According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
According to South African Health Concepts, health is achieved by maintaining harmony of body, mind and spirit and harmony with nature. It goes further to state that illnesses can be prevented by diets, rest and cleanliness.
For a traditional African, the state of health is beyond the proper functioning of the bodily organs. Rather, based on the African unitary view of reality, it encompasses the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional stability of an individual, his family members and the society at large. Hence, the state of complete well-being is a very important aspect of the life of a traditional African. This my be considered as a controversial statement because majority of the Africans, particularly the poor and those of the middle-income bracket rely on under-funded public health facilities while a small minority have access to well-funded, quality private healthcare.
Nevertheless, African countries agreed to allocate about 15% of their budgets to the health care.
CONCEPT: The concept of local African health explains that traditional African medicine consists of a range of traditional medicine disciplines which are;
* Indigenous herbalism
* African spirituality which includes diviners, midwives, and herbalists (practitioners of African medicine)
The practitioners of traditional African medicine claim that they can cure a variety of disease conditions ranging from the acute to the chronic ones such as headaches, eczema, fever, anxiety, depression, healing of wounds and burn, stomach pain, cholera, asthma, cancer, psychiatric disorders, high blood pressure, benign prostatic hyperplasia, urinary tract infections, gouts, Ebola. Many of the African traditional medicinal practitioners are sets of people without formal education. Most of the things they know about medicinal plants and their effects on the human body were passed down to them or learnt by their personal observations. Although their practises vary but a common feature among them is a personal involvement in the healing process i.e the protection of their therapeutic knowledge by keeping it a secret and being rewarded for their services. Hence, the knowledge of traditional African medicine is restricted to an individual or his immediate family members.
The traditional African medicine has its belief rooted in a system that illnesses are not derived from chance occurrences but through spiritual or social imbalance. Hence, diagnosis is often made through spiritual means and a treatment, usually consisting of a herbal remedy that is considered to have both healing abilities and symbolic and spiritual significances is prescribed.
Before the arrival of modern medicine introduced by the Europeans, African traditional medicine was the dominant medical system for millions of people in Africa. Herbal medicine in Africa are generally not adequately researched and weakly regulated. In addition, there is a lack of detailed documentation of the traditional knowledge hence, serious adverse effects can result from mis-identification or misuse of healing plants.
HISTORY: The practise of African traditional medicine is as old as man; being passed on from generation to generation. During the precolonial era, the traditional healers played obvious roles in providing basic health needs of their communities; making themselves available as the answers to the community problems in times of need. During times of conflicts and uproar in terms of health, people naturally resorted to supernatural explanations and would tend to seek treatment involving the supernatural.
During the colonial era, some traditional medical practices were outlawed. So, as colonialism and christianity spread through Africa, colonialists built general hospitals and christian missionaries built private ones, with the hopes of making headway against widespread diseases and to provide a quality healthcare to the people. However, the colonial authorities along with doctors and health care practitioners continued to shun the contributions of traditional medical practitioners and the role they played. Infact, little was done to investigate the legitimacy of the traditional medical practices.
The arrival of modern medicine brought a revival to the African traditional medicine, particularly in developed countries. Hence, the interest in integrating traditional African medicine into the continent's modern health care systems increased. Therefore, the use of traditional medicinal plants is being encouraged in some countries. In Kwa-Mhlanga, South Africa, an African healer embraced this concept by starting a 48-bed hospital, the first of its kind. This system combines the traditional African methods with other alternative medical practices such as homeopathy, iridology, and traditional Asian medicine.
So, an African man has always been interested in his health, either adopting the ancient traditional methods or making use of the traditional African medicine integrated into modern health care.
This leads me into asking you this question; Is your health important to you? If it does, how well do you treasure it?
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