The Young Nigerian behind the viral Black Medical Illustrations, who is currently studying medicine and surgery (MBBS) at a Ukrainian Varsity has revealed that he wrote JAMB four times and yet wasn’t given admission, adding that he doesn’t know why he was denied admission.
The illustrator is identified as Chidiebere Ibe (@ebereillustrate) is currently studying MBBS at Kyiv Medical University, Ukraine.
Chidiebere’s works represent medical conditions in black skin. This sharply contrasts with the vast majority of medical literature which is illustrated using humans in white skin. He says this has had some sort of racial discriminatory effects on black learners who cannot see themselves in the images they seek to understand.
In an interview with Legit.ng, Chidiebere said: “Blacks are not heard, seen or valued. We don’t receive equal healthcare as the white do. Because we apparently do not matter to the opposite, we can’t be represented. There’s been so much racial bias in healthcare.”
Chidiebere told Legit.ng that black medical students or anyone else could become better learners if they can readily relate with the colour used to illustrate their textbooks.
He said:
“Seeing your self spurs interest for studies and the medical students in training would be trained diverse to handle lots of diseases that cut across all races and thereby producing a better outcome. A mother in the US reached out to me today and said “I showed my children this illustrations, and they were amazed, and they said they could read now, because they could see themselves.”
Chidiebere is hoping that medical books and journals will soon start incorporating medical illustrations in black skin.
He hopes his work is already changing the narrative, trying to break the centuries-long tradition of exclusion of Blacks in medical drawings.
According to him: “After this illustration went viral, I’m certain that the change would occur. Some publishers, authors have already started incorporating black skin illustrations as it went viral. We just have to work to make our medical curricula adopt it”
Below are some of Chidiebere’s amazing works:
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