In Sanest Africa

In the British tropical colony of Kenya, malaria and dysentery are rife; schistosomiasis, caused by parasites, is so common that the natives just don't worry about blood in the urine. They live in crowded, chimney-less huts amid smells that nauseate Europeans; food is bad and poorly cooked; 84% of the natives are undernourished.

They are far from Rousseau's nice notions about the Noble Savage--but they aren't nearly as crazy as Americans and Europeans. So reports Dr. J. C. Carothers" in the current issue of the U.S. quarterly Psychiatry. For nine years Dr. Carothers was government medical officer in various parts of the colony, for seven more, medial officer in charge of the Mathari Mental Hospital.

The rate of insanity among Kenya Africans, says Dr. Carothers, is only 3.4 per 100,000 of population. He compared this with rates in England and Wales of 57 per 100,000, with 72 to 86 per 100,000 of all races in Massachusetts, and with 161 per 100,000 among Massachusetts Negroes.

How come? Dr. Carothers has some large answers for his big question. There is in Africa, he says, no shameful mystery about sex, no need for repression; there are no spinsters, no prostitutes. The African feels that his strength and stability come from the fact that he is a part of a larger organization; he does not have to bear economic trials & tribulations alone. He enjoys observing tribal rules, does not like thinking for himself: "There is no room for free thought . . . and even secretive, solitary or outstandingly successful people are suspect."

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