William Anderson Soga

William Anderson Soga (1858 – 15 July 1916) was the first black African to qualify with an MBCM in 1883 and the first black African medical doctor to practise in South Africa, as well as being the first black African to obtain a doctorate MD. His thesis titled "The ethnology of the Bomvanas of Bomvanaland, an aboriginal tribe in South East Africa, with observations upon the climate and diseases of the country, and the methods of treatment in use among the people" was completed at the University of Glasgow in 1895. He was also ordained as a minister in the United Presbyterian Church 1885 making him one of the first medical missionaries in South Africa. Soga was involved in the running of mission stations, building churches, diagnosis and treatment of patients, research and writing.