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):
- Tomdi, Lucky. “The Invisibility of African Medical Orderlies in Ghana (Gold Coast), 1920-1950s.” Social History of Medicine (May 2026). https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkag036
- 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. https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/political-economy-of-covid19-9781666972443/
- 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. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2022-012468
- 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. https://doi.org/10.15566/cjgh.v7i5.417
Conference Presentations (Select):
- Guest Speaker: American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN) Virtual Speaker Series. Presented a paper titled: “‘I Just Want to Be of Help to My Own People’: Race and Inequity in Gold Coast’s (Ghana) Nursing Service, 1940-1950s” (October 03, 2025).
- Tomdi, Lucky. “Expanding Rural Health Frontiers: The Role of Medical Field Units in Ghana’s Healthcare Development, 1951–1970.” Paper presented at the Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) Conference, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada (June 05, 2025).
- 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, Northern Ontario School of Medicine University, West Campus, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada (October 19, 2024).
- 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 (CSHM) and Canadian Association for the History of Nursing (CAHN) joint conference, York University, Toronto, Ontario (May 29, 2023).
- 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).