Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
traditional medicine is terribly weak in diagnosis and even weaker in pharmacology. Some have
argued that, in the absence of a verifiable relationship between African medicament and disease,
the medicine man or woman deceives his or her patient with mysterious incantations and dispenses
fetishes in place of real pharmaceutically standardized medicine. These arguments, although origi-
nally proffered by Europeans, have since been appropriated by modern Africans, who must keep
their distance from traditional medicine in their efforts to appear civilized and not to be mistaken
for backward savages. The study of African ethnomedicine has therefore been limited to the analy-
ses of countless remedies for the so-called active constituents.
The functions of the medicine man or woman are not limited to the diagnosis of diseases and
the prescription of drugs. It is the medicine man or woman who provides the needed answers to
the adversities imposed on the community by outside forces that are beyond the comprehension of
ordinary people. These forces include curses, charms, evil spirits, aggrieved ancestors, witches,
and the gods. The medicine men and women are very knowledgeable in the medicinal uses of local
plants, but they employ such herbs for far more uses than for the treatment of diseases, which is all
that Western medicine does. It is the medicine man or woman who provides charms and prescribes
the rituals to neutralize the effects of the enemy's charms, wards off evil spirits, and intercedes
between the community and the gods. He or she is also consulted for advice on misfortunes and the
intractable problems encountered in ordinary life. The “native doctor” provides special medicines
to protect private property, recites incantations, and offers sacrifices to appease the gods and spirits
of deceased ancestors.
It is usually not enough for a medicine man or woman only to provide medicines for the cure
of diseases as do Western-trained doctors; the underlying curse and cause must also be removed. A
good traditional doctor is concerned not only with diseases and healing strategies but also with the
provision of charms to intervene in almost all aspects of life. It is he or she who advises the village
head or community leader when to embark on community purification rituals to remove the burden
imposed on the community for the contravention of the society's norms and taboos. Since there are
no written instructions from the gods and God, it is the healer-priest who keeps the channel between
the deities and the community open.
In the law courts, the services of a medicine man or woman could be sought to obtain favorable
judgment or to confuse the witnesses so that they may not be able to testify against his or her client;
in football matches, charms may be employed to improve the players' performance or to invoke a
magical spell on the opponent. The medicine man or woman is often consulted for rains to water the
farms or to prevent rain from ruining ceremonies and festivals. His or her medicines may be needed
to promote fertility of women, protect property, and ensure success in hunting or trade.
Healing in Africa is a composite activity that may not easily conform to the Western concept of
health, diseases, and treatment. The ancient African medicine men were quite knowledgeable in the
physical aspects of medical sciences. According to Finch, just as any discussion of the achievements
of Western medicine harkens back to Hippocrates and Galen, so any discussion of African medical
achievements harkens back to ancient Egypt, at least for recorded history.
5
African physicians were
well versed in many pathological syndromes. They undertook the painstaking observation regard-
ing the causes of many ailments. They understood the origin of many complex diseases; paraplegia
and paralysis were linked to spinal injuries and the traumatic origin of neurological symptoms, such
as deafness, urinary incontinence, and priapism. They also recognized the significance of heart
palpitations and arrhythmias and understood the acuteness of angina pectoris as a quick killer.
The African priestly healers appreciated the fundamental principles of public health and devel-
oped an admirable quarantine system for smallpox and other contagious diseases.
2
Centuries before
Jenner, Africans had devised an effective vaccination against smallpox by taking material from the
pustule of a sick person and scratching it into the skin of an unaffected person with a thorn.
2
There
is no aspect of medicine with which ancient African healers did not show evidence of some remark-
able mastery. In the
Odyssey
, Homer admitted that, “In medical knowledge, Egypt leaves the rest
