Alexandra Stone

“Not a pleasing environment,” was how President Cyril Ramaphosa described the city of Johannesburg at a meeting between the National Executive and the City of Johannesburg Executive Council in Braamfontein on Thursday 6 March 2025. This meeting came two weeks after the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting at Nasrec Expo Centre, as the city prepares to host the G20 Summit in November. To address these concerns with the city, President Ramaphosa announced a Presidential Working Group focused on improving service delivery, managing the city’s finances and operations and facilitating economic growth. In particular, the Working Group has been tasked with rejuvenating the inner city, in an attempt to “take Johannesburg back to its glory days”. In order to positively transform Johannesburg, particularly its inner city, I believe it is necessary to understand the complex and unique history behind its formation and growth. My research aims to achieve this by using the history of pharmacy in the city as a lens through which to examine its development.

The history of pharmacy in South Africa may be likened to Johannesburg’s inner city – long neglected and underestimated. Within the canon of medical historical research in South Africa (an overview of which, published in 2008, may be found here, and later examples, here and here) two major studies have been conducted on the history of pharmacy. The first, A History of Organised Pharmacy in South Africa, 1885-1950 by Mike Ryan, was published in 1986 by the Society for the History of Pharmacy in South Africa (this was adapted from Ryan’s 1983 MA thesis). The second, Pharmacy in the Transvaal, 1894-1994 by Dorothy Goyns, was published in 1995 by the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa. Both studies provide a broad scope and clear chronology of the development of the profession, focusing on key events and personalities. In the 30-odd years since these studies were published, the Society for the History of Pharmacy of South Africa has ceased to exist, at least in name, and in 2023 the former premises of the National Pharmacy Museum and Library at 52 Glenhove Road, Johannesburg, were sold and the collections downsized and relocated to new premises in Woodmead and Illovo.

All of this may suggest a veritable lack of interest in the history of South African pharmacy, particularly in recent years. However, the body of research on indigenous medicine, ethnobotany and the historical use and regulations of pharmaceuticals continues to grow. Additionally, historical investigations have been conducted into medical pluralism and hybridity among different racial and ethnic groups in the Witwatersrand that result in varying preferences for and consumption of herbs, home remedies and patent and proprietary medicines from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. Against this backdrop, research into the history of pharmacy in South Africa may be reframed considering this complex network of culturally informed, politically regulated (self-)medication.

Histories of pharmacy may also be considered alongside histories of public health. In the South African historical context, public health has been convincingly linked to urban planning. This connection is exemplified by Maynard Swanson’s coining of the term ‘sanitation syndrome’ to describe the role played by infection and disease in the creation of urban apartheid in South Africa. Another example of this link is the inclusion of town planning clauses in the 1919 Public Health Act and 1920 Housing Act, the passing of which was precipitated by the Spanish Flu epidemic. Considering this, the possibility of examining the changing urban landscape of Joburg alongside the growth and development of pharmacy in the city is intriguing.

Given my undergraduate background in Archaeology and Chemistry, the research for my MSc in Archaeology brings together my interests in historical Johannesburg and the history of science. My work uses pharmacists’ prescription books from the 1890s to the 1930s as an archive of spatial and demographic information on several Johannesburg pharmacies and their clientele. Further information on the spatial expansion of the pharmacy profession in the city comes from a series of fire insurance maps of Johannesburg from 1895 (updated and extended in 1910) and 1937 that plot fire risk and consequently reveal the locations of inner-city pharmacies and their relationships to surrounding businesses and infrastructure. By analysing and mapping this information, a once bustling medico-commercial network of pharmacies and clientele may be revealed.

I believe that such historical networks and interactions will be important in the reinvigoration of Joburg’s inner-city, the return to its “glory days”. President Ramaphosa’s words are interesting and encouraging, as they frame Johannesburg’s turbulent past in a positive light, something to yearn for. They recognise, hopefully, that the city’s history and urban fabric are worth preserving and highlight that Johannesburg and its people have always managed to defy regulation, subvert expectations, an adapt to new challenges – a message I hope to see conveyed on the global stage of the 2025 G20 Summit.

Note: The headline image of this post is a photograph I took of part of the pharmacy display at the Wits Adler Museum of Medicine.