Erika Sutter: Seen with Other Eyes

Gertrud Stiehle

Description

The Swiss ophthalmologist Erika Sutter was born in Basel in 1917. She spent 32 years working in Elim Hospital, founded by the Swiss Mission in an impoverished rural area in North-Eastern South Africa. Together with her African colleague and friend, Selina Maphorogo, she founded the Care Groups, village self-help groups working for better health in their communities. The movement is still active after more than 30 years, and now has around 2,000 members, mostly women, in over 200 villages. Erika Sutter has received numerous international honours and awards for her pioneering work, including the award “Woman of the Year” in 1984 from the South African newspaper “The Star”, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel. For the creation of this biography, Erika Sutter spent many hours with the author, her friend Gertrud Stiehle, telling the story of her long life – vividly, with a sharp eye for social issues, a hint of self-irony, and dry wit. Her account does not ignore events in the wider world. She experienced life on the Swiss-German border during the Second World War, and her years of working in South Africa were those when the apartheid policies of the South African Government were becoming more and more repressive, affecting many aspects of life in the country.

Sujets

• Autobiography
• Biography

Informations

• Publié par: Basler Afrika Bibliographien
• Date de parution: 02 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9783905758474
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 28 Mo

Extrait

Erika Sutter Seen with Other Eyes

Left: Gertrud Stiehle

Right: Erika Sutter

Erika Sutter Seen with Other Eyes Memories of a Swiss Eye Doctor in Rural South Africa

Told by Gertrud Stiehle

With a foreword by Mamphela Ramphele and a preface and one chapter by Frances Lund

Basel Basler Afrika Bibliographien 2013

Kindly supported by DM Echange et Mission, Lausanne; Mission 21, Basel; Südafrika Mission Trägerverein; Basler Mission Trägerverein; Bertha Hess CohnStiftung Basel; and a number of generous individuals.

© The authors © The photographers © Basler Afrika Bibliographien  PO Box 2037 CH4001 Basel Switzerland www.baslerafrika.ch

All rights reserved. Originally published in 2011 as “Erika Sutter: Mit anderen Augen gesehen. Erinnerungen einer Schweizer Augenärztin”. Translated by Anu Lannen, Basel; edited by J. M. Jenkins, Basel.

Cover photo: Erika Sutter at her farewell from the Venda Care Groups, 1984. Private Collec tion Erika Sutter

ISBN 9783905758337

ISSN 16609638

Contents

A healer and torch bearer A foreword: Mamphela RampheleVII

Preface by Frances Lund

In lieu of an introduction: Immersing myself in the life of Erika Sutter

I

II

III

IV

V

The Roots

Childhood and Adolescence  A happy time: Early childhood years in Basel and holidays in Valais  Paradise was in Troistorrents  The youngest  School days  A conflict-laden adolescence

University Studies during World War II and starting in a profession  The challenge of choosing a career  Studying during turbulent times  Not quite as planned: the start of professional life  Two unmarried daughters set up house on the Spalenberg  Life during the Second World War

Preparing for Africa  First contact with the mission  A circuitous route leads to a successful plunge  Two happy years in Sweden  A decision, and a second contact with the mission  Final preparations and departure

The Path to Ophthalmology  Settling down in Elim  The laboratory – a long working day  Nationalisation of the schools: the spread of “Bantu Education”  A new challenge: Medical School in Johannesburg  The year of residency  Specializing in ophthalmology

VI Head of the Eye Hospital in Elim  Returning to Elim as a doctor  Her own home with a garden

VIII

1

3

6 6 7 9 9 11

13 13 14 16 18 20

25 25 25 26 28 29

32 32 37 39 40 46 47

50 50 52