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Traditional Healer Medicines
Traditional healer medicines in South Africa has made great strides in the past few years. Now that traditional African healers are accepted as informal health care workers, there is talk of consultations and medicines being paid for by medical aids in South Africa sometime in the future. With some 80% of South Africans utilising the services of traditional healers, traditional African medicine cannot be left out in the cold for much longer. Traditional medicine is the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness
Traditional African Medicine in South Africa
The traditional African medicine is not as yet considered part of mainstream medicine in South Africa. Unlike some countries where complementary systems of medicine like homeopathy and acupuncture are now accessible in clinics and hospitals, South Africa has been slow to follow suit. Complementary medicine in South Africa is still considered as alternative therapies to conventional medicine. While the consultation and treatment for some complementary therapies like homeopathy, phytotherapy (herbal medicine) and traditional Chinese medicine are now covered by medical aids, traditional African medicine has not as yet enjoyed this level of acceptance.
What is traditional medicine used to treat?
- Echinacea. Echinacea, or coneflower, is a flowering plant and popular herbal remedy. …
- Ginseng. …
- Ginkgo biloba. …
- Elderberry. …
- St. …
- Turmeric. …
- Ginger. …
- Valerian.
What is traditional African medicine?
Traditional African medicine involves the use of herbal concoctions and traditional rituals to treat a patient. There are two main types of traditional healers in South Africa – the sangoma and the inyanga. Sangomas generally rely on rituals and traditional practices to treat a patient’s ailments while an inyanga uses parts of plants (herbs) and animal parts for therapeutic purposes.
This divination may involve ‘throwing the bones’ where animal bones and trinkets are tossed, and the orientation is then ‘read’ by the healer. Other practitioners may contact ancestor spirits to guide them accordingly. A herb known as imphepho (Helichrysum odoratissimum) may be burned to assist with communicating with the ancestor spirits.
Most traditional African herbal medicines are infusions – a combination of herbs are boiled, and the brew is taken as prescribed. Other medicines may be used as inhalants when combined with boiling water.
