AFRICAN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

As a result, the development of this branch of African knowledge was stymied for a long time. A Niam-Niam medicine man or shaman, equatorial Africa. It is not clear as to the degree of success achieved by the efforts of the colonialists to eradicate traditional African medicine. Although the colonial authorities were able to pass laws banning such a practice, it would probably have been nearly impossible to stop people from practicing it.

Even if they were successful in their efforts, the WHO estimations show that there is a modern resurgence in this practice. Rather than attempting to get rid of traditional African medicine, a contemporary approach shows that it may be far more beneficial to try to learn from traditional practices and work with the practitioners to combat illnesses in Africa. Numerous studies have been conducted on traditional African medicine. The aims of these studies regularly include the protection of this ancestral form of knowledge, the use of such a system to complement the conventional one, and the way forward for traditional African medicine in the 21st century.

Furthermore, organizations trying to combine traditional African and conventional Western medicine hope to be able to train traditional healers to, amongst other things, raise awareness amongst locals about the disease, serve as counsellors, and combat the spread of this disease. Thus, the progressive view is to see how the holistic style of treatment may also be a complimentary method to the Western version of medicine.

Trends and Challenges of Traditional Medicine in Africa. Clinical practices of African traditional medicine. Science Museum, London, Recognition and respect for African traditional medicine. I am a university student doing a BA degree in Archaeology. I believe that intellectual engagement by advocates from both ends of the spectrum would serve to Register to become part of our active community, get updates, receive a monthly newsletter, and enjoy the benefits and rewards of our member point system OR just post your comment below as a Guest.

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The Prevalence of Traditional African Medicine In the continent of Africa, traditional or ancestral African medicine seems to be much more prevalent compared to conventional, Western medicine. Comments Busisiwe Masina wrote on 24 July, - You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form.

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Traditional African medicine

Incantations are thought to give the air of mystical and cosmic connections. Divination is typically used if the illness is not easily identified, otherwise, the sickness may be quickly diagnosed and given a remedy. If divination is required, then the practitioner will advise the patient to consult a diviner who can further give a diagnosis and cure. Contact with the spirit world through divination often requires not only medication, but sacrifices.

Traditional practitioners use a wide variety of treatments ranging from "magic" to biomedical methods such as fasting and dieting, herbal therapies, bathing, massage , and surgical procedures. Animals are also sometimes used to transfer the illness to afterward. Some cultures also rub hot herbal ointment across the patient's eyelids to cure headaches.

Understanding interactions

Malaria is treated by both drinking and using the steam from an herbal mixture. Fevers are often treated using a steam bath. Also, vomiting is induced, or emetics , in an attempt to cure some diseases. For example, raw beef is soaked in the drink of an alcoholic person to induce vomiting and nausea and treat alcoholism. In the Bight of Benin , the natives have been known to use the fat of a boa constrictor to allegedly cure gout and rheumatism , and it also is thought to relieve chest pain when rubbed into the skin.

Africa is endowed with many plants that can be used for medicinal purposes to which they have taken full advantage. In fact, out of the approximated plant species used in tropical Africa, more than are used as medicinal plants. Not only are plants used and chosen for their healing abilities, but they also often have symbolic and spiritual significance. For example, leaves, seeds, and twigs that are white, black and red are seen as especially symbolic or magical and possess special properties.

Baijnath, Department of Biological and Conservation Sciences; University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Durban, South Africa to examine the effectiveness of 16 plants growing in Africa's KwaZulu-Natal region, concluding that eight plant extracts may hold value for treating high blood pressure hypertension. Of the 16 plants, Amaranthus dubius , Amaranthus hybridus , Asystasia gangetica , Galinsoga parviflora , Justicia flava , Oxygonum sinuatum , Physalis viscosa , and Tulbaghia violacea were found to have some positive effects, with the latter proving to be the most promising with the ability to lower one's blood pressure.

Some people in Grahamstown , South Africa use traditional plants and weeds as an alternative. The fresh leaves are made into a decoction that is taken three times a day to treat asthma , it is also used as steam. In other parts of South Africa it is used to cure bronchitis, headaches, labour pains and hypertension. The plant is used to extricate poison or diseases from a sick person. It is believed the plant sucks out the cause of the illness in itself. Fresh leaves fare used as a bandage that soothes pain and swelling. It's also used as an antiseptic after circumcision.

With the latter, the plant is only used once, it should not be used repetitively as it can be harmful due to its potency. The fresh leaves are also applied on boils twice a day. This root is used on infants suffering from restlessness or constipation. It is used as a root decoction. Adults also use the decoction to treat constipation. It is used to treat kidney pains in adults. The root is mixed with the roots of emex australis inkunzane. Two teaspoons of the decoction are taken twice a day. It is also administered to babies with colic using two drops a day.

The roots are boiled in water and drunk as tea twice a day. Also, it is used to treat gonococcal infection and urinary problems caused by sexual intercourse. It is used to treat sores between toes and the fingers, these sores are caused by igazi elimdaka dirty blood. These toes tend to become swollen and ooze pus. The fresh leaf is baked in an open fire, the inner jelly is then used to apply on the sores. The root infusion is put in cold water and used as a body wash. It is used to cleanse the body of misfortunes and evil.

The leaf decoction is taken orally to treat fever and influenza. The leaves are added to boiling water and the steam used to treat fever. The plants' leaves are crushed and applied on swollen feet whose cause is attributed to poor blood circulation. It is also used to treat kidney or liver problems.

The leaves' sap is then used to treat the rash that is caused by one's contact with dirty water. This is used to treat amenorrhea caused by congenital problems, tuberculosis and malnutrition. The bark is grated and one tablespoon of the remains is mixed with ml of cold water. The mixture is taken orally once a day.

It is used to treat amafufunyana, [17] amafufunyana is described is described by Ngubane as an extreme form of depression coupled with psychotic symptoms such as delusions, hysteria, violent outburst and suicide ideations. The roots are mixed with other medications to treat amafufunyana. This root decoction is mixed with the roots of the rubus pinnatus iqunube. It is administered through the use of an enema to cure kidney pain. The mixture should be used immediately as if left to stand for long it becomes harmful.

It is used to treat infertility in women. The roots are cleaned, boiled in water then taken orally. Also, it is used to wash one's body after the leaves have been soaked overnight in the bathing water. Thus bathing water is believed to protect one from evil spirits imoya emdaka. Some healers may employ the use of charms, incantations, and the casting of spells in their treatments.

The dualistic nature of traditional African medicine between the body and soul, matter, and spirit and their interactions with one another are also seen as a form of magic. Richard Onwuanibe gives one form of magic the name "Extra-Sensory-Trojection. This is referred to by the Ibos as egba ogwu. To remove the malignant object, the intervention of a second medicine man is typically required, who then removes it by making an incision in the patient. Egba ogwu involves psychokinetic processes. Another form of magic used by these practitioners, which is more widely known, is sympathetic magic , in which a model is made of the victim.

Traditional African medicine and conventional drugs: friends or enemies?

Actions performed on the model are transferred to the victim, in a manner similar to the familiar voodoo doll. In African cultures, the act of healing is considered a religious act. Therefore, the healing process often attempts to appeal to God because it is ultimately God who can not only inflict sickness, but provide a cure. Africans have a religious world view which makes them aware of the feasibility of divine or spirit intervention in healing with many healers referring to the supreme god as the source of their medical power.

Kung people of the Kalahari Desert believe that the great God Hishe created all things and, therefore, controls all sickness and death. Hishe, however, bestows mystical powers for curing sickness on certain men. Hishe presents himself to these medicine men in dreams and hallucinations, giving them curative power. Because this god is generous enough to give this power to the medicine men, they are expected to practice healing freely. Kung medicine men effect a cure by performing a tribal dance. Kung people, writing two books on their findings, describes the ceremonial curing dance as follows:.

At the dances not only may the sick be cured, but pending evil and misfortune averted. Kung believe that the great god may send Gauwa or the gauwas at any time with ill for someone and that these beings may be lurking awaiting their chance to inflict it. The medicine men in the dances combat them, drive them away, and protect the people. Usually there are several medicine men performing at the same time. To cure they go into trance, which varies in depth as the ceremony proceeds When a man begins, he leaves the line of dancing men, and still singing, leans over the person he is going to cure, going eventually to every person present, even the infants.

He places one hand on the person's chest, one on his or her back, and flutters his hands. Kung believe that in this way he draws the sickness, real or potential, out of the person through his own arms into himself Finally, the medicine man throws up his arms to cast the sickness out, hurling it into the darkness back to Gauwa or the gauwasi , who are there beyond the firelight, with a harp, yelping cry of "Kai Kai Kai. Loma Marshall does not give any information as to whether or not the dance is successful in curing the patient but says that it purges the people's emotions for their "support and solace and hope.

Many traditional medicinal practitioners are people without education, who have rather received knowledge of medicinal plants and their effects on the human body from their forebears.

In a manner similar to orthodox medicinal practice , the practitioners of traditional medicine specialize in particular areas of their profession. Some, such as the inyangas of Swaziland are experts in herbalism, whilst others, such as the South African sangomas , are experts in spiritual healing as diviners , and others specialize in a combination of both forms of practice.

There are also traditional bone setters and birth attendants. Smaller trade markets exist in virtually every community. Midwives also make extensive use of indigenous plants to aid childbirth. African healers commonly "describe and explain illness in terms of social interaction and act on the belief that religion permeates every aspect of human existence. Traditional healers, like any other profession, are rewarded for their services. In African societies, the payment for a treatment depends on its efficacy. They do not request payment until after the treatment is given. This is another reason many prefer traditional healers to western doctors who require payment before the patient has assessed the effectiveness of the treatment.