CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Uganda |
HEALTH
The onslaught of AIDS in Uganda has interested the main-stream medical world into the potential of traditional medicine, which had been rather sidelined with the advent of Christianity, but which is now making a comeback in Uganda
Doctors at the Mulago Referral Hospital are baffled by the fact that what were considered to be terminally ill patients, disappeared from their hospital beds and then reappeared hale and hearty years later, and have met up with the very doctors who had written them off. Medical doctors working in Kampala hospitals say they are compelled to believe in traditional medicine, after they had run into people whom they had thought to be terminally ill, only, later on, to find them healthy. In all these cases, the patients had obviously taken themselves off to be treated by traditional medical practitioners.
Dr Yahaya Sekajja is president of Prometra Uganda —a NGO committed to promoting traditional medicine. He’s one of those Ugandan doctors who administer both traditional and modern medicine in their clinics. He describes one of his cases.
«I had a woman patient whose legs were in such a bad state, I felt the only way of saving her life was to amputate her legs. But a few days before the operation, my patient disappeared. Since this frequently happens with the terminally ill, who preferred to die in their own villages, my staff didn’t bother to look for her or even raise the alarm. However, years later, I bumped into her on a Kampala street with her legs intact! She reminded me about the time we had wanted to amputate her legs. Then she told me that she had taken herself off to a traditional pharmacologist, who restored her health». It was after this episode that Sekajja started administering herbs at his clinic.
For decades, traditional healers have been ignored by main-stream medical practitioners, but now they are coming back into their own. They defiantly sit in the corridors of Mulago Hospital (especially in the bones unit) and wait for the doctors to complete their rounds, before confidently approaching the helpless patients with their medicines.
«They come and inquire about our health, and then say their medicine works better that western medicine, and is cheaper,» said a patient who had broken her limbs in a motor accident.
Traditional healers’ confidence is being further boosted by the fact that people are leaving hospitals in ever-increasing numbers to seek their services. And they’re getting cured!
Prometra Uganda, with a membership of 54 traditional healers, has become a force in Uganda’s medical circles. Two years ago, the organisation initiated a mega project and if it succeeds, the country could see the start of a fierce war against western medicine.
«The Wonder Forest»
In the year 2000, Prometra Uganda bought a ten-acre forest in Central Buganda, with the sole aim of promoting traditional medicine among sick Ugandans. «This forest is key to our campaign of encouraging more Ugandans to seek treatment from traditional healers,» says Salongo Lubega of Buyijja village. Members pruned most of the trees in the forest, and cleared a large expanse of land for plants and trees to be used in their medical practice. Buyijja Forest, 64 kms from the capital Kampala, is the first of its kind in Uganda. Residents in the area call it «the wonder forest», not because of any magical powers, but because of the wonder treatments the doctors extract from the plants, herbs and trees grown there.
Every Wednesday, Prometra members meet to share their knowledge and experiences with each other, and to learn from expert traditional healers about the powers of individual plants. «Every single plant in this forest, even the smallest, has medicinal value,» says a traditional healer who was initiated into the practice by her grandmother when she was only fourteen. 60-year-old Florence Nakibuuka now imparts her knowledge to fellow healers. One healer says of her: «She is a “wizard” in traditional medicine, and knows 400 trees and 2,000 plants having healing value.»
Rules and regulations
The healers established rules and regulations to keep trespassers out of the forest. «We don’t allow anyone to fell trees or to cut bark from them; and we take offence when outsiders enter the forest without our permission,» says Salongo Lubega.
The healers are not especially interested in the financial side.
«Our job now is to teach other healers the use of traditional medicine, not to make money,» says Nakibuuka. «We treat such maladies as distended stomachs, snake bites, fractured bones —you name it, we can cure it!». And while other people struggle to fertilize their pineapple plants so they can harvest the fruit, the healers intentionally «suffocate» their pineapple plants so as to use them against dehydration.
«We pour a lot of soil in the middle of the plant, where the fruit sprouts from, to kill it,» says Ibanda John who is now pursuing studies in Pharmacology so he can learn the right doses to give patients.
Wrongly used, some of the plants can be fatal, especially if an overdose is administered. One plant called in the local language, «Emmere ya Namunye», is said to be the best de-worming herb there is, yet it kills within seconds if an overdose is taken. Early this year, a man and his son, both residents of Luwero District, died after taking an overdose of «Emmere ya Namunye».
«Emimbiri» is another herb that kills. «We only use it to kill vermin, like rats and monkeys,» say the healers. According to them, the herb is so fatal that a mere touch on the tree is enough to cause death. «We advise you to scrub your body with soap four times, because if you don’t, you will die», said Nakibuuka.
But the public is still sceptical about the healers. «I don’t mind their work, but I don’t like the way they pretend to call up ghosts and scare patients,» says a woman in Kampala. Many healers shake cowry shells, and smear their faces with paint and dung, to give the impression that they don’t belong to this world — a fact that has left many Ugandans scared and disgusted.
However, Prometra members say it’s wrong for the public to condemn the whole of their profession and write it off as witchcraft. To boost their campaign, traditional healers recently hosted Mr Eric Gbodossou, Prometra’s president. He’s a Senegalese who has carried out extensive research on the use of traditional medicine in treating disease. Though he did not receive a red-carpet welcome from the government, it was reported that a number of ministers and medical doctors were scrambling to meet him. Gbodossou was taken to Buyijja Forest where he spent a whole day learning the efficacy of the various plants and trees grown there. Interviewed afterwards, he said that in Africa, 10% of main-stream physicians now believe in traditional medicine and practice it.
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