Lucky Tomdi PhD Candidate
Supervisor: Dr. Simonne HorwitzMy dissertation explores the complex experiences and work of a group of African medical auxiliaries, namely Local Authority Dressers, from the late 19th to the late 20th century in Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). It examines how these local participants contributed to advancing the practice of biomedicine and further shaped the culture of care at their health posts. Neither doctors nor nurses, dressers’ work developed into a distinct category among other local intermediary workers. By examining the marginalised roles, agency, and contributions of African auxiliaries, I seek to reinterpret their work as embodying forms of attendant care within Ghana’s biomedical health system rather than as merely precarious, localised labour within a colonial service.
Research Area(s)
- African history
- history of medicine and health labor
- history of hospitals
Dissertation Title
Publications (Select):
1. Adu-Gyamfi, Samuel and Lucky Tomdi. “Shivers in the Spine: Historicizing Dilemmas and Hope During a Pandemic,” In Luke A. Amadi and Prince I. Igwe, eds. The Political Economy of COVID-19: Understanding the Dynamics of a Global Pandemic. 91-114. Lexington Books, 2025.
2. Tomdi, Lucky. “Gender, Race and Class at Work: Enlisting African Health Labour into the Gold Coast Medical Service, 1860–1957.” Medical Humanities 49, no.4 (2023): 623-630.
3. Adu-Gyamfi, Samuel, and Lucky Tomdi. “Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Epidemic Diseases Vulnerabilities in Ghana: A Reflection on the Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1920.” Thesis 12, no. 1 (2023): 101-122.
4. Adu-Gyamfi, Samuel, Mariama Marciana Kuusaana, Benjamin Dompreh Darkwa, and Lucky Tomdi. “The Changing Landscape of Mission Medicine and Hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Christian Journal for Global Health 7, no.5 (2020): 65-81.
Conference Presentations (Select):
1. Tomdi, Lucky. “Loyalty and Caring: A Transnational History of Nursing in Ghana, 1933 to 1950s.” Paper presented at the 9th Manitoba-(Northern) Ontario-Minnesota-Saskatchewan (MOMS) History of Medicine Conference held at Northern Ontario School of Medicine University, West Campus at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada (October 19, 2024).
2. Tomdi, Lucky. “African Medical Orderlies and the Evolution of Attendant Care in Ghanaian Hospitals, 1860-1957.” Paper presented at the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine and Canadian Association for the History of Nursing joint conference held at York University, Toronto, Ontario (May 29, 2023).
3. Adu-Gyamfi, Samuel and Lucky Tomdi. “Politics of Saving Lives: Race, Inequality, and Quarantine from Spanish Influenza to COVID-19 in Ghana.” Paper presented at the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA), 4th Biennial Conference co-hosted by HUMA – Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (April 15, 2022).
4. Tomdi, Lucky. “A Historical Review of Immigrant Health Labour in Canada, 1950-1970.” Paper presented at the 19th Annual McGill-Queens History Graduate Conference (March 11, 2022).