The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
WHEN Dumisani Mlilo (not real name) — a student at a local college contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI) he went to the clinic where he was referred to a doctor.
The costs were prohibitive and hthe prescriptions were many. At the pharmacy he was asked to pay in US$ which he didn’t have.
And because of the costs and his urgent need for medical attention he ended up at Makokoba’s Mkambo market where he got herbal assistance and he confesses that he has been healed.
Because of a myriad of problems bedevilling the country’s health sector ranging from inadequate supply of drugs, their high cost, to issues related to general personnel welfare Makokoba and other herbal products comes in handy and those that are into herbal medicine say they are experiencing a boom in business.
Traditional medicine, they say, is accessible, affordable, culturally appropriate and acceptable.
The feeling in Government is that although the use of traditional herbs and medicine remains a personal option, there is need for heightened effort in conscientising the communities that traditional medicine is not demonic as otherwise portrayed by some church beliefs.
“The Government recognises the use of traditional herbs in health care systems. We have been conscientising the country’s communities but of course its use is underpinned by people’s belief systems and orientation that determines acceptability. Otherwise a lot of homes in the country are aware of the herbs and traditional medicines and what they can cure. We have therefore made efforts of ensuring that there is harmony between health care service providers by educating people that traditional medicine is not evil or demonic as taught by some churches. They are biblical,” said an official in the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
He said they were working with other stakeholders in lobbying for more to be done to promote appropriate use of traditional medicine and to fit its use in the country’s health vision.
Renowned herbalist and director of Musimboti Traditional Science and Technology Institute Mr Morgan Zimunya said it was folly for anyone to claim that herbs and traditional medicine do not work when populations in countries like India and China that were relied upon in medicine were known power houses of traditional medicine.
He says in Zimbabwe research has shown that more than 80 percent of pregnant mothers have their primary health care techniques rooted in the use of traditional medicine and urged harmonisation of practice between traditional and conventional practitioners for the good of the country’s health sector.
He said traditional medicine was holistic and culturally accepted adding that the bulk of African families rely on it for primary health care especially in pre and post-natal health care.
“Traditional medicine has been in use since time immemorial. To this day 80 percent of pregnant mothers in Zimbabwe rely on it one way or the other. In any community traditional medicine forms the first line of health care as it is used at the first stages of illness.
“So to me as to any African, the question as to the effectiveness of traditional medicine is not only unAfrican but absurd because that is what exactly been relied on before the advent of conventional medicine. So you find that every community has its belief system, known herbalists and their specialty areas,” said Mr Zimunya.
He added that some of his herbs were sought after even by Western countries that were initially in the forefront of discrediting traditional medicine.
Mr Zimunya said traditional medicine was not demonic saying churches that were teaching that were creating stigma with most members seeking help for their problems under the cover of darkness for fear of reprisals at church.
“Traditional medicine practitioners and herbalists apart from being readily available and issues of affordability explain illness in terms that are familiar because they are part of the local belief systems. The practitioner and the patient are culturally bound, and the practitioner has a personal interest and stake in the patient, who may be a relative, a relative of a friend or a neighbour who they may want to come back or to refer other people as well. Health problems are based on the notion that each cultural group handles its medical problems in a particular way, with its own world-view, traditions, values and institutions. Traditional medicine is part of culture, which itself is always getting modified with time,” he said.
He applauded the Government for efforts in ensuring the practice was registered and regulated if one decides to go commercial.
Mr Zimunya said traditional medicine could treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs), genital warts, snake bites and many other diseases and was a lot more different from tsikamutandas and those that prescribe lucky, money or business charms. From the wide range of herbs he produces and packages pills, cough mixtures, eye drops, tea leaves, ointments and other medications which help the body to keep fit.
He said they were growing their products on farms and even outgrowing for a constant supply of the herbal raw materials and to avoid depleting the natural forests.
“We appreciate that traditional medical practices and their underlying beliefs are repositories of empirical observations and insights accumulated over long periods of practical experience. This wealth of information must be harmonised through newer experiences and knowledge, as more sophisticated analytical methods and technologies become available.
“With appropriate appreciation of the empirically-identified maladies of the folklore, many of the ancient herbal cures have provided leads and have found rigorous scientific basis in the form of some modern medicines such as aspirin,” said a Government official.
He added that culturally, people believed in the old while looking forward to the modern.
“It is therefore logical to incorporate use of traditional medical dimensions in Western medicine, and vice versa, and establish a dialogue between them for the betterment of both practices and the community,” he posited.
He said strides have to be made to ensure that the country does not become a consumer but a producer of herbal medicine because the country had an abundance of raw materials.
“The barrier between Western medicine and traditional medicine on the African continent might appear insurmountable, but that is due to the way Western medicine was introduced to Africa by colonial governments. African traditional medicine was suppressed and then ignored,” he added.
Traditional Medicine Practitioners Council Registrar Ms Joice Guhwa said there was need for creation of a platform for integration without segregation where Government would craft a policy that allows a patient to take traditional medicine while in hospital. Currently the policy disallows that.
She said it was also important for those in traditional practice to consider undergoing trainings on various diseases so that they know the common signs and symptoms to avoid diagnosing failures that would lead to wrong medication.
“There are diseases that traditional medicine can cure but there has been no holistic guidance from the Government to make traditional medicine an alternative to conventional medicine. I believe more needs to be done in that area and the potential is there. We should pluck a leaf from such countries as China and Government has t take the initiative,” she said.
Concerning the diseases that are incurable through both Western medicine and traditional medicine, she said solutions might come through co-operation between the two systems.
She was however, quick to point out that a hindrance to such co-operation was the lack of trust on the part of the traditional medical practitioners who fear that all benefits would go to Western medicine while they would not gain much.
Ms Guhwa said dispelling such fears would advance the cause for collaboration adding that the Government should provide financial support to promote the potential role of traditional medicine in primary health care.
