The Village Herbalist

Even though there was a major shift from traditional to
western medicine at the dawn of 19th century Africa,
to date, there are still several regions in which western
medicine remains inaccessible. These areas carried on
with the traditional methods of healing - some of which
have been incorporated into research for modern medicine.
It should not be lost that the majority of modern medicine
is deeply rooted in herbal extracts.

As culturally diverse as Africa is, the herbs used from
region to region are the same. You will find that one
healer treks for miles and miles to seek the advice of a
healer from another tribe. Healers are vast in classification,
ranging from gods/ancestor appeasers, to ghost exorcists,
to outright witches. This group does not believe in any other
religion but their own - the practice of witchcraft and the act
of bewitching.

Nevertheless, there is another category of healers which deals
purely in the school of thought that we get sick due to the
changes in environment and that what we eat can be supported
by the principles of equilibrium - which explains illness as an
imbalance of hot-cold, sweet–sour, wet-dry. It is typical to hear villagers
complain about malaria after the long "rain and dump" weather, as
mosquitoes multiply exponentially under such conditions. This category
of healer uses prayer to aid in the patients recovery, and will send the
patient in question to the hospital if the healing process is not met
with quick response.

Damar fell into this last category of traditional healers. She was a
devout Seventh Day Adventist. For the purpose of this blog I
will dwell on this group of healers - what they do, especially
what my grand mama did and which herbs she utilized.

*As a specialist in purging and emetic medicine, she had a very
strict routine. She could only see her patients in the morning,
with one condition: that you eat little or nothing the night before.
Anything after noon would only be dealt with if it was life
threatening. The emetic would make you vomit all the contents
of your stomach, (including all the rotten stuff) while the
purgatives would do the final cleansing of the body... talk about
natural laxatives...

Whenever the above mentioned would not work, only then
did she resort to ‘surgery’. By making three incisions just
below the diaphragm or wherever the pain was felt, she
would suction the disease by inserting a goat horn. I have
three scars in my own tummy as result of this procedure!

This rule did not apply to diseases such as colds and coughs,
which were treated in the evening using fumigants and
vaporizers. For a person suffering from chest congestion
Damar would boil eucalyptus tree leaves and bark , and cover
her patient with a blanket (water still boiling) so as to inhale
the steam.

For skin diseases resulting from a measles attack or scurvy,
she would prescribe the pungent 'bitter apple' (angw’e) while,
‘neem’ (arubaini) tree was left to deal with fever. For
bacterial infections and open wounds she would dispatch
the ‘Aspilia’ tree. If you had a stomach ache, you would not
escape the wrath of the very bitter, ‘bitter leaf’ (achak).
If you liked eating raw food (which was the norm in the fields)
and had worm infection, you surely had a date with a whole
cooked pumpkin plus the seeds. For those who could not
control their appetite and had constipation, Damar was more
than happy to dispatch a concoction of aloe plant mixed with
either senna (owinno) or mahogany bark.

Damar was not only a respected healer in Kagwa village,
but in the entire west Uyoma and beyond. This was not
due to her marriage to a famous traditional wrestler
Amos Ochiyo aka "Mahanya", but due to her natural
attunement with the environment. Having been born in
bushy and shrub-covered Sakwa, grandy learned to use
the herbs at an early age - a craft she perfected with time.
People would come from different parts of the country to
pay her a visit with different ailments. She provided them
with both physical and psychological treatments. She was
very compassionate, and never used this gift solely for
her own enrichment, but to serve others. I recall on more
than three occasions women flocking to her home with
sick kids but no money. She was more than happy
to help. Her favorite words were “When this child grows
up let her know who saved her life, and let her send me a
quarter kilo of sugar, now go in peace”. This was humbling.

One day while sitting around the fireplace, I told her I
wanted to have as many cows as my grand used to have.
This was the answer:

"If you really want to buy a cow and you don’t have enough
money, what do you do? Do you put the money away, wait, and
generate more? If the money can buy you two goats (m&f), then
go ahead and buy. After a year you will have begun to realize
your dream - the goats shall have reproduced and you will be
able to sell goats and buy a cow."

*The above mentioned herbs and trees are currently used
in western medicine.