Medical practice in the Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape developed slightly different medical traditions from the Western Cape. The majority Xhosa population had healing practices of their own which they shared only partly with the Khoi, while Boer medical practice had become more remote from modern Western medicine. Missionary medicine was relatively undeveloped in this period but through the Grey Hospital the Governor, Sir George Grey, promoted Western medicine amongst Africans. In this frontier territory, British military doctors encouraged early scientific societies and, in the absence of other medical men, treated civilians both black and white. The advent of the British settlers after 1820 placed a strongly British stamp on the practice of Eastern Cape medicine.