“Over the years the people of Africa have used traditional medicine and traditional knowledge for their survival. ” (Tsiko 2006) Traditional African medicine is a holistic discipline involving extensive use of indigenous herbalism combined with aspects of African spirituality. (Helwig 2005) Traditional African medicine has been practiced for centuries. This ancient system of healing continues to thrive in Africa, despite numerous attempts at government inferences, and practitioners can be found I many other parts of the world.
(Helwig 2005) The origins of the traditional African medicine can be traced all the way back to the seventeenth century. (Kale 1995) Traditional African medicine is a holistic system with herbs and spiritual elements at its center. Traditional African medicine practitioners are healers who believe that their methods can cure many conditions including cancer, AIDS, mental problems, infertility, some sexually transmitted diseases, wounds and burns as well as many other ailments and conditions.
(Helwig 2005) The primary healers in traditional African medicine are what are called diviners, midwives, and herbalist. (Helwig 2005) Diviners focus on the root causes of sickness and many feel that ancestral spirits and like play a role. (Helwig 2005) Midwives use herbs and other local plants to assist with pregnancy and childbirth. (Helwig 2005) Herbalists are completely ingrained in the African medicine tradition and herb markets and herb trading is common in every city and town and community. (Helwig 2005) Traditional African medicine is based on accumulated experience of ancient Africans.
(Okpako) Traditional African medicine’s mode of transmission is spread by word-of-mouth and has hindered emergency of a generally accepted theory and hence of the systematic development of traditional African medicine as a self-regulating profession. (Okapako) Traditional African medicine has three distinct attributes. First there is a belief in the supernatural. (Okpako) The second characteristic is divination as a diagnostic procedure. (Okpako) Finally, there is the ritualized use of plant-and-animal-derived preparations in the treatment of illness.
Traditional African medicine has strong spiritual aspects. There is a widespread spiritual belief among practitioners that psycho spiritual aspects must be addressed before medical aspects. (Helwig 2005) A major emphasis is placed on determining the root cause underlying any sickness. (Helwig 2005) The ability to diagnose an illness is considered a gift from both God and the practitioner’s ancestors. (Helwig 2005) It is believed that illness stems from a lack of balance between the patient and his or her social environment.
(Helwig 2005) The type of plant used to treat a patient is determined by the imbalance. (Helwig 2005) The healing plants are valued as much for its symbolic and spiritual significance as for its medicinal effect. (Helwig 2005) Concern has been expressed that increased demand for wild plants used in traditional African medicine is endangering local plant populations. (Helwig 2005) Serious side effects, even death, can result from incorrect identification of healing plants. (Helwig 2005) In addition to plants, traditional African healers may employ charms, incantations, and casting of spells.
(Helwig 2005) The field of traditional African medicine is largely unregulated. (Helwig 2005) In Africa a majority of the traditional healers are uneducated individuals who have accumulated a large amount of knowledge about native plants and their actions on the human body. (Helwig 2005) Although many of the principles and methods of traditional African medicine are quite foreign to orthodox medical thinking, there is nonetheless considerable interest in exploiting Africa’s ethnobotanical knowledge for drug-development purposes.
(Helwig 2005) There is considerable interest in integrating traditional African medicine more fully with the continent’s national medical systems. (Helwig 2005) Today traditional medicine is having a major affect on countries all across the globe with growing and combined knowledge of both traditional medicine and modern medicine. Traditional medicine has more followers than Western medicine in Zimbabwe and Africa and increasingly in North America and Europe there is a booming market for indigenous African medicines with powerful western pharmaceutical giants tapping into this vast traditional medicine body.
(Tsiko 2006) World Health Organization experts say the practice of traditional medicine represents a major alternative approach in finding a solution to the diseases that affect many people across the continent (Tsiko 2006) It is encouraging that a number of countries on the continent are working flat out to examine and expand ways of incorporating the services of healers with bio-medicine in an attempt to deliver care to the majority of the people who have limited access to modern health care.
(Tsiko 2006) The challenge today with traditional African medicine is how can we systematically integrate it with modern medicine and re-package the knowledge and promote it for easy accessibility by the majority of the people. (Tsiko 2006) Raising awareness on the existing rules and regulations governing the practice of traditional medicine (and not the practice of bad “voodoo” traditional medicine) and the protection of biological resources will help to revolutionize traditional medical systems and the use of local knowledge.
(Tsiko 2006) Traditional medicine has existed and flourished worldwide for centuries. The knowledge, spread orally, makes it difficult to incorporate traditional medicine with modern medicine. Traditional African medicine is a growing field without boundaries and with proper knowledge and skill it may be possible to help individuals across the globe in a positive manner.
Works Cited Helwig, David. (2005). Traditional African Medicine. In Jacqueline Longe (Ed.), Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, Vol. 4. (2nd ed. , 2031-2033). Detroit: Gale. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from Gale Virtual Reference Library via Gale: http://find. galegroup. com/gvrl/infomark. do? &contentSet=EBKS&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=GVRL&docId=CX3435100785&source=gale&userGroupName=tel_a_utl&version=1. 0 Okpako, D. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, Volume 20, Issue 12, 1 December 1999, Pages 482-485 Traditional Knowledge Must Be Re-Packaged.
Sept 4, 2006 pNAAfrica News Service. , p. NA. Retrieved November 14, 2008, from Health Reference Center Academic via Gale: http://find. galegroup. com/itx/infomark. do? &contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T004&prodId=HRCA&docId=A150917371&source=gale&userGroupName=tel_a_utl Tall, E. (1998, February). Senegal: A mirror of the cosmos. UNESCO Courier, 51(2), 20. Retrieved November 28, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database ‘We Are Doctors’ – Traditional.