{{Short description|African professor of medicine (1912–1985)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Michael Gelfand, [[CBE]] | image = Michael Gelfand Later Years.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date |df=yes|1912|12|26}} | birth_place = [[Wynberg, Cape Town|Wynberg]], [[Cape Town]], [[Cape Province]], [[Union of South Africa]] | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1985|7|19|1912|1|1}} | death_place = [[Harare]], Zimbabwe | field = [[Medicine]] | occupation = [[Physician]] | work_institution = Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine | alma_mater = [[University of Cape Town]] | doctoral_advisor = | doctoral_students = | known_for = working as a [[tropical]] medic | prizes = Order of the Knighthood of St. Sylvester, [[OBE]], [[CBE]] | footnotes = }}
'''Michael Gelfand''', [[CBE]], (December 1912 – July 1985) was a Zimbabwean medical practitioner of tropical medicine, who received a [[Papal]] Order of the Knighthood of St. Sylvester.<ref name="GelfandBio">{{cite web|archive-date=2010-08-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100813180157/http://www.btinternet.com/~zimdocs/gelfand1.html|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~zimdocs/gelfand1.html|title=Professor Michael Gelfand (1912 - 1985)|access-date=2009-01-13}}</ref>
==Early life and education==
Gelfand was born 26 December, 1912 in [[Wynberg, Cape Town|Wynberg]], [[Cape Province]], [[Union of South Africa]] to immigrant Jewish-Lithuanian parents.<ref name="Encyclopedias of the Jewish Diaspora"/> He attended [[Wynberg Boys' High School]] and obtained his degree in medicine from the [[University of Cape Town]] in 1936. His further medical training was in [[London]].<ref name="GelfandFoundation">{{cite web|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~zimdocs/gelfand.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100813180953/http://www.btinternet.com/~zimdocs/gelfand.html|archive-date=2010-08-13|title=Michael Gelfand Medical Research Foundation|access-date=2009-01-13}}</ref>
==Career==
Gefland first practiced medicine in South Africa and the United Kingdom before joining the Southern Rhodesia Medical Service as physician, [[pathologist]] and [[radiologist]] in 1939. After he began government service, he was known as the only doctor to correctly diagnose the illness of the wife of the Head of the Medical Services.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}
In 1955, Gelfand founded the ''[[Central African Journal of Medicine]]''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-03 |title=Central African Journal of Medicine |url=https://www.ajol.info/index.php/cajm |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=African Journals Online}}</ref> with Joseph Ritchken, and remained its co-editor for many years.<ref name="Lives of the Fellows, Michael Gelfan">{{cite web|title=Lives of the Fellows, Volume VIII|url=http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/1730|website=rcplondon.ac.uk|publisher=Royal College of Physicians of London|access-date=2014-10-29}}</ref> In 1962, he joined the [[University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland]] as founding Professor of African Medicine. From 1970, until his retirement in 1977, he was Professor and Head of Department of Medicine, and thereafter Emeritus Professor and Senior Clinical Research Fellow.
His works on rheumatic diseases were used as references for further study as well as in to complications related to [[tuberculosis]], [[HIV]], and other diseases.<ref name="Rheumatology in Sub-Saharan Africa">{{cite journal|last1=McGill|first1=P. E.|last2=Njobvu|first2=P.D.|title=Rheumatology in Sub-Saharan Africa|journal=Clinical Rheumatology|date=2001-05-01|volume=20|issue=3|pages=163–164|doi=10.1007/s100670170057|pmid=11434465|s2cid=26178809}}</ref>
Gelfand wrote a total of 330 articles and monographs in various journals on topics ranging from medicine, ethics, philosophy, history, [[Shona people|Shona]] custom, religion, and culture, with titles including "Migration of African Labourers in Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1890 - 1914)".<ref name="The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa">{{cite book|last1=Palmer|first1=Robin H.|last2=Parsons|first2=Neil|title=The Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa|date=January 1977|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520033184|pages=167|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wz6lKAI9Gp0C|access-date=2014-10-29}}</ref> He wrote more than 30 books,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gelfand |first=Michael |date=2023-05-18 |title=Books by Michael Gelfand (Author of Witch Doctor) |url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/1193932.Michael_Gelfand |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.goodreads.com}}</ref> amongst them ''The Sick African''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gelfland |first=Michael |title=The Sick African : a Clinical Study |publisher=Post-Graduate Press |year=1944 |edition= |location=Cape Town |ol=18487964M |language=English}}</ref> and ''Livingstone, the Doctor''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gelfand |first=Michael |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/760756 |title=Livingstone, the Doctor; his Life and Travels. A study in Medical History |publisher=Blackwell |year=1957 |location=Oxford |language=English}}</ref>
In a 1979 article "The infrequencey of [[homosexuality]] in traditional [[Shona people|Shona]] society," for ''The Central African Journal of Medicine,'' Gelfand noted: "The traditional Shona have none of the problems associated with homosexuality [so] obviously they must have a valuable method of bringing up children, especially with regards to normal sex relations, thus avoiding this anomaly so frequent in Western society."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gelfand |first=M. |date=September 1979 |title=The infrequency of homosexuality in traditional Shona society |journal=The Central African Journal of Medicine |volume=25 |issue=9 |pages=201–202 |issn=0008-9176 |pmid=519747}}</ref> Despite strongly [[Homophobia|homophobic]] attitudes existing in Shona society, homosexuality has historically been present.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Epprecht |first=Marc |title=Unspoken facts : a history of homosexualities in Africa. |date=2008 |publisher=Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe |isbn=978-0-7974-3483-7 |location=Harare, Zimbabwe |oclc=259734602}}</ref>
==Personal life and death==
Gelfand married Esther Kollenberg, a [[Bulawayo|Bulawayan]], whom he had met at the [[University of Cape Town]]. They had three daughters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gelfand |first=Michael |date=2023-05-18 |title=Michael Gelfand |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Michael-Gelfand/6000000015686956156 |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=geni_family_tree |language=en-US}}</ref> He was a practitioner of [[Judaism]].<ref name="Encyclopedias of the Jewish Diaspora">{{cite book|last1=Ehrlich|first1=Mark Avrum|title=Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture, Volume 1|date=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781851098736|pages=518–520}}</ref>
Gelfand died on 19 July 1985, while attending a patient in the Avenues Clinic in [[Harare]], [[Zimbabwe]].<ref name="Encyclopedias of the Jewish Diaspora"/> Due to his popularity as a physician, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe gave an address at his funeral.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arnott |first1=Melville |title=Michael Gelfand |journal=British Medical Journal |date=1985 |volume=291 |issue=1057 |url=https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/inspiring-physicians/michael-gelfand |access-date=7 May 2023}}</ref>
==Selected publications==
* ''The Sick African'' (1944) * ''Schistosomiasis in South-Central Africa'' (1950) * ''Medicine and Magic of the Mashona'' (1956) * ''Shona Ritual'' (1959) * ''Medicine in Tropical Africa'' (1961) * ''Medicine and Custom in Africa'' (1964) * ''An African's Religion'' (1966) * ''The African Witch'' (1967) * ''African Crucible'' (1968) * ''Diet and Tradition in an African Culture'' (1971) * ''The Genuine Shona'' (1973) * ''A Non-Racial Island of Learning: A History of the University of Rhodesia'' (1978) * ''The Spiritual Beliefs Of The Shona: A Study Based On Field Work Among The East Central Shona'' (1982) * ''The Traditional medical practitioner in Zimbabwe: His principles of practice and pharmacopoeia (Zambeziana, Vol 17)'' (1985)
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelfand, Michael}} [[Category:1912 births]] [[Category:1985 deaths]] [[Category:White South African people]] [[Category:20th-century South African Jews]] [[Category:South African people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent]] [[Category:South African emigrants to Rhodesia]] [[Category:University of Cape Town alumni]] [[Category:Alumni of Wynberg Boys' High School]] [[Category:Rhodesian Jews]] [[Category:Zimbabwean Jews]] [[Category:Rhodesian medical doctors]] [[Category:20th-century Zimbabwean medical doctors]] [[Category:Academic staff of the University of Zimbabwe]] [[Category:People from Harare]] [[Category:White Rhodesian people]] [[Category:Rhodesian people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent]] [[Category:Rhodesian writers]] [[Category:South African Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]