Agnes Yewande Savage
| Agnes Yewande Savage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
21 February 1906 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 1964 (aged 58) |
| Nationality | |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Relatives |
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Agnes Yewande Savage (1906 - 1964) was a Nigerian doctor and the first West African woman to train and qualify in orthodox medicine.[1] Savage was also the first West African woman to receive a university degree. [1]
Life
Savage was born on 21 February 1906 in Edinburgh, Scotland[1] to Richard Akinwande Savage Sr, a medical doctor and Maggie S. Bowie, a working-class Scotswoman. Her brother was Richard Gabriel Akinwande Savage, also a doctor. Savage passed exams to the Royal College of Music in 1919 and was given a scholarship to study at George Watson’s Ladies College.[1]
She entered Edinburgh University to study medicine, excelled in her studies, and was awarded the Dorothy Gilfillan Memorial Prize as the best woman graduate in 1929.[1] Savage faced gender and racial institutional barriers in her career.[1] After graduation, she joined the colonial service in Ghana as a Junior Medical Officer. Though better qualified than most of her male counterparts, she received less benefits.[1] In 1931, she was recruited by the headmaster of Achimota College. At the urging of the headmaster, Alec Garden Fraser, the colonial government gave her a better contract. She was with Achimota for four years as a medical officer and a teacher.[1] While at Achimota, she came into contact with Susan de Graft-Johnson when the latter was the Girls' School Prefect. Johnson regularly worked with Savage at the sick bay[2] and later went on to also study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, becoming Ghana's first female medical doctor. [3] Another West African woman medical pioneer who studied at both Achimota and Edinburgh was Matilda J. Clerk, who became the first Ghanaian woman to win a university merit scholarship, the second female doctor in Ghana and the third West African woman to train as a physician. [3] After Achimota, Agnes Savage went back to the colonial medical service and was given a better concession, she was in charge of the infant welfare clinics, associated with Korle Bu Hospital in Accra. At Korle-Bu, she supervised the establishment of a training school for nurses, Korle-Bu Nurses Training College.[1]
Savage retired relatively early in 1947 and spent the remainder of her life in Scotland raising her niece and nephew. She died of a stroke in 1964.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mitchell, Henry (November 2016). "Dr Agnes Yewande Savage – West Africa’s First Woman Doctor (1906-1964)". Centre of African Studies.
- ↑ Vieta, K. T. (1999). The flagbearers of Ghana: Profiles of one hundred distinguished Ghanians. Accra, Ghana: Ena Pubs
- 1 2 Jr, Adell Patton (1996-04-13). Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa (1st edition ed.). Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p. 29. ISBN 9780813014326.