[The professions of colonial pharmacist in French West Africa]

During the twentieth century, French colonial rule in West Africa was marked by the establishment of a homogeneous health organization in the colonies. It was based on the health service of the colonial troops, the hospital service under the general service and other services such as health police, epidemics and hygiene. This health system made it possible to protect the colonizers and indigenous populations from the major endemics of the time, to conduct research on new diseases hitherto unrecognized and to bring "civilization" to the overseas territories. The pharmacist's missions in the colonial health system were manifold. Our study aims to shed light on the profession of colonial pharmacist in the health history of French West Africa. To do this, it concerned the period between the creation of the Federation of French West Africa (1895) and the end of colonization (1960). Drawing on the available documentation, including archival material and bibliographic sources, this article shows that the colonial pharmacist was already exercising a multidisciplinary profession. He was in fact hospital manager, wholesaler-distributor, pharmacy, biologist, chemist, botanist, teacher, central actor in public health.