that we reflect on this edited collection, understanding it as the symbolic turn to a new era of the nascent but stand-alone field of study, what the editors introduce as health geographies in sub-Saharan Africa. Running from the classic medical geography focus on disease ecology to novel exploration of topics like well-being, mental health, gender responsive development, and researcher positionality, these chapters provide a snapshot of a continent reverberating with complexity and spatiotemporal nuances that now defy simple explanations. The people and places throughout the continent are distinct, the experiences of health are numerous and multifaceted, and, as researchers, the very ways we think about health and well-being needs to adapt to these emerging realities. Considering this, we turn our gaze to the future and invite a health geography of SSA as much as it is in SSA.