ReMed 2018 Remed 5 - Histoire de la Médecine | Page 49

Brèves
The Luminaries Behind Our
Hospital Names
Asma AIT SAID
Throughout history, humanity has witnessed tremendous accomplishments of numerous historical
figures, that have led the world in general and their own societies in particular to revolutionary
breakthroughs that are still to this day, contributing to the enhancement of the current nations.
Around the world, every society nowadays not only recognizes the prodigious achievements of local
and universal luminaries, it actually expresses its acknowledgement by symbolizing their work. The
privilege given to us of naming our hospitals after them is one of the ways to do that. Among these
inspirational people we mention: Nafissa HAMOUD, Frantz FANON, Mohamed Lamine DEBAGHINE
and Pierre and Marie CURIE.
HAMOUD LALIAM Nafissa
O
“
n the 17th of March 1924, the capital of the country
witnessed the birth of a woman recognized today for
her fervent patriotism, strength of character and re-
markable path in the medical field.

Having lived her early years under the oppressive
French colonization, Nafissa HAMOUD was fully devoted to
lead her nation to freedom and serve it faithfully.
In 1944, she registered at the faculty of medicine
in Algiers. Despite the complexity of medical studies, the
young student was endowed with considerable energy and
eagerness to be a part of various active organizations, at the
head of them the NAMSA (North African Muslim Student’s
Association), of which she became vice-president in 1947,
and the AMWA (Algerian Muslim Women’s Association)
which she had founded herself in the same year, strongly
arming her in the fight for women’s rights and the support
of African women’s liberation.
Soon after earning her doctorate in medicine, she
specialized in gynecology and obstetrics and thus became
the 2nd Algerian female doctor in the colonial period.
Her drive and ambition to grow and broaden her medical
horizons pushed her to open a private practice in the Lyre
avenue back in 1953, which served as a secret shelter for
the martyrs ABANE Ramdane, and Benyoucef BENKHEDDA.
Being a member of private groups of the APP (The Alge-
rian People’s Party) and having taken part in the widespread
manifestations that occurred on the 8th of May 1945 proved
her commitment by standing beside her compatriots in the
war for liberty.
Not long after the Algerian independence, she coo-
perated with her specialist colleagues to establish the first
National Center of Birth Control in Mustapha Bacha hospi-
tal. Years later, in September 1st, 1974, she became Head of
the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department of Parnet hos-
pital in Hussein Dey, where she spent most of her life. The
center became eponymous to our heroine after she passed
away ‘’ The university hospital of Nafissa HAMOUD’’.
I have no wish to be the victim of the Fraud of a black world. My
life should not be devoted to drawing up the balance sheet of Negro
values. There is no white world, there is no white ethic, any more than
there is a white intelligence. There are in every part of the world men
who search. I am not a prisoner of history. I should not seek there for
the meaning of my destiny. I should constantly remind myself that
the real leap consists in introduction invention into existence. In the
world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.
Frantz Fanon - Black Skin, White Masks 1952. Page 179.
”
Frantz FANON, in full Frantz Omar FANON
R
emarkably renowned and praised for the depth of his
thoughts, the width of his knowledge and the excep-
tionality of his perspectives, Frantz FANON was ex-
traordinarily brilliant in different fields namely social phi-
losophy and psychiatry. The various concepts expressed in
his books have had a strong impact on the minds of many
generations of thinkers and philosophers.

Born on the 20th of July 1925, as a descendant of
African slaves brought to the Caribbean island of Marti-
nique, a French colony; FANON grew up amidst an environ-
ment governed by discrimination, oppression, corruption
and domination; which fundamentally influenced his per-
ception of the world and orientated his steps towards the
flow fight for national liberation of colonized people.
Shor tly after taking part in World War II under the French
flag, he joined the University of Lyon where he pursued his
studies in medicine and psychology.

In 1952, he arrived to Algeria and settled in Blida,
a city revealed to be one of the biggest anti-colonist cities,
ergo inflaming Fanon’s motive to join the National Libe-
ration Front (FLN) and follow the outbreak of the Algerian
revolution on November 1st, 1954.

Through his three years of practice in a psychia-
tric ward in Joinville Hospital in Blida, subsequently named
after the legend; he became progressively more conscious
of the concrete impact of the aggressiveness and bruta-
lity exercised by the unfair occupation on the psychologi-
cal and mental state of the population. Many of his books
bear witness to his critical opinions regarding the matter
of colonization. We recall as his first major work ‘’ Black
skin, white masks” (1952) that played a considerable role
in awakening the world’s consciousness about the psychic,
spiritual and the physical agony undergone by an endless
number of colonies for years.

Another of his notable endeavors was helping
create the Algerian newspaper ‘’El Moudjahid’’, writing in
the same period as his second most successful classical
book ‘’The Wretched of the Earth’’. Afterwards, he became
the Ambassador of Algeria in Ghana.

In the most sorrowful circumstances, the great
fighter left the world in November 16th, 1961 in Washing-
ton DC, after succumbing to Leukemia. He was later buried
in the Algerian land in the ‘’ Martyrs’ Cemetery’’, according
to his will.
ReMed Magazine - Numéro 5
49