Africa's Traditional Healers are doctors not "witchdoctors"

I just came back from China and traditional Chinese medicine is used right alongside conventional medicine. The Chinese even said that their traditional medicine has a big market in Africa. What I cannot understand is this. Why is traditional Chinese medicine recognised in Africa while traditional African medicine is not?. This is all part of the plot to ensure that African people do not benefit from their own resources and that is why they call our traditional healers “witchdoctors.” They do not call the traditional healers of China and India withdoctors. Why? It is time for African people to stop being ‘big babies’ and understand the game that is being played on them and to put a stop to it. Hort

 http://www.newera. com.na/page. php?id=9307

‘We Are Doctors’ - Traditional Healers

  By Irene !Hoaës
Tuesday, 23rd of September 2008
Windhoek

Namibia’s traditional healers want to be recognised as doctors. This follows a statement last Friday during the celebrations of the sixth African Traditional Medicine Day, in Windhoek.


African countries signed the Alma-Ata Declaration in September 1978, which advocated health for all and called upon countries to include traditional medicine in their health systems in line with the primary health care (PHC) approach. “Whether we are using herbs and roots for the purpose of healing and western practitioners are doing the same thing, we deserve the name and identity,” said Philomina Makapeng, a representative of the Namibia Traditional Healers organisation.


Makapeng claimed that African practitioners are doing the same as what the western practitioners are doing, and thus sees no need to differentiate between titles and names. Makapeng is of the opinion that all of them are doctors and deserve to be regarded that way, while in many instances traditional healers are the ones who handle the most hectic jobs in the health care delivery system, and thus deserve respect. “Let me stress that the word ‘witchdoctor’ was a calculated translation by the colonisers to scare Africans from pursuing their practices which is the strongest in the world, and there is no way a doctor can be a witch at the same time,” the traditional healers’ representative charged.


Makapeng charged that the famous French ‘Cialis’ and American ‘Viagra’ are all typical African herbs, even speculating that the anti-retrovial drugs (ARV) that are expensively acquired by African governments have ingredients of either the African Potato, Neem tree or Aloe Vera. “The colonisers labelled all powerful Africans who had mystic powers from using African roots as ‘witchdoctors’, an insane and inhumane deprivation of our potential resources,” Makapeng fumed. Makapeng, however, did not deny that some of the traditional healers are using fake identities to take advantage of the market.


She thus promised that with the establishment of the Traditional Medicine Council, they would lay the groundwork for identifying qualifications of all people in the sector. “We are going to lay a mechanism that will screen all doctors so that both bogus and fake doctors are stopped from operating,” Makapeng promised. She claims that most traditional doctors who take advantage of people by making quick hard cash are not nationals but come from countries across the border.


“If there is medicine to make money and/or make someone rich, why don’t they (doctors) get rich themselves,” Makapeng asked, referring to herbalists who claim to have charms that can make people rich. She urged society to be cautious and refrain from being gullible. Namibia’s traditional medicine practitioners also want to benefit from medical aid schemes and payments.


Makapeng appealed for health kits, tools and other implements that Government can provide to help doctors perform their duties in line with prescribed health care requirements. “In this case, we mean the use of blades, gloves, thermometers, stethoscopes, etc., so that society is secured on the treatment they get,” Makapeng said.


The World Health Organisation Representative in Namibia, Dr Magda Robalo, represented by Dr Desta Tiruneh, said traditional health practitioners are an important human resource in the provision of health care services throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Robalo said they have been increasingly involved in research and development and encouraging results are being documented for traditional medicines used for priority diseases such as malaria, sickle-cell disease and diabetes.


“Their collaboration with practitioners of conventional medicine indicates best practices such as health care delivery, including earlier referral of patients to medical facilities, increased knowledge on STDs and HIV/AIDS, including prevention and community-based directly-observed treatment short-course programmes in the control of tuberculosis,” Dr Robalo stated. She called on all practitioners in the two spheres who are already collaborating to intensify and coordinate their efforts and take action in a synergistic manner in strengthening the capacity of traditional health practitioners in PHC in order to build healthier African communities.


Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Kahijoro Kahuure, who represented his minister, assured the traditional practitioners that Government recognises them and is working on a Bill to address all issues affecting them as well as protect the dignity, integrity and safety of patients. The occasion was attended by some members of the diplomatic corps, nurses, members of the public and a number of traditional practitioners who displayed some of their traditional medicines.