Health related topics in African countries tend to be viewed negatively. With HIV infection rates soaring and health sectors ill equipped to handle the needs of the general population in most sub-Saharan African countries, there seems to be little worth celebrating in terms of health care options for Africans. Historically, Nigeria has fit well into this assessment. The essays in this book, however, do more than catalogue the failures of the Nigerian health sector. They raise practical issues about how the Nigerian health sector can and perhaps is improving the health outlook for its citizens in the twenty-first century. Through analyses of the ever-increasing integration of traditional medical beliefs and practices with modern medical methods and treatments, as well as discussions about the proliferation of private and non-governmental health institutions, popular perceptions of health and illness, and the connection between environment and health, these essays illustrate the enormity and complexity of facets that combine to form a uniquely Nigerian health system. Together, the essays in this volume paint a dichotomous picture of poor performance and optimism, underdevelopment and expansion facilities, but above all, they suggest that solutions to Nigeria's health problems do exist: the job merely remains to assess and implement them.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
TOYIN FALOLA is the Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor in History at the University of Texas at Austin. A Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, his books include "The Power of African Cultures," "Economic Reforms and Modernization in Nigeria, 1945-1965" and "A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: An African Memoir." He has also edited and co-edited many books including "Yoruba Creativity," "African Urbanization in Historical Perspective," and "The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World." He is the co-editor of the Journal of African Economic History, Series Editor of Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora, and the Series Editor of the Culture and Customs of Africa by Greenwood Press. He currently sits on the board of the African Studies Association. He has received various awards and honors, including the Jean Holloway Award for Teaching Excellence, the Texas Exes Teaching Award, and the Ibn Khaldun Distinguished Award for Research Excellence. In recognition of his monumental contribution to African studies, his students and colleagues have presented him with two Festschrifts edited by Adebayo Oyebade: "The Transformation of Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola" and "The Foundations of Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola."

MATTHEW M. HEATON is a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. His work focuses on mental illness and migration in Nigeria. A Patrice Lumumba Fellow, his publications include "African Cities and the Globalization of Disease: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19" in "Urbanization and African Cultures." He has two historiographical publications forthcoming: one on the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 in Africa and another on the works of A.E. Afigbo. He is currently co-authoring with Toyin Falola a book on the history of Nigeria for Cambridge University Press.