Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ChaPtEr
5
the african Medicine Man
traINING OF traDItIONaL hEaLErS
The traditional medical practitioner occupies a unique role in African societies. He or she is not
only a doctor but also a visionary, a seer, and often a priest. One can acquire the specialized skills
of a healer by three methods: first, by training and a long period of apprenticeship; second, by divine
selection and in answer to a call by a powerful spirit to be his chief priest or messenger; and third,
as a family inheritance. In any case, the magical powers are acquired through ritual offerings and
living in a prescribed manner, but the knowledge of efficacious herbs comes mainly from training
and sometimes from revelation in dreams and trances.
When the apprentices exceed a certain number (usually four or five), formal schools are some-
times established by renowned traditional healers or by the Guild of Healers to impart the knowl-
edge of healing to younger ones. Bep Oliver described such a training center for traditional healers
near Badagry (Lagos State, Nigeria), where boys 11 to 15 years old were initiated into the healing
profession after undergoing a 3-year course. As reported by Oliver:
1
The school consisted of a small, walled-in, square area. One side was covered by a low corrugated
iron roof supported by a pillar in the center. In the two dark corners under this roof were the places of
sacrifice, marked by large mounds with an irregular shiny surface not unlike stalagmites. They were
streaked in white, turquoise, yellow and brown by the numerous offerings that had been made, and had
odd pieces of eggshell and feather glued to them. …
The center of the area, from which strangers were excluded, was partitioned off, and it was only
possible to enter the passage around this centre and in which wooden figures, symbols of tribal gods,
sometimes in the shape of a totem pole, had been placed. Indeed the first object of training was to enable
the students to establish contact with the tribal gods by means of the prescribed ceremonies which
included incantations, ritual practices, offerings, etc.
A similar school, called the Poro, exists in parts of Liberia, especially among the Mano tribe.
The school is presided over by masked men who are symbolic representatives of the spirits. The
schools are highly regarded; one such school was described by Harley as “an organization incorpo-
rating all the powers of church and state combined.”
2
The Poro centers are not necessarily restricted to the training of traditional healers, but also
serve as initiation centers for puberty rites. The rites last for periods of about 3 weeks, and the male
candidates are isolated for long periods in forest groves. In this ceremonial rebirth into manhood,
the boys are supposed to be swallowed by the great crocodile spirit (symbolically) and as spirits to
remain in the body of the amphibian until he gives birth to them at the end of the session. During
this period, the boys are expected to be in communication with the spirits; all matters of sex are
taboo, and abstinence is strictly enforced. In the remote past, the death penalty was imposed on any
woman who made contact with a man in Poro.
