Memories of a good friend, Joseph Ana

The death of my friend Joseph Ana shocked me. He was born in the same year as me, 1952, and seemed fine when I saw him and Arit, his wife, for lunch not long ago. It was some comfort to be asked to write his obituary for the BMJ, and it was published last week, https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj.s953, the day before his funeral. Below is the longer and unedited version of the obituary that I submitted to the BMJ, but I want first to share my personal memories. I met Joseph, whom I sometimes knew as Joe, in the 90s when he approached us about starting a West African edition of the BMJ. In those pre-internet days we encouraged local editions, as we called them, to allow BMJ material to reach audiences who otherwise could not access the BMJ—because it was not in their local language or because they couldn’t afford a subscription. We might at their high point have had around 20 local editions—in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Once at a meeting I was asked with…