Murray Last

Denis Murray Last (born 1937) is a British historian and medical anthropologist, known for his pioneering research on northern Nigeria and the anthropology of medicine. He and Adiele Afigbo were the first two individuals to be awarded a PhD by a Nigerian university, completing his doctorate at University College Ibadan with research on the Sokoto Caliphate. His thesis was later published as The Sokoto Caliphate, an influential work that reshaped understanding of 19th-century Islamic west Africa through its extensive use of primary sources, mostly written in Classical Arabic. Last is also recognised for his longterm ethnographic research on Hausa and Maguzawa medical cultures, introducing the concepts of "medical cultures" and "not knowing" in medical anthropology and ethnography. He served as sole editor of the Africa journal for 15 years (1986–2001) and is currently professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology, University College London.

Early life and education Denis Murray Last was born in 1937.

Last graduated from University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics in 1959. He then attended Yale University to study Chinese and African history for his master's degree. At Yale, he was introduced to African history by the historian Harry Rudin, known for his work on Cameroon. His master's thesis was a translation of a Mandinka biography of Samori Ture, the great anti-colonial commander and founder of the Wassoulou empire. In a letter published in the Yale Daily News, Last called for a boycott of South African goods in order to apply pressure on the apartheid regime.

Career

Doctoral research and The Sokoto Caliphate After graduating in 1961, Last travelled to Nigeria to pursue a doctorate in History at University College, Ibadan. There, his interest in the history of Northern Nigeria grew. During the early post-colonial period in Nigeria, the History Department at Ibadan became associated with what is known as the Ibadan School of history, a group of scholars who were critical of the 'Eurocentric perception of Africa' common during the colonial period and who instead primarily focused on African sources. At Ibadan, Last began learning Classical Arabic and studied under scholars like H. F. C. Smith (later Abdullahi Smith), Jacob Ajayi, Muhammad Ahmad al-Hajj and John Hunwick. Later in 1961, he accompanied Hunwick to Kano to catalogue the Emir of Kano's large collection of Arabic manuscripts at the Shahuci Judicial School library. During this period, he lived in the compound of the Sokoto waziri (vizier) Muhammadu Junaidu, who granted him access to the over 300 Arabic manuscripts and 600 official letters that were kept in his family library.

The thesis was later published in 1967 with the title The Sokoto Caliphate, which he dedicated to Waziri Junaidu. It also popularised the term "Sokoto Caliphate" as a label for the state established by Usman dan Fodio following his jihad. The term was first introduced by Last and Smith and has since become the standard designation. Between 1965 and 1967, Last helped establish the Northern History Research Scheme at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. As part of the project, he assisted in collecting and cataloguing more than 10,000 manuscripts, mostly in Arabic, as well as approximately one hundred in Fulfulde from Adamawa.

Last is regarded as a leading authority on the history and anthropology of Islam in northern Nigeria. His interest in that area was initially sparked by his time in Sokoto, where he assisted the Assistant District Officer Dahiru Modibbo Girei in deciding "who was mad in the prison and who was not mad", which he later credited as his introduction to traditional notions of madness. He suggested that under certain conditions not knowing, or not caring to know, could become institutionalised as part of a medical culture. Rather than viewing different forms of healing as separate and competing systems, he found at Malumfashi a hierarchy of medical practices which ranged from "western" medicine to Islamic medicine and local Maguzawa healing.

In 2007, a collection of essays written in his honor, On Knowing and Not Knowing in the Anthropology of Medicine, was published and edited by another British anthropologist, Roland Littlewood.

Last was sole editor of the International African Institute's journal Africa for 15 years (1986–2001). He is currently professor emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University College London.