Surgical operations, and other medical procedures carried out in early Africa were rarely recorded , and there is a likelihood that some procedures attributed to Western civilisation, originated from Africa.
The year was 1879, when R.W. Felkin, an English medical student, witnessed a Caesarean Section being carried out with great precision in Bunyoro Kingdom.
Felkin was a student when, after two years of medical study, he volunteered to go as a medical missionary to Uganda. He, however, found Buganda in a state turmoil , a situation that made him fear for his safety.
Luckily after a brief stay he bumped into three Baganda men who had been despatched by the King of Buganda as envoys to deliver a special message to Queen Victoria in England.
The three men helped Felkin find his way into Bunyoro Kingdom before they left him and continued with their journey to England. Unfortunately Felkin was arrested and detained at Katura by Bunyoro Kingdom's law enforcers.
But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise for it was here that he witnessed a Caesarean Section being conducted by the natives much to his surprise.
In the village where he was detained, a woman went into labour.But despite Felkin's medical knowledge, the villagers rejected his request to examine the patient. Instead a native doctor was called to deal with the situation.
Felkin was however allowed to enter the hut where the native doctor was to carry out the surgical operation.
The patient was a healthy-looking woman about twenty years of age. She lay naked on an inclined bed, the head of which rested against the side of the hut. She was first anesthetized with Banana wine.
She was then tied down to the bed by bands of bark cloth over the thorax and thighs. Her ankles were held by a man squatting on his heels, while another man stood on her right side steadying the abdomen.
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