Historically, power was used to physically separate and divide populations. The implementation of power was visible, for example, public executions during the Middle Ages were visible to the public. However, Foucault argued that modern power resembles the Panopticon. The Panopticon is characterized by the absence of visible exiles and punishments. Power is instead exercised through a system in which individuals are visible through the observation tower and monitored. However, the power is not in plain sight, unlike in the Middle Ages. People are observed and forced to follow the rules without any explicit and visible action. Furthermore, sovereign power by its nature is visible and can be counteracted, unlike micro-disciplinary power which is not tangible. Consequently, the disciplinary manipulation of micropower, through panopticon mechanisms, manipulates the ability to resist power due to the lack of an identifiable central node of power. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Power through the panopticon mechanism is used in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Medicine in a colonial and postcolonial context is a manifestation of disciplinary micropower, where power is employed through the objectification of the human body, surveillance, and the imposition of civilization on a population. Medicine has been restructured along the same timeline as colonization. Africans in the context of colonialism were objectified by their colonizers through the field of medicine. The medical gaze was used to reproduce the “African patient literally as a piece of meat”. According to Megan Vaughn, these colonial medical sites served as medical laboratories to photograph and document their patients in order to serve economic and political motivations. The colonial medical gaze sought and divided the African body from the European one. Observing and reducing the body to “flesh” allowed European settlers to examine and justify the development of racial hierarchies. Racial hierarchies based on medical observations fueled the power imbalance and inequalities observed during colonialism. Placing the African body at the bottom of the chain through observation and objectification, European colonizers also used information derived from the colonial medical gaze to justify their action. For example, the English used research from British colonial medical clinics to justify their slave trade. Their studies concluded that the African body is different from the European one and is better adapted to tropical environments. Thus, the reduction of the African body justified the slave trade to exploit Africans for labor in tropical climates. The objectification of the African body also facilitated the exploitation of human beings to serve colonial economic interests. Medicine was used in a colonial context to ensure a more productive workforce rather than serve humanitarian healthcare. While brute force was used in the past, disciplinary micropower has normalized health as a commodity to ensure a productive workforce. Furthermore, power was employed strategically through medicine to dismantle the concept of resistance. Emerging medical practices incorporated indigenous African healing traditions to circumvent and “undermine Africans' distrust of European medicine.” Adaptation to African traditions was not about developing positive relationships with the community to promote outcomes.