Description
Global inequalities today derive in part from unequal power relations in the way knowledge about development has historically been produced and applied. Traditional medicine and therapeutic techniques have a long history in Africa for treating a wide range of human and animal health conditions. Sadly, this rich body of knowledge has for a long time been undervalued because of the dominance of Eurocentric mindsets and practices. But current research confirms that many of today’s medicines are derived from tropical African medicinal plants, and that traditional medicine can provide a lead to scientific breakthrough in modern medicine and drug discovery. We argue that global health science needs to integrate the health traditions and innovations of local communities in Africa
With colonialism and modernization, and the emphasis on drug use, vaccination and other form of biomedicine, traditional medicine has come to be misrepresented as obsolete and irrelevant because it does not always appear to conform with the scientific principles of modern medicine, least of all the spiritual and cultural aspects of healing that sometimes involve belief in divination, witchcraft, traditional rituals and so on. Many doctors, scientists and government officials distrust traditional medicine, and insist on the need to validate, codify and standardize it practice in order to ensure greater safety and efficacy. They therefore often hesitate to provide the regulatory and legislative framework for integrating traditional medicine into the national health system Unfortunately, modern medicine, with all its obvious merits, is not readily accessible and affordable to a large percentage of the populations, especially in the rural areas; and even in cities, most people combine traditional and modern medicines, especially in response to epidemics like HIV/AIDS EBOLA, insanity, and COVID19, for which Western medicine does not appear to have provide ready cure.
The paper underscores the value and continuing relevance of traditional medicine and other aspects of Africa’s rich cultural heritage. It stresses the need to promote comparative medicine and collaboration between scientists and practitioners of modern medicine on the one hand, and on the other those who hold and use traditional medical knowledge, so that the traditional and the modern can complement and enrich each other in a mutually respectful way, and thus advance the prospect of attaining Universal Health Coverage.
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