On the afternoon of April 11, 2025, the Sub-Saharan Africa Research Center at Tsinghua University's Institute for International and Area Studies successfully hosted an academic lecture titled "Making Medical History in Northern Cameroon and Lake Chad Basin: Field Constraints, Methodological Challenges and Research Opportunities." The lecture was delivered by Dr. Sylvain Baïzoumi Wambae, Associate Professor at the Department of History, Higher Teachers' Training College, University of Maroua, Cameroon, and moderated by Huang Aidan, a PhD candidate at IIAS. The event attracted over 20 scholars and students from Chinese and international institutions via online participation.
Drawing from his extensive fieldwork experience, Dr. Baïzoumi Wambae provided an in-depth analysis of the unique challenges confronting medical history research in Northern Cameroon and the Lake Chad Basin. Addressing the crucial issue of researcher positionality, he screened two vivid videos documenting indigenous healing practices, sparking lively discussions among participants about the insider–outsider perspective dichotomy. The region's harsh environmental conditions present additional obstacles, with dry season temperatures reaching 44°C and rainy seasons bringing floods along with malaria and cholera outbreaks. Security concerns compound these challenges, as terrorist activities and ethnic conflicts endanger researchers' safety.
To navigate this complex research environment, Dr. Baïzoumi proposed a systematic localized methodology. He stressed establishing community trust through transparent research protocols that clearly explain study purposes and data usage. Researchers should employ mixed methods combining quantitative statistics with ethnographic participant observation, prioritizing documentation of oral traditional medical knowledge through open-ended questioning. Cultural adaptation strategies imply that researchers should respect respondents' religious and social taboos. Theoretically, he advocated adopting perspectives from the Dakar and Ibadan Schools of History, emphasizing pre-colonial medical practices and indigenous archives like Arabic manuscripts. This comprehensive approach maintains academic rigor while accommodating local sociocultural contexts.
Despite these challenges, Dr. Baïzoumi remains optimistic about the region's research potential. Addressing safety concerns, he shared practical security protocols including collaboration with reliable local guides, thorough community engagement prior to research, and seeking accommodation in religious compounds. He highlighted how the region's epidemiological and sociocultural particularities—including disease co-morbidity and cultural syncretism—offer valuable primary data for health research. For Chinese scholars specifically, he noted promising avenues in traditional medicine dialogue and China's role in local health systems. Furthermore, institutional networks like the University of Maroua and University of N'Djamena's collaborations with WHO and Médecins Sans Frontières provide crucial support for young scholars.
Dr. Sylvain Baïzoumi Wambae is Associate Professor at the Department of History, Higher Teachers' Training College, University of Maroua, and Associate Lecturer at Adventist University of Cosendai, Cameroon. A distinguished scholar in medical history, his research focuses on epidemiology, epizootics, public health, health worker migration, medical delinquency and pastoral violence. He holds a PhD in Medical History from University of Maroua and a professional certification in dyslexic student management from École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France. His publications appear in Savoir Sans Frontières, Octares Éditions, ADILAAKU, Editions Cheikh Anta Diop, and L'Harmattan Paris among others.
